If confirmed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have broad affect over federal companies and well being care coverage — a prospect that worries many in public well being given his historical past of conspiracy theories.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We’ll now speak extra about a type of picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Trump has tapped to guide the Division of Well being and Human Companies. If confirmed, Kennedy could have broad affect over federal companies and well being care coverage, and that may be a prospect that worries many in public well being, given his historical past of creating false claims about vaccines and selling conspiracy theories.
Within the remaining stretch of the election, Kennedy targeted closely on tackling continual illnesses and corruption below the slogan Make America Wholesome Once more, and Trump has mentioned 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 mentioned that their central mandate is to reverse the continual illness epidemic within the U.S., and we’re speaking about diabetes, coronary heart illness. These are the main causes of loss of life. They’re tied to food regimen, bodily exercise and different way of life components. And to attain this bold objective, supporters of this MAHA motion have set their sights on Huge Meals and Huge Pharma. You realize, 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 business. This is what he informed me once we spoke a couple of days earlier than Trump introduced Kennedy as his choose to guide HHS.
CALLEY MEANS: What Bobby Kennedy has helped President Trump notice is that there isn’t any larger instance of this swamp, there isn’t any larger instance of this corruption President Trump has talked about all through his political profession, than what’s taking place with our meals business that is making the most of low-cost, addictive meals and our well being care business that earnings from children getting sick from continual illness tied to meals.
DETROW: I’ve heard Kennedy discuss so many alternative areas, although. What precisely is the preliminary focus right here?
STONE: Yeah, good query. I imply, he has spoke about considerations associated to ultraprocessed meals, poor diet, meals components, pesticides, poisonous chemical substances, the harms of commercial agriculture and, extra broadly, the well being care system’s give attention to remedies as an alternative of prevention. Tackling any of those alone can be a big enterprise, and many individuals have tried. You may wager, Scott, he’ll face main headwinds, each from Congress and lobbyist. I spoke to a longtime good friend of Kennedy’s, Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a bestselling creator and an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic.
MARK HYMAN: I believe there is a distinctive alternative, partly as a result of Trump is sort of a burn-down-the-house sort of man. Bobby’s, you realize, not in search of incremental change.
STONE: Kennedy has shared lots of his targets. He needs to overtake dietary tips and federal packages that pay for ultraprocessed meals, tackle crop subsidies, perhaps ban sure pesticides that European nations have already banned.
DETROW: What is the response been to all of this?
STONE: It is definitely an odd, nearly 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 usually antagonistic towards mainstream medication. As NPR has lined, he is promoted unproven remedies for COVID and made different basless claims associated to well being.
On the identical time, there isn’t any denying that on continual illness prevention, there may be some actual overlap between what he talks about as his priorities and what you hear from scientists who work on this discipline. One among them is Barry Popkin, a professor at UNC Gillings Faculty of International 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 nervous concerning the different realms of public well being below Kennedy’s management – our preparation for the subsequent pandemic, outbreaks of measles and backsliding on confirmed public well being instruments like vaccines.
DETROW: How would Kennedy get most of this agenda by way of in the case of the – what he is speaking about with continual 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 attempting to sq..
RANDALL STAFFORD: I’m very happy to see the problems of weight problems and poor food regimen being articulated, however I am undecided that these targets are according to different targets to decontrol the financial system.
STONE: And in Trump’s first time period, his administration put in business insiders and took actions on diet and pesticides that run counter to this new agenda. I requested Calley Means about this, and he mentioned that essentially, their precedence is extra about stamping out business 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 isn’t overregulation.
STONE: He argues when you get that achieved, the analysis and proposals will comply with, and Congress must act.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Will Stone. Thanks a lot.
STONE: Thanks.
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