For all of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s high-profile moves over the last few weeks, a new report from the “Make America Healthy Again” commission he leads released Tuesday arrived with little fanfare — or teeth.
The White House commission report, which outlines strategies to combat childhood chronic disease, lands at a time when the health secretary has plunged the nation’s public health apparatus into chaos. It comes days after Mr. Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee in a combative hearing, and about two weeks after he ousted the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The New York Times obtained a draft of the report in August. The final report is largely unchanged, and does not always clearly explain how the government will implement its recommendations.
In the report, Mr. Kennedy has returned to his usual talking points: that American children are sick, stressed and screen-addicted, and that corporate interests and prescription medications are to blame. It is the clearest articulation yet of how the administration plans to carry out the aims of the MAHA movement.
Yet even with the familiar rhetoric, the report is very likely to disappoint some corners of Mr. Kennedy’s MAHA coalition.
It demonstrates both the ambitions and limits of his agenda. It stops short of calling for direct restrictions on pesticides and ultraprocessed foods, which Mr. Kennedy has called major threats. The strategy suggests collaboration — not confrontation — with the food and agriculture industries, saying that the government will back “precision agricultural techniques” to help farmers use less pesticides. After The Times reported on the draft, some members of the MAHA movement expressed frustration at what they saw as signs of Mr. Kennedy’s capitulations to these industries.
The report points to a number of actions the Trump administration has already announced and branded victories, including establishing an infertility training center, cracking down on food dyes, relaunching the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools, studying the “root causes” of autism and working to define ultraprocessed foods and update the U.S. dietary guidelines.
Other significant parts of the strategy are at odds with actions the administration has taken. For example, the report calls for providing “whole, healthy food” through the government-funded SNAP nutrition program for low-income Americans — but Mr. Trump signed legislation this year that significantly cut SNAP funding. It also suggests prioritizing research and analysis of the health effects of poor water and air quality, but the administration has abandoned major pollution regulations.
There are also places where the report’s goals conflict with each other. For example, it says the government will “review new scientific information on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water,” but also identifies poor oral health and childhood cavities — which fluoride in drinking water helps prevent, according to decades of research — as potential causes of chronic disease. It says the C.D.C. will issue new recommendations on fluoride in water, which Mr. Kennedy has called dangerous despite the fact that most U.S. water supplies fall well within what scientists consider safe fluoride limits.
The report contains a few bold ideas, but not always a clear path to implementing them. The document suggests the government will crack down on direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs, and calls for closing the so-called “GRAS” loophole, a provision that lets companies put new chemicals or ingredients into food products as long as they are “generally recognized as safe.” It also says the government will consider developing guidelines to limit the ways companies market “unhealthy” foods to children.
In May, the commission released a report that blamed ultraprocessed foods, toxic chemicals and prescription drugs for fueling “the sickest generation in American history.” The May document cited studies that did not exist, and in some cases drew faulty conclusions from existing evidence.
Tuesday’s 20-page document charges the government with “ensuring America has the best childhood vaccine schedule” at a time when Mr. Kennedy has named vaccine critics to a key vaccine advisory panel, overseen changes that restrict Americans’ access to Covid vaccines and seeded doubt about the safety and effectiveness of many shots. The report also calls for new research into vaccine injuries, a topic Mr. Kennedy has consistently brought up as he fuels suspicion around routine immunizations.
It also says the government will create education campaigns aimed at improving fertility and will evaluate “overprescription trends” in the use of SSRIs, antipsychotics, stimulants and other mental health drugs for children.
Though the report pushes for new research initiatives and public awareness campaigns, it does not include many specific policies. It says the government will commission a slew of new studies to better understand microplastics, air quality, the cumulative toll of chemicals and even electromagnetic radiation. It also says the surgeon general will start campaigns on educating children about the effects of screen time, vaping, cannabis and alcohol. (The current nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, has not yet been confirmed.)
It is not clear how the government might fund these initiatives. The Trump administration has made large cuts to scientific funding over the last few months.
Mr. Kennedy and other members of the commission, including Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, and Dr. Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, are speaking at an event at 2 p.m. Eastern to release the report.
Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times.
Benjamin Mueller reports on health and medicine. He was previously a U.K. correspondent in London and a police reporter in New York.
Maggie Astor covers the intersection of health and politics for The Times.
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