RFK Jr.’s First Steps as Secretary of HHS
RFK Jr. Confirmed As HHS Secretary shows that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13. In early 2024, Kennedy stopped his campaign for the US presidency as an independent and joined Trump’s Transition Team. President Trump later nominated Kennedy as Secretary of HHS. The Senate confirmed Kennedy after grueling sessions.
Kennedy’s job is to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA). How We Can Make America Healthy Again explains that Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food” and Wendell Berry said “We have a food system that ignores health and a healthcare system that ignores food!”
How Big Ag/Big Pharma Keep America Sick points out that American medicine excels in treating trauma. So, if you get hit by a car, are in a fire, fall off a ladder, or are shot, you can expect help at a hospital. However, American medicine is failing in chronic disease. Americans spend an average of $12,555 per person on health care annually according to the Peterson-KFF Health Care Tracker. By comparison, typical health care spending across other developed nations is about $6,651,
However, Americans are the sickest, fattest, unhealthiest population. The US ranks high in infant mortality and ranks low in life expectancy compared to other industrialized nations. This shows that the American approach to healthcare is not working.
Trump Establishes MAHA Commission shows that on February 14, President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the Make American Health Again Commission and appointed newly-elected Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as its chair.
Kennedy’s Welcome Remarks To HHS Staff
After being sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. made it clear that he is fighting for every child, every family, in every state—no matter their politics. Kennedy said, “President Trump has promised to be a president for all Americans, and he has said to me that he understands that there’s no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children Whether you’re in a blue state or red state, I’m going to do everything I can to work with you, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, to restore children’s health in this country.”
HHS Secretary Kennedy Delivers Welcome Remarks to HHS Staff
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy, Jr. delivers welcome remarks to staff at the Department of Health and Human Services. February 18, 2025.
Kennedy Promises HHS “Radical Transparency”
RFK Jr. Says HHS to Remove Conflicts of Interests on Committees
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his first remarks to agency staff as health secretary said he’ll work to remove “conflicts of interest” on HHS advisory committees in order to reestablish the public’s trust. Kennedy, in comments Tuesday at his welcome ceremony at the Department of Health and Human Services, discussed his efforts to foster “radical transparency” and balance views with other stakeholders, according to two people who attended the ceremony online.
President Donald Trump selected Kennedy, widely known for his criticisms of vaccines, to lead the agency that’s responsible for preparing for or taking action on public health and medical emergencies. Kennedy was confirmed on Feb. 13 by the Senate 52-48 after two tense confirmation hearings discussing his views on science, abortion policy, and transgender health.
By “conflicts of interest,” Kennedy appears to be resurfacing his past complaints that some scientists and public health experts who work on panels that advise the agency about drug and vaccines have also accepted consulting fees and research funding from pharmaceutical companies.
Under the current system, these people are required to follow ethics guidelines, but Kennedy has said these guidelines are not stringent enough.
If Kennedy were to change ethics guidelines or add additional members to advisory committees, it raises the possibility that he could dilute the influence of the scientific experts who currently advise the agencies. His remarks Tuesday on eliminating “conflicts of interest” on committees and research partners could step on a promise he made that helped push him across the finish line for his confirmation.
The possibility that Kennedy would change the membership of advisory committees caused concern during his Senate confirmation process. In exchange for his support, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he extracted a promise from Kennedy to maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on vaccines.
“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor.
The vaccine advisory committee in particular issues recommendations that are tied to state vaccine requirements and insurance coverage for vaccines. There are also a multitude of advisory committees at HHS that advise officials on issues including drug approvals and public health.
‘Radical Transparency’
Kennedy also said on Tuesday that the health department will work together “to launch a new era of radical transparency” and “culture of competency.”
He said that individuals who share those ideas “can flourish and thrive,” but those who are unwilling to embrace them “can retire.”
Thousands of federal employees across health agencies were fired from their jobs last week in response to Trump’s order seeking to shrink the federal workforce.
The layoffs, which targeted employees under a probationary period, began at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other employees across HHS, including at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicare, received termination notices over the weekend.
Kennedy’s MAHA Mandate
RFK Jr. Has Early Mandate to Tackle Childrens’ Health 2/19/25
The Secretary for Health and Human Services heads up a new commission formed to tackle the ‘childhood chronic disease crisis.’
Immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 13, he was tasked with heading up a commission primarily focused on childhood health.
Kennedy is the chairman of the new President’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, created by President Donald Trump via executive order. The commission directs executive departments and federal agencies to primarily advise the president on how to “address the childhood chronic disease crisis.” It is tasked to explore contributing causes to childhood chronic diseases such as “the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”
The mandate aligns with Kennedy’s presidential campaign platform and his previous work at Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that he founded in 2007. “I have prayed each morning for the past two decades for God to put me in a position to solve the childhood chronic disease epidemic and now, thanks to you Mr. President, we will make this promise a reality,” Kennedy said in a Feb. 13 statement.
Aside from the commission, as head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee a budget of $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2025, the largest of any federal agency. HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and four in 10 have two or more chronic diseases, according to the executive order. It’s also estimated that one in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness. Seventy-seven percent of young adults do not qualify for the military based, in large part, on their health scores, and 90 percent of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual health care spending is for people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to a White House fact sheet. “In short, Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security,” the order reads.
The President’s MAHA Commission will demonstrate “gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick in all health-related research funded by the federal government,” the fact sheet states. Within 100 days (by May 22), the commission will deliver an initial assessment of potential factors that contribute to the chronic disease epidemic, the order states. A national Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy will be presented within 180 days.
The commission includes the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency; the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Housing and Urban Development; and several economic advisers. The FDA commissioner, the CDC director, and the NIH director will also be involved.
Sayer Ji, co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and founder and director of GreenMedInfo, said Trump’s executive order is “an extraordinary and historic moment for the health freedom movement and the future of our nation’s well-being.”
The commission institutionalizes the MAHA movement that Kennedy got behind last year, he said. “For far too long, we have watched as chronic disease, vaccine injury, environmental toxicity and regulatory capture have devastated the health of millions—especially our children,” Ji said. “For the first time in modern history, a federal commission will formally acknowledge these crises and work toward real solutions that put the well-being of the American people over corporate profits.”
‘Radical Transparency’
Kennedy has said that “radical transparency and returning gold-standard science to the NIH, the FDA and CDC,” and “ending the corporate capture of those agencies” that led to compromised science are two parts of his plan. These dovetail with the commission’s objectives.
Federally funded health research should “avoid conflicts of interest,” empower Americans through transparency and open-source data, “and should avoid or eliminate conflicts of interest that skew outcomes and perpetuate distrust,” the White House said regarding the commission. The NIH and other health-related research funded by the federal government should prioritize gold-standard research on the root causes of why Americans are getting sick, according to the fact sheet.
Kennedy said he believes that little will change in the health arena until corporate influence on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is addressed. At a roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in September 2024, Kennedy said these agencies “advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry,“ which has transformed the agencies and the food industry into ”sock puppets for the industry” that they’re supposed to regulate.
Working With Agriculture Secretary
Kennedy is expected to work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on several initiatives, aside from the new commission. The USDA and HHS have a late 2025 deadline to complete the 2025–2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans….
Vaccine Safety
Kennedy has faced criticism about his perceived vaccine stances since he announced his presidential run. Comments from lawmakers at his confirmation hearings and votes showcased a sharp division between parties over Kennedy’s views. Most Republicans praised Kennedy for his past advocacy work and his emphasis on addressing the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, while Democrats criticized him…
Kennedy was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 52–48, with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) being the lone Republican dissenter. Kennedy has consistently said he is not against vaccines, but that he is an advocate for vaccine safety, informed consent, and nonpartisan studies on the efficacy of vaccines. “I’ve never been anti-vaccine,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September 2024. “People should have a choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information possible. I’m going to ensure that there are science-based safety studies available, and people can make their own assessments about whether a vaccine is good for them.”
At a forum hosted by Tucker Carlson in October 2024, Kennedy said he wanted to “restore the transparency” around vaccines, not ban them. “[Trump] doesn’t want me to take vaccines away from people. If you want to take a vaccine, you ought to be able to take it. We believe in free choice in this country. You ought to know the risks and benefits of everything you take,” Kennedy said.
After he was sworn in, Kennedy told Fox News that he intends to create a more accurate vaccine injury reporting and surveillance system than the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. “We will do that right away,” he said. “We need to know the risk profile of these products.” Trump said last year that he would also give Kennedy the freedom to investigate the potential link between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has said for years that autism in some children is likely tied to childhood vaccines, which many states mandate for all school children. According to CDC data, one in 36 U.S. children had an autism diagnosis in 2020, compared with one in 150 in 2000. Trump’s executive order noted that the rate in the 1980s was from one to four out of every 10,000 children.
Chemicals, Ultra-Processed Foods
A staunch advocate for regulating chemicals in food, Kennedy has suggested that Americans should return to using tallow fat instead of seed oils. He has chastised food manufacturers for using ingredients such as artificial dyes. Kennedy has said that he will address this topic as HHS secretary. He has pointed out how the U.S. version of the Froot Loops cereal contains more artificial colors and additives than versions of the cereal sold in other countries.
The CDC stated that “chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability, and death in America.” “In America, 74 percent of adults are now overweight or obese, including 50 percent of our children,” Kennedy said in August 2024. “One hundred and twenty years ago, when someone was obese, they were sent to the circus. In Japan, the childhood obesity rate is 3 percent.”
Kennedy also described the dramatic increase in adult and juvenile diabetes, neurological diseases, and fatty liver disease and cancer cases. “So what’s causing all this suffering? I’ll name two culprits. First and the worst is ultra-processed foods. … The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, our medicine, and our environment,” he said.
Kennedy said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago, and that they are partly responsible for the rise in disease. Although many of these chemicals are banned in Europe, they are ubiquitous in U.S. foods. “America can get healthy again,” Kennedy said. “To do that we need to do three things. First, root out the corruption in our health agencies. Second, change the incentives of the health care system. And third, inspire Americans to get healthy again.”
RFK Jr. calls for new age of ‘radical transparency’ at HHS, tells critics they ‘can retire’
Autism Health Revolution
RFK JR. IGNITES THE AUTISM HEALTH REVOLUTION 2/20/25
Autism Health Summit founders, Tracy Slepcevic & Steve Slepcevic discuss the powerful implications of RFK Jr’s confirmation in the most influential position in public health means for the future of the broken healthcare system in the US and the long awaited reckoning for vaccine safety awareness.
End of “Brought To You By Pfizer”?
RFK JR.: THE DEATH KNELL FOR PHARMA ADS? 2/21/25
Banning pharmaceutical advertisements from television is just one of the many ways RFK Jr has planned to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry. Hear how new tech pharmacies are peddling compounded drugs like injectable weight loss medications without the personal care of a doctor.
For More Information
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