Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ effort is poised for real power : NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

We’ll now speak extra about a kind of picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Trump has tapped to guide the Division of Well being and Human Providers. If confirmed, Kennedy may have broad affect over federal businesses and well being care coverage, and that may be a prospect that worries many in public well being, given his historical past of constructing false claims about vaccines and selling conspiracy theories.

Within the ultimate stretch of the election, Kennedy targeted closely on tackling persistent ailments and corruption underneath the slogan Make America Wholesome Once more, and Trump has stated that will likely be a giant precedence. NPR well being correspondent Will Stone joins us now to speak extra about this, Hey, Will.

WILL STONE, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: Let’s begin right here. How would you sum up the Make America Wholesome Once more agenda?

STONE: OK, so Kennedy and Trump have stated that their central mandate is to reverse the persistent illness epidemic within the U.S., and we’re speaking about diabetes, coronary heart illness. These are the main causes of dying. They’re tied to weight loss program, bodily exercise and different life-style elements. And to realize this formidable aim, supporters of this MAHA motion have set their sights on Large Meals and Large Pharma. , these are industries that they are saying use their affect over authorities to push insurance policies that undermine the nation’s well being.

A key determine in Kennedy’s orbit and an advisor of his is Calley Means. He is a former marketing consultant for these industries. Means works within the well being and wellness trade. Here is what he instructed me after we spoke a number of days earlier than Trump introduced Kennedy as his choose to guide HHS.

CALLEY MEANS: What Bobby Kennedy has helped President Trump understand is that there is no larger instance of this swamp, there is no larger instance of this corruption President Trump has talked about all through his political profession, than what’s occurring with our meals trade that is cashing in on low cost, addictive meals and our well being care trade that earnings from children getting sick from persistent illness tied to meals.

DETROW: I’ve heard Kennedy discuss so many various areas, although. What precisely is the preliminary focus right here?

STONE: Yeah, good query. I imply, he has spoke about issues associated to ultraprocessed meals, poor diet, meals components, pesticides, poisonous chemical substances, the harms of business agriculture and, extra broadly, the well being care system’s concentrate on remedies as a substitute of prevention. Tackling any of those alone can be a major enterprise, and many individuals have tried. You’ll be able to guess, Scott, he’ll face main headwinds, each from Congress and lobbyist. I spoke to a longtime buddy of Kennedy’s, Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a bestselling writer and an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic.

MARK HYMAN: I believe there is a distinctive alternative, partly as a result of Trump is form of a burn-down-the-house form of man. Bobby’s, you realize, not in search of incremental change.

STONE: Kennedy has shared lots of his targets. He desires to overtake dietary pointers and federal packages that pay for ultraprocessed meals, tackle crop subsidies, perhaps ban sure pesticides that European international locations have already banned.

DETROW: What is the response been to all of this?

STONE: It is definitely a wierd, virtually dizzying second for the general public well being discipline. Kennedy is well-known for questioning the scientific consensus, pushing inaccurate details about vaccines. He is based an antivaccine advocacy group and is mostly antagonistic towards mainstream drugs. As NPR has lined, he is promoted unproven remedies for COVID and made different basless claims associated to well being.

On the similar time, there is no denying that on persistent illness prevention, there’s some actual overlap between what he talks about as his priorities and what you hear from scientists who work on this discipline. One in every of them is Barry Popkin, a professor at UNC Gillings College of World Public Well being. He says, he would welcome significant motion on diet and the meals provide.

BARRY POPKIN: If it comes, I am going to help it, and I will be tremendous shocked, and academia will likely be behind them and so forth. However I don’t see that. I worry the worst.

STONE: Popkin tells me he is frightened concerning the different realms of public well being underneath Kennedy’s management – our preparation for the following pandemic, outbreaks of measles and backsliding on confirmed public well being instruments like vaccines.

DETROW: How would Kennedy get most of this agenda via with regards to the – what he is speaking about with persistent illness prevention?

STONE: Yeah, that’s the query, Scott, as a result of, clearly, Trump and different Republicans are already speaking about reducing authorities and rules. That is what Dr. Randall Stafford at Stanford is making an attempt to sq..

RANDALL STAFFORD: I’m very happy to see the problems of weight problems and poor weight loss program being articulated, however I am unsure that these targets are per different targets to decontrol the economic system.

STONE: And in Trump’s first time period, his administration put in trade insiders and took actions on diet and pesticides that run counter to this new agenda. I requested Calley Means about this, and he stated that essentially, their precedence is extra about stamping out trade affect, whether or not that is with people who find themselves funded to do analysis or who advise the federal government.

MEANS: Our well being and meals equipment – it is rigged. And aggressively and clearly derigging that system just isn’t overregulation.

STONE: He argues when you get that completed, the analysis and proposals will observe, and Congress must act.

DETROW: That is NPR’s Will Stone. Thanks a lot.

STONE: Thanks.

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