On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump introduced he chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to function his secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
“The security and well being of all People is crucial position of any administration, and HHS will play an enormous position in serving to be sure that all people can be protected against dangerous chemical compounds, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical merchandise, and meals components which have contributed to the overwhelming well being disaster on this nation,” Trump shared in a put up to X (previously Twitter). “Mr. Kennedy will restore these companies to the traditions of gold customary scientific analysis, and beacons of transparency, to finish the persistent illness epidemic, and to make America nice and wholesome once more!”
However what, precisely, does any of this imply? Here is what it is advisable to know.
First, this is what the Division of Well being and Human Companies does within the first place
The Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) is a sprawling federal company whose mission is “to boost the well being and well-being of all People by offering for efficient well being and human providers and by fostering sound, sustained advances within the sciences underlying medication, public well being, and social providers.”
The HHS oversees 11 companies, together with the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), whose job is to control “scientific investigations of merchandise underneath its jurisdiction, reminiscent of medicine, organic merchandise, and medical gadgets.” The HSS additionally oversees any public well being threats by means of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) and helps medical analysis by means of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH).
The HHS additionally enforces health-related legal guidelines, coordinates responses to emergencies like pandemics, and oversees the operation of the Inexpensive Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.
What has RFK stated in regards to the division prior to now?
Kennedy has been a pointy critic of federal well being companies. In October, he tweeted that the “FDA’s warfare on public well being is about to finish. This contains its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, uncooked milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, nutritional vitamins, clear meals, sunshine, train, nutraceuticals and the rest that advances human well being and cannot be patented by Pharma. If you happen to work for the FDA and are a part of this corrupt system, I’ve two messages for you: 1. Protect your information, and a pair of. Pack your luggage.”
Kennedy has argued that the CDC and FDA are too carefully aligned with the pharmaceutical and meals industries, resulting in what he describes as compromised insurance policies.
Kennedy has additionally lengthy been a vocal and prolific critic of vaccines, stating that “there is not any vaccine that’s secure and efficient,” which flies within the face of many years of science on the efficacy of vaccines, including that he believes the FDA to have too shut of a relationship with drug producers over vaccines. Del Bigtree, the previous director of communications for Kennedy’s election marketing campaign, instructed Reuters he expects that Kennedy can be wanting into each FDA worker’s ties to the pharmaceutical business. “You are going to see a vetting strategy of, how do the folks have the roles right here? What had been their conflicts of curiosity,” Bigtree stated. “You are going to watch a transparency that ought to have occurred … and it is all going to be made public.”
And, as CNN reported, whereas Kennedy remarked he would “instantly” start finding out vaccine security and efficacy, he acknowledged that he wouldn’t “take vaccines away from anyone.”
Kennedy famous in an extra assertion Thursday, “I sit up for working with the greater than 80,000 staff at HHS to free the companies from the smothering cloud of company seize to allow them to pursue their mission to make People as soon as once more the healthiest folks on Earth.”
What has RFK stated are his main objectives?
As Kennedy outlined within the tweet above and in his key coverage positions on the homepage of the Make America Wholesome Once more web site, he has a laundry listing of issues he’d wish to deal with. Here is a fast breakdown of those particularly focusing on meals and drinks within the U.S.
Public water
Kennedy additionally dedicated to formally recommending states and municipalities take away fluoride from public water. “We don’t want fluoride in our water,” Kennedy shared on NPR’s Morning Version. “It’s a really unhealthy technique to ship it into our techniques.” And whereas including fluoride to water was lengthy heralded for bettering dental well being in People, it seems the Nationwide Toxicology Division, which sits underneath the HHS, agrees with Kennedy — not less than partly — already. “Since 1945, the usage of fluoride has been a profitable public well being initiative for lowering dental cavities and bettering normal oral well being of adults and youngsters,” it defined on its web site.
There’s a concern, nevertheless, that some pregnant girls and youngsters could also be getting extra fluoride than they want as a result of they now get fluoride from many sources, together with handled public water, water-added meals and drinks, teas, toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash, and the mixed whole consumption of fluoride could exceed secure quantities.” So, in 2015, the U.S. Public Well being Service advisable fluoridation in water be lowered to 0.7 milligrams per liter nationwide.
Nonetheless, it is vital to notice that the federal authorities is not in command of this — native municipalities are. However, as Kennedy moreover instructed NBC following the presidential election, “I feel fluoride is on its means out … I am not going to compel anyone to take it out, however I will advise the water districts. I will give them good details about the science, and I feel fluoride will disappear.”
Diet departments
Kennedy shared in an interview with NBC that he would lower employees in “the vitamin departments” on the FDA, including they’ve “to go. They are not doing their job. They are not defending our youngsters.”
Meals components
“We’re betraying our kids by letting these industries poison them,” Kennedy stated at a marketing campaign rally in November in regards to the processed meals business. Because the New York Occasions reported, Kennedy has particularly referred to as out Froot Loops for having synthetic elements and highlighting how the corporate’s Canadian model has fewer than the U.S. model — with Canada’s model made with pure colorings from blueberries and carrots and the U.S. product containing purple dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1, together with Butylated hydroxytoluene. It is a place that seems to have bipartisan assist. In 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice banning 4 meals components: Purple dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil, and Propylparaben, with the ban starting in 2027. This stance additionally has assist from meals coverage consultants and medical professionals.
“The concept of lowering unhealthy and ultra-processed meals is a extremely good concept,” Dr. Federica Amati, an Affiliation for Diet accredited nutritionist, a visiting analysis fellow at King’s School London, and lead nutritionist at Zoe, shared with Meals & Wine. Nonetheless, as Amati added, “I feel blanket statements about getting chemical compounds out of meals just isn’t a useful narrative on the whole. I feel flipping that over and saying, ‘make nearly all of your food plan from complete meals,’ which is a really well-established public well being suggestion, tackles this drawback of chemical compounds — however with out really pointing fingers at issues that we’re unsure about.”
Amati famous one different tip for not simply Kennedy however for all of us: “Learn to cook dinner. If you do not know the way it’s a strong funding in your well being.”
Environmental toxins
The entrance web page of the MAHA web site reads, “Considered one of MAHA’s prime priorities is the elimination of dangerous chemical compounds and toxins from America’s meals, water, and air. MAHA advocates for complete testing and monitoring of environmental toxins to make sure that all People have entry to wash, secure, and wholesome dwelling circumstances.” Contemplating the huge variety of research showcasing the risks of pesticides, which may be factor. The one drawback is, that is all the data we have got on his plans. He hasn’t shared which chemical compounds, precisely, he’d go after and the way.
Farms
To go along with this environmental toxins dialogue, Kennedy has additionally acknowledged he is trying to overhaul farming within the U.S., together with eradicating some crop subsidies. “They make corn, soybeans, and wheat artificially low cost, so these crops find yourself in lots of processed varieties,” he wrote within the Wall Avenue Journal. “Soybean oil within the Nineteen Nineties turned a serious supply of American energy, and high-fructose corn syrup is in all places. Our subsidy program is so backward that lower than 2% of farm subsidies go to vegatables and fruits.”
“America’s present ag coverage is destroying America’s well being on each degree,” he added in a video message. “It destroys the well being of America’s soil and water by tilting the enjoying subject in favor of extra chemical compounds, extra herbicides, extra pesticides, extra concentrated mono-crops and feedlots, and eventually, it destroys the well being of shoppers.” The reply, he added, is to “encourage sustainable, regenerative farming … ban the worst agricultural chemical compounds,” and to supply extra “pure, unprocessed meals.”
Nonetheless, this, Dana O’Brien, a biotechnology marketing consultant, shared in an essay on Agri-Pulse, would imply a “wholesale change in politics and farm coverage. It represents a major elevation of anti-technology pondering by a serious social gathering candidate for president of america and should be reconciled with the assist many farm organizations are giving to the Trump marketing campaign.” He added, “The truth of what’s taking place is extraordinarily harmful for farmers, for rural communities, and for American innovation.”
SNAP programming
It seems Kennedy additionally needs to reshape the Supplemental Diet Help Program, which is utilized by greater than 40 million folks within the U.S. Kennedy wrote within the Wall Avenue Journal he needs to “Cease permitting beneficiaries of the Supplemental Diet Help Program to make use of their meals stamps to purchase soda or processed meals. 9 % of all SNAP funding goes to sweetened drinks, in line with 2011 information. It’s nonsensical for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions of {dollars} subsidizing junk that harms the well being of low-income People.”
Will any of RFK’s plans really occur?
That is all an enormous … possibly. For starters, he has to get confirmed. And even when he does, his want listing relies on the long run political dynamics, scientific feasibility, funding, and the general public urge for food for any of those adjustments.
As Reuters famous, his guarantees would require the brand new “Trump administration to strip federal staff of protections towards arbitrary firing put in place by lawmakers.” Nonetheless, some 18,000 FDA staffers do not even depend on funding from Congress. The 18,000 FDA employees are additional shielded as a result of their salaries should not solely funded by Congress, with practically 50% of the company’s funds coming from “person charges,” which Reuters defined are funds made by pharmaceutical and medical system producers to fund the employees assets wanted to evaluate their merchandise. The FDA famous that these feeds don’t compromise “the company’s dedication to scientific integrity, public well being, regulatory requirements, affected person security, and transparency.”
Moreover, as Dan Troy, former chief counsel on the FDA underneath Republican President George W. Bush’s first administration, shared with Reuters, even when Kennedy had been capable of fireplace numerous staffers, “who’re you going to place in place? Who has the technical experience to jot down these guidelines which can be going to essentially change the paradigm?”
Even when he does fireplace all these FDA staff and exchange them, he nonetheless probably will not hit Trump’s “mandate.”
“Trump gave him a mandate to scale back persistent ailments in two years. That is unattainable,” Daybreak Matusz, a part-time teacher on the College of Nevada Las Vegas’ vitamin program and in addition a doctoral candidate in UNLV’s Physician of Public Coverage program, stated. “That’s an unattainable endeavor. Perhaps his inevitable failure of that may begin to make folks notice that well being does not exist in a vacuum. Diet does not exist in a vacuum. Public coverage doesn’t exist in a vacuum.” As Matusz added, you may have two folks with the very same illness, like sort two diabetes, who’re the identical age, identical top, and identical weight. “You can give metformin to at least one individual, and it might fully carry their blood sugar ranges again all the way down to regular vary. You can give metformin to the opposite individual, and it will not make a dent.” Well being, Matusz says, could be very “individualized, and folks do not realize that.”
Matusz did notice, “I feel they’ve good intentions. They’re simply going about it the mistaken means.”