Food dyes, sick kids and a dip in contaminated water: Kennedy weighs in on his first 100 days

[ad_1] Because the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts in federal well being companies, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has produced a 72-page abstract on the environmental toxins, chemical substances and ultraprocessed meals he mentioned are inflicting an “existential disaster” in the USA.

In an interview Thursday afternoon with Tom Llamas, senior nationwide correspondent for NBC Information and upcoming anchor of “Nightly Information,” Kennedy, the secretary of well being and human providers, mentioned the “Make America Wholesome Once more” report, which blamed sedentary, technology-driven life and the overprescribing of medicines, represented “the primary time in historical past” that the federal authorities has acknowledged the “damaging impression of those environmental exposures on the American individuals.”

The prolonged report went into nice element about what’s incorrect with children in the USA however didn’t provide a lot depth about what the federal well being companies would do to “make them wholesome once more.”

Llamas requested Kennedy why, “within the spirit of presidency effectivity,” the report didn’t provide extra options, “since you might have written this on Day 1.”

Kennedy promised that “we’re going to do one thing about it” inside 60 days. “We’re going to ship the prescription of the initiatives that we have to do.”

The MAHA report launched Thursday gave a darkish view of youngsters’s well being, specializing in power ailments like diabetes, weight problems and neurodevelopmental issues, but it makes no point out of socioeconomic components or lack of entry to well being care that contribute to such situations in children.

As an alternative, mentioned Kennedy, who has authority over Medicaid, “well being care prices are increasing at 2% larger than our economic system.” About 40% of all kids in the USA obtain medical health insurance by means of Medicaid.

Ultraprocessed meals and environmental toxins had been on the high of Kennedy’s listing of issues that should be urgently addressed to curb will increase in power ailments throughout childhood.

He has already mentioned the federal government will work with the meals trade to switch synthetic, artificial meals dyes with pure options.

“I introduced the meals corporations in two weeks after I got here into workplace, and I acquired loads of them at that time, early on, to agree that they had been going to do one thing about it,” Kennedy informed Llamas on Thursday. “Now we have fast-tracked the approval already, final week, of three new vegetable-based dyes.”

Listed here are few key takeaways:

Person-friendly dietary pointers are coming Kennedy mentioned the Trump administration is working to simplify what he referred to as “prolonged” and complex paperwork meant to advise individuals on wholesome consuming.

New pointers within the works, he mentioned, would immediate households to deal with entire meals reasonably than ultraprocessed meals.

He highlighted state efforts to ban the acquisition of soda and vitality drinks beneath the Supplemental Diet Help Program, previously often known as meals stamps.

Can childhood diabetes be reversed? Kennedy mentioned many childhood ailments might be handled with meals, together with Kind 1 diabetes, which he referred to as juvenile diabetes.

“In lots of circumstances, juvenile diabetes and prediabetes, which now impacts 38% of teenagers, might be reversed fully by altering food plan,” Kennedy mentioned. “Meals is medication, and meals additionally impacts temper, it impacts psychological sickness, it impacts the immune system, and we want to verify our children have entry to good meals and that oldsters have entry to the most effective data to allow them to make good selections for his or her kids.”

Kind 1 diabetes is an autoimmune illness by which the physique doesn’t make insulin, and it isn’t linked to weight problems. About 2 million individuals in the USA have Kind 1 diabetes, in response to the American Diabetes Affiliation. It’s normally first identified in kids and younger adults. Folks with Kind 1 diabetes can handle signs with insulin and are suggested to comply with a food plan excessive in greens and fiber, however the illness isn’t reversible.

Are childhood vaccines secure? Do they comprise fetal tissue? Kennedy asserted that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) incorporates “hundreds of thousands of particles which might be derived from fetal tissue.”

That’s deceptive, specialists mentioned.

It’s true that some vaccine analysis used cells from elective abortions from greater than 50 years in the past. That’s as a result of some viruses merely develop higher in these cells and might due to this fact be studied extra extensively.

However within the lab, these cells undergo an intense purification course of to make sure no human DNA is transferred into vaccines.

“No new cell strains are being generated,” mentioned a nationally revered pediatric infectious illness physician. The doctor’s employer didn’t authorize an on-the-record interview.

“Theologically, I’m fairly conservative,” the physician mentioned. “If we had been taking new cell strains from new terminations of pregnancies, I'd have a distinct feeling about it.”

President Donald Trump and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a Make America Wholesome Once more Fee occasion Thursday within the East Room of the White Home. Jacquelyn Martin / AP What’s up with that dip in contaminated water? On Could 11, Kennedy posted pictures on X of him and his grandchildren splashing in a Washington, D.C., creek recognized to be contaminated with uncooked sewage.

The pictures, particularly ones that circulated on-line displaying him shirtless within the creek, prompted questions on whether or not Kennedy knew the potential risks of swimming in a physique of water that had been contaminated for many years.

Kennedy mentioned it’s as much as the American public to maintain public waterways freed from contamination. “Now we have a proper to make use of them for swimming, for fishing, and we must be involved about people who find themselves polluting them.”