A new Making America Healthy Again report from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his department blames childhood chronic disease on ultra-processed foods, chronic stress, over-prescribing of medications and environmental chemicals.
“There’s something wrong, and we will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic,” President Donald Trump said Thursday at an event unveiling the report, “and America, we’re going to get it done.”
In spite of the wide-ranging and alarming claims of the report, so far, the second Trump administration has taken a variety of steps that experts say will make Americans less healthy. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” would make millions of people lose their health insurance to help offset tax cuts, and the administration has tried to slash billions of dollars in public health spending as well as grants for scientific research.
The 69-page report also claims that more than 40% of American children have at least one chronic health condition, childhood cancer rates have soared, over 20% of children are obese and one in 31 children have autism.
Trump spoke about the rise in autism diagnoses, claiming without evidence, “It has to be artificially induced, it has to be.” Kennedy, who was sitting next to Trump during the MAHA event, has been at the forefront of pushing autism conspiracy theories for years. Kennedy has repeatedly falsely said that vaccines cause autism, and in April, he said he would identify the “environmental toxin” he believes causes autism. Autism rates have grown in years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but health officials largely attribute that to more people getting diagnosed, not more people developing autism.
