By Fran Kritz
In anticipation of a second report from the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Commission, Defend Public Health (DPH), a new group of public health experts, released a report they claim would provide a more evidence-based framework for making and keeping people healthy.
The first MAHA report, released in May, outlined “the childhood chronic disease crisis,” which it linked to poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress and overmedicalization. However, DPH said the report was based on “false, flawed and fundamentally incorrect interpretations of science, medicine, disease outcomes and public health,” which were widely reported at the time.
DPH said its report, while not exhaustive, “outlines a series of evidence-based approaches we believe would make a real difference.”
A Health and Human Services spokesperson defended the MAHA report in an email to Infectious Disease Special Edition: “Data on autism, ultra-processed foods, environmental toxins and the overmedicalization of children has gone largely unnoticed and the Trump administration is bringing this crisis to light. … [The first] report is a diagnosis. The second policy report will be a prescription for America.”
However, DPH is afraid the second report will also be based on flawed information. The White House said the report has been submitted but won’t be released for another few weeks because of scheduling issues.
Despite claims by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that public health policy should be set by gold-standard science, the first MAHA report was filled with “distortions and distractions,” according to Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD, an epidemiologist and a professor emerita at the University of Arizona, and a founding DPH member. DPH decided that it was important to release a report with solutions that were truly evidence-based.
“Public health can’t wait,” Dr. Jacobs said in a statement. “You can’t build a public health agenda on pseudoscience while ignoring fundamental problems like poverty and other social determinants of health. We’ve put together strategies that could truly help children and adults stay healthier, and that’s the conversation Americans need to be having.”
The action items in the DPH report seek to:
- ensure food safety, security and access, including decreasing the risks for avian influenza;
- improve opportunities for physical activity and make it affordable and accessible for all;
- ensure equitable access to vaccines;
- expand access to healthcare;
- support comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare services for all;
- fully fund scientific research and public health;
- build strategies for clean air;
- combat scientific misinformation;
- reduce gun violence;
- strengthen pandemic preparedness by creating an independent office of Pandemic Preparedness Policy staffed by individuals vetted for relevant knowledge, training and expertise, not political appointees; and
- expand pathogen research, remove unnecessary restrictions on such research and restore U.S. support for international disease control efforts.
Although several points discuss infectious diseases, Amanda Jezek, the senior vice president of Public Policy and Government Relations at the Infectious Diseases Society of America, noted the DPH report is much broader than just one field of medicine, which is “important because healthcare doesn’t exist in a vacuum.” Ms. Jezek ticked off access to vaccines, access to healthcare and pandemic preparedness as key issues in the DPH report for the infectious disease community.
DPH called for Mr. Kennedy’s removal as secretary of HHS because he is not addressing, and is even dismantling, many important public health services that affect the nation’s health. In fect, several people sued Mr. Kennedy over his vaccine policies.
“The single most important step toward improving the health of Americans together would be to remove Kennedy from his role as HHS Secretary as quickly as possible,” the report stated. “Kennedy is wholly unqualified to oversee the scientific and healthcare functions of the United States government. For decades, he has established himself as an anti-vaccine advocate, and has been richly rewarded financially for these activities, earning millions of dollars for spreading misinformation about vaccines, publishing anti-science, anti-vaccine books, and for his role in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.”
The DPH report also criticized Mr. Kennedy for suggesting that germs do not cause illness. “All of these factors point to a profound misunderstanding or willful denial of established science. These characteristics alone are disqualifying for the position of HHS Secretary.”
In an email, Dr. Jacobs told IDSE, “The responses we’ve received to the report have been overwhelmingly positive.”
Dr. Jacobs said DPH has not forwarded a copy to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), who promised to keep watch over Mr. Kennedy, especially his actions pertaining to vaccine policy, when the secretary was confirmed by the Senate. But the group said it encourages physicians to reach out to their elected officials and their local media about the report.
IDSE reached out to Mr. Cassidy’s Washington, D.C., and Louisiana offices and to senior HELP committee staff but did not receive responses to requests for comment about the DPH report.
However, in sworn testimony before Congress, Mr. Kennedy admitted people should not listen to his advice. When asked whether as secretary of HHS he should advise people to be vaccinated against measles during outbreaks, he told the House: “My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. ... I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
Ms. Jezek concurred, “People should look to actual doctors and clinicians for their healthcare advice and societies like IDSA to help people make informed decisions about their care, … particularly as children head back to school and we move toward respiratory virus season.”
Asked what DPH hoped to achieve by issuing the alternative report, Dr. Jacobs told IDSE that people need to educate themselves and fight the dismantling of the U.S. public health infrastructure that is ongoing.
“We will need to move forward, and we have the opportunity to reimagine what a healthy America would really look like. This is our road map. We will continue to update it with new information,” she said.
