MAHA Children Health RFK Jr.

MAHA Report on Children

RFK Jr.'s MAHA Commission releases strategy on children's health. Read the transcript here.

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Speaker 1 (00:29):

Great.

Vince Haley (00:30):

That's it?

Speaker 1 (00:31):

Yeah.

Vince Haley (00:31):

Great. Hello, everyone. My name is Vince Haley. I'm the director of Domestic Policy Council. I want to begin by thanking Secretary Kennedy for his leadership of the MAHA Commission and for his tireless work to improve the health of our fellow citizens. Secretary Kennedy, I would also like to thank you especially for your courage. Being a truth-teller in Washington, DC is a very high calling, and you have clearly shown yourself to be a man made for the mission. To our commission of participants, thank you for your attendance today and welcome. Today is an exciting moment for policymakers, parents, and friends of the movement to make America healthy again as we release our second report.

(01:14)
We are thrilled for this day because we share a common desire to build a healthier future for our children and our society. Nothing is more important than the health of our children, and we therefore recognize that we cannot accept the disastrous trends toward increasing childhood obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, and other indicators of poor childhood health.

(01:37)
The president has cared about these alarming trends for a long time. In a 2023 campaign policy video, President Trump outlined the scope of childhood chronic disease crisis and demanded to know, "What is going on?" He committed, if elected, to establishing a presidential commission to take the problem head on and find solutions. The rest is history.

(02:01)
It was only a few months later that President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. joined forces in electrifying moment in a Phoenix, Arizona arena. It was one of the biggest moments of the campaign. It wasn't just because Kennedys are charismatic, it was because Robert Kennedy had run a campaign of ideas. One of the biggest idea of Bobby Kennedy's campaign was that the country needed change and reform if we were going to protect the health of our children, because the status quo was all too clearly failing our families.

(02:34)
On February 13th, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14212, establishing the Make American Healthy Again Commission to address this rising crisis of chronic childhood disease. This commission has produced two reports. The first report was an assessment in May of the scope of the crisis, and today we issue the second report, the Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy. Today's report outlines a bold framework to improve children's health through 128 targeted directives and strategies. This report is the result of a thorough and robust policy process that relied heavily on the input and expertise of families, farmers, doctors, industry leaders, and innovators. Our commission team met with over 120 groups at the White House, engaged MAHA moms directly, and received countless recommendations from industry and advocates that were thoughtfully considered.

(03:35)
We also took an unprecedented approach to transparency throughout the entire development of this strategy. This strategy aims to create systemic change to protect and promote children health through four key pillars. One, driving innovation through research. Two, policies to realign incentives and systems. Three, increased public awareness and knowledge. Fourth, private sector collaboration. These four pillars are designed to address root causes and deliver transformative health outcomes for American children. We'll now hear a bit more on how each commission member will play a part in carrying out these strategies into the future.

(04:14)
But first I would like to note that in the interest of the commission's commitment to transparency, we have invited the press to cover this event today, including through a live stream. One programming note for the media, President Trump will be taking the first follow-up action on a strategy contained in today's report at an event at the White House later this afternoon at 4:30 PM. Now I would like to begin by asking Secretary Kennedy to give opening remarks.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (04:42):

All right. Thank you very much. You talked about I had an initial interest by President Trump back in … I saw a tweet back in June of 2000 that he did. It was specifically about the chronic disease epidemic. I called my campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox, and I said to her I could have written that tweet.

(05:15)
It was one of the … I had been campaigning … A lot of the issues that President Trump and I were campaigning on were the same. A lot of the ideas that he had about war, about the forever wars, about the importance of restoring jobs in the country and revitalizing the American middle class. These were all my preoccupation. My biggest preoccupation was the chronic disease epidemic. We are now the sickest country in the world.

(05:47)
We announced this week, CDC announced, that 76.4% of Americans are suffering a chronic disease. When my uncle was president, it was 11%. In 1950, it was 3%. We're the sickest country in the world. We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world, and yet we spend more on healthcare than any country in the world. We spend two to three times what European nations spend.

(06:21)
We spend nearly as much in our country for healthcare as all the other nations in the world combined, and yet we have the worst health outcomes. We've lost six years in lifespan and longevity to Europe in the past 20 years. Our kids, our girls are hitting puberty six years earlier than historically. Our young men have sperm counts that are half of what they ought to be. They have testosterone levels that are half of what they ought to be.

(06:54)
We have diabetes that is now endemic, not just epidemic. It's everywhere. 38% of teens are now diabetic or pre-diabetic. When I was a kid, it was zero. The autism rates, which the president is particularly concerned with, have dropped from less than one in 10,000 in 1970 to one in every 31 kids today.

(07:23)
This is a national security issue. 8 out of 10 of our children, of our young men, cannot qualify for military service. It's a national security. It's our economy it's wrecking.

(07:36)
This is an existential crisis for our country, and I'm so grateful that I work for a president that is willing to run through walls to stop this and to heal our kids. We have the most business-friendly president probably in the history. There's never been a president in my lifetime that is more willing to challenge businesses when they overreach, that was more fearless about challenging entrenched interests in our society.

(08:11)
So many times I've had discussions with him about a certain injury or illness and how unpopular it will be if we talk about the solutions which are going to hurt certain businesses. He said, "I don't care." He says again and again, "I don't care. This is children. We need to save the children."

(08:32)
I'm very, very grateful to work for him. I'm grateful that a lot of these 128 recommendations are things that I've been dreaming about my whole life. I've been working in congressional campaigns and presidential campaigns for other candidates, and they get into office and they say, "Well, we just can't do it."

(08:56)
A lot of these things are things that I never thought about that came from our discussions. We met with 150 farmers and farm organizations. We met with every kind of stakeholder, with doctors, with patients, with just regular Americans, and with school teachers, with people who are deeply, deeply concerned about what's happening to our children. There've never been an effort like this across all the government agencies. We had historical, unprecedented cooperation among my agency, HHS, with Marty Makary and Jay Jay Bhattacharya, all working hand-in-glove with each other, working with the other agencies, with Brooke Rollins at USDA, with the US trade representative, with Lee Zeldin at EPA, and the other cabinet secretaries.

(09:50)
All of us are aligned. All of us are balancing complex issues with many, many diverse stakeholders. We're looking at economic impacts and health impacts and environmental impacts, and we're trying to make a policy that is going to work.

(10:12)
As I said, we have 128 recommendations, and I'm going to tell you about some of our wins that were accomplished which are specific items in this report, things that we're going to get done before the end of the year. We have accomplished more already than any health secretary in history, and the accomplishments we're going to have by the end of the year are going to be historic and unprecedented, including removing harmful chemicals from our food, including the nine petroleum-based food dyes, will either have removed them or have committed deadlines to remove them.

(10:53)
Defining for the first time ultra-processed food, the front of package labeling for ultra-processed foods, requiring nutrition and metabolic health courses in medical schools, something that is not happening except in a very limited way today. Closing the GRAS loophole, improving food for our military, our schools, and our hospitals. Updating water quality standards, including PFAS. Removing Medicaid-quality metrics to measure real health improvements through fitness and nutrition. Working across the government to provide more assistance to farmers to support soil health, unleash innovation, and remove the barriers that hamper small farms. Reforming SNAP by working with states to remove soda and candy from the program.

(11:56)
I want to thank Brooke, her very, very aggressive work in encouraging states to … Which we've gone all across the country talking to governors and legislatures to encourage states to file SNAP waiver petitions on establishing, again, front-of-pack food labeling for sugars, for sodium, for ultra-processed foods. Reforming infant formula standards and acknowledging it and addressing vaccine injuries.

(12:25)
These are bipartisan reforms, many of them would be unthinkable two years ago. We are focusing narrowly on nutrition and metabolic health, food quality, cumulative exposures, gut microbiome, precision agriculture, and mental health. We're doing all these things with each other cooperatively and we're doing them very, very quickly.

(12:50)
After this event, I'll be going to the Oval Office to make another historic announcement with the president that is part of these recommendations. I think, again, it's going to challenge a lot of industries, very, very powerful industries. But the president is fearless.

(13:12)
So I want to thank Vince for your leadership on this committee, and I want to thank all of my colleagues in the cabinet, Heidi Overton and Kelly Means, who played critical roles in putting this list together. I want to hand it over to my colleague, Brooke Rollins.

Brooke Rollins (13:33):

Well, thank you, Bobby, and thank you, Vince, and my other cabinet colleague, good friend, Lee Zeldin, and everyone here today. It is another historic day. I know we are really saying that quite a lot, but seemingly every day is unprecedented with continued aggressive and intentional actions to save America. There may not be a higher calling or bigger priority than saving America through bringing health back to our men, women, and especially our children.

(14:08)
It has been an absolute pleasure working with Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Zeldin's teams, along with so many other staff that are here. Our chief of staff Kailee Buller is here and so many of our USDA team that have worked so hard to get to this day alongside the White House teams and with Vince's great leadership and the teams over there. It's a pretty remarkable and historical collaboration.

(14:37)
At USDA, we have been honored to be at the table to represent America's farmers and ranchers and rural communities, and to discuss how the agricultural community can work with the health and the medical community to improve the wellbeing of our kids and our families.

(14:58)
Without President Trump's leadership, we would not have achieved the real and concrete success that we've already seen in making America healthy again. Today's report makes it clear that we really are just getting started.

(15:13)
We're at a point where we must do something to correct the chronic health problems that Bobby so eloquently outlined and has done so for some time. When over 75% of America's youth between 17 and 24 years old are ineligible for military service because of obesity, poor physical fitness, or mental health challenges, you have not only a health epidemic on your hands, you have a national security epidemic on your hands.

(15:42)
Over 350,000 American children have been diagnosed with diabetes. As MAHA moms, I consider myself one with four children, teenagers, as one of those MAHA moms across the entire country know, behind all of these statistics are mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and neighbors and coworkers. Since my confirmation as secretary of agriculture, we have been taking action on this front.

(16:10)
As Secretary Kennedy mentioned, 12 states have now been approved historically to implement waivers to restrict the purchase of junk food and sweetened beverages within our food stamp program called our Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. More have expressed interest, and I continue to call on all states.

(16:34)
This was within the first hour of being confirmed and sworn in. We sent letters to every governor in America, saying, "Send us your ideas. We have an epidemic on our hands," in all states, blue and red, to innovate and put the nutrition back in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

(16:54)
We've also been working very closely, and I have to give great credit to Bobby Kennedy. Whenever

Brooke Rollins (17:00):

Whenever we have an amazing ag producer, like most recently, our dairy processors who will voluntarily stand up and say, even though it's probably not great for our bottom line, we are in on making America healthy again. And we will no longer have and we will begin to remove artificial colors from all products sold to K through 12 schools for this school year. Some of America's largest and best known consumer brands have voluntarily committed and have begun removing petroleum food dyes from their products. This remarkable list includes Tyson Foods, PepsiCo, Smucker, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Conagra, Nestle, and Hershey. I'm also proud today to announce the issuance of a revised farm to school request for applications. This RFA takes multiple steps in support of USDA's initiative to put farmers first and to promote healthy choices, healthy families, and healthy outcomes.

(18:04)
This year's opportunity streamlines the application process, supports expanding access for small family farms to markets, and infrastructure by facilitating connections to the child nutrition marketplace, which is a huge government funded marketplace with the opportunity to really move the market. Furthermore, the grant program's commitment to educating children about the source of their food and support for agricultural education helps prepare our next generation of farmers. We are utilizing the depth and reach of USDA to make America healthy again. To date, we have purchased nearly $1 billion, USDA has purchased nearly $1 billion worth of fresh seafood, fruit, and vegetables from American producers through our Section 32 program. These foods are distributed to food banks and other nutrition programs across the country.

(19:04)
We'll continue to actively work with Secretary Kennedy in crafting the dietary guidelines, which will be out very, very soon. And within those guidelines, we will be completely resetting and reworking what we suggest to Americans that has a massive, massive impact on how USDA distributes our programs. Federal nutrition advice must be sound, simple, and clear. These guidelines will prioritize whole, healthy, and nutritious foods, such as whole fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, and meats, and suggest limiting highly processed foods and those high in sugar.

(19:44)
President Trump and our colleagues on the MAHA Commission know our current health outcomes, especially for our kids, are unsustainable and that American farmers are at the heart of the solution. Chronic disease is a challenge in our country. Most American children's diets are dominated by highly processed foods, filled with added sugars, unpronounceable ingredients, and additives. We know the American food system is the safest in the world, but now we must do what it takes to make it the healthiest in the world. As the proud representative of America's farmers and ranchers in Washington, second only to President Trump, I am so encouraged by the roadmap that this report presents today.

(20:28)
It shows where opportunities exist to improve technology, research and outcomes. America's farmers and ranchers dedicate their lives to the noble cause of feeding our country and the world. And in doing so, have created the safest, most affordable and most abundant food supply in the world. And now is the time to act. Using the power of the executive branch, the whole of government approach across our entire cabinet in the White House, USDA will continue to deregulate, to research and to promote solutions that not only improve nutrition programs and their outcomes, but also regenerative agriculture practices and other conservation programs.

(21:12)
USDA's upcoming regenerative pilot program is built to address on-farm resource concerns, while also providing farmers with usable outcomes-based conservation plans. Additionally, we will leverage existing funding from research agencies to produce applied science informing farmer decision-making on regenerative agriculture. It is a new day at USDA. Our farmers and ranchers know that I, and most importantly, President Trump have their back and that their voices will be heard as we continue to promote the work of the Make America Healthy Again Commission. I want to thank President Trump, Secretary Kennedy, Administrator Zeldin, Dr. Makary, Dr. Bhattacharya for their leadership, collaboration, and teamwork, and the rest of the leadership here today. Thank you and I look forward to answering any questions at the end of the reports.

Vince Haley (22:07):

Thank you, Secretary Collins. Now we'll hear the perspective from the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Lee Zeldin (22:13):

Well, thank you, Vince. Making America Healthy again was a mandate that we heard loud and clearly from the American public last November. It's a mandate that the American public demands. I want to thank Secretary Kennedy for his leadership. You could go back decades, try to recap and count the mile-high mountains he walked over to get to this point today. The mud that he crawled through. The walls that he broke through. His leadership has been imperative throughout this entire process. And I want to thank him, his staff, all of my colleagues who are here, others who were part of this process and aren't here. I think of Stephen Miller, by the way, with all of our MAHA talks with him. A lot of people don't realize that about Stephen. He's a MAHA dad. This effort is an important priority. And my role as the Trump EPA administrator and as a member of the MAHA Commission, but also as a dad, protecting human health in the environment while powering America's comeback isn't just about serving Americans today.

(23:28)
It's about ensuring future generations inherit clean air, land, water, and the foundation for healthy lives. The American public can count on President Trump, can count on Secretary Kennedy, and can count on those around this table to help MAHA moms and dads across America, not just get the answers they deserve, but know that they have a partner in the Trump administration to do something about their concerns. At the Trump EPA, we are accelerating innovative and vetted crop protection products to enhance an American system of agriculture that is already the best in the world. At the same time, EPA is aggressively confronting and addressing the threat of banned pesticides, imported or smuggled into the United States from China and elsewhere. These are highly toxic substances that can [inaudible 00:24:20] priority in line with the Make America Healthy Commission to protect Americans from this threat.

(24:31)
This year, the Trump EPA rejected six herbicide products from Sharda Cropchem, because the company's applications had multiple errors, including wrong calculations, studies that didn't match the actual ingredients, and other data problems. When the EPA asked the company to fix these issues, they didn't respond, so the applications were rejected. We can ensure the safe use of the chemicals EPA regulates, not those illegally imported or otherwise proven to be dangerous. The safe use of chemicals is responsible for transporting, building, feeding, and powering the great American comeback. At the Trump EPA to ensure more timely reviews, we are increasing scientific capacity in our Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and Office of Water.

(25:22)
We're also looking at new ways to use advanced technology and science to inform decisions. We are committed to ensuring all work conducted by EPA is consistent with gold standard science, including the work of our chemicals, air and water programs. Together with USDA and in partnership with the private sector, EPA is working to advance precision agriculture. I've seen demonstrations in my travels throughout the US using drones, computer-assisted spray technologies, and robotic monitoring. And by the way, during those travels across the country, especially over the course of these last couple of months. And I heard Secretary Rollins touching on this shortly before we gathered out here. The feedback from America's farmers, heaping praise on Secretary Kennedy, on Calley Means, on Dr. Heidi Overton for all of the meetings, the consultation over the course of these last few months.

(26:21)
We've heard it from states all across America and it really shows just how wide-ranging and thoughtful Secretary Kennedy and his team have been throughout this process. By focusing on working with our partners at USDA and HHS, especially in permitting crop protection and agricultural inputs, EPA can directly support healthier outcomes for children. Prioritizing new approach methods moves us away from animal testing and will provide new tools to look at impacts of chemical exposures, including cumulative exposures. This strategy outlines the keys to success from pro-growth policies that advance research to drive innovation, to private sector collaboration and increased public awareness.

(27:10)
I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively across the federal family to ensure our kids and our environment are protected. This approach is directly targeted at solving the crisis of America's childhood chronic disease. I want to assure that ultimately the safety, especially that of children, that science and the law will all guide the great work we're doing and we're going to continue to do over the course of this administration. America will continue to be the energy, industrial, and agricultural power of the world. And we can continue this while ensuring we have the healthiest children. A thank you to the American public for putting President Trump in the Oval Office. Every day that he is there working closely with this team that he has assembled, with all of those amazing, passionate MAHA moms and dads all across America, every day we'll do our part working together to make America healthy again.

Vince Haley (28:14):

Thank you, Lee. We'll now hear from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (28:22):

Thank you. When we talked about the MAHA Report last time, the first version of the MAHA Report, I mentioned the nightmare scenario that we face, which is that our children are going to be less healthy than we are. They're going to lead shorter, less healthy lives than we are. That's the picture of health of our kids in this country. On the eve of President Trump's election, I'm so proud to be part of administration, President Trump, Secretary Kennedy, for their leadership in addressing that stark reality. What this report represents is a path out of that nightmare scenario. 128 concrete steps to take, many of which involve excellent science, gold standard science. And I think Michael Kratsios for his leadership of the OSDP for articulating what gold standard science really means.

(29:21)
You might ask yourself, "Well, do we really need excellent science to say don't feed our kids so much sugar, go out and get some exercise every once in a while?" I mean, that's all true. There's common sense things you can do, but there are real scientific issues that need to be addressed. Why are autism rates going up so quickly? What can we do about it? What's the answer for Type 1 diabetes for kids? What are the long-term effects of the rising use of antidepressants in children? The problem of ADHD. You can go on, and on, and on, and on. What you have is a picture of real questions that need to be answered with excellent science. Even in nutritional alone, you can go back in history and say, okay, you remember when eggs were bad for you?

(30:16)
I mean, I grew up with a phobia of eggs, because apparently cholesterol is bad. But now they're a super food. I don't know if everyone's read my friend and colleagues, Marty Makary's book Blind Spots. But what it lists is essentially a catalog of scientific failure, because they haven't addressed the key questions that American parents that really want answered. How can we keep our kids healthy? What we have in this report is a commitment of this administration to address those questions with gold standard science. And to provide answers to them so that when we look back years from now, we'll say this was the dark days. And in fact, now America's children will look forward to a brighter future, healthier, and will have longer lives than we at the table will. Thank you.

Vince Haley (31:11):

Thank you, Jay. Now we'll hear from Dr. Marty Makary, who is the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Speaker 2 (31:16):

Thank you, Director Haley and Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins, Administrator Zeldin, all my colleagues on the MAHA Commission. This is an amazing day and this is an amazing report. And let me tell you why, because doctors are thirsty for this fresh, new agenda. We can tell that something's not right. We've done a terrible thing to doctors in this country. The healthcare system has put them on a hamster wheel, where we are treating, we're prescribing, we're operating. I was on this wheel. And then we code, and we bill, and we're measured by our throughput. And we do get inspired by the might of modern medicine and the drugs that we can prescribe, but sometimes we leave demoralized. The more pancreatic cancers we removed, the more pancreatic cancers there are. The more pain meds we prescribe, the more pain there is. The more GI meds we prescribe, the more abdominal pain there is.

(32:16)
I'm not suggesting it's causal, but the medical community is thirsty to talk about the root causes that we don't talk about, because historically it's just not been a part of the NIH agenda until now. The NIH funding agenda sets the agenda of research in every university hospital in the country. And we've not talked about these big issues until today. And that's why I got off the hamster wheel, and responded to this vision of Secretary Kennedy and President Trump. And I'm very grateful. Now for the first time, we're talking about the microbiome, and food as medicine, and micronutrients, and soil, and microplastics, and all sorts of topics that we know are central to the health of kids. Screen time. Well, we're doing our part at the FDA and I'm just going to run through a quick list of what we've done.

(33:13)
I've been there five months, but we are doing everything we can to contribute to the MAHA agenda. On the food side, we've worked closely with USDA. We took the action on petroleum based food dyes, approved natural dyes. Four already this year. Typically, the FDA would approve one or two every several years. We approved four in the last five months. Took action on the grass standard. Changed the bricks requirement for sugar with orange juice, allowing more American oranges to be used for orange juice, instead of importing oranges as frequently as was required by this arcane regulation. Initiated a chemical review. We're working with USDA to change the broken food pyramid.

Speaker 2 (34:00):

Maybe one of the greatest sources of misinformation in modern American history, we're ending the 50-year war on natural saturated fat. Remarkably, schools by regulation are not supposed to have a certain amount of whole milk. That makes no sense scientifically. It's been a nutrition guidance by the government based not on evidence, but on dogma. And so we're challenging medical dogma, challenging dogma on infant formula. Another one of our big goals is to deliver more cures and meaningful treatments to the American public. And so we have taken action to reduce animal testing, to speed up the time for approvals and synchronization with EPA, also taking action to reduce animal testing, it's the right thing to do. We began a national priority review pilot. We're going to get decisions out in weeks instead of nearly a year. We're going to see amazing, meaningful treatments, I believe, in the next year and two years that are going to blow people away.

(34:59)
Because of this new pilot program, we started a pre-check program to promote the domestic manufacturing of medications as a national security issue. We're ending conflicts of interest on expert panels. We are setting clear, transparent vaccine regulation for the COVID vaccine. We're using gold standard science and common sense. We've removed regulation for gene therapy. Had an amazing round-table on cell and gene therapy. Last week we made all of our rejection letters public. If we don't accept a drug, the public deserves to know why. So for the first time in history, those letters are public so the public can see it and keep us accountable. We are focused on rare diseases and incorporating AI. We are making adverse events disclosed on a daily real-time basis, and we took action on concentrated fluoride for babies that is affecting the microbiome. And we're just getting started.

(35:57)
We're also very focused on the opioid addiction crisis. It's not over just because there's other news. We have draft guidance for non-opioid pain medication that is going out tomorrow. We've taken action on 7OH and opioid in most vape stores in America. We're calling it out, initiating the scheduling at DEA. We are talking about vape stores, trying to educate parents. We have now issued a number of statements on gas station heroin and we are finally changing the label on Oxycontin, which is long overdue. So with that, I just want to say thank you for the privilege of being a part of this incredible commission. I think this is an incredible day for the medical community in the United States, so thank you.

Vince Haley (36:44):

Thank you, Martin. We'll hear from Jim O'Neill who was the deputy at the HHS.

Speaker 3 (36:50):

Thank you. All Americans deserve to be healthy and we're going to get there. And this commission and this team of agencies is going to help us achieve the goal of making America healthy again. And I'm very grateful to President Trump for giving us that mandate and this commission. Under Secretary Kennedy, HHS supports rigorous science and radical transparency, and we need that everywhere. But nowhere is that more pressing or more valuable than at CDC. Over the past 15 years, sadly, CDC presided over rising chronic disease and flatlining longevity and trust in our public health agencies collapsed. Together we're working to refocus CDC to its original 1946 mission are protecting Americans from infectious disease. I don't think that's working.

(37:45)
To do so. We must earn the trust to the public through integrity and radical transparency. We know chronic disease made COVID especially deadly because of the interaction between infectious disease and chronic disease. Tools that are meant to fight disease such as vaccines, antibiotics and therapeutics can save lives, can also trigger adverse events in some patients, and that truth must no longer be denied or distorted. We're bringing transparency and research this critical connection. We're also investigating the health effects of substances including microplastics, fluoride, and PFAS. Several childhood cancers have rising incidents among American children likely to have changes in diet or the environment.

(38:27)
CDC has set up a Nationwide Childhood Cancer Environment program, a pediatric cancer training initiative to address the knowledge gap about hazardous exposures and childhood cancer among pediatric oncology providers. We're researching the connections between pediatric oral health with chronic disease and cognitive development. We're also reviewing financial links between our science agencies and food and pharma companies. We require more transparency to prevent regulatory capture and fund independent research that is objective and unbiased. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other diet-related illness kill 7 out of 10 Americans, nutrition drives disease and it must be at the core of our response, beginning with medical education, reviewing and updating regulations on healthy food and hospitals.

(39:16)
Following the release of our new dietary guidelines, which we're developing with our friends at USDA Head Start will promote healthy breakfast and lunch for our nation's most vulnerable children. I would like to thank all of our peer agencies here, OSTP CEA, Department of Agriculture, DPC, EPA for working with us on this commission, on this report, and on all of these important projects. New and better science can help Americans to make better choices to prevent and treat infectious disease and chronic disease and to lead longer and happier and healthier lives.

Vince Haley (39:51):

Thank you, Jim. We'll now hear from Pierre Yared who is the vice chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Speaker 4 (40:00):

It's a privilege to be part of this commission and an honor to be part of this notable event. I want to thank the president for his leadership and Secretary Kennedy for your commitment to health and in particular to the health of our children. There are many notable programs and initiatives within this report. And I want to highlight one very important piece of it, which is personally very important to me as a parent, which is the mental health of our children. We are in a very serious situation when it comes to mental health based on various metrics, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, we have seen a deterioration of these measures over the past decade, and this is an unacceptable situation. Mental health issues are the number one cause of death for our teenagers, and this is very significant problem that our nation must address.

(40:56)
This report highlights numerous initiatives to address this issue. In particular, it highlights the importance of collecting and creating an infrastructure of data for various researchers in order to better understand the causes of this mental health crisis and focus on the types of solutions. And the idea is that this report and this initiative can provide families, can provide caretakers and educators with the necessary tools to help address these issues with our children. We cannot stand by and let the current situation go on. We need to address this issue, and I want to thank the commission for making this so important.

Vince Haley (41:47):

Thank you, Pierre. We'll now hear from Michael Kratsios, who is the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Speaker 5 (41:54):

Thank you so much Vince and thank you Secretary Kennedy for hosting us today and for your leadership in making the health American people a priority for this administration. The Make Our Children Healthy Against Strategy Report is great and I'm thrilled to be celebrating it with you and other colleagues here today. One of my primary tasks as the White House OSTP Director is overseeing the execution of the President's vision for US leadership in artificial intelligence in ways that benefits all Americans. I'm very thrilled that our MAHA strategy makes the integration of AI in cancer treatment a priority for HHS research. I truly believe that trained on the appropriate data sets the statistical pattern recognition that constitutes our cutting edge AI models will revolutionize early diagnosis, personalized treatment planning, real-time health monitoring, and preventive care in ways that will really transform patient outcomes for Americans of all ages, but especially for America's kids.

(42:54)
I'm very confident that AI will be a critical part of preventing and treating pediatric cancer because it's already being used to fight cancer in adults. A translational AI group in the NIH called AI and AI Resource is currently developing AI models that help with object detection and segmentation in biomedical research, and the interpretation of imaging studies for cancer diagnosis and prognosis and the discovery of novel pathological biomarkers in image data. The White House is eager to support HHS as it invests in research that uses AI systems to uncover causes of cancer, identify cancer risks as soon as possible, and intervene before cancer develops. We are thrilled to partner with HHS and NIH to further develop AI-assisted gold standard methods for using existing data and emerging technologies to tackle the crisis of childhood chronic disease and pediatric cancer.

(43:52)
The limiting factor in AI's ability to improve medical outcomes right now is not the technology itself, but the slow adoption of these tools, particularly in established institutions and processes. We in the federal government have an opportunity to support, incentivize, and encourage experiments in AI adoption by the healthcare sector and to share best practices and lessons learned with the rest of the country. As a new dad, I have felt the responsibility of my role in new ways in recent weeks. OTP coordinate science and technology policy across the administration, and that includes implementation of gold standard scientific research principles and the careful pro-innovation frameworks that can form the foundation of healthier lives for America's children. I'm proud of the work my team is doing and grateful for the dedication that all members of the MAHA Task Force, especially you, Secretary Kennedy, have demonstrated every day as we seek to protect America's health for generations to come. Thank you.

Vince Haley (44:49):

Thank you, Michael. That concludes the round robin. Secretary Kennedy, would you like to give some closing remarks?

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (44:59):

I'm very proud of the work of this commission and I'm very proud of the outcome. And again, I want to thank the people who made this happen and were working on the details day by day, Dr. Heidi Overton and Calley Means. And I look forward to getting to work to make sure that all of this stuff gets implemented as quickly as possible. I'm very, very grateful to the President Trump for his support, for his enthusiasm, and for driving us to make these things happen yesterday. Oh, thank you all very much.

Vince Haley (45:38):

I think at this time we're going to take some questions. Is that right, Stephanie?

Speaker 6 (45:55):

Hello. Okay. So if press can please keep your questions too relevant of what we're talking about today. We'll pass around this mic. [inaudible 00:46:14].

Speaker 7 (46:22):

Hey, Cara Castronuova over from Lindell TV and my question is, are there any educational programs planned for children in schools to educate the next generation on food safety? Because so many kids think that alleged food that's marked as healthy is actually healthy when it's not. And that's something that I really noticed. Is there any plan collaboration with the Department of Education on possibly visiting classrooms and working with the next generation hands-on in a classroom setting?

Speaker 8 (46:55):

Yes, absolutely. We're actually going to use the President's Council on Sports Fitness and Nutrition to partner with the Department of Education, HHS, USDA, on a healthy schools campaign that will provide that education in our schools starting this fall.

Speaker 9 (47:16):

Thank you all for doing this. I appreciate it. My name is Lisa Desjardins from the PBS NewsHour, also the mom of a nine-year-old, so you have my attention already. Two questions. One, pesticides has been something that you've mentioned as a concern. You mentioned the six pesticide applications that you rejected. I believe that's out of thousands though, there are some who shared that concern, who expected this report to be more critical, to do more specific on pesticides. Can you answer that concern? And the other is a debate over children's health. You mentioned suicides, especially among teenagers. There is a debate over mental health and firearms in this country and the impact on children's health. Was there ever a discussion of looking at firearms and the health of our children related to that? So those two questions, pesticides and firearms. Thank you.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (48:10):

I'll answer the question. The firearms question, we're doing research. The firearms question is a complex question and it is not an easy question. The violence is what we're concerned with. This sudden onset of violence that began in the 1990s where people would do something that has never happened in history, which is somebody walks into a school or a church or theater and starts shooting strangers. We had lots of guns when we were kids. We had comparably the same number of guns, nobody was doing that. We had gun clubs at my school. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so, and nobody was walking into schools and shooting people, and this is not happening in other countries. Switzerland has a comparable number of guns as we do, and the last mass shooting they had was 23 years ago. We're having mass shootings every 23 hours. There are many, many things that happened in the 1990s that could explain these. One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs, which is in our country, is unlike any other country in the world. There could be connections with video games, with social media. There are a number of things, and we are looking at that at NIH. So we are doing studies now. We're initiating studies to look at the correlation and the potential connection between over-medicating our kids and this violence and these other possible co-founders as well. Your other question… You want to answer later?

Lee Zeldin (50:13):

EPA is committed to using the best available science, and you heard that from a number of our speakers today. The importance of seeking out the gold standard of science. As I covered during my remarks, we are a concern from enforcement standpoint, the use of illegal pesticides, the importing of pesticides into the country, and working with other partner agencies to crack down on that. You heard Mr. Kratsios talking about AI and I'm grateful for his leadership on that front. We're incorporating important IT upgrades and AI upgrades inside the chemical office. We inherited a backlog in January of 14,000 pesticide reviews. That was the backlog.

Lee Zeldin (51:00):

… 500 in the new chemical reviews. One of the needs on top of updating the IT is also to add scientists to the chemicals office, which we are doing. We are increasing the bandwidth and capacity inside of that office. I also touched on my remarks with regards to precision agriculture. Just about a week and a half ago I was at San Diego State University where they were showing off their first in the nation precision agriculture program, which is now being replicated at universities elsewhere around the country, training up that next generation of farmers. It's very important, not just economically, but also for health, safety, environmental reasons for these farmers to be able to utilize these new technologies, which are expensive. But the biggest hurdle, the biggest obstacle that is being encountered is just the need for more advocacy and education of the infrastructure that is out there, the innovations that are out there.

(52:05)
But again, it's important for us to follow the best available science to pursue that gold standard science, and that's a commitment that we often met about here. The one other point I would mention too, is what I noticed in my conversations with farmers is a strong desire to pursue any opportunity to improve health for our children, to improve access to healthier food supply. There's a lot of pride in the product that these farmers are producing and supplying to America's families. But the argument that I've heard at farms all across this country, is that they proudly consider themselves to play a very key tip of the spear role in feeding America to make sure that America is healthy again. So I think this is maybe more personal to them than just about anyone else. And that passion clearly came across in the great meetings that Kelly means, Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Heidi Overton have had over the course of the last couple of months on this topic and so many others that are related to it. Thank you.

Brooke Rollins (53:22):

Can I add to that on pesticides? Three things, first, that the EPA is arguably the most rigorous, the most data backed, the most scientifically deep review process in the world. And to approve any product that is used by our farmers, it will have gone through years upon years upon years of research. That's the first thing. The second thing is, it a perfect process? Arguably there is no perfect process, but it is a strong process that our farmers stand by. And a crop protection tool such as pesticides is absolutely essential for America not to compromise our food supply system at this point. That's the second thing.

(54:23)
The third thing, and already mentioned though, is with new technology it is incredible. With the deployment of AI across this great nation and specific to agriculture, you can send a drone across a field of corn, and that drone can tell you down to a stalk of corn where a particular bug is that needs to be eradicated. It will completely change the game as we're moving forward on what our crop protection tools look like, on how we continue to produce the safest, most abundant, the best food in the world, and how we do it to ensure that our original workers, the fabric of our country, which is our farmers and is our ranchers, continue to be able to do what they do best, which is to feed and fuel the country.

Vince Haley (55:22):

Thanks. To the reporter who asked the question, if I can draw your attention to page four, Advancing Critical Research, there's a heading cumulative exposure, which gets at your question and your concerns as the mother of a nine-year-old. And if I could invite Jay or Dr. Marty to just mention this research framework and how important this cumulative exposure investigation is.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (55:42):

Yeah, so part of the NIH is the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, and it's devoted to specifically the question of how chemical exposures and other exposures are linked to human health. The National Toxicology Program also, is also devoted to that and it's a central part of the MAHA agenda. As Administrator Zeldin said, we're in there applying gold standard science to get answers. The goal isn't to just willy-nilly say, "You can't do this or you can't do that," but to get excellent science devoted to questions about what pesticides are associated with bad outcomes in human health and what aren't. And so to address these complex policy questions about how to have a food network of this country that supports the health of the country, while allowing pharmacists to remain the most important productive force in the world for nutrition.

Patrick Carriel (56:56):

Thank you Secretary Kennedy, for your leadership to taking us to this historic moment. My name is Patrick Carriel, I'm with the MAHA Institute. I have a question, in the report it talks about the build of the Administration for Healthy America as a way to unify prevention-focused programs across HHS. I was curious if you can share a little bit about the timelines, and also how would you view the success of that overall program?

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (57:29):

The various sub-agencies that were looking at health outcomes from toxins, from food and from air and water were dispersed around all the agencies. There was a lot of duplication and no real targeting of results. And what we're doing is, we're making sure that everybody at HHS and all the agencies at CDC, NIH, and FDA wake up every morning and know what their mission is. And their mission isn't just to check boxes or to study one exposure or another. Their mission is to make America healthy again. And part of that is eliminating the duplication and consolidating all of these research efforts in a way that we can direct them to that outcome. And that's never been done before in our agency. There was no real sense of mission. And that's why our agency has increased in size enormously since the 1970s and our health is getting worse and worse. We grew 38% during the Biden administration, our workforce increased by 17%, and yet throwing all that money at the agencies was doing nothing. Our health declined precipitously. And so what we're doing is streamlining the agency and consolidating it so everybody knows what their job is and that they're working together in unison. And all the disparate groups that were studying little different silos of the health crisis are now consolidated. And they have a clear outcome in mind, which is to end chronic disease in our children and it's measurable. And so that's what the reorg is about.

Amanda Seitz (59:43):

Sorry, are you holding it? Oh, all right, thank you. Hi, thank you so much for hosting this. Amanda Seitz with the Associated Press. Secretary Kennedy, the report lays out some changes for vaccine injuries and how those will be investigated. Can you expand more on how that process will look differently than it already does? Since the government does investigate vaccine injuries currently.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (01:00:05):

Sure. I mean there has been no investigation of vaccine injuries in the past. The knee-jerk reflexive reaction by the agencies toward people who said that they had vaccine injuries or to doctors who said, "My patient was injured," was denial, that this isn't happening. And every medication has side effects and they cause injuries that are rare. The people who are injured deserve the same kind of care and consideration that we give to anybody who's injured in this country. And we have thousands of reports that the VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, of people who say that they got a vaccine injury. One of the things that we've learned in our investigation is that about 80% of the people who contact the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, because they've made it so difficult, register to report a vaccine injury, that they give up before the vaccine injury before reporting it.

(01:01:20)
Doctors are discouraged from reporting it. They're not compensated. It takes them about 30 minutes on average to report an injury and they're not compensated for it. And they also have disincentives from reporting it. We're changing the system. We're going to make sure that there's a system. Right now, the CDC's own study, of their only surveillance system, their study of it in 2010 found that it collected fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries, oh, it's over 99% of vaccine injuries go unreported. And CDC actually developed a machine counting system in 2010 that was collecting 90 or 95% of vaccine injuries, but they shelved it. And they kept this old system that everybody has recognized has been broken for 50 years. It's never worked.

(01:02:20)
And because vaccines are the only medication or medical product that is exempt from pre-licensing safety testing, it's very important to have a post-licensing surveillance system, where you're going to see the vaccine injuries. Under the current system most of those vaccine injuries will remain invisible, and we will not be able to understand the risk profile of those products and do something about it. None of the people who reported injuries are ever followed up with. We're going to start following up and find out what kind of genetic vulnerabilities, what kind of other vulnerabilities they have. We are recasting the entire program so that vaccine injuries will be reported, they will be studied and that individuals who suffer them will not be denied or marginalized or vilified or gaslighted. They will be welcomed and we will learn everything that we can about them so that we can improve the safety of these products.

Cheyenne Hazlitt (01:03:43):

Thank you. Cheyenne Hazlitt with ABC News. I was wondering, Secretary, if you could respond to what the president said on Friday. On the same note here, he said, "There are vaccines that just work pure and simple." I was wondering if you disagree with those comments he made on Friday? And if you could tell us more about your plans on the host of vaccines outside of just the COVID vaccine, if you have plans to change any of the rules around those vaccines and access to them?

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (01:04:06):

Well, there's a committee, the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices is reviewing the science on every vaccine. They're reviewing the reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and in the scientific literature and they will be reviewing vaccine recommendations. So there's a panel of experts, it's going to meet again, I think on September 18th, and they're going to do a real gold standard scientific review.

Cheyenne Hazlitt (01:04:39):

[inaudible 01:04:47].

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (01:04:46):

Do I agree what?

Cheyenne Hazlitt (01:04:47):

With the presidents comments that, "There are that just work pure and simple?" He said on Friday.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (01:04:53):

I agree with that.

Speaker 11 (01:04:59):

Thank you everyone.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (01:04:59):

Thank you all. Thank you, Brooke.