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Helena
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Amid measles outbreak MAHA food agenda is still front and center
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a big week on the road for his first “Make America Healthy Again” tour across the Southwest.
As I noted earlier this week, the administration seems to be leaning into talking about food policy issues much more than vaccine criticisms. Sure enough, just about everywhere Kennedy went during his MAHA tour, he focused on food and chronic disease but was instead peppered with questions about the measles outbreak and vaccination.
On the tour — which spanned across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico — Kennedy compared Big Food to Big Tobacco, railed against the American food system for poisoning everyone and generally argued that processed food is the biggest factor driving our high rates of chronic disease. He touted Utah’s fresh ban on adding fluoride to drinking water and state bills in Arizona and Utah to ban certain additives from school meals and sugary drinks from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“What we’re doing to our children is criminal,” Kennedy said, referring to the general state of the American food supply. “We have to stop.”
Still, at every turn, reporters pressed him on the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, which has so far been blamed for three deaths, including two children. At a press conference in Phoenix, State Senate Majority Leader Janae Shamp scolded reporters for not focusing on the topic at hand (food) while the audience cheered. This is not uncommon at press events, where reporters will often jump on the newsiest topic regardless, but it still was notable to me amid this ongoing tension between chronic illness and infectious disease.
Public health experts have been extremely frustrated that Kennedy has not been more clear and assertive in endorsing vaccination against measles, especially after a second child died last week. RFK Jr., for his part, has said that getting the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to keep measles from spreading and is supportive of people doing this, but it’s struck a lot of experts as a half-hearted endorsement.
MAHA drama: Kennedy’s statements haven’t been enough to satisfy infectious disease experts who are exasperated watching measles rear back after being eliminated from the U.S., but they’ve been enough to infuriate some prominent voices in the anti-vaccine movement, which is very much intertwined with MAHA (even if vaccines are not the purview of this newsletter). The food vs. vaccine tension within MAHA is one that’s been brewing for a while. There’s no shortage of vaccine critics who are extremely displeased that food issues have eclipsed vaccine issues within MAHA, at least for the time being.
“I still cannot believe that MAHA wasted the first 100 days on soda pop,” Toby Rogers, a vaccine critic, posted on X this week. Mary Talley Bowden, a Texas physician who believes (without evidence) that the Covid vaccine has killed millions of people, re-posted the message, adding: “MAHA is a joke.”
I imagine part of the reason why the Trump administration is favoring food issues is because the policies MAHA has zeroed in on — cracking down on processed food ingredients, dropping soda from SNAP at the state level — are generally popular ideas across party lines, while revisiting vaccine requirements is deeply divisive and especially so during a deadly measles outbreak.
As I’ve noted before, it’s clear the White House sees MAHA as a winning political issue and so far doesn’t care one lick that the entire food industry is freaking out about all of this. Kennedy said in a statement this week that states that pass related legislation will get feted at the White House in the coming months.
“I urge every state to follow the example set by Utah and Arizona and pass MAHA legislation that supports the health and wellness of our children,” Kennedy said, in a statement. “This fall, I look forward to welcoming every Governor who champions these bills to the White House for a celebration.”
Autism science bomb: It’s quite possible, however, that we will see more focus within MAHA on vaccines as time goes on. The administration pushed out its top vaccine regulator and is bringing in a vaccine critic to launch another study looking into vaccines and autism (every major scientific body that’s looked into this issue previously has found no link).
Kennedy said in a cabinet meeting Thursday that he expects to figure out what’s causing sharply increased rates of autism in the U.S. by September. Yes, this September.
He said HHS had launched a “massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world.”
“By September, we will know what caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy said.
My jaw almost fell on the floor when I heard him say this — the question of what’s driving increased autism rates is of great interest to scientists, public health experts and parents alike, but how on earth would the government get to the bottom of this so quickly when the entire scientific research community has struggled with this for decades?
It was just a stunning pledge to make — and it immediately raised concerns among scientists that Kennedy may have already decided what the cause is. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network called Kennedy’s statement “untrue, impossible, and ableist.”
President Donald Trump seemed very interested in the idea during the cabinet meeting, suggesting that if Kennedy could figure out what’s causing autism “there will be no bigger press conference than that.”
“You stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot, but something is causing it,” Trump said.
Interestingly, the secretary later suggested on X that he was referring to the MAHA Commission, an interagency group set up by Trump in February, which is focused on childhood chronic disease. We expect findings and recommendations to come out later this spring, but I’ve heard so little about how this commission is operating. (If you’re working with the commission, get in touch! helena@foodfix.co. I’m also on Signal: hbottemiller.11)
By the way, I asked HHS for a comment on this tension between food and vaccines within the MAHA agenda and didn’t get much. “Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability,” an HHS official said. “He believes Americans deserve radical transparency so they can make informed healthcare decisions.”
During the cabinet meeting, Kennedy said something else that caught my attention, as I’ve been watching this push and pull on food vs. vaccines.
“We’re trying to refocus the press,” Kennedy told Trump during the meeting. “We’ve had three measles deaths in this country over twenty years. We’re trying to refocus the press and get them to pay attention to the chronic disease epidemic.”
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What I’m reading
Clusters of additives in ultraprocessed foods linked to type 2 diabetes, study finds (CNN). “Nearly 70% of all food in grocery stores in the United States is ultraprocessed, meaning the foods contain additives used to add flavor and color, create texture, extend shelf life and keep ingredients from separating,” writes Sandee LaMotte. “Yet little research on the health impact of additives exist, and what data there is looks at the possible harms of individual ingredients, such as food dyes and brominated vegetable oil, as well as contaminants that leach into foods from packaging. However, clusters of additives often used by industry in certain food categories may be more harmful when eaten together than alone, according to a new study which found two such mixtures linked to a small but significant increase in type 2 diabetes. ‘The research shows that the intake of certain clusters of additives increases the risk of diabetes beyond the effect of each individual additive,’ said Carlos Augusto Monteiro, emeritus professor in the school of public health at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, in an email. Additives often used in ultraprocessed foods include preservatives to resist mold and bacteria; emulsifiers to keep incompatible ingredients from separating; artificial colorings and dyes; fragrance and flavor enhancers; anti-foaming, bulking, bleaching, gelling and glazing agents; and added or altered sugar, salt and fats designed to make food more appealing.”
What Republican budget that passed House means for Medicare, SNAP (Newsweek). “The Republican-led House passed a budget framework this week that sets the stage for sweeping spending reductions across a range of federal programs,” writes Suzanne Blake. “The framework has raised alarms among public health and anti-poverty advocates about potential cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Though the budget text does not spell out specific program reductions, it instructs key congressional committees to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from areas that include these services. The budget directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and part of Medicare, to reduce the federal deficit by $880 billion over a decade. The Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, is ordered to cut $230 billion. While these figures do not confirm direct program cuts, experts say the sheer magnitude of the targets makes such outcomes highly likely unless alternative offsets are found. Medicare and SNAP directly support health care providers and food supply chains, so the cuts would have a multiplier effect on jobs and economic activity, particularly in states with high enrollment rates.”
Trump floats plan for undocumented farm and hotel workers to work legally in the U.S. (NBC News). “President Donald Trump suggested at a Cabinet meeting Thursday that undocumented people working on farms and in hotels would be allowed to leave the country and return as legal workers if their employers vouched for them,” reports Suzanne Gamboa. “Trump said at the meeting with reporters present that ‘we have to take care of our farmers, the hotels and, you know, the various places where they tend to, where they tend to need people.’ ‘So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people, saying they’re great, they’re working hard. We’re going to slow it down a little bit for them, and then we’re going to ultimately bring them back. They’ll go out. They’re going to come back as legal workers.’ It was unclear what he meant by ‘slow it down a little bit for them.’ A White House official told NBC News that Trump wants to improve the H-2A program, through which employers in the agricultural industry can hire temporary and seasonal workers, and the H-2B program, for hiring immigrant workers for temporary, seasonal jobs in other industry sectors, such as hospitality and entertainment, and in the tourism industry.”
Egg prices hit record as retailers keep costs high on supply fears (The Spokesman-Review). “Egg prices hit another fresh record for consumers in March as retailers, fearing future supply shocks, keep prices high,” Ilena Peng reports for Bloomberg. “Consumer prices for eggs rose 5.6% in March from February to $6.227 a dozen, and doubled from the year-earlier level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase comes even as prices for wholesalers that supply grocery stores have dropped steeply. That’s unwelcome news for President Donald Trump’s effort to bring down egg prices. He has become fixated on eggs as a symbol for shoppers struggling with high grocery bills, and has repeatedly applauded the recent drop in wholesale prices. Industry experts had expected prices for eggs on grocery shelves to fall, as lower demand and abating bird flu outbreaks cooled prices. Wholesale egg prices for large white shell eggs pulled back in March to $3 a dozen, down from a record above $8 a dozen in February. But consumers aren’t seeing any of that decline yet. Prices ‘can go up quickly, but if supply assurance is limited, those retail outlets may be reluctant to bring prices back down, for fear that they get caught behind the market again,’ according to Brian Earnest, the lead animal protein economist at CoBank.”
At 88, a nutritionist meets her moment (New York Times). “On a dreary February afternoon in Westchester County, N.Y., the cooks, farmers, servers and other staff of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture convened over a roast beef dinner to hear Marion Nestle hold forth on the state of food politics,” Elizabeth G. Dunn writes. “Dr. Nestle, one of the country’s foremost experts on nutrition policy, was still trying to get her head around the political realignments of the prior months. … For years, Dr. Nestle’s ideas placed her in food policy’s progressive camp. But today, fears about food additives and environmental toxins are rampant, and some of her longest held and most passionate beliefs – about topics like regenerative agriculture, school lunches and additives – are marching toward the bipartisan center. Dr. Nestle is still trying to make sense of the about-face by the right and how she should respond to it.”
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Food Fix is off next week for spring break, but we’ll see you the following week!
