The White House’s Make America Healthy Again Commission offered a range of critiques about chronic disease in America in a report released Thursday,
Chiefly, the report blames many chronic illnesses on ultra-processed foods, sedentary behavior and over-reliance on digital devices among children and chemicals in the environment. It also suggests childhood vaccines need to be studied further.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leads the commission, told reporters on a call Thursday that the report is the “most radical consensus by a government agency in history about the state of America’s health.”
“It is very strong. It’s very frank, and it is a clarion call to do something with utmost urgency to end this crisis, and that’s what we wanted,” Kennedy said.
However, the 69-page document leaves many questions unanswered, including how much it will cost to address the chronic illnesses that Kennedy is focused on and what steps might be taken to curtail them.
Kennedy told reporters that the commission doesn’t yet have a budget to fund the future health initiatives, noting officials plan to develop policy recommendations in the next 100 days.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears before a Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol, May 14, 2025, in Washington.
John Mcdonnell/AP
“There is no budge,” Kennedy said. “At this point, there’s no concrete policy that could be funded in a budget. We’re going to work out the policy recommendations over the next 100 days.”
“The next stage of this process is to come up with policy recommendations for the president, and then we’ll spend the next four years implementing those policy recommendations,” he continued.
Despite the lack of budget details, Kennedy maintained that addressing the chronic health issues would save money in the long term.
“We’re going to save a lot more money in the long run and even in the short run, we can reduce the numbers, which we intend to do during this administration,” Kennedy said.
Officials including Calley Means, a special government employee and adviser to Kennedy who has fought against the presence of ultra-processed foods and pesticides, praised the report.
“The fact that an official U.S. government document … gives credibility to complaints about pesticides and names specific pesticides in there is a monumental symbol,” he told ABC News.
Though the officials largely highlighted improving Americans’ diet, which Kennedy said President Donald Trump had directed the commission to look into, Kennedy also emphasized “exposure to toxic chemicals, a lack of physical activity and chronic stress and over-medicalization.”
He said these factors have made American children “the sickest kids in the world.”
On the issue of pesticides in food — which found a lot of industry pushback in the last few weeks as the report neared its due date — Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who both have more direct oversight than Kennedy over the industry, were careful to ensure that farmers would not face any surprises.
While Kennedy and others in the MAHA movement have questioned the safety or health of the ingredients in foods on store shelves, Rollins stressed that the U.S. food supply remains safe.
“The food supply is 100% safe,” Rollins said. “It isn’t just safe. It is the safest in the world. And it’s really, really important that we continue to make sure that people understand that,” she added.
Rollins pledged that Kennedy and the MAHA Commission will not “compromise the ability of our American agriculture to do what they do best,” and Zeldin said that any moves to regulate pesticides would be carefully considered against the cost to farmers.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations hearing on the Department of Health and Human Services budget, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 20, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/Reuters
“American farmers rely on these products, and actions that further regulate or restrict crop protection tools, beyond risk-based and scientific processes set forth by Congress, must involve thoughtful consideration of what is necessary for adequate protection, alternatives and cost of production,” he said.
Zeldin added that any quick changes in agricultural practices could have “adverse impact on American agriculture and the domestic food supply.”
The report also calls for new studies on childhood vaccines, which dozens of high-quality studies have found to be safe and effective.
Although the report states that vaccines protect children from infectious diseases, it also claims parents are concerned about their “appropriate use” and their “possible role” in chronic diseases among children.
“Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule. These areas warrant future inquiry,” the report states.
Dozens of studies have failed to find a link between an increased number of vaccines and more chronic disease among children.
