RFK Jr.“s latest ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report calls for more scrutiny of vaccines and autism
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears before the Senate Finance Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2025-09-09T18:26:12Z
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is imploring the nation’s public health agencies to prioritize investigations of vaccine injuries, prescription drug use and autism’s causes in a new “Make America Healthy Again” report focused on children released Tuesday.
The 20-page report, overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/robert-f-kennedy-jr">Robert F. Kennedy Jr., promises to put an end to childhood diseases in the U.S. by refocusing the nation’s public health agencies on the topics that those in Kennedy’s wide-ranging and politically diverse “MAHA” movement have demanded the government prioritize. The report does not lay out regulatory changes, instead calling on government agencies to further research a wide-range of issues related to Americans’ health.
Kennedy’s renewed push, though, to investigate vaccine injuries could stir more uproar at the public health agencies he oversees, which have been upended by mass layoffs and disagreements over his controversial policies.
Gathering with Trump officials on Tuesday to unveil the so-called “MAHA” report, Kennedy promised to “recast the entire program” used to investigate reported vaccine injuries. Currently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigates injuries that are reported by individuals or providers. Kennedy has repeatedly criticized the current process.
People who report vaccine injuries “will be welcomed and we will learn everything we can about them so we can improve the safety of these products,” Kennedy said Tuesday.
A bipartisan group of senators have raised alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine policies at the CDC, which was recently thrown into chaos when Kennedy abruptly fired his hand-picked data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/cdc-director-susan-monarez-50dfbec849b53b4593755d2e6e616687">director and other top leaders walked out on the job, citing disagreements over the immunization recommendations. Just last week, senators data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-senate-cdc-3a5a090fc9d9f547377203fe5c61ffa2">grilled Kennedy over his anti-vaccine agenda and leadership of the public health agencies.
An earlier version of the report was data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/maha-report-children-health-food-rfk-f0c624d30da939fc9cca09687f8a4273">first leaked and publicized in August. Slight changes have been made to the final draft, which was developed by a “MAHA” commission that included Kennedy and other members of the president’s cabinet. Despite pledging “radical transparency,” the commission never held a public meeting ahead of the report’s release.
Among the differences in the final version of the report released on Tuesday is a call for the National Institutes of Health to use personal medical records and health insurance claims data to investigate the cause of diseases and disorders, including autism.
“The NIH will link multiple datasets, such as claims information, electronic health records, and wearables data, into a single integrated dataset for researchers studying the causes of, and developing treatments for, the chronic disease crisis,” the report says.
Kennedy has vowed for months that he would unveil the data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/autism-kennedy-trump-vaccines-rfk-jr-cdc-b66251888f039c80b15beda23c279d5b">cause of autism, a complex developmental disorder that impacts the brain, by September. He has promised to execute a massive research effort to identify the disorder’s causes, but has stayed mum on details regarding who is conducting that research and when it will be released.
Last month, President Donald Trump pressed Kennedy for his findings during a cabinet meeting.
Those who have spent decades researching autism have found no single cause. Besides genetics, scientists have identified various possible factors, including the age of a child’s father, the mother’s weight, and whether she had diabetes or was exposed to certain chemicals.
The “MAHA” report addressed a number of other issues, including data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/ultraprocessed-foods-kennedy-f6a2607b14c4a2787c68801a8e0646bc">ultraprocessed food consumption, water quality, fluoride and the use of prescription drugs in children. Agencies, including the health department and the Department of Justice, should increase enforcement and oversight of prescription drug ads, especially those published by social media influencers and telehealth companies, the report says.
The National Institutes of Health, data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/health-agencies-cuts-70ae99161321f0b779e2e56d8d2db304">which is facing a 40% cut to its budget, is tasked with undertaking much of the MAHA-related research in the report.
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AMANDA SEITZ Seitz is an Associated Press reporter covering federal health care policy. She is based in Washington, D.C.
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RFK Jr.“s latest ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report calls for more scrutiny of vaccines and autism
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September 10, 2025, 12:42:01 AM