RFK Jr. Releases Much-Anticipated MAHA Report

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/washington-watch/115723

Report raises concerns about vaccines, foods, and prescription drugs

A government report released on Thursday covering wide swaths of American health and wellness reflects some of the most contentious views on vaccines, the nation’s food supply, pesticides, and prescription drugs held by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The much-anticipated “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” report calls for increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule, a review of the pesticides sprayed on American crops, and a description of the nation’s children as overmedicated and undernourished.

While it does not have the force of a law or official policy, the 69-page report will be used over the next 100 days for the MAHA commission to fashion a plan that can be implemented during the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, Kennedy said in a call with reporters. He refused to provide details about who authored the report.

“We will save lives by addressing this chronic disease epidemic head on, we’re going to save a lot more money in the long run — and even in the short run,” Kennedy said.

Increased scrutiny of childhood vaccines — credited with saving millions of people from deadly diseases — figures prominently in the report. It poses questions over the necessity of school mandates that require children to get vaccinated for admittance and suggestions that vaccines should undergo more clinical trials, including with placebos.

Kennedy, a long-time vaccine criticopens in a new tab or window who previously led a nonprofit that has made false claims about the shots, has continued to raise doubts about the safety of inoculations even as a measles outbreak has sickened more than 1,000 Americans. This week, Kennedy’s health department moved to limitopens in a new tab or window U.S. access to COVID-19 shots.

Other contentious parts of the report are creating factions within the Trump administration’s MAHA commission, even as it strained to appease opposing forces within the politically diverse coalition that Trump and Kennedyopens in a new tab or window have fostered.

The report makes dozens of references to dietary guidelines and standards in Europe but Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin promised it would not yield more rigorous regulations. Instead, he described a system where companies will be encouraged to comply when presented with new “gold-standard science.”

“This cannot happen through a European mandate system that stifles growth,” Zeldin said in a call with reporters.

Despite numerous studies and statements throughout the MAHA report that raise concerns about American food products, Trump Cabinet officials insisted that the nation’s food supply is safe.

The report mentions that glyphosate, a commonly used chemical sprayed on crops, may cause serious health problems, including cancer.

On Thursday, however, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins insisted: “The food supply is 100% safe.”

Farmers and Republican lawmakers had houndedopens in a new tab or window the Trump administration leading up to the report’s release, worried it would criticize the chemicals they use. Kennedy’s MAHA supporters, too, have been concerned that he would bend to pressure on the issue.

Ultraprocessed foodsopens in a new tab or window — industrially made products high in refined grains, sugar, saturated fats, and additives like artificial dyes that now make up two-thirds of the diet for U.S. teens and children — are also hammered in the report. Such products have been linked to a host of poor health outcomes, though documentingopens in a new tab or window how they cause those problems has been notoriously difficult and time-consuming.

The MAHA commission report “is a pretty accurate depiction of the nutrition crisis facing our country,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, an expert in nutrition and policy at Tufts University.

The report focuses not only on ultraprocessed foods, but also how too few fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and fish are present in U.S. diets, he noted. But the report leaves out excess salt, which causes harm, even in young children.

The MAHA report calls on the NIH to execute sweeping, nationwide studies of ultraprocessed foods, even as the White House has called for $18 billionopens in a new tab or window to be axed from the agency’s budget. An extra $500 million has been requested from Congress for Kennedy’s MAHA initiative.

The report raises concerns about other environmental and chemical research results, funded by corporations and industry, being skewed.

But the MAHA commission’s call for more neutral research comes as sweeping budget and staff cuts propelled by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency have resulted in 20,000 jobs lostopens in a new tab or window at the nation’s health department and billions of dollars rescinded for research studies. The Trump administration also gutted the Environmental Public Health Tracking Programopens in a new tab or window in its cuts of health-tracking programs.

The report also raises concerns about lack of physical activity among children and their prescription drug use, including antibiotics and medications used to treat attention deficit disorders.

Trump is expected to speak about the report Thursday afternoon at the White House.

 

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