A Michigan county public health official is making waves for his efforts to reform public health to better serve his community.
Dr. Remington Nevin, dubbed “Michigan’s ‘RFK Jr.’” by Bridge Michigan, is an epidemiologist with multiple degrees from Johns Hopkins University. A former U.S. Army major and preventive medicine officer, he now serves as medical director of St. Clair County Health Department in rural eastern Michigan.
“Too many local health departments across Michigan act like institutions whose loyalty lies with Lansing (Michigan’s capital) rather than with the people who depend on them,” Nevin told The Defender on Thursday in an exclusive interview.
“We’re doing something different here, and people can feel it,” he added.
Since joining the department in 2023, Nevin has spearheaded a host of changes. He’s made it easier for parents to opt their children out of school-based vaccine requirements, supported parents’ rights to opt out of state immunization data tracking, proposed removing fluoride from drinking water and ended the county’s participation in the state’s school-based health clinic program.
Last month, The Associated Press (AP) reported that Nevin was giving the county’s public health department a “‘MAGA’ makeover.”
Nevin embraces the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) idea — but not as a political slogan. To him, it is a serious effort to rebuild trust. He said:
“It means building a health department the community actually trusts, that reflects the values and priorities of the people it serves, that follows the science honestly rather than selectively, and that treats families as capable of making decisions for themselves.”
County becomes first in state to offer fully online vaccine exemption process
On April 7, St. Clair County became the first county in Michigan to offer a fully online vaccine exemption certification process. Parents can now complete the required steps from home and receive a certified exemption by email within five business days, according to a press release.
Michigan law has always protected parents’ right to nonmedical exemptions, Nevin said. “What we’ve done is remove the bureaucratic friction the state had layered on top of that right.”
According to Nevin, the state created the extra bureaucratic hurdles “to discourage parents from exercising a protection they were legally entitled to.”
Kevin Watkins, a nurse and president of the Port Huron branch of the NAACP, told the AP that Nevin’s policies are “anti-vaccine” and “anti-public health.”
Nevin pushed back on Watkins’ claims. “Nothing about this is anti-vaccine. It’s pro-choice and it’s pro-trust,” he said. “Vaccines remain available to every family that wants them.”
Nevin noted that he and Watkins, who formerly served on the county’s public health advisory board, often end up in “long, genuinely friendly conversations” after public meetings.
“I believe we have real mutual respect for each other,” Nevin said. “That’s one of the underrated gifts of a small county like St. Clair, where your political opponents are also your neighbors.”
Eagles need to be free to soar
Nevin relocated to Michigan from Vermont after his father died to be closer to family.
In Vermont, he lived near an eagle sanctuary. That experience gave him a powerful analogy for public health, which he included in the county’s annual report:
“I learned from the staff that the eagles, kept safely in cages, would often outlive those in the wild, who risked falling victim to wind turbines, disease, and other hazards. Provided with medicines and care, the eagles lived long and seemingly healthy lives in captivity.
“But did they thrive? The nature of eagles is to soar free, but the cost of the eagles’ lives and health was this very freedom.”
Public health, he told The Defender, must honestly weigh the price that greater safety can exact on human freedom.
Public health is corrupted by ‘powerful and complicated interests’
Nevin’s professional accolades are significantly more than those of the average county medical director. He holds professional licenses in medicine and surgery in several states, with certifications in occupational medicine, public health and general preventive medicine.
After completing his medical degree in 2002 while in the military, Nevin obtained a certificate in pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, a master’s in public health, and a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
While at Johns Hopkins, he also did a postdoctoral fellowship and later served as an associate faculty member in the mental health department.
Nevin is an expert on a class of antimalarial drugs called quinolines, which include mefloquine, a drug developed by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
His research on the neuropsychiatric side effects of mefloquine helped lead the U.S., Canadian, British and Irish militaries to stop using it, according to his website. He now consults on lawsuits brought by veterans injured by the drug.
Those experiences, he said, showed him how public health institutions can be influenced by “powerful and complicated interests” that do not always put ordinary people first.
“I saw very clearly how institutions at the very highest levels — national departments of defense interacting with major pharmaceutical companies — were able to manipulate the system and manufacture doubt for the benefit of protecting their reputation and avoiding responsibility,” he said.
‘My adversaries are grieving’
Nevin said he believes his critics will eventually appreciate what he is doing. For now, many are coming to grips with the loss of power and control they once had.
He said:
“My adversaries are grieving. Public health in Michigan has largely been captured by left-wing Democratic interests who advocate for the growth of the managerial state, who advocate against the interests of families, who advocate against the interests of conservative religious voters.
“And they could, for the entirety of their careers, count on public health giving this veneer of scientific authority and non-debatability to these … partisan positions.”
Nevin’s critics don’t expect someone with his training and background to do what he’s doing. It creates cognitive dissonance for them, he said. “You can almost see the smoke coming out of their ears.”
Nevin said he isn’t partisan but is simply trying to represent the county residents. “The people of our county just happen to be majority Republicans.”
Nevin said he’s witnessed his critics moving through the stages of grief — first denial, then anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
But he is optimistic about the changes he is leading. “We are just getting started,” he added.
Original article online at: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/dr-remington-nevin-michigans-rfk-jr-protect-patient-rights-exclusive-interview/