The Trump administration has released a blueprint for fighting childhood chronic disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the effort unprecedented.

Washington

The Trump administration, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has released a comprehensive plan to address childhood chronic diseases. The initiative is described as an unprecedented collaboration across government agencies, focusing on issues such as nutrition, environmental impacts, and economic factors.

Medical experts, including Dr. Selene Gounder, acknowledge the report's attention to real drivers of poor child health like processed foods and chronic stress, but express concern over its inclusion of unsubstantiated claims related to vaccine injury and other topics. The report is also criticized for lacking specific funding and actionable steps, and for proposing to relax some environmental and food safety regulations, which experts warn could undermine children's health protections.

RFK Jr. releases report on children's health; doctor breaks it down

The Trump administration has released its blueprint for fighting childhood chronic disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the effort unprecedented this afternoon. There never been an effort like this across all the government agencies. We had historical unprecedented cooperation among my agency, HHS, with Marty McCary and Jay Bhattacharya all working hand in glove with each other. 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 gonna work. CBS News medical contributor, Dr. Selene Gounder joining us now for more on this. So Dr. Gounder, let's begin with the big picture. And what are your takeaways from this report? Well, first of all, multiple things can be true. So first, it correctly flags the real drivers of poor health among children. That includes ultra processed foods, harmful chemicals and chronic stress. We've needed stronger nutrition science, better school meals and honest labeling for years. Second, the report leans heavily on conspiracy theory talking points, including vaccine injury, fluoride, even electromagnetic radiation without any clear plans or funding. And then third, it talks a lot about root causes while proposing to loosen some environmental and food safety rules. And you can't protect kids' health while weakening protections for air, water and food. So big picture of the report is big on studies and voluntary industry moves, but pretty light on specifics and funding. So you mentioned vaccine injury. What does the evidence actually show? So vaccines have prevented millions of deaths. That is not in dispute. There are real adverse events like anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, or rarely myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle after mRNA COVID shots among young healthy males. But these are very uncommon and they have been closely monitored by the FDA and the CDC. So VAERS is the database at the CDC where they compile reports. Those reports are a signal to investigate. I could submit a report right now and say the COVID vaccine gave me purple hair. That does not make it true, but it is a signal that these need to be looked into. And importantly, major medical reviews have already been conducted by respected scientific institutions, the Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC and others have found no links between vaccines and autism. Finally, changing the childhood schedule for vaccinations without evidence risks outbreaks of measles and other serious childhood vaccine preventable diseases. So there's also a new push in this report on autism. So is this effort helpful or harmful from your perspective? Yeah, look, I mean, it depends on how it's done. We have long thought, those of us in the medical community, that autism is something that needs to be better studied. The NIH is exploring a real world data platform where they're linking claims, medical claims, electronic health records and other data sets to study autism and chronic disease. That will be a compliment to other kinds of research on its own cannot yield the cause of autism or causes likely of autism. And it's also important that this kind of research be done with the appropriate safeguards for privacy. And that you're not just retrofitting the science to fit a preconceived narrative. Autism groups are also worried that rhetoric around the causes could further stigmatize autistic people and divert funds from higher yield research as well as community-based services that could actually help families now. Dr. Selene Gounder, thank you so much.

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Warsaw

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Breakdown