RFK Jr. Makes Case For Transforming U.S. Health Outcomes
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Chart of the week: The percentage of U.S. crops that are genetically engineered to resist herbicides (ala Roundup) and insects grew from ~10% in 1996 to 90% today.
Historic gene editing: A six-month old baby, KJ Muldoon, became the first human patient to be treated with personalized CRISPR gene editing therapy. KJ was born with with a rare condition called severe carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency, resulting in dangerous levels of ammonia in his blood. He was put on dialysis, and at the time, the only lifesaving treatment for the condition was an eventual liver transplant. Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and PENN Medicine had been working on gene editing treatments for conditions similar to KJ’s. Six months after his birth, the research team had developed a treatment to specifically target KJ’s faulty enzyme. He has now received multiple rounds of the treatment and his condition has improved (more time is needed to fully evaluate the efficacy). KJ’s parents and his three other siblings are overjoyed. Read and watch more about his story here.
More: While CRISPR gene editing has been used in the past to treat more common conditions, such as sickle cell disease, this marks the first time it was developed for an individual condition.
Trump Middle East Trip: President Trump visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in his first foreign policy trip of his second term this week. The meetings were marked by investment deals, arms agreements, and praise for the three wealthiest Arab nations. More than 30 top U.S. business leaders joined Trump in Saudi Arabia, including executives from Amazon, Google, Tesla, and BlackRock. As part of the visit, Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase $142B worth of arms and other military equipment from the U.S., the largest ever arms deal. Additionally, Qatar agreed to purchase $42B of arms. Across the three countries, trillions of investments in the U.S. were committed, centered around weaponry, AI, and data centers.
More: Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the two largest arms buyers from the U.S.
Tariff reprieve: China and the U.S. agreed to lower most tariffs for 90 days following meetings between the two sides in Switzerland. Broadly, the U.S. tariff rate was reduced from 145% to 30% while China’s dropped from 125% to 10%. Despite the decrease, the tariffs remain higher than when Trump came into office. The 90 day suspension is expected to give retailers a window of time to place orders for products from China to prepare for the holiday shopping season. Stock markets jumped on the news and have now fully recovered their losses following Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement on April 2.
Pope Leo XIV’s audience at the Vatican with members of the media stressed the need for peace and the media’s role in fostering it. Leo encouraged a different mode of communication that doesn’t use aggressive language and which “never separates the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it.” He continued, “peace begins with each one of us - the way in which we look at others, listen to others, speak about others. In this way, the way with which we communicate is of fundamental importance.”
More: The pope said the Church stands in solidarity with journalists that are imprisoned or face threats to their lives and recognizes the courage of those that defend “the right of the people to be informed, for only an informed people can make free choices.”
AI Companions: In an interview on the Dwarkesh podcast, Mark Zuckerberg discussed Meta’s vision for AI companions. He believes that as the “personalization” of AI increases, chat bot companions will be “really compelling” and the social stigma around them will decrease. He also argued that while the “average American has fewer than 3 friends…the average person has demand for meaningfully more” and thinks AI bots will be able to fill some of this gap.
Diddy Trial: The trial of Sean Combs is underway in the Southern District of New York. The jury is composed of 12 New Yorkers - 8 men and 4 women. The trial is being overseen by Judge Arun Subramanian and is expected to take about 8 weeks. Combs faces charges of federal sex trafficking and racketeering. The prosecution is led by Emily Johnson and Maurene Comey, the daughter of former-FBI director James Comey. The lead defense attorneys are Marc Agnifilo, Teny Geragos, and Brian Steel. The trial is open to the public but no digital devices are allowed in the courtroom.
RFK Jr. Makes Case For Transforming U.S. Health Outcomes
The Make America Healthy movement and its spokesperson’s (RFK Jr.) endorsement of Trump was a key aspect of the 2024 election campaign. However, the discussion around reforming the U.S. healthcare system and improving health outcomes has been an under-covered aspect of the administration thus far. Yet it is an area of interest for people on both sides of the aisle given the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S. and the disproportionate amount the country spends on healthcare.
The News Memo wants to help you stay informed of the discussion - in particular, hearing from RFK Jr. himself. Where possible, we try to provide the original sources and direct video clips.
What happened this week?
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F Kennedy Jr. sat before two Congressional committees on Wednesday to answer questions about the proposed 2026 budget for his department. While the hearings had many fiery exchanges, attacks, and a disruption from Ben and Jerry’s co-founder (video), they also contained moments of goodwill, cross-aisle agreements, and a moment of levity between Bernie Sanders and Mr. Kennedy. While many lawmakers expressed anger over the proposed budget cuts and reorganization at HHS, many others thanked RFK for his willingness to work with them on issues affecting their constituents.
Kennedy emphasizes need for change
RFK Jr. has routinely pointed to the fact that the U.S. spends 2-3x more on healthcare per capita than other developed countries and yet has worse health outcomes, including lower life expectancy and higher rates of obesity. Over 70% of Americans are considered overweight or obese and about 40% of teens are pre-diabetic.
Kennedy has indicated his top priority is to help make the U.S. food supply healthier, which he sees as the primary driver of the chronic health epidemic. As part of this, he said the “central focus” of the FDA and National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to study the health effects of additives and ultra-processed foods.
Lookback: In April, the FDA announced it will phase out the 9 synthetic, petroleum-based color dyes used in food. In May, the FDA approved three natural dyes as alternatives and is fast-tracking more.
New dietary guidelines
The HHS and USDA are working on new dietary guidelines that are used to guide school lunch programs and other federally-funded food programs. Kennedy said the new guidelines, which he aims to have ready by August, will be 4 pages compared to the current 150 pages and will essentially encourage people to eat “whole foods.”
Pharmaceutical advertising
Kennedy has been a long-time critic of and wants to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. Kennedy explained his position on the issue (video) and said he would work with Senator Josh Hawley (R, MO) to prohibit pharmaceutical companies from being able to use their advertising expenses as a tax deduction. In a moment of bipartisan agreement, Senator Bernie Sanders expressed support for the idea as well.
Insight: The U.S. and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
Autism and what causes epidemics
Kennedy has drawn criticism for his view that the rise in autism rates is more attributable to environmental than genetic factors. When asked about this, Kennedy explained his position on what factors must be present for a condition like autism to become an “epidemic.” He said, “The genes do not cause epidemics. They can contribute a vulnerability, but you need an environmental toxin. It’s like cigarettes and smoking. Smoking cigarettes was killing 1 out of every 5 [people]...that meant 4 out of 5 survived. So there’s a genetic component to the ones who got lung cancer and died, and that is the genetic vulnerability, but you also need an environmental toxin. You cannot have a sudden epidemic without an environmental exposure” (clip).
Vaccines
Multiple lawmakers pressed Kennedy regarding his stance on vaccines, including the measles and chickenpox vaccines.
Representative Mark Pocan (D, WI) asked Kennedy if he would vaccinate his children for measles or chickenpox if he faced that decision today. RFK said “probably for measles” but added that he didn’t want to give specific advice. Regarding vaccines, Kennedy said his department would try to “lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, accurately, as we understand them, with replicable studies,” and then allow people to make their own decisions (video).
Senator Roger Marshall (R, KS) asks Kennedy what his role is regarding recommending vaccines (video).
Kennedy defends proposed budget cuts, reorganization of HHS
The Trump Administration’s budget proposal for next fiscal year calls for deep cuts at HHS, and in particular, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Explainer: Outside of the $1.7T of mandatory spending on Medicare and Medicaid, HHS oversees a discretionary spending budget of $100B+ across dozens of sub-divisions. The largest of these include the Administration for Children and Families, NIH, the CDC, and FDA, among others.
The White House’s discretionary budget proposal for HHS in the next fiscal year is $94B, a more than 25% decrease from the current $130B and would return the HHS to 2019 spending levels. The majority of proposed cuts would be at the NIH, which the Administration wants to cut by $18B, or 40%. The NIH funds a substantial portion of all biomedical research globally. The proposed cuts to NIH are one area of the budget proposal that received aggressive pushback from multiple lawmakers.
Kennedy defended the budget cuts, saying the majority of spending reductions would be at the administrative level, not at the level of scientists and researchers, and that HHS is aggressively using AI technology to make operations and scientific reviews more efficient with less staff.
RFK also argued that the size and spend of HHS needs to return to pre-covid levels given the large deficit the government is running.
On top of the proposed budget cuts, HHS is undergoing a significant reorganization and consolidation of subdivisions. Read more about the reorg from Kennedy’s original letter.
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