RFK Jr.'s MAHA report raises concerns about vaccines, American foods and
prescription drugs
[May 23, 2025]
By AMANDA SEITZ and MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government report released on Thursday covering wide
swaths of American health and wellness reflects some of the most
contentious views on vaccines, the nation's food supply, pesticides and
prescription drugs held by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.
The much-anticipated “Make America Healthy Again” report calls for
increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule, a review of the
pesticides sprayed on American crops and a description of the nation's
children as overmedicated and undernourished.
“Never in American history has the federal government taken a position
on public health like this,” Kennedy told a group of MAHA supporters
during an event unveiling the report on Thursday.
While it does not have the force of a law or official policy, the
69-page report will be used over the next three months for the MAHA
commission to fashion a plan that can be implemented during the
remainder of President Donald Trump's term.
Speaking to MAHA supporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump
praised the report.
“There’s something wrong and we will not stop until we defeat the
chronic disease epidemic in America,”
Kennedy refused to provide details about who authored the report.
The HHS report scrutinizes vaccines, without evidence that it’s
warranted
Increased scrutiny of childhood vaccines — credited with saving millions
of people from deadly diseases — figures prominently in the report. It
poses questions over the necessity of school mandates that require
children to get vaccinated for admittance and suggestions that vaccines
should undergo more clinical trials, including with placebos.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has raised doubts about the safety
of shots even as a measles outbreak has sickened more than 1,000
Americans. This week, Kennedy’s health department moved to limit U.S.
access to COVID-19 shots.
The report does not provide any evidence that the childhood vaccine
schedule, which includes shots for measles, polio and the chickenpox, is
to blame for rising obesity, diabetes or autism rates, said Amesh Adalja,
an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins University.
“It’s not as if they’re positing any kind of causal link,” Adalja said,
adding that Kennedy is “is trying to devalue vaccines in the minds of
Americans.”
Controversy over farming chemicals divides 'MAHA' movement
Parts of the report highlight growing factions within the Trump
administration's MAHA movement, even as the report strained to appease
opposing forces within the politically diverse coalition that Trump and
Kennedy have fostered.
The report makes dozens of references to dietary guidelines and
standards in Europe, but Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin
promised it would not yield more rigorous regulations.
“This cannot happen through a European mandate system that stifles
growth,” Zeldin said in a call with reporters.
Despite numerous studies and statements throughout the MAHA report that
raise concerns about American food products, Trump Cabinet officials
insisted during a call with reporters on Thursday that the nation's food
supply is safe.
The report mentions that glyphosate, a commonly used chemical sprayed on
crops, may cause serious health problems, including cancer. The World
Health Organization has said that the chemical is a probable carcinogen
to humans, although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it
is unlikely.
Farmers, who — alongside Republican lawmakers — hounded the Trump
administration leading up to the report's release, swiftly criticized
the report's comments on the chemicals.
“The Make America Healthy Again Report is filled with fear-based rather
than science-based information about pesticides,” the National Corn
Growers Association said in a statement.
But Kennedy's MAHA supporters were also disappointed, saying the report
didn't go far enough when it came to chemicals used on crops.
[to top of second column]
|
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Marty Makary, right,
and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services, left, attend a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)
Commission Event in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, May
22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“If the Trump White House and Republicans don't take pesticides and
glyphosate's link to human health issues seriously, it will cost them
the MAHA vote in the midterms,” said Dave Murphy, a former Kennedy
fundraiser who spearheaded a push for the issue to be addressed in the
report.
Talking about the report on Thursday, Trump reiterated his “love” for
farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged the tight rope Trump
officials are walking to keep farmers, many of them in
Republican-leaning states, happy while also working to satisfy Kennedy's
eclectic and health-conscious following.
“Do all of us agree on everything? Of course not,” Rollins said. “But
the place that we have landed, which is, I think all of us agree, is
that this is not a binary choice between an industry, agriculture and
health.”
Ultraprocessed foods also blamed for unhealthy Americans
The report comes out stronger, however, against ultraprocessed foods —
industrially made products high in refined grains, sugar, saturated fats
and additives like artificial dyes that now make up two-thirds of the
diet for U.S. teens and children. Such products have been linked to a
host of poor health outcomes, though documenting how they cause those
problems has been notoriously difficult and time-consuming.
The MAHA commission report “is a pretty accurate depiction of the
nutrition crisis facing our country,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an
expert in nutrition and policy at Tufts University.
The report focuses not only on ultraprocessed foods, but also on how too
few fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and fish are present in
U.S. diets, he noted. But the report leaves out excess salt, which
causes harm, even in young children.
The MAHA report calls on the National Institutes of Health to execute
sweeping, nationwide studies of ultraprocessed foods, even as the White
House has called for $18 billion to be axed from the agency's budget. An
extra $500 million has been requested from Congress for Kennedy's MAHA
initiative.
The report raises concerns about other environmental and chemical
research results, funded by corporations and industry, being skewed.
But the MAHA commission's call for more neutral research comes as
sweeping budget and staff cuts propelled by Trump’s Department of
Government Efficiency have resulted in 20,000 jobs lost at the nation’s
health department and billions of dollars rescinded for research
studies. The Trump administration also gutted the Environmental Public
Health Tracking Program in its cuts of health-tracking programs.
The report also raises concerns about the lack of physical activity
among children and their prescription drug use, including antibiotics
and medications used to treat attention deficit disorders.
Some in the MAHA movement have raised concerns about offering
medications, even over-the-counter drugs like pain relievers, to
children.
But Trump spent 10 minutes during Thursday's event telling MAHA
supporters how he's working to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The
East Room crowd, packed full of MAHA supporters that offered applause
for Trump's calls to investigate chronic disease in children, responded
mildly — and eventually stopped clapping entirely — as he continued to
talk about lowering drug costs.
“I think it's going to go down as one of the most important things we've
ever down because drug prices are going to go down,” he said, as Kennedy
looked on.
__
Associated Press writer JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, California,
contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
