St. Clair County, nestled between Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron and famous as the boyhood home of Thomas Edison, is amid a contentious scientific debate over accepted notions of government and public health.<\/p>\n
The prime mover of the discussion is county medical director Dr. Remington Nevin, whom detractors and admirers liken to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and who has said the state health department is \u201cfull of degenerates\u201d with an \u201cevil\u201d agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the past several months, Nevin sought to prohibit fluoride in the drinking water, made it easier to opt out of children\u2019s vaccines, removed health care services from school clinics and pushed a county ordinance that declared solar farms a possible \u201cthreat to public health.\u201d<\/p>\n Local officials have largely agreed with his recommendations<\/a>. That sparked objections from doctors, dentists and other health professionals, but Nevin says they reflect the values of the 160,000-resident county whose politics have shifted right after voting for Barack Obama<\/a> in 2008. <\/p>\n \u201cMedical directors are to appropriately advise and direct on all matters of public health policy, ideally in a manner that reflects the values and priorities of the communities that they serve,\u201d Nevin told Bridge Michigan in an email.<\/p>\n To Kevin Watkins, president of the Port Huron branch of the NAACP, Nevin represents a move away from science-backed research and his actions are tantamount to enacting a local \u201cMAGA agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n He and others worry that the policies are a threat to the county\u2019s wellbeing. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re anti-vaccine,\u201d said Watkins, a former member of the county\u2019s public health advisory board and a trained nurse<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re anti-public health.\u201d<\/p>\n To others, Nevin is a breath of fresh air for questioning the status quo and bucking the advice of most doctors and epidemiologists. <\/p>\n In January, resident Andrew Eberly told county commissioners his trust in health departments \u201ceroded\u201d after his child was removed from a neighboring school district because the family refused to participate in the state-mandated education session required to obtain a vaccine waiver<\/a>. <\/p>\n Eberly called the session \u201cinvasive\u201d and thanked Nevin for providing a letter exempting his child from immunizations. <\/p>\n In the past few months, Nevin\u2019s recommendations and the support he\u2019s received from county officials have turned normally staid public hearings into impassioned debates.<\/p>\n Caught in the middle are some of the county\u2019s public health workers. For years, they had operated \u201cbehind the scenes,\u201d nurse Rebecca Campau said.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody knew that we even existed,\u201d the 13-year county employee told the Board of Commissioners last week. <\/p>\n Now, with county officials considering the consolidation of the health department\u2019s leadership in a move that may give Nevin more power, Campau and others are worried about what may happen next.<\/p>\n Fluoride fight<\/p>\n Fluoridation has been one of the biggest points of contention. <\/p>\n Nevin first suggested the prohibition in June 2025<\/a>, and this month renewed the calls<\/a> for municipal water systems in St. Clair County to voluntarily discontinue adding the mineral.<\/p>\n The practice began in 1945,<\/a> when Grand Rapids became the first city to add fluoride<\/a> to its water to prevent cavities. <\/p>\n Since then, three-quarters of the nation<\/a> is served by systems that add the mineral \u2014 and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has called it one of the greatest medical achievements<\/a> of the 20th century.<\/p>\n But a 2019 study<\/a> concluded that excessive amounts could possibly lead to neurodevelopment problems, prompting a federal review of fluoride standards<\/a>. <\/p>\n The St. Clair County health advisory board in October endorsed Nevin\u2019s stance to adopt local regulations on fluoride.<\/p>\n Public debate about the measure, which has extended for more than eight months, left retired Port Huron dentist Dr. Randa Jundi-Samman dispirited. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what we say, or the volume of people that are educated that are bringing resources are saying,\u201d Jundi-Samman told Bridge Michigan. \u201cThere\u2019s always misinformation in the world, no matter where you go and what community you live in.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal prompted the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics to remind St. Clair County Health Department leaders<\/a> in an August letter about the prevalence of childhood tooth decay and the effectiveness and safety of community water fluoridation.<\/p>\n Several dentists from metro Detroit drove up to object<\/a> as well, and noted the controls in place to keep fluoridation within an acceptable range to prevent lasting harm. <\/p>\n Scrutinizing shots<\/p>\n Nevin\u2019s move in February to streamline parents\u2019 ability to skip their children\u2019s routine vaccines<\/a> drew a crowd to the county board in the days following the decision. <\/p>\n In step with concerns of parents such as Eberly, the medical director has promoted the individualized decision making for immunization championed by Kennedy, the US secretary of health.<\/p>\n In an email to Bridge, Nevin called him a \u201cbrilliant attorney and fitting heir to the Kennedy legacy\u201d and said he\u2019s flattered by the comparison.<\/p>\n Some health officials worry that making it easier to opt out of vaccines could worsen sliding childhood vaccination rates<\/a>. <\/p>\n In 2013, 75% of St. Clair County\u2019s 19-35 month olds had received their recommended shots. By 2025, that rate was 63.7%. A state immunization report card<\/a> shows the county trailing Michigan averages on nearly every measured vaccine.<\/p>\n While the state\u2019s public health executives continue to recommend a childhood vaccine schedule lauded by the nation\u2019s leading physician groups<\/a> in the face of recent federal changes, residents like David Allison see RFK Jr. and Nevin as needed voices who have \u201cstood up against the establishment\u201d by scrutinizing the increased number of lifesaving shots today\u2019s youth are receiving to fend off deadly infectious diseases.<\/p>\n Allison echoes critics who contend there is a revolving door<\/a> between the pharmaceutical industry and the public health sector, with personnel cycling between the two. <\/p>\n The retired engineer said that relationship became more apparent during the COVID-19 emergency, giving him added reason to question the doctor-directed vaccination protocol. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have this blind faith that the medical establishment \u2013 they have our best interest in mind,\u201d Allison told Bridge. \u201cBut unfortunately at my age, I realize that money has an impact on people\u2019s decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics say the county\u2019s weakening stance on immunization has made it harder to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n Fred Fuller, a former mayor of Yale and county drain commissioner, noted he recently had difficulty getting his son immunized against COVID-19 at the county health department after officials there requested a doctor\u2019s prescription for the shot.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I call discouraging vaccinations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Undoing a 40-year history<\/p>\n The county shakeup has reached into its school-based youth clinics.<\/p>\n After one county commissioner raised concerns that her 12-year-old daughter was exposed to concepts of transgender identity, homosexuality and emergency contraception at Port Huron High School\u2019s teen health center, the board moved to sever ties with the clinic at the recommendation of Nevin<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose was to get a sports physical because I couldn\u2019t get into my primary care physician,\u201d Commissioner Kerry Ange told Bridge of her child\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n Ange found some of the brochures available at the teen center to be \u201cpornographic,\u201d pushing her vote to end the county\u2019s relationship with the site. <\/p>\n Maintaining the school-based clinic, she said, \u201cseems like a waste of money\u201d since the newly renovated county health department is a couple miles away from campus.<\/p>\n The winding down of the Teen Health Clinic at Port Huron High School, which had more than 1,200 visits in the last school year, is occurring as it marks four decades as one of the state\u2019s longest serving school-based clinics<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s among the last of its kind in St. Clair County \u2013 school-based clinics in Capac, Algonac and Yale were shuttered by the county last year as they transition to new management. Impacted staff were reassigned elsewhere in the county and one nurse was laid off.<\/p>\n State-led educational sessions on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were listed among Nevin\u2019s reasons why the county should reject funding for the health centers<\/a>. <\/p>\n In addition, a slide deck titled \u201cdeveloping tools for discussing firearms\u201d presented by the state health department last year, which included questions for patients about secure storage and family access, was cited as a \u201cback door\u201d gun registration effort. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America.<\/a><\/p>\n School officials have noted a \u201c significant gap<\/a> \u201d in health care services left by the removal of the clinics. Brenda L. Tenniswood, the superintendent of the St. Clair County regional educational service agency, called the sites a lifeline that drives down absenteeism. <\/p>\n \u201cIn communities where transportation barriers, work schedules, and economic constraints prevent families from accessing traditional medical care, the school-based clinics provide immediate, comprehensive healthcare where our children spend most of their day,\u201d Tenniswood wrote ahead of the September closures<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe current proposal to dismantle the school-based health clinics moves us backward from this collaborative model toward centralization that serves bureaucracy rather than communities.\u201d<\/p>\n For Kate Grantom of Avoca, school-based health centers are a \u201cvaluable resource\u201d for her small rural community. She sends her teenage daughter to Yale Public Schools, which only recently introduced a student clinic before closing. Other medical centers, she said, are hard to find nearby.<\/p>\n \u201cThese health clinics are not supposed to be in place of your primary care.\u201d Grantom said. \u201cBut when we lack so much access to primary care, we need those resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Graduating from Marine City High School, Emrick LaTulip wishes school-based health care support was more available when they were a student. Speaking before the county board on Thursday, the 30-year-old explained how, as a child, they were sexually abused by a family member.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally tried to tell people about my abuse, and my family told me it was normal,\u201d LaTulip told Bridge. \u201cHad we had more intensive education in my younger years, I maybe would have known \u2026 this thing that had happened to me was not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n LaTulip said they would prefer not discuss their trauma in a public setting, but felt inclined to speak up to advocate for the children losing access to needed services.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are vulnerable,\u201d LaTulip said. \u201cI\u2019m speaking with my feelings, and that\u2019s all I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Nevin believes his actions are in line with what St. Clair County wants, relaying a stance that local public health decisions should be vetted through democratic processes.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as individuals should be able to choose their own trusted doctors, the principle of subsidiarity on which Michigan\u2019s decentralized local public health system is based ideally requires candidates for these positions who are directly accountable to those they serve.\u201d <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n