Fwd: The Morning: A MAHA report

MAHA speaks By Adam B. Kushner I'm the editor of this newsletter. The movement to Make America Healthy Again is an unusual political force. Its blunt views about our collective well-being hold a certain countercultural, even courageous, appeal: We eat junk. We stare at our phones too much and move too little. Chemical companies have toxified our lives. Drugmakers aren't helping. Our children's health is too important to tolerate all this. Many scientists and experts back these conclusions and have fretted about them for years. The ideas poll well. And in an age of polarization, the movement draws together all sorts of Americans — MAGA die-hards, libertarians worried about government mandates, liberal parents who don't want their kids ingesting trash. At the same time, many MAHA claims defy science, push misinformation or simply do little to address the problems. Its advocates, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., say that common vaccines can be dangerous. That fluoride has no place in drinking water. That chemicals in the environment could be making people gay. Yesterday — with a long-awaited report about children's health and a move against drug advertisements — the Trump administration embodied this MAHA alchemy. Today's newsletter is about the new actions. A statement American kids are not all right, the administration says. It cites four reasons: a poor diet dominated by ultraprocessed foods; bad habits like screen addiction and physical inactivity; exposure to pollutants; and "overmedicalization," in which kids are given unnecessary treatments. Yesterday's report proposes remedies: About 5 percent of children take medication for A.D.H.D. The government wants insurance companies to raise the standard for who gets approved. Fluoride in drinking water staves off cavities. And although the levels in American water are safe, Kennedy wants it gone, because too much fluoride can lead to bone and brain problems. The government has already limited access to Covid vaccines. Change may come also for other inoculations, including the timing of when kids receive which shots. And the National Institutes of Health will now scrutinize vaccine side effects more closely. The government will commission a slew of studies to better understand microplastics, air quality and the cumulative toll of chemicals and electromagnetic radiation. The report also points to a number of actions the Trump administration has already taken, writes Dani Blum, a Times health reporter. These include cracking down on food dyes, relaunching the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools and studying the causes of autism. What goes unmentioned. Kennedy supporters hoped he would limit toxic pesticides, but the MAHA statement calls only for more trust in "robust review procedures" and more study about how farmers can use fewer chemicals. It also does not call for direct restrictions of ultraprocessed foods. What happens next. Kennedy has not said how the government will implement or finance certain goals. Times health reporters wrote that experts like the proposals for "more research on nutrition, greater oversight of food additives, revisions to nutrition labels and healthier foods in schools and hospitals." But those represent political challenges. "Expecting industry to change voluntarily is fantasy," one scholar said. Taking action. Trump moved decisively yesterday on one issue that Kennedy favors: He revived a decades-old policy to restrict advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers. Odd bedfellows Kennedy occupies an unusual role in the administration. He's an environmentalist and a former Democrat whose agenda differs somewhat from Trump's, as my colleagues Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Maggie Haberman report. Kennedy denounces the Covid vaccines that Trump brags about. That awkward dynamic was evident in the MAHA report, too. It says government programs should provide "whole, healthy food" for low-income Americans, but Trump's domestic policy bill slashed funding for food assistance. It says we should study the health effects of poor water and air quality, but the administration has rolled back pollution regulations. Yet both men are outsiders who are suspicious of academia and the federal bureaucracy. "Mr. Trump decries the 'deep state' and Mr. Kennedy continually calls the agencies he oversees 'corrupt,'" Sheryl and Maggie write. And the two men need each other. Kennedy's supporters shore up Trump's base, and Trump has given Kennedy a wide berth to implement his agenda. More coverage The Trump administration has been discussing severe restrictions on medicines from China. If enacted, they could upend the availability of generic drugs in America. School cafeterias are enacting tighter nutritional standards. N.B.A.: An essay by LeBron James sparked criticism after it ran on a state-controlled news outlet in China. The Lakers star didn't actually write it, The Athletic reports. N.F.L.: The league suspended the Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter without pay for one game for spitting on Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. He'll be eligible to play against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. THE PAST THAT NEVER WAS A still of A.I. imagery from a video made by Tavaius Dawson published on his Instagram account, Maximal Nostalgia.  Nostalgia is spreading on social media. In A.I.-generated videos, unnervingly realistic teens from decades past pause their wholesome activities to inform the viewer that the internet killed joy. In one, set around the summer of 2000, a young man with spiked hair tells us about his era: "No chats, no DMs, just stories around the fire 'til morning." Anyone who lived through the 2000s can tell you that people weren't always relaxed and carefree and sitting around campfires. Still, these videos are connecting with scores of viewers online — some who miss their youth, others who are too young to remember. Read more about the rise of A.I. nostalgia bait.