Leaked health report

 Did you see the leaked health report? You won’t want to miss it ...

• Dr. Peter G. Lurie, CSPI 

  From:alert@cspinet.org

  To:Mark M Giese

  Tue, Aug 19 2025 at 11:52 AM

  Mark -- Did you see the leaked “Make America Healthy Again” draft strategy report released by POLITICO on Friday?   After this leaked draft was published, our team of scientists and policy analysts went through it with a fine-tooth comb. I wanted to reach out personally to help highlight the key aspects that concern CSPI as the Trump administration turns our public health initiatives upside-down.  First, some context: President Donald Trump signed executive orders to create a so-called “Make America Healthy Again” commission and tasked them with the project of addressing childhood chronic disease. While we can agree on many of the issues MAHA highlights, actions speak louder than words. So far, the administration is making us all more unhealthy by plunging the country into a nutrition and food safety crisis.   Now, to address the strategies revealed in the leaked report:   1. Rather than follow evidence-based strategies to improve health, the report is a laundry list of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s ill-informed beliefs. The report includes recommendations to alter our vaccine framework, restructure government agencies, and promote meat and whole milk—all of which will promote disease, not health.    2. The report is also largely focused on voluntary action and education instead of regulation. While we can agree with the report’s stated goal to reduce food additives, sodium, and added sugar in foods, the document encourages food companies to take these actions voluntarily—which we are not at all confident will ever happen.  3. Furthermore, the report seems to twist itself into knots to make it clear that it will not be infringing upon food companies, such as its assertion that HHS and FTC “will explore development of potential industry guidelines to limit the direct marketing of certain unhealthy foods to children.” Again, though we agree with the goal to prevent food companies from marketing unhealthy foods to kids, simply exploring potential guidelines is not enough—the government must actually create and enforce mandatory rules.  4. Bizarrely, the report’s only suggestion to address alcohol, vaping, and opioid use is through education—despite many opportunities for regulations that we know would help—and it doesn’t even mention tobacco. Personal responsibility doesn’t work in a broken system. The fix is government action, not industry self-regulation.    Talk is cheap. We need to judge the administration by what it does, not what it says. And the administration's attacks on vaccine policy, SNAP, Medicaid, the health insurance exchanges, and the FDA and USDA workforces are poised to make America sicker—not healthier.   You can count on CSPI to tell you fact from fiction—and fight back. Right now, CSPI is calling for the reinstatement of HHS workers after DOGE cuts and we just won a major ruling in a court case (alongside ACLU, ACLU of Massachusetts, Protect Democracy, and Emery Celli) which will reinstate funding for NIH medical research grants. And, we’re working at the state level to advance nutrition policy.  Our work as your food and health watchdog is more important than ever. But if we’re going to continue to address evolving public health threats, we need more help from CSPI supporters like you. Please, help us resist the Trump administration’s attacks on science by donating today. Every gift is a powerful rebuke of the administration’s harmful agenda. I know this was a longer email, so thank you for reading to the end. It’s because of supporters like you that I know we can make major progress on our health—no matter who stands in our way.    Thank you,    Peter G. Lurie, MD, MPH       President and Executive Director       Center for Science in the Public Interest    P.S. Consider making a monthly commitment to make a bigger impact on CSPI's work to defend our public health system and improve our health.        Center for Science in the Public Interest 1250 I St. NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005 United States