DOD, Dentists: No Truth to Warren’s Claim that RFK Jr.’s Plan to End Water Fluoridation ‘Threatens Military Readiness’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) claimed last week in a press release that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reported plan to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending water fluoridation “threatens military readiness.”

Warren, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Personnel for the Senate Armed Services Committee, in May sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth making similar allegations that military dental health “will further suffer as a direct result of Secretary Kennedy’s plans.”

She cited 2011 data from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) reporting that dental decay was one of the major reasons that military personnel get classified as “non-deployable.” The military later directed the DOD to fluoridate water at facilities serving 3,300 people or more by 2016.

“Our military is already falling short on delivering high quality dental care for our service members, and Secretary Kennedy’s fluoride crusade is threatening to worsen this crisis and hurt our military’s ability to deploy where they’re needed,” Warren said in last week’s press release. “Our government should be focused on improving dental health access for our service members, not pushing anti-science conspiracies.”

Emily Hilliard, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called the claims “false and politically motivated.”