If confirmed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may 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 will now discuss extra about a kind of picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Trump has tapped to steer the Division of Well being and Human Providers. If confirmed, Kennedy may have broad affect over federal companies and well being care coverage, and that could 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 continual illnesses and corruption below the slogan Make America Wholesome Once more, and Trump has stated that might 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 continual illness epidemic within the U.S., and we’re speaking about diabetes, coronary heart illness. These are the main causes of demise. They’re tied to weight loss plan, bodily exercise and different life-style elements. And to realize this formidable objective, supporters of this MAHA motion have set their sights on Massive Meals and Massive 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 trade. Here is what he instructed me once we spoke just a few days earlier than Trump introduced Kennedy as his choose to steer 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 benefiting from low-cost, addictive meals and our well being care trade that earnings from children getting sick from continual illness tied to meals.
DETROW: I’ve heard Kennedy speak about 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 commercial agriculture and, extra broadly, the well being care system’s give attention to therapies as a substitute of prevention. Tackling any of those alone could be a major endeavor, and many individuals have tried. You’ll be able to wager, Scott, he’ll face main headwinds, each from Congress and lobbyist. I spoke to a longtime pal of Kennedy’s, Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a bestselling creator and an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic.
MARK HYMAN: I feel 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 already know, not on the lookout for incremental change.
STONE: Kennedy has shared lots of his targets. He needs to overtake dietary pointers and federal applications that pay for ultraprocessed meals, tackle crop subsidies, possibly 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, virtually dizzying second for the general public well being area. 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 coated, he is promoted unproven therapies for COVID and made different basless claims associated to well being.
On the similar time, there is no 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 area. One in every of them is Barry Popkin, a professor at UNC Gillings Faculty of World Public Well being. He says, he would welcome significant motion on diet and the meals provide.
BARRY POPKIN: If it comes, I will assist it, and I will be tremendous shocked, and academia might be behind them and so forth. However I don’t see that. I concern the worst.
STONE: Popkin tells me he is apprehensive 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 on the subject 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 slicing authorities and laws. That is what Dr. Randall Stafford at Stanford is attempting to sq..
RANDALL STAFFORD: I’m more than happy to see the problems of weight problems and poor weight loss plan being articulated, however I am unsure that these targets are in keeping with different targets to decontrol the financial 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 basically, 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 accomplished, 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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