Kennedy and Trump to Release Report Calling Chronic Disease a Crisis

Politics|Kennedy and Trump to Release Report Calling Chronic Disease a Crisis

President Trump on Thursday will release a report that is expected to identify what Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes are key drivers of chronic disease in children, including ultra-processed foods, vaccination and environmental toxins like chemicals.

The report, from the White House’s Make America Healthy Again Commission, led by Mr. Kennedy, will not offer specific policy prescriptions, according to people familiar with it who insisted on anonymity to speak in advance of its release. Rather, it will be a high-level statement declaring that the nation is in a health crisis, identifying certain causes and offering a blueprint for further investigation and reform.

Mr. Trump established the commission in February to examine what he called the “growing health crisis in America.” But he asked the panel to begin by looking at chronic disease in children.

Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly said that the United States is suffering from an epidemic of chronic disease that is particularly acute in children, citing the rising incidences of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“To fully address the growing health crisis in America, we must re-direct our national focus,” the executive order establishing the commission declared, adding, “This includes fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.”

The executive order paints an especially dark picture of Americans’ health. It notes, for instance, that the United States had the highest incidence rate of cancer in 2021 out of 204 countries and territories, and has experienced an “88 percent increase in cancer” since 1990. But it does not note that death rates for cancer have been steadily declining in the United States.