WASHINGTON--A commission led by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday issued a report that said processed food, chemicals, stress and overprescription of medications and vaccines may be factors behind chronic illness in American children.
The report, from the commission named after the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, social movement aligned with Kennedy, is focused on what he says is a national crisis of increasing rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, cancer, mental health disorders, allergies and neurodevelopmental conditions like autism.
"MAHA is hot," President Donald Trump said during a press event. "We will not allow our public health system to be captured by the very industries it's supposed to oversee."
Kennedy said there was consensus among the commission's members to prioritize what he called the ultra-processed food crisis and to work to improve the food American children eat.
The report also highlighted studies linking health disorders in humans and animals to the weed killers glyphosate and atrazine, but did not call for specific regulatory changes or restrictions on pesticides used in farming. It said the chemicals should be further researched.
It criticized the U.S. approach to vaccines in children, saying European children are recommended to receive fewer. He called for study of the impact of vaccines on childhood chronic disease and of vaccine injuries.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has for many years pushed debunked theories about the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence. As head of the agency, he has overseen cuts of about 20,000 of 80,000 employees due to layoffs and departures.
Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food and health watchdog, said the report recycles longtime concerns of Kennedy, from vaccines to seed oils."To the extent that they come up with good ideas, they're going to run into the self-inflicted wound of their own decimation of the federal workforce. Many of their better ideas will not be doable," Lurie said.
Many of the MAHA activists that surround Kennedy were present in Washington for the release of the report, which they largely applauded as a vindication of their work.But, one such activist, Kelly Ryerson, who campaigns against the use of glyphosate-based pesticides, called the report “very cautious on the subject of pesticides,” adding that she’d like to see more Environmental Protection Agency action on the topic.
Bayer, which is involved in thousands of lawsuits surrounding its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, said some details around pesticides in the report were not "fact based."
