Trump makes RFK Jr. leader of presidential ‘MAHA’ commission to study chronic disease

Trump makes RFK Jr. leader of presidential ‘MAHA’ commission to study chronic disease

Meryl Nass Feb 13

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By Isabella Cueto

Feb. 13, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clinched two wins on Thursday: He was confirmed and sworn in as the nation’s health secretary, and then got a presidential kickstart to his “Make America Healthy Again” plans.

After a winding ascent to the highest levels of government, President Trump welcomed Kennedy to the role with an Oval Office swearing-in ceremony. Then, Trump signed an executive order establishing “The President’s Commission to Make America Healthy Again” commission, with Kennedy as the chair. The commission will investigate what’s causing the decades-long increase in childhood chronic illness, Trump said. It will then deliver “an action plan” to the public.

“He’s absolutely committed to getting dangerous chemicals out of our environment and out of our food supply, and getting the American people the facts and the answers that we deserve after years in which our public health system has squandered the trust of our citizens,” Trump said before RFK Jr. was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Kennedy was joined by his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, and other family members.

“We need a man on a white horse now,” Kennedy said after taking the oath. “We need somebody who is willing to come in, and has the spine and the guts and the strength to challenge orthodoxies, to stand in the way of vested interests and break institutions that have turned against our democracy.”

Kennedy also expressed his support for Trump’s crackdown on foreign aid agency USAID, calling it a “sinister propagator of totalitarianism and war.” Kennedy said he wants to do “the same thing” with institutions that are “stealing” the health of American children. When asked about vaccines, Kennedy said his views are “common sense” and that when people hear his true opinions, “Everybody supports it.”

The MAHA commission will include federal officials, such as the agriculture secretary, education secretary, director of the Office of Management and Budget, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner. Kennedy could also invite other administration officials, public health leaders and government accountability experts to join the discussions, according to the executive order.

The group will study potential contributors to childhood chronic disease, “including 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 order reads. The list of investigation targets includes things Kennedy has long called out as potentially problematic. “Medical treatments” is a broad term that could apply to many health interventions, including vaccines — potentially opening the door for RFK Jr.’s commission to relitigate vaccine science.

The order says the MAHA commission will deliver an “initial assessment” on the state of chronic disease prevalence, treatment and research within 100 days.

Specifically, that initial report should capture the “threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs,” the order says. Kennedy and his MAHA comrades have decried the alleged overprescription of mental health drugs and the extremely popular obesity medications, called GLP-1s. Kennedy has in the past questioned whether depression medication might be linked to school shootings, though research has suggested there is no connection.

In 180 days, the commission will face another deadline: Delivering to Trump a MAHA strategy, which can recommend cutting federal practices that are ineffective at improving health, supporting existing best practices, or recommending new solutions.

The commission will also evaluate whether federal funding is being well-spent to prevent and treat childhood disease, and give its take on the transparency and integrity of related research. Its assessments must include “a framework for transparency and ethics review in industry-funded projects,” per Trump’s order.

Precisely who holds power on the commission — and how the panel conducts its work — will be critically important. Concern over chronic disease, and a desire to improve the nation’s health, is a bipartisan issue. And much is already known about the best ways to prevent and reduce chronic disease. However, Kennedy has repeatedly expressed a desire to reconsider scientific questions that mainstream researchers consider answered, or to explore fringe hypotheses.

The nonprofit he founded, Children’s Health Defense, has pushed the idea that vaccines are linked to numerous chronic health conditions — an assertion not backed by science. Kennedy himself has stood by the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, and has laid out a plan for re-reviewing approved vaccines and reforming the way they are studied. Some Republican lawmakers have indicated support for studying the autism-vaccine theory, NOTUS reports.

Of all the sweeping statements and big promises Kennedy has made in recent months, one is quite clear: Trump tasked him with ending the chronic disease epidemic. It is a Herculean assignment that will require collaboration across agencies, and reliance on some of the same expertise and information Kennedy has lambasted for years. It has been, up until now, unclear how Kennedy would go about accomplishing it.

Trump promised in campaign materials to establish a presidential commission investigating the causes of chronic diseases in the nation. The commission would be filled with “independent minds who are not bought and paid for by Big Pharma,” Trump said in a video posted to this website last year.

“Every year, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars to treat these chronic problems rather than looking at what is causing them in the first place … Is it the food that they eat? The environment that we live in? The over-prescription of certain medications?”

Trump, echoing Kennedy, cast blame on the pharmaceutical industry in the video, saying public health officials were too close with drugmakers and special interests.

In the past, presidential commissions have been used to investigate disasters, such as oil spills, infectious disease outbreaks, and acts of war.

Kennedy faced some backlash in confirmation hearings for his past statements on a range of issues, including vaccines. Ultimately, the critiques did not stop him from getting the job. All Senate Republicans except Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted for RFK Jr. All Democrats voted against him.

STAT’s coverage of chronic health issues is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.