Make Our Children Health Again

Clue: start with their diet.

Older readers will remember the bizarre spectacle of Mao’s Great Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. This began a few years after his catastrophic Great Leap Forward (1958-62) led to the deaths of up to 55 million people and set Chinese industry back a generation. The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to Make China Safe For Maoism by eliminating all wrong thinking. Mao’s technique in the Cultural Revolution was to use his personality cult as The Great Helmsman in order to mobilise urban youth as Red Guards of the revolution (there were a lot of unemployed youth following his Great Leap Forward). His goal was to destroy the Four Olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. And a lot of old people who carried the memes, too. They were to be replaced by right ideas, right culture, right customs, and right habits, as defined by the Great Helmsman and his evil wife, Jiang Qing. In particular, he targeted universities as bastions of bourgeois thinking. Professors were shamed and hounded from their offices, if not driven to their deaths. In the process of purifying minds, Mao wrecked millions of lives, bumped off another 2 million and drove Chinese culture, education and research into a deep hole for twenty years.

I was reminded of this very troubled era (and of this song, indelibly imprinted over it) when Mr Robert F Kennedy Jr released the initial report of his “Make American Children Healthy Again” commission (MACHA), as detailed in the presidential decree of Feb 13^th to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA). It’s about 70 pages but widely-spaced, rather boring, and half the pages are taken up by the 522 citations so it doesn’t take long to get through.

Meantime, events have moved quickly. On one front, the War on Wrong Thinking has trained its sights on two major universities, Columbia in NY, and Harvard, just across the Charles River in Boston. They are to be exemplars of how the Trumpian Revolution takes on entrenched elements of the Deep State and whittles them down to size using what is called “lawfare.” By rapidly issuing a long series of impossible/absurd/illegal/contradictory orders/threats/demands, the Trumpists keep their opponents in a state of confused agitation (see Chris Hedges here). Some people say this is a deliberate ploy Trump has perfected over the years but that’s not quite right. It’s a standard technique used by dictators and suburban wannabes to unnerve their opposition so they can sneak in and grab the prize. In Trump’s case, it’s wholly a product of his impulsivity and kindergarten-level attention span, compounded by his rapidly developing dementia. If somebody annoys him, he attacks and attacks; if the attack fails, he blames somebody else and moves on to another enemy but he always comes back for more. Trump forgets nothing and he learns nothing – well, that used to be true, he’s forgetting a lot more now as the dementia starts to bite.

On the other front, spearheaded by Mr Musk’s very own DOGE Revolutionary Guards (including one skinny 19yo whose screen name is the highly improbable “Big Balls”), the forces of Righteous Small Government have forced a range of departments and agencies to terminate many of their projects or services (and no, Virginia, definitely not the military). This includes a 40% reduction in the budget for the National Institutes for Health (NIH), which has further affected the universities. At Harvard alone, no less than 350 biomedical research projects have been closed. The major reason given is that universities haven’t done enough to counter “antisemitism,” meaning they haven’t expelled students who oppose the continuing slaughter in Gaza. There are other thought crimes on the list, especially not eliminating the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs intended to rectify various social imbalances in their admissions, teaching and research programs.

The net result is that bio-medical and psycho-social research in the US is now facing the greatest crisis in its history. This, it must not be forgotten, is being driven by a president with no biological training whatsoever who thought that drinking bleach and shining UV light down your trachea would get rid of Covid virus. The parallels with Mao’s attacks on the bourgeois running dogs of the capitalist-roaders are very close – and, of course, with the Nazi book burners who drove Jewish people out of academia and business. Hatred of the intelligentsia is a sure sign of societal decline (although many of the intelligentsia have handed their Trumpist enemies clubs to belabour them).

Having created havoc, what are Mr Kennedy’s plans to MACHA? After a few pages of flimflam, the report proper starts (p9) with 10 pages of facts and figures to show that, despite spending twice as much per capita on health as any other country, the US is far down the list. Its major achievement has been to make a gigantic cockup of what everybody else in the world regards as a fundamental right: to be healthy and have healthy children. The figures are worth looking at: over 75% of applicants to the armed forces are declared medically unfit for service (p9). The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugars daily, which amounts to 60lb annually (over 27kg) (p23). Obesity in children 6-16yrs has increased 270% in 50 years (overweight and obese is about 70% of the population). Rates of ASD and ADHD are increasing explosively. Interestingly, compared with 1975, childhood cancer rates are up 40%, although that doesn’t get much attention Starting on p14, we read about the “mental health crisis” affecting American young people: “Three million high school students seriously considered suicide in 2023… suicide is now the second leading cause of death in teens aged 15-19.”

On p16, we pause to ask “What is Driving the Increase in Childhood Chronic Disease?” The answers tumble out: the American diet, exposure to environmental chemicals, American children’s pervasive technology use, over-diagnosis and over-treatment by the medical profession, with stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics and antibiotics as the main offenders. However, Mortal Sin No. 1 is Corporate Capture: “…we must face the troubling reality that the threats to American childhood have been exacerbated by perverse incentives that impact the regulatory bodies and federal agencies tasked with overseeing them” (p18). There is no mention of how the activities of Musk and the DOGE crew in gutting the very same regulatory agencies will improve matters. Corporate capture affects the food industry, the chemical manufacturing industry and, of course, the pharmaceutical industry, which leads to Section 2 and clearly one of Mr Kennedy’s pet hates, “Ultra-Processed Foods” (UPF, p21): “… nearly 70% of an American child’s calories come from UPFs” which leads to nutrient depletion, excess caloric intake and, quel horreur, food additives and dyes. Various figures show the impact of diet on health, mainly cardiovascular, diabetes and cancers and practically all other conditions.

The offenders here are Big Food, Big Ag and Big Everything Else. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), issued by the FDA, are routinely ignored which is the FDA’s fault as the language is too technical for ordinary people. That doesn’t explain why school lunches and the Food Stamps program and prisons and hospitals and armies also ignore them, or why, e.g., primary schools often have vending machines in the lunchroom. However, “The DGAs have a history of being unduly influenced by corporate interests” (their emphasis). Compounding this, the SNAP program (food stamps) used by 42million people per month allows them to buy ultra-processed food. However, that’s unlikely to remain a problem as SNAP has been targeted by the DOGE Guards and is being cut down dramatically. Soon, poor people won’t be eating the wrong foods because a lot of them won’t be eating at all. It also mentions the farm support program, which supports the wrong crops (e.g. corn, which is made into the oceans of corn syrup that goes into everything American; and yes, car fuel tanks, they have the world’s most wasteful ethanol program which actually costs more in energy than it produces) but is backed by the farming lobby, especially as the Trump tariffs mean China is no longer buying US farm products. Now, more than ever, farmers need the subsidies that have been discreetly hidden in the Farm Bills for decades.

Section 2 looks at “The Cumulative Load of Chemicals in our Environment,” which is interesting because it points out that environmental safety regulations have led to major improvements in the way toxic chemicals are dumped into the air, water and soil. However, they urge more research to work out how complex mixes of chemicals affect long-term health, but not European-style regulation of said chemicals as that stifles growth. On p40, there is a neat list of all the ways chemicals can affect health at different stages of life, and why children are most vulnerable. Starting on p46, we read how Corporate Influence has biased basic research in this field which “… mirrors tactics used by the tobacco industry to distort scientific consensus.”

In Section 3, we read about “The Crisis of Childhood Behaviour in the Digital Age” (p48). It seems American teenagers spend an average of nearly 9 hours per day on out-of-school screen time (p53). Apparently true. It doesn’t leave much time for anything else, including sleep, which bothers Mr Kennedy almost as much as (undefined) “Stress.” Naturally enough, this leads in Section 4 to questions re the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of ADHD and such like. In “The Overmedicalization of Our Kids” (p59), we’re told young Americans are taking too many tablets for too many diagnoses. There is no attempt to square this with the steadily rising “stress” levels but that will probably come in the full report, later this year. BTW, the date for the revelation of the cause of ASD has been put back from September, tba. And so we come to RFK Jr’s pet gripe, vaccinations (which aren’t, they’re immunisations but don’t worry about that). This, he says, would benefit from much more detailed research into long-term effects without the various conflicts of interests and also medical boards should stop penalising practitioners who like to talk about adverse effects of immunisations. We need to foster “Scientific and Medical Freedom,” encouraging “critical discussion and open dialogues” as essential to good health.

This brings us to the interesting bit in this report, “From Bench to Bedside: Mechanisms of Corporate Capture” (p66). What follows will be familiar to all the nasty people who say bad things about the mainstream health industry, especially psychiatry:

The overmedicalization of American children, characterized by escalating prescription rates, unwarranted interventions, and declining health outcomes, signals a critical policy failure where corporate profitability supersedes the health of children. … today’s system far outspends sister nations while delivering far worse outcomes. This phenomenon is largely propelled by ‘corporate capture’ …Corporate capture entails the systematic distortion of scientific literature, regulatory processes, clinical practices, and public discourse by pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, all aimed at maximizing profits. These mechanisms illustrate a trajectory from initial research to pervasive market saturation and narrative control.

No shit, Sherlock, you needed a presidential commission to work this out? We could have done it free, in a day or two. And maximizing profits? How could they? It continues with a very brief summary of all that is wrong with modern, corporatised medicine: distortion of the scientific literature by industry funding of clinical trials and journals; interference with the teaching of medical students and of post-graduate trainees; undue influence at the level of political lobbying (I would say all secret influence is undue); financing community groups to pressure politicians to favour drug companies; constantly widening markets by inventing new diseases; influencing clinical guidelines and treatment protocols to favour their products; creating new applications for old drugs to extend patents; influencing public media and “disincentivising public criticism” (i.e. stirring up “pile-ons” for anybody who dares to speak against the trend); and so many others. I mean to say, who on earth could have suspected this in the Land of the Free Market?

This brief section alone says everything that critics could hope for, except for one thing: it’s probably doomed. Even though Mr Kennedy’s little commission is actually very big and top-heavy (even the reptilian Steven Miller gets a guernsey), it has declared war on some even bigger and more powerful vested interests. First, there’s Big Pharma, source of hundreds of millions in “donations” to politicians each year (read: bribes). Then there’s that ginormous toad called the AMA, and peering around it is the little frog of the APA (psychiatry). They all work hand in hand with the private hospitals, who make money out of selling expensive branded drugs to rich people who don’t need to be in hospital, and the health insurance industry, which makes money out of everything.

If this report gets any traction, those and many other groups are in serious trouble so they’ve got a very powerful, even existential, interest in sabotaging it. Academia would normally be keen to cut Kennedy down to size but they’ve already been kneecapped by DOGE, although Big Ag and the farming lobby are alive and growling. The agriculture lobby, meaning food processors and purveyors, has a lot of money while the actual farming lobby has a lot of votes, of whom about 94% voted for Trump. Even though his bizarre tariffs on China have backfired and are likely to bankrupt huge numbers of family farms, the F-wits still worship him. Don’t forget lobbies like schools, who are the main drug pushers for children these days; and prisons, because they like their guests subdued; and the chemical industry, because they hate any restrictions on the toxins they spray around; ditto the coal and oil industries, who don’t want to be blamed for air pollution; and last and certainly not least, the parents and others who want their little darlings drugged because it’s easier than dealing with reality.

It just goes on. This is the neoliberal free market on steroids. Combined, these and all the other pressure groups are irresistible, especially as they know they only have to wait another four years and all this nonsense about clean environments and pill-free childhoods will fade away. And there’s another problem for Mr Kennedy that shouldn’t be overlooked. At dozens of points in his little spiel he mentions how something isn’t understood properly and needs, wait for it, further research. In particular, p72, the last page, gives a list of goals: “Next Steps – Supporting Gold-Standard Scientific Research and Developing a Comprehensive Strategy.” Each one of them is a major research agenda that would make a professor’s tummy rumble with excitement.

OK, now we understand: all the research that’s gone on over the past 150 years wasn’t up to standard so we just need to run a few more research projects and all will be clear, e.g. that immunisations do cause fallen arches after all. But very soon, there won’t be any genuine researchers left. All that will be left will be a squabbling crew of self-declared bright sparks like Big Balls and his pimply mates who are just what the Sage of Minnesota had in mind when he observed:

At 14, you’re no sceptic but a true believer starting with belief in yourself as a natural phenomenon never before seen on this earth and therefore incomprehensible to all others (Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days, p20).

That sense of being supernaturally beyond criticism also applies to 79yo narcissistic psychopaths with early dementia; 53yo multibillionaires intent on streamlining the government while creaming off vast subsidies; and 71yo former drug users and “predators” who’ve never worked in their privileged lives.

The good news is that if the research they set out actually comes to pass, it will provide massive support for the position known as “critical psychiatry.” Also critical paediatrics, and geriatrics, general medicine, psychology and social work as well. The bad news is that I expect the lobbies will so muddy the waters, as they’re experts in doing, that nothing will happen in the next 1335 days. In the past, they’ve survived much worse threats than DOGE wankers who are barely out of short pants. Another risk is that RFK Jr himself will fall foul of Herr Drumpf’s notoriously fickle moods and will get the axe, as happens to everybody who thinks they can hang around him long enough to get some fame or money (Michael Wolff, Trump’s biographer, says that everybody who goes near him gets burned). If all the lobbies got together and said to Trump: “Get rid of Kennedy and his MAHA game or we’ll sink you in the mid-terms,” young Bobby would be out the door before he could reach for his drergs. But they won’t, so the nonsense will rage on. I’d really like the opportunity to stand before their committee and tell them “Yes, everything you say about psychiatry is true, and a whole lot more besides, so let’s get started,” but it probably won’t happen. We lesser mortals can only wait and see who’s left standing at the end. Regrettably, I’ll have to put my money on the drug companies. Like cockroaches and rats, they’re great survivors.

And so we come to the really bad news. The Trumpian attack on conventional medicine, and psychiatry, and universities, you name it, is actually part of the standard fascist playbook of castrating the intelligentsia as threats to their power. Trump especially hates Harvard as, 60 years ago, they rejected him and just last year, rejected his youngest son. However, he hated experts and the establishment and old money and respectability and all that stuff to begin with. Now, with the world’s biggest bully pulpit at his disposal, he’s going to pull their fingernails out one by one and laugh as they scream. Just like Mao, Trump and his venal gang of sycophants certainly don’t care how many people are killed in the process.

Who would have thought that “Move fast and break things” was not an ideal way to run a government?

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