With the explosive rise in the rates of chronic and autoimmune disease in the U.S. over the last two decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched an overhaul of the federal agency in a controversial attempt to tackle the issue of America’s declining health by unconventional means. Numerous health experts say that RFK Jr.’s efforts are a welcome course correction of a broken health care system that has long disregarded the root causes of chronic disease.

Data shows that chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and cancer have “increased steadily” over the last two decades, and the trend is “expected to continue,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In recent years, “more than half of US adults had at least 1 chronic condition, and more than one-quarter had 2 or more chronic conditions.” Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death in the U.S. for decades.

But as the CDC also notes, heart disease and other chronic conditions are largely caused by lifestyle choices, like an unhealthy diet and little exercise. As Dr. Mark Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, recently observed, RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report lays out “a powerful, evidence-based road map to fix our broken food system, which is where health begins. It highlighted how ultraprocessed foods drive chronic disease, how our medical training system fails to equip doctors with nutrition knowledge, and how our current incentives reward disease — not health.”

Hyman further noted that RFK Jr.’s HHS has taken numerous steps toward improving dietary health in America, such as “New rules to protect children from junk food marketing … NIH/FDA collaborations on nutrition regulatory science, [e]xpanded NIH funding for nutrition research, [w]aivers to limit SNAP purchases of soda and junk food, [e]fforts to include nutrition in every medical school, [g]uidance to regulate ultraprocessed foods, [f]ood dye removal initiatives,” and more.

Autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease are also greatly increasing. In addition, autism has reached “epidemic” levels, according to CDC data. “One in 31 American children born in 2014 are disabled by autism,” stated RFK Jr. “That’s up significantly from two years earlier and nearly five times higher than when the CDC first started running autism surveys in children born in 1992.” The precise causes of autism and autoimmune diseases have yet to be determined, but evidence points to prenatal and early childhood exposure to toxins as a primary culprit.

The toxins found in vaccines have also raised widespread concerns about adverse health effects, particularly on children. These concerns led RFK Jr. to announce in June that HHS will reconstitute its Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) by removing members who had connections with vaccine manufacturers in order to avoid conflicts of interest when evaluating the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Concerns over vaccine safety and parental rights also led officials in Florida last week to end vaccine mandates for children in schools. “This isn’t actually a scientific debate,” remarked Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. “This is about whether the parent’s interest should prevail over the sovereignty and the autonomy of their bodies and their children’s bodies, or whether the government should prevail. It’s that simple.”

Lawmakers like Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a former OB-GYN who practiced medicine for over 25 years, agree, saying that the changes being implemented at HHS may seem rapid but are still necessary.

“I know that sometimes change is coming really quickly and it’s hard for us to accept that,” he acknowledged during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Monday. “But RFK Jr.’s goals, my goals are to restore trust and transparency in the CDC. When COVID came along, the CDC [and] Dr. Fauci lied to us about the origins of the virus. They lied to us about the vaccines as well, overpromised on them. And then the mandates came along. … What RFK Jr. is trying to do is to say, ‘Look, not every person needs every vaccine.’ What we want to do is we want to empower parents and their doctor[s] to make decisions together. And personally, I don’t think any child needs 76 jabs. Not every child needs every vaccine. And again, we want to restore that trust and transparency in the CDC.”

Marshall continued, “I think a great example is to talk about the hepatitis vaccine, which the CDC recommends to every one-day-old. … I delivered a baby most every day of my life for 25 years. We tested every one of those moms for hepatitis. If the mom has a negative hepatitis screen, she’s not doing IV drugs, she’s in a stable, monogamous relationship, the chances of that baby getting hepatitis are zero. So why do we think every baby needs a hepatitis vaccine? And then what is that hepatitis vaccine doing to the development of that baby’s immune system? Why do we have all these children with peanut allergies, autoimmune problems, early onset of cancers? … What are the benefits and the risks of this hepatitis vaccine? What are the benefits and risks of a COVID vaccine? … Again, not every person needs every vaccine.”

As for the ongoing debate over the deregulation of the abortion pill mifepristone, which occurred under the Biden administration and has yet to be addressed by the current Trump administration, Marshall emphasized the need for HHS and the Trump administration to act.

“This is an opportunity,” he underscored. “I do think the White House is listening to the situation. … [A]s far as I’m concerned, it’s malpractice to give it without a doctor’s appointment, without the doctor putting eyes on the patient, without doing a sonogram. … And morally, it’s not the right thing to do either. … I’ve never prescribed this pill. I can never prescribe it. But I’ve taken care of a lot of patients where other doctors have prescribed it. And I saw them in the emergency room with their complications.”