Immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 13, he was tasked with heading up a commission primarily focused on childhood health.
The commission directs executive departments and federal agencies to primarily advise the president on how to “address the childhood chronic disease crisis.”
It is tasked to explore contributing causes to childhood chronic diseases such as “the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”
The mandate aligns with Kennedy’s presidential campaign platform and his previous work at Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that he founded in 2007.
Aside from the commission, as head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee a budget of $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2025, the largest of any federal agency.
HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and four in 10 have two or more chronic diseases, according to the executive order. It’s also estimated that one in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness.
“In short, Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security,” the order reads.
The President’s MAHA Commission will demonstrate “gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick in all health-related research funded by the federal government,” the fact sheet states.
Within 100 days (by May 22), the commission will deliver an initial assessment of potential factors that contribute to the chronic disease epidemic, the order states. A national Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy will be presented within 180 days.
The commission includes the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency; the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Housing and Urban Development; and several economic advisers. The FDA commissioner, the CDC director, and the NIH director will also be involved.
Sayer Ji, co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and founder and director of GreenMedInfo, said Trump’s executive order is “an extraordinary and historic moment for the health freedom movement and the future of our nation’s well-being.”
The commission institutionalizes the MAHA movement that Kennedy got behind last year, he said.
“For far too long, we have watched as chronic disease, vaccine injury, environmental toxicity and regulatory capture have devastated the health of millions—especially our children,” Ji said.
‘Radical Transparency’
Kennedy has said that “radical transparency and returning gold-standard science to the NIH, the FDA and CDC,” and “ending the corporate capture of those agencies” that led to compromised science are two parts of his plan.These dovetail with the commission’s objectives.
Federally funded health research should “avoid conflicts of interest,” empower Americans through transparency and open-source data, “and should avoid or eliminate conflicts of interest that skew outcomes and perpetuate distrust,” the White House said regarding the commission.
The NIH and other health-related research funded by the federal government should prioritize gold-standard research on the root causes of why Americans are getting sick, according to the fact sheet.
Kennedy said he believes that little will change in the health arena until corporate influence on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is addressed.
Working With Agriculture Secretary
Kennedy is expected to work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on several initiatives, aside from the new commission.The USDA and HHS have a late 2025 deadline to complete the 2025–2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Rollins said on Feb. 14 that she will also work with Kennedy and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, to healthier items.
“We really need to look at where that money is going, what it’s being spent on,” she said. “I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, ‘Do we have the healthiest choices?’ So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are we OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?”
Rollins said she believes SNAP grew by almost 30 percent under the Biden administration.
“Will we ever take food out of a hungry child’s mouth? Of course not, this is the United States of America,” she said.
Vaccine Safety
Kennedy has faced criticism about his perceived vaccine stances since he announced his presidential run.Comments from lawmakers at his confirmation hearings and votes showcased a sharp division between parties over Kennedy’s views.
Most Republicans praised Kennedy for his past advocacy work and his emphasis on addressing the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, while Democrats criticized him for his stance on vaccine efficacy.
Before the Feb. 13 confirmation vote, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Kennedy a “wildly unqualified conspiracy theorist” and urged senators to not support the nominee.
Kennedy was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 52–48, with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) being the lone Republican dissenter.
Kennedy has consistently said he is not against vaccines, but that he is an advocate for vaccine safety, informed consent, and nonpartisan studies on the efficacy of vaccines.
“I’ve never been anti-vaccine,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September 2024. “People should have a choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information possible. I’m going to ensure that there are science-based safety studies available, and people can make their own assessments about whether a vaccine is good for them.”
At a forum hosted by Tucker Carlson in October 2024, Kennedy said he wanted to “restore the transparency” around vaccines, not ban them.
After he was sworn in, Kennedy told Fox News that he intends to create a more accurate vaccine injury reporting and surveillance system than the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.
“We will do that right away,” he said. “We need to know the risk profile of these products.”
Trump said last year that he would also give Kennedy the freedom to investigate the potential link between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has said for years that autism in some children is likely tied to childhood vaccines, which many states mandate for all school children.
Chemicals, Ultra-Processed Foods
A staunch advocate for regulating chemicals in food, Kennedy has suggested that Americans should return to using tallow fat instead of seed oils. He has chastised food manufacturers for using ingredients such as artificial dyes.Kennedy has said that he will address this topic as HHS secretary.
He has pointed out how the U.S. version of the Froot Loops cereal contains more artificial colors and additives than versions of the cereal sold in other countries.
Kennedy also described the dramatic increase in adult and juvenile diabetes, neurological diseases, and fatty liver disease and cancer cases.
“So what’s causing all this suffering? I’ll name two culprits. First and the worst is ultra-processed foods. ... The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, our medicine, and our environment,” he said.
Kennedy said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago, and that they are partly responsible for the rise in disease. Although many of these chemicals are banned in Europe, they are ubiquitous in U.S. foods.
“America can get healthy again,” Kennedy said.
“To do that we need to do three things. First, root out the corruption in our health agencies. Second, change the incentives of the health care system. And third, inspire Americans to get healthy again.”
