Peter’s Memo: Make America Sick Again

Despite its "Make America Healthy Again" rhetoric, the Trump administration seems hell-bent on making our health worse.

Here's some of what we're tracking at CSPI (Nutrition Action's publisher):

US Preventive Services Task Force

The USPSTF weighs the evidence for mammograms, colonoscopies, and dozens of other tests or drugs. If they get USPSTF approval, insurance companies have to pay for them, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

But in July, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., abruptly canceled a USPSTF meeting, raising fears that he may never allow it to meet, as I told The New York Times. Or he might replace its experts with people who are unwilling or unqualified to weigh the evidence objectively, as he did with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Could that mean that insurance would pay for a useless supplement but not your next cancer screening test?

mRNA vaccine research funding

In August, Kennedy canceled nearly $500 million in funding to develop new mRNA vaccines, claiming that they "fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu."

In fact, mRNA vaccines likely saved millions of lives from Covid. They're more precise-and far quicker to develop-than the older technologies.

And mRNA vaccines could potentially treat cancers, prevent type 1 diabetes, and more. Why shut off that pipeline now?

RFK Jr. also adopted advice from his handpicked immunization advisory committee to ban thimerosal in flu vaccines after barring CDC experts from presenting data demonstrating the preservative's safety.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

We joined 54 medical and public health organizations in urging Kennedy to issue the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines based on the conclusions of a panel of experts who examined the scientific evidence for nearly two years.

Instead of relying on those conclusions, as the Guidelines typically have, "We're going to have four-page Dietary Guidelines that tell people essentially, eat whole food, eat the food that's good for you," Kennedy told Congress.

There's a theme here: Don't worry about carefully evaluating the strongest science. Simply go with your gut-that is, Kennedy's gut-and whatever views are popular among your online influencers.

When crucial decisions about our health are based on flimsy or biased science, we're all in trouble.

Tags

• Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Topics

• Government Accountability
• COVID-19
• Vaccines

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