With Robert F Kennedy (Sec’y of Health and Human Services) doing the rounds in Congress to defend his policies and budget, it seemed like it was time to review his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) strategy. Let’s go down the list:

1. Food dyes – In April 2025, the Administration (through HHS and the FDA) expanded a phase-out of petroleum-based food dyes, with most dye elimination coming in 2027. (Red dye #3 was already being eliminated by 2028). A more quiet follow-up to this announcement was deregulation of food labeling requiring that consumers know when ‘natural’ food dyes are used (they can now say that no artificial colors are used). This despite evidence that natural food coloring is no safer than artificial food coloring.
2. Glyphosate use – The MAHA movement, that Mr Kennedy pretends to be a leader, has persistently railed against the use of glyphosate as an herbicide (declaring that it causes cancer). A major legal settlement relating to the use of RoundUp weed killer supported this assertion. While the Trump Administration claims to embrace MAHA, the administration has decided to issue an executive order to increase production of glyphosate. Needless to say, MAHA is not happy.
3. Vaccines and vaccination rates: Kennedy’s HHS has chosen to substitute expertise for opinions wherever it can. The advisory committee on immunization practices has been overhauled to exclude scientific expertise and replace it with opinion makers and conspiracy theorists. The choice of HHS to reduce the required vaccine list has prompted 29 states to reject the federal vaccine guidance. The continued vaccine skepticism coming from the federal government appears to have real consequences – vaccine preventable diseases are now on the comeback in the US, some due to the loss of herd immunity and others simply because a vaccine is the ounce of prevention not taken by some.
4. Uninsured rates: The Secretary and his acolytes repeatedly indicate that Americans should not rely on the government for advice about public health issues (including the new candidate for Surgeon General), and they should consult with their physician for advice. But this same HHS administration has adopted policies that either make health insurance unaffordable or make retaining Medicaid an administrative nightmare. An additional 4.8 million people are projected to lose their health insurance by 2027 due to these policies. How are these Americans supposed to access their physician without health insurance?

The administration has taken other measures which cut against health in America. The SNAP program (run by the Department of Agriculture) has created more administrative burdens for poor people to retain their benefits – so much for food as medicine. The EPA has lifted a number of clean air regulations that are likely to create more downstream respiratory conditions. Funding for medical research has been slashed. Meanwhile, life expectancy for Americans trails that of comparable countries by 3.7 years.

I don’t see how Americans can afford to adopt this administration’s version of healthy.

And the national disgrace continues…