By Rob Verkerk PhD, ANH founder, ANH-Intl and ANH-USA executive and scientific director

Despite a massive onslaught from pro-pharma interests, Robert F Kennedy Jr defied the odds and was sworn in yesterday, as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This represents the first time in history that an individual with a deep understanding of the ways in which corrupt forces, poor quality diets, excessive exposures to synthetic chemicals and drugs, coupled with human behaviour conspire to decimate health. Of course, exactly which factors play greater or lesser roles in different populations and individuals remains to be investigated. And getting under the covers of these issues will be Bobby Kennedy’s central mission.  

MAHA executive order

No sooner was Kennedy’s swearing in, under the watchful eyes of a portrait of Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, President Trump signed an executive order “Establishing the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission”. The purpose? To investigate and address the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with a focus on childhood chronic disease.

This executive order formally kicks off the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda as a central pillar of US government health policy. Depending on how things pan out in the coming weeks and months, this agenda may well have a significant influence on health policies elsewhere in the world. Make the Rest of the World Healthy, or MRWH, doesn’t have the same ring about it. But we could be at the cusp of one of the most significant changes to the way we approach health that any of us will experience in our lifetimes.

Source: The National Desk

In his acceptance speech, Kennedy said, “I have prayed each morning for the past two decades for God to put me in a position to solve the childhood chronic disease epidemic….and now…” Kennedy continued, “thanks to you Mr President, we will make this promise a reality.” He added, “You have truly heard the calls of the millions of mothers who simply want the tools – and the truth – so they can make informed decisions for their children.”

Predictable attacks

One of the most prominent proponents of universal childhood vaccination, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has also served on vaccine advisory committees for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was less enthusiastic about Kennedy’s appointment. Time magazine reported Offit’s reaction as follows: “I think it’s a sad day for America’s children. I think it’s a sad day for public health when someone who is a science denialist, conspiracy theorist, and virulent anti-vaccine activist is [leading] the biggest public health agency in the United States.” He added, “I think every Senator who voted for his confirmation should be ashamed of themselves for their unwillingness to stand up for the health of the American public.”

Offit must think he has a crystal ball. He surely can’t doubt Kennedy’s determination to do the right thing for the health of American people and children in particular. But his reticence must be due to his conviction that Kennedy is barking up the wrong tree. Or one that should be left alone. That ultra-processed foods, chemicals in the water and air, insufficient physical activity, and the medicines and vaccines taken by children, can’t have anything to do with the fact that Americans suffer fewer years of healthy life than the people of almost any other in industrialised country (80^th in the world rankings). Or anything to do with the fact that 1 in 36 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder. Or that 1 in 6 (17%) children between the ages of 3 and 17 years were reported by their parents to have been diagnosed with some type of developmental disability during a study between 2009 and 2017.

Turning the tide

The reason we—and so many others in the non-pharma health field—are so excited by Kennedy’s confirmation is that, with access to the massive resources that will be available to him as Secretary of HHS, including the $48 billion National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget, Kennedy will commit to doing more than any predecessor to understand why Americans have become progressively less healthy.

It is only with a much deeper knowledge of the underlying causes of America’s chronic disease epidemic that the tide can be turned. And that knowledge cannot come without bold transparency, removal of conflicts of interest, and the conduct of open-minded scientific enquiry. Dr Offit seems to think these objectives amount to Kennedy being a "science denialist" (see above). All of these are things that Kennedy has consistently said will be central to the MAHA agenda. They are also now the very things that have been ignored in recent decades as corporate capture of government health authorities has become the norm, rather than the exception. We tend to think of those like Dr Offit who support and benefit from the scientific orthodoxy, that is soon to be turned upside down, as 'corporate capture denialists'.

As Jonathan Emord and I have made clear in our book, “The MAHA Mandate: Reversing America’s Chronic Disease Epidemic”, Kennedy’s task will be far from straight forward. It will only be achievable if there is strong grassroots and political support for an agenda that is truly focused on the health of the people, not the wealth of corporations.       

At ANH, we have been developing a comprehensive legal and scientific strategy to support the MAHA agenda, and we'll be be sharing more of this with you as 2025 unfolds. It will become a year, we believe, that will be seen one day as a seminal one for positive health transition.

More information

>>> Buy hard copy (paperback - very limited supplies!) of The MAHA Mandate: Reversing America’s Chronic Disease Epidemic

>>> Buy MAHA mandate ebook

>>> Watch ANH's Senate Briefing in support of RFK Jr's confirmation (55 min video)

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