RFK Jr.’s MAHA Commission Draws Dark Picture Of Kids’ Health In Report

The New York Times: Kennedy And Trump Paint Bleak Picture Of Chronic Disease In U.S. Children
President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, set forth their vision on Thursday for how to “make America healthy again” with the release of an expansive report on a crisis of chronic disease in children. The report lays the blame on ultraprocessed foods, chemical exposures, stress, lack of physical activity and excessive use of prescription drugs, including antidepressants. The product of a presidential commission led by Mr. Kennedy, the report paints a bleak picture of American children, calling them “the sickest generation in American history.” (Gay Stolberg and Blum, 5/22)

Politico: RFK Jr. Says Food And Pharma Are Poisoning Americans. His Big Report Says A Fix Is Coming
A much anticipated report led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that children’s health is in crisis and that it’s likely the result of ultraprocessed food, exposure to chemicals, lack of exercise, stress, and overprescription of drugs. But the report, from the Kennedy-led Make America Healthy Again Commission, shies away from the strident language Kennedy has used in the past in demonizing the food, farming and pharmaceutical industries, and leaves for another day proposals for how to improve kids’ health. The accused industries have been lobbying furiously to persuade Kennedy to tone down the rhetoric. (Paun, Cirruzzo, Brown and Lim, 5/22)

Stat: RFK Jr.'s MAHA Commission Report — Key Takeaways And Analysis 
The Make America Healthy Again commission’s first report on the nation’s health crisis is in, and it sounds familiar. The assessment, kept tightly under wraps before Thursday — the commission met just once, behind closed doors — lays out health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views, and gives some sense of where his department will target its efforts. (Cueto, 5/22)

Fierce Healthcare: MAHA Report Blames 'Overmedicalization' For Kids' Poor Health
The White House has released its long-awaited “MAHA Report” outlining the government’s target areas for addressing childhood chronic disease: diet, environmental chemical exposure, physical activity/stress and “overmedicalization.” The 68-page report prepared by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, which is chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was ordered by President Donald Trump in February. (Muoio, 5/22)

NBC News: RFK Jr. On Chemicals, Sick Kids And That Swim In Contaminated Water
As the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts in federal health agencies, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has produced a 72-page summary on the environmental toxins, chemicals and ultraprocessed foods he said are causing an “existential crisis” in the United States. In an interview Thursday afternoon with Tom Llamas, senior national correspondent for NBC News and upcoming anchor of “Nightly News,” Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, said the “Make America Healthy Again” report, which blamed sedentary, technology-driven lifestyles and the overprescribing of medications. (Edwards, 5/23)

More from President Trump —

The Hill: Trump Predicts Drug Prices Will ‘Drop Like A Rock’ After New Executive Order
President Trump on Thursday claimed his recent “most favored nation” executive order could cause U.S. drug prices to “drop like a rock” in just a matter of weeks, saying the savings will be “incalculable.” In a briefing to discuss the newly released Make America Healthy Again Commission’s report on children’s health, Trump ended the event by talking about the executive order he signed last week aimed at slashing prescription drug prices. (Choi, 5/22)

The Hill: Donald Trump: Autism ‘Has To Be Artificially Induced’
President Trump said Thursday that autism must not occur naturally, citing figures inflating the spike in autism and suggesting the administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission could provide answers. “When you hear 10,000, it was 1 in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 31 for autism, I think that’s just a terrible thing. It has to be something on the outside, has to be artificially induced, has to be,” Trump said at a MAHA Commission event. (Gangitano, 5/22)

Stat: How Trump’s 'Schedule F' Plan Risks Politicizing NIH Research 
Since taking office, President Trump has vowed to dismantle what he calls the “deep state” and “fire rogue bureaucrats.” His latest attempt to do so has garnered widespread pushback from scientists over concerns that the move will politicize decisions about federal funding for research on a scale never before seen in the U.S. (Oza and Molteni, 5/23)

Politico: The Mystery Of Trump's Science Cuts
What’s really behind the Trump administration’s massive cutbacks in research funding? Since January, agency after agency has seen massive spending cuts — adding up to a historic slashing of the globally dominant American research apparatus. The White House’s proposed budget would cut National Science Foundation funding by more than half. A Senate minority staff report cited a $2.7 billion drop in funding commitments to the National Institutes of Health through March compared to last year. (Robertson, 5/22)

Regarding workforce and funding cuts —

MedPage Today: Reinstated NIOSH Workers Still Don't Feel Secure
In the wake of sweeping workforce cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), leaders from unions representing many of the affected employees descended upon Washington, D.C. on Thursday. American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) locals rallied outside HHS headquarters to "protest the Trump administration's attempts to gut the federal agency that helps prevent employee injuries, illnesses, and deaths at workplaces nationwide," AFGE said in an announcement. (Henderson, 5/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: Language Service Cutbacks Raise Fear Of Medical Errors, Deaths
Health nonprofits and medical interpreters warn that federal cuts have eliminated dozens of positions in California for community workers who help non-English speakers sign up for insurance coverage and navigate the health care system. At the same time, people with limited English proficiency have scaled back their requests for language services, which health care advocates attribute in part to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and his executive order declaring English as the national language. (Sanchez and Orozco Rodriguez, 5/22)

Bloomberg: MIT Cuts Graduate Student Slots By 8% As Trump Funding Cuts Weigh On Budget
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is enrolling fewer graduate students in its vaunted research programs and laying off employees as the Trump administration’s squeeze on universities muddles its financial outlook. President Donald Trump has slashed funding and reimbursements made through the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies, key sources of support for research-oriented universities like MIT. The school also faces significantly steeper taxes on its endowment under legislation that passed the US House of Representatives. (Ryan, 5/22)

Bloomberg: Harvard’s Foreign Students Are Stunned And Devastated By Trump’s Ban
Marie Chantel Montas, a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University from the Dominican Republic, was on a road trip with her husband when she got the news: The Trump administration had blocked her school from enrolling international students, while current ones would have to transfer. With two more years before she gets her degree in population health sciences, Montas has no idea what her future holds. (Maglione and Ballentine, 5/23)

Also —

Stat: CDC Paper On Lead Poisoning Investigation Reveals What It's Lost 
Before it became a national scandal, the lead-poisoning-from-applesauce case was just two little kids with concerning blood test results in Hickory, N.C. A state inspector drove out with local health officials in June 2023 to try to find the source. (Boodman, 5/23)

Politico: Organ-Chips Not Ready To Replace Animal Studies
One of the cutting-edge technologies the Food and Drug Administration wants to use to replace animal studies might not be ready for a solo performance. Organ-on-a-chip technology, which uses human cells on microfluidic chips to mimic the structure and function of organs in a laboratory setting, can’t yet replace animal tests, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. Standing in the way: Challenges include cost, availability of materials, a time-intensive process and the need for highly trained staff to operate the technology. (Reader, 5/22)