Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented sweeping reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), restricting benefits for purchasing sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also secured voluntary commitments from major food corporations to remove harmful dyes like Red No. 40 and Green No. 3 from products by year-end.
Kennedy announced a significant reduction in bureaucratic overhead at HHS, claiming doctors and nurses were spending excessive time on paperwork. By streamlining forms, his initiative aims to save healthcare costs and improve patient care efficiency, described as “one of the most important changes” for saving lives.
Under Kennedy’s appointee Marty Makary, the FDA has begun aligning research with a focus on ultra-processed foods and environmental toxins. Makary announced plans for new nutrition guidelines by August 2025, replacing the 1992 food pyramid with a simplified version emphasizing whole foods.
As we previously reported last month, Kennedy retired the entire CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and appointed new members. This new panel swiftly voted to remove thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, from flu shots, a decision celebrated as a step toward safer vaccines. Mercury is a proven neurotoxin.
In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson available on Rumble, Kennedy referenced Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) data to support his assertion that the FDA acknowledged significant COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries, citing a potential rate of 1 in 37 recipients affected. He suggested VAERS’ flaws were ignored when evidence of harm surfaced, pointing to a 2010 study claiming only 1% of adverse events are reported.
In that same interview, Kennedy stated the CDC buried a 1999 non peer reviewed internal study by epidemiologist Thomas Verstraeten showing a 1135% increased autism risk from the Hepatitis B vaccine, alleging a cover-up by researchers who manipulated data to obscure the link. He cited the 2000 Simpsonwood Conference, where CDC officials discussed this evidence, the transcript of which is available on archive.org
A 2007 study by David A.Geier, and his father Mark R. Geier, titled “A Case Series of Children with Apparent Mercury Toxicosis Presenting with Autism,” published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, was later retracted due to push-back over methodology, as it relied on VAERS data which cannot establish causality. In an apparent act of vindication, Kennedy has appointed Geier to review autism data. The inquiry leverages a new "real-world data platform" announced earlier in 2025, integrating Medicare and Medicaid records, insurance claims, pharmacy data, and smartwatch health metrics, covering roughly 36% of Americans. This platform, developed through a partnership between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), aims to provide comprehensive patient data for autism research.
But Kennedy has faced growing criticism from some of his supporters for not outright banning mRNA vaccines, particularly those for COVID-19, and for perceived inaction on restricting additional mRNA technologies. Former cardiologist and informal Kennedy adviser Dr. Peter McCullough stated in a recent interview that “the big threat is that we still have COVID-19 vaccines on the market”.
McCullough’s remarks reflect a growing sentiment that Kennedy’s actions, such as halting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women in May, don’t go far enough, and ironically still leave sick children at risk.
However, in May, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), led by Kennedy ally Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, did redirect $500 million from mRNA vaccine studies to non-mRNA universal vaccine research, a move described as a “paradigm shift.”