MAHA Commission report paints a dark picture of U.S. children's health

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies earlier nan Senate Committee connected Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions connected Capitol Hill connected May 14, 2025 successful Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption

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Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The Trump management released a sweeping study Thursday, offering its study of what's driving chronic illness among nan nation's children.

The study titled, "The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again" catalogues successful item a "chronic illness crisis," including precocious rates of obesity, asthma, autoimmune conditions and behavioral wellness disorders among kids.

The 72-page archive is simply a merchandise of nan MAHA commission, which was established by President Trump done an executive order connected Feb. 13. The commission, chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., enlisted various Cabinet members, including nan secretaries of agriculture and acquisition and nan caput of nan Environmental Protection Agency, and met successful backstage complete nan past fewer months.

"There is thing incorrect and we will not extremity until we conclusion nan chronic illness epidemic," Trump said astatine a White House arena connected Thursday, flanked by Secretary Kennedy and different members of nan commission.

Much of what's elaborate reflects nan views Kennedy has articulated during his galore nationalist appearances.

The study identifies 4 awesome drivers down nan emergence successful puerility chronic illness: mediocre diet, biology chemicals, chronic accent and deficiency of beingness activity, and overmedicalization. In keeping pinch nan messaging that has animated nan MAHA platform, nan study pins overmuch of nan blasted connected conflicts of liking and firm power successful nan food, chemic and pharmaceutical industries.

The study lays nan groundwork for nan MAHA committee to create a strategy for addressing puerility disease, which is expected to hap by mid August according to nan February executive order.

The proposition that nutrition, manner and vulnerability to contamination and different harmful chemicals are colluding to harm children's wellness is not arguable among longtime researchers successful nationalist health.

"Many of america person been calling for immoderate attraction to these issues for decades now," says Dr. James Perrin, a professor of pediatrics astatine Harvard Medical School. "This is simply a existent American problem, and it's not 1 that we're seeing rather truthful dramatically successful different countries."

But nan study doesn't resoluteness immoderate of nan cardinal tensions that person characterized Kennedy's MAHA level from nan outset.

"They make a awesome test and they person a very anemic curen plan," says Dr. Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics and nationalist wellness astatine Boston College.

Among nan concerns: The study doesn't incorporate a thorough chat of nan socioeconomic factors for illustration poverty, which is simply a cardinal predictor of chronic disease.

"They admit that ultra-processed foods are cheaper, but aren't acknowledging that increasing poorness and nan wealthiness spread is starring much people, and children, to relying connected cheaper foods," says Carmen Marsit, a professor of biology wellness astatine Emory University.

The study besides questions vaccine information and suggests that imaginable links to puerility illness person not been thoroughly studied.

"That is simply not true. There person been abundant studies," says Landrigan.

More broadly, nan accent connected advancing investigation and nationalist wellness initiatives runs antagonistic to galore of nan caller actions taken by nan Trump administration.

For example, nan study outlines nan risks of vulnerability to harmful chemicals connected children's wellness — an area that Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a professor of pediatrics astatine nan University of Washington, says deserves overmuch much attention. And yet nan Trump management is cutting unit astatine key agencies and dissolving an agency successful nan Environmental Protection Agency that studies nan toxic effects of chemicals.

She agrees pinch nan overarching taxable that our aesculapian strategy and our investigation infrastructure is excessively focused connected treating these diseases and uncovering cures.

"We really request to move much into a prevention model," says Sathyanarayana.

"But immoderate of nan actions they person taken really undermine prevention," she says.

As caput of nan Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has directed nan firing of thousands of national workers, cuts to nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and elimination of billions of dollars of contracts and grants from nan National Institutes of Health, each of which support nan benignant of investigation and information that underlie nan report.

Dr. William Dietz, a puerility obesity interrogator astatine nan George Washington University, says nan MAHA commission's accent connected nan harms of ultra-processed foods is warranted, though nan study paints nan taxable pinch a wide brush, when, successful fact, definite processed foods are much problematic than others.

However, he worries nan national authorities whitethorn not moreover beryllium capable to accurately way its advancement connected obesity successful nan future.

"I'm really concerned nan scalpel that's been taken to CDC successful wide threatens nan ongoing expertise to show health. And those are going to beryllium immoderate of nan aforesaid information sets that are needed to measure advancement successful galore of these areas," he says.

The study reserves abstraction astatine nan very extremity to sketch retired a scope of projected solutions: Asking nan National Institutes of Health to money caller tests connected whole-food diets and connected perchance harmful ingredients successful nan nutrient supply; pushing NIH and nan Food and Drug Administration to amended post-marketing surveillance of pediatric drugs; supporting caller pediatric supplier information research; and launching a nationalist lifestyle-medicine initiative.

It's not clear wherever nan costs aliases staffing would travel from for these priorities.

Lauren Wisk, who studies chronic illness successful children astatine UCLA, says nan numbers cited connected nan rates of puerility illness are "reasonable."

But she worries astir Kennedy's rhetoric that seems to favour nan thought of "magic bullets" for illustration eliminating nutrient dyes alternatively of focusing connected large-scale programs that supply entree to patient nutrient for low-income families aliases tackle aerial pollution, which is linked to asthma and different conditions.

"This management has not been arsenic excited to talk astir nan societal policies that request to beryllium successful spot to reside onset of pediatric disease," she says.

"They person been looking astatine things that are splashier, easier to constituent nan digit at, but erstwhile you really deliberation astir nan epidemiology of this — it's not going to beryllium nan astir effective strategy if they want to beryllium superior astir curbing nan issue."