"Make America Healthy Again" is dead

There is nothing RFK Jr. can do at the Department of Health to make up for what's happening at the EPA.

A person in a “Make America Healthy Again” shirt sits at Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Part of me wants to be snarky about this. Because I knew it was going to happen. It felt obvious to me.

But I can’t entirely blame individuals for believing well-funded, widely-disseminated, professionally-crafted bullshit. So I’m going to say this with the most grace and sympathy toward my Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-admiring readers as I possibly can: There is nothing Kennedy can do at the Department of Health that will make up for what Donald Trump is doing at the Environmental Protection Agency. Nothing.

If fully realized, the Trump administration’s recent actions at the EPA will result in skyrocketing rates of chronic disease and cancer in America—particularly in babies and pregnant people, populations particularly vulnerable to fossil fuel pollution. This is not only my opinion, but that of several major medical groups, including the American Lung Association and the American Public Health Association.

Here’s a short summary of what EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin did just last week, via the New York Times—and it’s really just the tip of the iceberg:

In a barrage of pronouncements on Wednesday, the Trump administration said it would repeal dozens of the nation’s most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. …

Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. would unwind [31] protections against air and water pollution. It would overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the “good neighbor rule” that requires states to address their own pollution when it’s carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities.

In addition, Zeldin said the mission of the EPA would fundamentally change. No longer would the agency’s purpose be “to protect human health and the environment,” as its been since Richard Nixon established the EPA in 1970. Instead, Zeldin said the EPA’s purpose would be to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”

There are far more egregious, specific actions Trump’s EPA has taken to harm public health in the last few weeks that I’ll list toward the bottom of this letter, if you need more evidence that “Make America Healthy Again” was a bald-faced lie. But here’s the bottom line, via Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of Boston College’s global public health program:

“For an administration that portrays itself as pro-life, a group within the population that will suffer most seriously from those impacts are pregnant women, their infants in the womb, and young kids,” he told The New Lede. “Something that is portrayed as freeing up industry actually ends up killing kids.”

Kennedy can remove all the fluoride from all the drinking water systems in America. It’s not going to make up for dismantling Mercury Air Toxics Standards, which are “critical to protect babies from harmful mercury from coal-fired power plants,” according to the American Lung Association.

Kennedy can rescind every approval of every food dye currently backed by the FDA. It’s not going to make up for undoing regulations on car and truck pollution, which will lead to “significantly more toxic air pollution from vehicle exhaust, exacerbating the risks of asthma, lung disease, and heart attacks,” according to the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.

You can remove all the grains and seed oils you want from a kid’s diet. It doesn’t matter if her water is polluted by industrial agriculture and arsenic-tinged coal waste; if her air is full of tiny soot particles that lodge deep into her circulatory system; and if every environmental group she wants to join to fight it is disbanded because their activities have been defunded and/or criminalized.

Last week, Trump’s EPA released a list of people and organizations praising the agency’s recent actions—which include several proposals to deregulate the chemical industry. Not one environmental or public health group appeared on the list.

There were, however, 10 fossil fuel industry trade groups; several conservative policy groups with fossil fuel industry backing; and 23 members of Congress who have cumulatively taken over $11 million in campaign donations from the oil and gas sector over their career lifetimes. (Fun fact: these 23 members have a cumulative lifetime pro-environment voting score of 4 out of 100).

Coincidentally, all those groups and all these members of Congress routinely downplay the massive human health risk that climate change poses, particularly to children. Because that’s what people who derive money and power from fossil fuels do: They deny, they downplay, and they deflect.

This reality is like 400mg of magnesium: A tough pill that the wellness community needs to swallow. “Make America Healthy Again” is dead, and Big Oil killed it. Worse, they were part of the political coalition that gave the fossil fuel industry carte blanche power to dismantle public health and environmental protections across America. So now they have a responsibility to pivot and raise hell.

Here are some more specifics about what Trump has done at the EPA over the last week or so:

• He announced his intention to block state labels that warn consumers of pesticide risks.

• He announced his intention to ease safety screenings for potentially toxic chemicals.

• He announced his intention to weaken regulations on ethylene oxide, a carcinogen used to sterilize medical devices.

• He announced his intention to roll back regulations to protect workers from chemical disasters.

• He hired a former chemical lobbyist to lead the EPA department that approves new chemicals. Lynn Dekleva used to lobby for fewer restrictions on formaldehyde.

• He cut plans for stricter regulations on PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”

• He dropped a lawsuit seeking to curb toxic chemical emissions in “Cancer Alley.”

• He’s frozen the funding of environmental groups and threatened them with criminal prosecution.

• He announced that the EPA would close all its environmental justice offices, which protect poor and minority communities from pollution.

• He proposed closing the EPA’s research office, which tracks fossil fuel pollution and researches its health impacts. So in addition to being exposed to more pollution, we also won’t know about it!

Importantly, many of these regulatory actions are still in the proposal stage, and will be subject to legal challenges.

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Spreading the message

I went on two shows to talk about the failures of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement this week, to try and reach some new audiences that may not be in this newsletter’s bubble.

The first was the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, New York’s largest public radio station with more than 1 million listeners a week. I’ve always admired Brian’s show, but ever since Trump took office, he’s been dedicating every Tuesday to public health and climate issues, and I think that’s really cool. Take a listen here.

The second was The Hill TV, which has a fairly right-wing audience, as you can see from the comments on my interview on YouTube where I’m getting absolutely read to filth. But I was invited by Marianne Williamson, who has a strong foothold in the wellness community, so I figured it was a good opportunity to reach some people who might be receptive.

Other stories I’m following:

• Big Oil gathers in Texas. “The price of admission, which topped $10,000, included daily charcuterie spreads and access to unlimited bubble tea. …Wine flowed from open bars at nightly receptions and parties like gas from the nearby shale fields of Texas. (One notable shindig, thrown by the oil and gas companies Williams and EQT, was a 1990s-themed and featured a live band. Its name: “Nothin’ But a Gas Thang.”(The Guardian)
  

• Climate activists target Musk and Trump with ‘Project 2026’. Climate Defiance, the group known for its climate-focused disruptions of politicians and corporate leaders, have launched a “four-pronged plan to thwart Trump and the oligarchic takeover of our country.” (E&E News)
  

• ’A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest. “New [U.K.] laws further criminalising disruptive protests had made traditional, accountable methods of activism increasingly unsustainable, and a clandestine approach increasingly attractive.” (The Guardian)

• Peruvian farmer’s lawsuit could reshape corporate climate responsibility. “A landmark lawsuit in Germany, brought by Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya against energy giant RWE, could set a precedent for holding major polluters financially responsible for climate change-related damages.” (Associated Press)
  

• Microsoft is open to using methane gas to power AI data centers to keep up with demand. “Microsoft has ambitious goals to address climate, aiming to match all of its electricity consumption with carbon-free energy by 2030. … But the tech sector has come to the conclusion that renewables alone are not enough to power the demanding power needs of data centers.” (CNBC)
  

• Alabama’s celebrity weatherman pleads for the National Weather Service. “Meteorologist James Spann appeals to his 1.3 million Facebook followers to support the agency, threatened by Trump cuts, that produces the data he relies upon for his forecasts.” (InsideClimate News)

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