If confirmed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can 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 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 can 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 closing stretch of the election, Kennedy targeted closely on tackling power illnesses and corruption beneath the slogan Make America Wholesome Once more, and Trump has stated that will probably be an enormous 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 power 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 eating regimen, bodily exercise and different way of life elements. And to realize this formidable purpose, 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 advisor 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 decide to guide HHS.
CALLEY MEANS: What Bobby Kennedy has helped President Trump notice is that there isn’t any better instance of this swamp, there isn’t any better 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 taking advantage of low-cost, addictive meals and our well being care business that earnings from children getting sick from power illness tied to meals.
DETROW: I’ve heard Kennedy speak about so many alternative 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 compounds, the harms of business agriculture and, extra broadly, the well being care system’s deal with therapies as an alternative of prevention. Tackling any of those alone can be a major endeavor, and many individuals have tried. You may wager, 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 sort of a burn-down-the-house sort of man. Bobby’s, you already know, not in search of incremental change.
STONE: Kennedy has shared a lot of his objectives. He needs 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 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 drugs. As NPR has coated, he is promoted unproven therapies for COVID and made different basless claims associated to well being.
On the identical time, there isn’t any denying that on power 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 among them is Barry Popkin, a professor at UNC Gillings College of International 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 will probably be behind them and so forth. However I don’t see that. I concern the worst.
STONE: Popkin tells me he is anxious concerning the different realms of public well being beneath 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 on the subject of the – what he is speaking about with power 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 laws. 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 eating regimen being articulated, however I am undecided that these objectives are in line with different objectives to decontrol the economic 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 stated that basically, 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 performed, the analysis and suggestions will comply with, and Congress must act.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Will Stone. Thanks a lot.
STONE: Thanks.
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