Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent months pushing a Make America Healthy Again agenda into American life. He struck deals with food companies to phase out petroleum-based food dyes. He engaged in sharp conflict with pediatricians over COVID-19 vaccines for young children. He floated shipping fresh food in "MAHA boxes" and pledged to reboot the nation's dietary guidelines. He has relied on informal handshake agreements rather than regulatory action to persuade companies to change products. Food companies have cooperated partly to gain favor with the administration and because the changes are small and inexpensive. Public-health observers warn some actions could weaken the vaccination system even as food-policy wins accumulate.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent the past six months working fast to embed his Make America Healthy Again creed into American life. Over the summer alone, he has struck deals with some food companies to phase out some petroleum-based food dyes, waged a war against pediatricians over COVID-19 vaccines for young children, seemingly toyed with the idea of shipping fresh food to Americans in " MAHA boxes," and pledged to reboot the nation's dietary guidelines from scratch. I spoke with the Atlantic staff writer Nicholas Florko, who reports on health policy, about how the MAHA-fication of the country is coming along.
We've seen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. take actions that will weaken our vaccination system in the United States, confirming some of public health's worst fears. But there have also been some surprising successes in his term. RFK Jr. has embraced the role of a dealmaker, and we've seen him leaning on food companies in particular to change their offerings and get rid of synthetic dyes. He's been able to do that simply by asking and by making handshake agreements, as opposed to what we would normally expect from a health secretary-for him to use his regulatory power to force these changes.
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