Anti-vaxxer and raw-milk advocate RFK Jr. is now the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Trump has already issued an executive order claiming that in his first 100 days he will:

• Investigate why at 78.8 years, the United States lags behind “comparable countries” with an average life expectancy of 82.6 years
• Re-direct our national focus toward understanding and lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease
• Protect the integrity of the scientific process by eliminating inappropriate influence and increasing transparency
• Prioritize “gold standard research” on the “root causes” of illness
• Work with farmers to ensure our food is the healthiest, most abundant, and most affordable in the world
• Ensure the availability of expanded treatment options and health insurance coverage to “support beneficial lifestyle changes and disease prevention.”
• Establish the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission

The EO also claims that U.S. citizens experience cancer, asthma, autism, and autoimmune diseases at higher rates than other nations and harps on how our kids are fatter, sicker, and more autistic than they were back in the 80s. It goes on to say that 77% of young adults don’t qualify for the military because of their health scores and that 90% of our $4.5 trillion healthcare budget goes to treating people with chronic and mental health conditions.

RFK Jr. claims he will accomplish his goals through “fresh thinking” on nutrition, healthy lifestyles, and physical activity. He also implies that “over-reliance” on medication, technological habits, the environment, and food and drug safety are to blame for our ills.

Make America Healthy Again Commission

The EO outlined several goals for this ridiculously named commission, focusing on “fighting childhood chronic disease”:

• Study the scope of the “childhood chronic disease crisis” and its contributing causes, including the American diet, toxic materials, medical treatments, environmental factors, lifestyle, food production techniques, government policies, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence
• Advise and assist the President on informing the public about the “crisis”
• Make government-wide recommendations on policy and strategy to identify the causes of and end the “crisis”

The Commission is also to submit an assessment to the President within 100 days that:

• Identifies and describes childhood chronic disease in America compared to other countries
• Assesses the threat of over-utilization of medication, food ingredients, chemicals, and other exposures with respect to chronic inflammation and other mechanisms of disease
• Assess the prevalence and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, weight-loss drugs, and stimulants
• Identify best practices for preventing childhood health issues, including proper nutrition and healthy lifestyles
• Evaluate existing educational programs for nutrition, mental health and physical activity
• Evaluate existing Federal programs and funding for preventing and treating childhood health issues
• Ensure transparency of data and analysis
• Evaluate the effectiveness of current Federal Government health data and metrics
• Restore the integrity of science by eliminating undue industry influence
• Establish a framework for transparency and ethics review in industry-funded projects

Within 180 days, the Commission is to submit a strategy to the President based on the findings of their assessment to restructure the Federal Government’s response to childhood chronic disease.

What this all means

Like most of the proclamations to come out of this administration, this one is pretty vague about what they mean by the “chronic disease crisis,” “healthy lifestyles,” etc and who is going to determine what is healthy and what is not and by what metric. RFK Jr.’s past statements and behavior is cause for concern for several reasons.

First, though he tries to deny it, he has been a staunch anti-vaxxer. This raises serious concerns about how his policies will impact childhood vaccination programs.

We are already seeing a resurgence of diseases, such as measles, among unvaccinated populations. This has led to fears that diseases largely considered eradicated in the United States, such as polio and tuberculosis, could return.

Second, Kennedy seems to be honing in on another unscientific obsession he has with the idea that serotonin reuptake inhibitors are harmful. These drugs are widely used to combat depression, mood disorders, and anxiety. Kennedy has even gone so far as to assert without any scientific proof that these drugs make people more likely to commit school shootings.

Perhaps even more concerning are Kennedy’s proposed alternatives, such as sending people to “wellness farms.” Kennedy described this bonkers plan while on the Latino Capitalist podcast, where he talks about sending drug addicts to these farms to grow organic food for as much as three to four years. Sounds an awful lot like a cult to me.

RFK Jr. goes on to explain that he thinks eating organic food and staying off social media will help cure “addicts” because, according to him, these behavior issues are food-related. He describes these farms as “re-parenting” people, which also has concerning cult-like connotations.

Lest you think he’s just going to send illegal drug addicts to these camps, he also plans to ship the people taking legal psychiatric drugs there to get clean. How will we pay for these camps? Cannabis taxes of course.

Kennedy’s absurd and unscientific claims about these drugs led to more than 15,000 physicians signing an open letter opposing his appointment, but of course, the GOP confirmed him anyway. Personally, I find RFK Jrs’ claims that he is going to investigate the role of “toxic chemicals” and certain kinds of foods in chronic disease highly dubious given the anti-regulation stance of the Trump administration and the Republican party.

I find it much more likely that the Trump administration will use Kennedy and his wellness cult followers as an excuse to cut coverage for medications and treatments for a variety of illnesses in favor of “lifestyle changes” the way the healthcare community has long foisted the burden of dealing with obesity on the people who have it, by insisting it a disease caused by lifestyle choices rather than a medical condition.

This has never worked for people with obesity and it won’t work for people with mental health conditions, autism, and chronic illnesses either. RFK Jr. most likely will also attempt to cut SNAP funding for foods he deems “unhealthy,” but again I question whether large retailers and corporations who sell these products will allow the politicians they pay for to cut off the SNAP gravy train.

Whatever becomes of putting this addled man in charge of the nation’s health, I don’t expect it will be good. If you are currently taking any of the medications he is targeting, it may be a good idea to talk to your doctor about what you can do to protect yourself from his quackery.