Tag: public health
Does 'MAHA' Report Mean That Kennedy Will Oppose Corporate Power?

Does 'MAHA' Report Mean That Kennedy Will Oppose Corporate Power?

Last week’s Make American Healthy Again Commission report on childhood health was clearly the product of the left side of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brain. Other than its vaccine section, it echoed arguments that progressive physician-scientists and public interest groups have been making for decades:

  • Overconsumption of ultra-processed, nutritionally inadequate food exposes kids to harmful additives and contributes mightily to the obesity and diabetes epidemic among children.
  • Kids’ cumulative exposures to environmental toxins are a major cause of the disturbing growth in autism, allergies and other developmental disorders.
  • The lack of physical activity associated with constant use of electronic devices leads to sleep deprivation, stress, hyperactivity and other mental health conditions.
  • The drug industry profits enormously from selling pills to treat the effects (not the causes) of all of these conditions. And,
  • The government agencies charged with protecting kids from dangerous chemicals have been captured by manufacturers, who fund most of the research that goes into determining whether or not their products are safe.

These public health concerns are areas where the left and the MAHA movement led by RFK Jr. happen to be in agreement. The still unanswered question is what will they do about it.


Commission members endorsing the report included nearly every relevant cabinet secretary. But it also included Russell Vought (head of the Office of Management and Budget), Stephen Miller (anti-immigration czar and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy), and Kevin Hassett (Director of the National Economic Council). They promised to offer a plan by mid-August that would “get to the truth of why we are getting sick” while “spurring pro-growth policies and innovations.”

That, too, is something the left has been offering for decades. There is no reason why American corporatized farms have to pursue mono-crop agriculture that relies on heavy doses of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Smaller, family-owned farms can earn just as good a living by including more nutritious foods for local use in their crop mix.

For decades, the left has also bemoaned the lack of regulation over the thousands of chemicals used by industry that are being dumped into the air and water without being tested for their potential effects on humans. Progressives have long argued that scientists funded by government or truly independent non-profit research institutes should be the sole determinants of what chemicals can be unleashed on the public.

An agenda for change

If RFK Jr. at the Health and Human Services Department, Martin Makary at the Food and Drug Administration, Jayanta Bhattacharya at the National Institutes of Health, and Lee Zeldin at the Environmental Protection Agency (all signatories to the report) want items for their action agenda, here’s one place they could look. Last January, the 25-member Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health issued a call, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, for a new law governing the regulation of chemicals used by industry.

Here’s some facts drawn from that article:

  • Fewer than 20 percent of the estimated 350,000 chemicals, chemical mixtures, and plastics used by industry, most produced from gas, oil and coal, have been tested for toxicity, “and fewer still for toxic effects in infants and children.
  • “Over the last half century, rhe incidence of childhood cancers has increased by 35 percent.Male reproductive birth defects have doubled in frequency.Neurodevelopmental disorders now affect 1 in 6 children, and autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in 1 in 36.Pediatric asthma has tripled in prevalence.Pediatric obesity has nearly quadrupled in prevalence and has driven a sharp increase in type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents.
  • “Even brief, low-level exposures to toxic chemicals during early vulnerable periods are linked to increased risk of disease and disability in children that can persist across the life course.
  • “Diseases caused by toxic chemical exposures in childhood can lead to massive economic losses,including health care expenditures and lifelong productivity losses resulting from reduced cognitive function, physical disabilities, and premature death. The chemical industry largely externalizes these costs and imposes them on governments and taxpayers.”

The Toxic Substances Control Act, passed in 1977, failed to give the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to prevent dangerous chemicals from being introduced into the environment or food supply. It assumes all manufactured chemicals are safe and puts the onus on government to prove otherwise.

The EPA was never given the resources to conduct the necessary research. And now, under the Trump regime, the entire research department is being eliminated.

Even before Elon Musk wielded a meat-axe at the EPA and other agencies, most research about potential toxicities from chemicals came from industry-funded scientists. The same held true for the FDA when it looks at studies of food additives, most of which, not surprisingly, claim no harms are caused from their use. I participated in a 2007 study documenting this bias entitled, “Relationship between Funding Source and Conclusion among Nutrition-Related Scientific Articles,” which was cited in the MAHA Commission report.

The Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health action agenda included these items:

  • The U.S. should pass a new law that no new or existing chemical or chemical-based product be allowed to enter or remain on the market if their manufacturer hasn’t proved through independent testing that they are not toxic.
  • All toxicity testing must be undertaken in laboratories that are free from financial conflicts of interest. Manufacturers should be required to bear the cost of independent testing, but not be allowed to conduct it themselves.
  • Chemical manufacturers must conduct postmarketing surveillance to determine long-term adverse effects, especially in pediatric populations.
  • The U.S. should join in international efforts to create a treaty aimed at protecting children here and around the world from the proliferation of toxic chemicals in foods, products and the environment. An international panel of independent physicians and scientists should adopt regulations that all treaty signatories adhere to, which will create a level playing field for industry.

“Pollution by synthetic chemicals and plastics is a major planetary challenge that is worsening rapidly, “ the Consortium’s authors concluded. “Continued, unchecked increases in production of fossil-carbon–based chemicals endangers the world’s children and threatens humanity’s capacity for reproduction… Inaction on chemicals is no longer an option.”

Had the MAHA report eschewed vaccine skepticism, it might have been greeted with less skepticism in the media. Will they take actions this summer that actually limit the ability of Trump’s corporate campaign contributors to spew toxics into the air and water and adulterate the food supply?

Yesterday, RFK Jr. announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is withdrawing its recommendation that pregnant women and children get vaccinated for COVID. That suggests his priorities lie elsewhere.

Reprinted with permission from Gooz News.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy's Latest Cuts To Food Safety Could Make America Very Sick

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is continuing his life’s work of making public health more precarious as the Food and Drug Administration, which he oversees, is suspending its quality-control testing of raw fluid milk and other dairy products due to budget cuts, according to Reuters.

The suspension of testing begins this week and includes Grade “A” raw milk and other finished dairy products. Grade “A” is the nation’s highest sanitary standard for milk, making sure it does not contain harmful pathogens.

According to a spokesperson, the FDA's Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, which conducts such food safety testing, has been “decommissioned.” That, along with massive Trump administration budget cuts, has left the FDA "no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis,” according to an internal email obtained by Reuters.

This news follows the suspension of programs focused on bird flu outbreaks, which included studies showing how pasteurized milk can kill the virus, after Kennedy fired senior veterinarians designing them.

In his quest to fund tax for the wealthy, President Donald Trump’s administration demanded that the HHS, which includes the FDA, cut $40 billion from its budget. Since January, HHS has lost an estimated 20,000 positions in its workforce.

Kennedy has long been a proponent of raw milk, claiming it is superior to pasteurized dairy products, though the FDA has thoroughly documented raw milk’s dangers.

It remains unclear whether Kennedy will be able to slap together a replacement testing program, like the one at the now-closed Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory. Like many of the government agencies decimated by Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the scramble to rehire essential employees seems to have become a weekly crisis.

As Trump continues to pretend that he has conquered soaring egg prices, which are still largely driven by one of the worst outbreaks of avian flu in U.S. history, his budget cuts and the decision to have Kennedy run public health leave no clear end in sight.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

RFK JR. Trump Lutnick

What Happens When The U.S. Government Reports 'Alternative Facts'?

Much has been written about the Trump team's assault on civil society, universities, public health, the judiciary and our global alliances, and rightly so — but there is one danger that deserves more attention because our ability to thwart this attempted revolution, this upending of our constitutional system, depends upon truth itself.

We have seen one institution after another buckle before President Donald Trump's onslaught. If Congress is conquered, and Big Tech won't oppose him, and Big Media is bending the knee, and Big Law is folding, and universities are crumpling, and the judiciary is a question mark, who is left? Only the voters.

But what if the voters don't have a grasp on reality? What if the inflation rate rises to 9%, bird flu is ravaging farms across the Midwest, unemployment is rising, the economy is shrinking, measles is killing hundreds of children, crime is rising — but the government has suppressed or falsified the data that would reveal those conditions? We face the prospect that many government statistics will be manipulated by Trumpists.

The demolition work has already begun. The Labor Department has dismissed a committee of economists, academics and business leaders who advised the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Commerce Department has disbanded the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee — an arm of the Bureau of Economic Analysis — which seeks, or rather sought, to help the government provide accurate statistics on many aspects of the economy.

The move came on the heels of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick telling Fox News that he plans to alter the way GDP is calculated. "You know the Commerce Department runs the statistics of GDP. Governments historically have messed with GDP. They count government spending as part of GDP. So I'm going to separate those two and make it transparent."

Yes, some governments (think China) do sometimes misrepresent economic statistics. But our government has been pretty clean in this regard — until now. Keep in mind also that any first-year economics student could tell you how to break down GDP into government spending, consumption, investment and net exports — all statistics that are, for now, easily accessible thanks to the government.

This is yet another way the Trump administration is undermining America's global standing. As Tara Sinclair, a professor at George Washington University's Center for Economic Research, told NPR, "If the data were manipulated, even in a small way, that will affect the credibility of our entire statistical system. And that's going to have global financial implications, because people around the world rely on the quality of U.S. economic data to make decisions."

Advisory panels do more than offer expertise; they provide insurance against the politicization of government statistics. Without neutral outsiders looking over the shoulders of government decision-makers, it becomes easier to fudge or hide data. That brings us to the Census Bureau, the agency that determines who lives where and how many votes each district is entitled to, among many other things. It just dismissed five outside advisory panels.

Simultaneously, the administration is curtailing public access to climate-change data compiled by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. You say the Earth is warming — well, we have data that say the opposite. It's "alternative facts," but this time, it's not just Kellyanne Conway riffing with reporters — it comes bearing a government imprimatur.

It would be easier to count grains of sand on a beach than to keep track of the lies emanating from this administration, but manipulating official government studies and statistics is a step beyond anything we've seen and a profound threat.

Consider the secretary of health and human services, who has spent his entire career denying reality about infectious diseases, vaccines, and other matters. Nominating and confirming (looking at you, Sen. Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana) such a dangerous crank for a key public health post was an antisocial act.

Even if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. never did anything but repeat the falsehoods about vaccines that have marked his career, it was a certainty that people would look to him for guidance and be harmed. Sure enough, last week, in the midst of the measles outbreak in Texas, a number of unvaccinated people who contracted measles were admitted to hospitals with vitamin A toxicity.

Under Kennedy, HHS is taking lying to new extremes. Though multiple studies, including one featuring half a million Danish children, have discredited the notion that there is a link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy has authorized a new study to search for a "link." This is beyond mendacious. The original study suggesting a connection was found to have been a hoax years ago, and again, no reputable research since has found any association between vaccines and autism. Autism diagnoses are rising due to awareness, not vaccines, as any person not suffering from oppositional defiant disorder can figure out.

Kennedy has chosen David Geier to conduct this sham "study." Geier is not a physician (though he was sanctioned by the state of Maryland for practicing medicine without a license), and he's a proponent of the vaccines-cause-autism deceit. But few will remember this when he produces a government-sponsored "study" showing a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

The Trump administration is doing more than attempting to seize unconstitutional power for an unaccountable executive. It is seeking to destroy truth itself, the last tool of the opposition.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.


Federal Judge Angrily Orders Trump To Restore Health Agency Websites

Federal Judge Angrily Orders Trump To Restore Health Agency Websites

A federal judge has directed harsh criticism at the Trump administration for removing countless public health web pages and websites, ordering them restored by midnight, and suggesting their deletion may have risked violating federal law.

U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, “ordered federal health agencies Tuesday to restore pages they removed from their websites last month to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on ‘gender ideology and extremism,’ saying the decision to pull them down could be detrimental to public health,” Politico reported. The order extends to the CDC, HHS, and the FDA.

“In his opinion,” Politico added, “Bates said the agencies’ decisions to take down certain webpages ‘likely’ constitute an ‘order’ that’s reviewable under federal administrative law.”

The Trump administration’s claims that the removal was necessary to review their contents and amounted to mere “maintenance” were not arguments the judge appeared willing to accept. Judge Bates instead denounced the “widespread disruption that defendants’ abrupt removal of these critical healthcare materials has caused.”

Bates blasted the Trump administration, writing, “it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare. These individuals rely on the care of doctors… If those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions. The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health.”

In his opinion granting Doctors for America a temporary stay, Bates offered several examples of “irreparable harm” the government’s actions have already caused.

Doctors for America “has shown its members are already suffering such harm. To start, [one doctor] serves the students of ‘one of the most underserved high schools in Chicago.'”

“In this work, she ‘regularly’ relies on CDC’s resources on sexually transmitted diseases (‘STDs’)… The harm she has suffered since CDC removed those pages is neither hypothetical nor far off. The high school ‘recently had an outbreak of Chlamydia,’ and now that she is ‘[w]ithout t[he] crucial CDC resources,’ she is ‘not able to do [her] job to help address this urgent situation.'”

Bates also cited a statement from a leading physicians’ group, and wrote that “the lost materials are more than ‘academic references—they are vital for real-time clinical decision-making in hospitals, clinics and emergency departments across the country.'”

“Without them, health care providers and researchers are left ‘without up-to-date recommendations on managing infectious diseases, public health threats, essential preventive care and chronic conditions.'”

Politico reports Doctors for America had sued “the Office of Personnel Management, the CDC, the FDA and HHS last week, claiming the missing information ‘deprives’ doctors and researchers of ready access to data that’s critical to treating patients and addressing public health emergencies.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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