One of the missions of the “Make America Healthy Again” platform set by the newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is addressing childhood chronic diseases.

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order relating to this issue that according to the White House affected 30 million children in 2022 only.

“Autism spectrum disorder now affects 1 in 36 children in the United States — a staggering increase from rates of 1 to 4 out of 10,000 children identified with the condition during the 1980s.  Eighteen percent of late adolescents and young adults have fatty liver disease, close to 30 percent of adolescents are prediabetic, and more than 40 percent of adolescents are overweight or obese,” the White House writes.

They relate some of these issues with the increased prescription of medications.

As reported by MedPage Today, RFK Jr. will address the causes of childhood chronic diseases based on “unbiased science.”

He said, “We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease.

“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized — the childhood vaccine schedule; electromagnetic radiation; glyphosate; other pesticides; ultra-processed foods… SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] and other psychiatric drugs; PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances]; PFOA [perfluorooctanoic acid]; microplastics — nothing is going to be off-limits.”

In his speech to his employees RFK Jr. said, “Let’s use protocols that we all agree on in advance and not alter the outcomes of studies when they’re halfway through [because] they look inconvenient. Let’s all depoliticize these issues and reestablish a common ground for action, and renew the search for existential truths with no political impediments and no preconceptions.”

The executive order Trump signed says the aim is to “re-direct our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease.”

The MAHA Commission, which constitutes of representatives from multiple federal agencies and offices focused on health — including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has a goal to revise the policies on “nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.”

Further, the Commission is charged with protecting “expert [scientific] recommendations from inappropriate influence” and “increasing transparency regarding existing data.”

The order calls for the assessment to address the “threats posed” by “over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals, and certain other exposures,” as well as examining the prescribing practices for SSRIs, antipsychotics and stimulants.

As reported by The Seattle Times, “several Washington physicians agree with the premise of monitoring prescribing practices” but they also believe that the order signed by Trump may stand on the way of the doctor-patient relationship.

Dr. Lelach Rave, interim executive director of the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics addressed this issue.

“Any parent who has a child who is struggling with depression or anxiety or psychosis, it’s a scary place to be. And there’s a lot of harm that goes with having untreated illness,” he said, as per The Seattle Times. “Not that you discount the risks of medications because they’re real as well, but there is real risk with disease.”

A 100 days after the order was signed, the new commission is expected to submit an initial report including an assessment of “the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.”

Critics fear that a one-size-fits-all federal policy may lead to delays or denial of treatment for children who truly require it.

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