Good morning. Here’s the latest:
More news is below. But first, we look at the Make America Healthy Again movement.
MAHA speaks
The movement to Make America Healthy Again is an unusual political force. Its blunt views about our collective well-being hold a certain countercultural, even courageous, appeal: We eat junk. We stare at our phones too much and move too little. Chemical companies have toxified our lives. Drugmakers aren’t helping. Our children’s health is too important to tolerate all this. Many scientists and experts back these conclusions and have fretted about them for years. The ideas poll well. And in an age of polarization, the movement draws together all sorts of Americans — MAGA die-hards, libertarians worried about government mandates, liberal parents who don’t want their kids ingesting trash. At the same time, many MAHA claims defy science, push misinformation or simply do little to address the problems. Its advocates, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., say that common vaccines can be dangerous. That fluoride has no place in drinking water. That chemicals in the environment could be making people gay. Yesterday — with a long-awaited report about children’s health and a move against drug advertisements — the Trump administration embodied this MAHA alchemy. Today’s newsletter is about the new actions. A statementAmerican kids are not all right, the administration says. It cites four reasons: a poor diet dominated by ultraprocessed foods; bad habits like screen addiction and physical inactivity; exposure to pollutants; and “overmedicalization,” in which kids are given unnecessary treatments. Yesterday’s report proposes remedies:
The report also points to a number of actions the Trump administration has already taken, writes Dani Blum, a Times health reporter. These include cracking down on food dyes, relaunching the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools and studying the causes of autism. What goes unmentioned. Kennedy supporters hoped he would limit toxic pesticides, but the MAHA statement calls only for more trust in “robust review procedures” and more study about how farmers can use fewer chemicals. It also does not call for direct restrictions of ultraprocessed foods. What happens next. Kennedy has not said how the government will implement or finance certain goals. Times health reporters wrote that experts like the proposals for “more research on nutrition, greater oversight of food additives, revisions to nutrition labels and healthier foods in schools and hospitals.” But those represent political challenges. “Expecting industry to change voluntarily is fantasy,” one scholar said. Taking action. Trump moved decisively yesterday on one issue that Kennedy favors: He revived a decades-old policy to restrict advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers. Odd bedfellowsKennedy occupies an unusual role in the administration. He’s an environmentalist and a former Democrat whose agenda differs somewhat from Trump’s, as my colleagues Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Maggie Haberman report. Kennedy denounces the Covid vaccines that Trump brags about. That awkward dynamic was evident in the MAHA report, too. It says government programs should provide “whole, healthy food” for low-income Americans, but Trump’s domestic policy bill slashed funding for food assistance. It says we should study the health effects of poor water and air quality, but the administration has rolled back pollution regulations. Yet both men are outsiders who are suspicious of academia and the federal bureaucracy. “Mr. Trump decries the ‘deep state’ and Mr. Kennedy continually calls the agencies he oversees ‘corrupt,’” Sheryl and Maggie write. And the two men need each other. Kennedy’s supporters shore up Trump’s base, and Trump has given Kennedy a wide berth to implement his agenda. More coverage
Nepal Protests
Middle East
More International News
Epstein Investigation
More on the Trump Administration
Economy
New York City
Other Big Stories
Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, argues we take clouds for granted. Look at the different types. Take Gail Collins’s quiz to see how well you followed the first eight months of the Trump administration. Here are columns by Bret Stephens on pro-Palestinian gestures and M. Gessen on a Russian defector. New: The Times family subscription is here. One rate. Four individual logins. Savings for all. Now you and three others can enjoy unlimited access to The Times, while personalizing your own experience. Learn more.
|
