White House releases RFK Jr.-led report on chronic disease
The White House's Make America Healthy Again Commission offered a range of critiques about chronic disease in America in a report released Thursday, the first major byproduct of the cross-government commission headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Chiefly, the report blames many chronic illnesses on ultra-processed foods, chemicals in the environment, sedentary behavior and over-reliance on digital devices among children. It also suggests childhood vaccines need to be studied further.
“We will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic in America, we're going to get it done for the first time ever,” President Donald Trump said during a MAHA event at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
Trump committed to pushing the historically progressive stances outlined in the report and fighting “the corporate lobbyist or special interest,” calling Kennedy’s MAHA movement “hot.”
“Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyist or special interest. And I want this group to do what they have to do,” Trump said, mentioning issues like toxic chemicals in the environment, overprescription of children and ultra processed foods.
But Trump's pledges and the findings of the report, while notable for its departure from the president’s priorities in his first term, is still only a very early predictor of what the MAHA movement will attempt to enact -- and how staunchly Trump will stand by the policy changes once they come under fire from industry groups that will certainly fight the administration over any significant regulation.
“Over the next 80 days, the commission will build on its work in this report to develop a roadmap to bold and transformative public health reforms for our consideration. It's a consideration, and we'll lay out the facts. Let me say congratulations to the entire MAHA movement. This movement has become very hot,” Trump said.
For now, the 69-page document still leaves much of the ultimate policy plan unclear, including how much it will cost to address the chronic illnesses that Kennedy is focused on and what steps might be taken to curtail them.
Kennedy told reporters on a call earlier Thursday that the commission doesn't yet have a budget to fund the future health initiatives, noting officials plan to develop policy recommendations in the next few months.
"There is no budget," Kennedy said. "At this point, there's no concrete policy that could be funded in a budget. We're going to work out the policy recommendations over the next 100 days."
"The next stage of this process is to come up with policy recommendations for the president, and then we'll spend the next four years implementing those policy recommendations," he continued.
Despite the lack of budget details, Kennedy maintained that addressing the chronic health issues would save money in the long term.
"We're going to save a lot more money in the long run and even in the short run, we can reduce the numbers, which we intend to do during this administration," Kennedy said.
Officials including Calley Means, a special government employee and adviser to Kennedy who has fought against the presence of ultra-processed foods and pesticides, praised the report.
"The fact that an official U.S. government document … gives credibility to complaints about pesticides and names specific pesticides in there is a monumental symbol," he told ABC News.
The issue of pesticides in food found a lot of industry pushback in the last few weeks as the report neared its due date.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who both sit on the MAHA Commission and have more direct oversight than Kennedy over the industry, were careful Thursday to ensure that farmers felt like the administration remained steadfastly behind them, despite the criticism of pesticides in the report.
While Kennedy and others in the MAHA movement have questioned the safety or health of the ingredients in foods on store shelves, Rollins stressed that the U.S. food supply remains safe.
"The food supply is 100% safe," Rollins said. "It isn't just safe. It is the safest in the world. And it's really, really important that we continue to make sure that people understand that," she added.
Rollins pledged that Kennedy and the MAHA Commission will not "compromise the ability of our American agriculture to do what they do best," and Zeldin said that any moves to regulate pesticides would be carefully considered against the cost to farmers.
"American farmers rely on these products, and actions that further regulate or restrict crop protection tools, beyond risk-based and scientific processes set forth by Congress, must involve thoughtful consideration of what is necessary for adequate protection, alternatives and cost of production," he said.
Zeldin added that any quick changes in agricultural practices could have "adverse impact on American agriculture and the domestic food supply."
Even with their assurances to the industry, groups like the National Corn Growers Association, which often partners for sponsorships with companies like Bayer, which produces pesticides, immediately denounced the report as "fear-based."
“The Make America Healthy Again Report is filled with fear-based rather than science-based information about pesticides. We are deeply troubled that claims of this magnitude are being made without any scientific basis or regard for a long history of EPA expert evaluations of these products," the National Corn Growers Association said in a statement.
The report also calls for new studies on childhood vaccines, which dozens of high-quality studies have found to be safe and effective.
Although the report states that vaccines protect children from infectious diseases, it also claims parents are concerned about their "appropriate use" and their "possible role" in chronic diseases among children.
"Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule. These areas warrant future inquiry," the report states.
Dozens of studies have failed to find a link between an increased number of vaccines and more chronic disease among children.
