The MAHA Report: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (mostly the bad and ugly) -- David Gorsky

[erronis]

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-maha-report-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-mostly-the-bad-and-ugly/

President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary’s MAHA report has landed. It’s a mix of the good (a little), but mostly the bad and the ugly (a lot).

Given that this is a holiday weekend, I had been considering taking a week off to hang out, go on long bike rides, and do some yard work. Then—wouldn’t you know it?—on Thursday, the Trump administration and his “make America healthy again” (MAHA) antivax crank and toady, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., dropped The MAHA Report, with a press release filled with the typical hyperbole and self-congratulatory wankery that we’ve come to know and hate about RFK Jr.:

The Presidential Commission to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) today released a groundbreaking assessment identifying key drivers behind the childhood chronic disease crisis. Coming just 98 days after President Trump signed an Executive Order, links to an external website establishing the MAHA Commission and tasking it with delivering a “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment, links to an external website,” the report exposes a range of contributing factors—including poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization.

By examining these drivers, the assessment arms MAHA Commission stakeholders and partners with clear evidence that will support the development of effective policy interventions where they can deliver the greatest impact.

“We will end the childhood chronic disease crisis by attacking its root causes head-on—not just managing its symptoms,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We will follow the truth wherever it leads, uphold rigorous science, and drive bold policies that put the health, development, and future of every child first. I’m grateful to President Trump for his leadership—and for trusting me to lead this fight to root out corruption, restore scientific integrity, and reclaim the health of our children.”

I debated not writing anyway, but, me being me, I couldn’t resist this big fat juicy target dropped in front of me, even if I didn’t become aware of it until Friday morning, thanks to a long day in clinic on Thursday, followed by attending to family business in the evening. Also, I had already discussed the executive order forming the MAHA Commission, the committee tasked with writing this report in February. As I discussed then, the EO was full of health misinformation about cancer, autism, and ADHD just by itself, so I wanted to see what the final product ended up saying. Let’s just say, it’s a mixture of The Good (very little but not nonexistent), The Bad and The Ugly (the vast majority of the report.)

So let’s take a look at the report. I’ll start with its introduction, which is, predictably, full of RFK Jr.-inspired false premises. Then we’ll look at The Good (which is invariably contaminated with The Bad and the Ugly), and then The Bad and The Ugly, discussion of which will take up the bulk of this post.
Membership

Any time one analyzes a report by a commission or a committee, it’s important to look at who the members are, as who the members are will shape the report. So I perused the list of members. Of course, RFK Jr. chaired the commission, as was expected based on the executive order.

MAHA Commission Roster

What really struck me, however, was how few of the commission members have any expertise in medicine. For example, the only two members of the commission trained in medicine are FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and NIH Director Dr. Jayanta (“Jay”) Bhattacharya, the latter of whom never completed a residency and has never practiced medicine since medical school. Dr. Makary is best known for being a COVID-19 minimizer and anti-COVID-19 vaccination, as well as, pre-pandemic, for having created the myth in 2016 that the third leading cause of death in the US is medical error, basically putting a faux legitimate face on longtime quack myths about “death by medicine.” Dr. Bhattacharya, of course, was one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, the October 2020 manifesto that proposed opening up society from “lockdowns” (which were largely already disappearing then anyway) through a “let ‘er rip” approach to the pandemic, with a poorly articulated afterthought of “focused protection” of those at high risk for severe disease and death from COVID-19, specifically the elderly and those with certain chronic medical conditions. Bhattacharya was well known for his consistently wrong repeated claim that this approach would bring natural herd immunity in 3-6 months, a claim that Makary was totally happy to parrot. In other words, they’re both down with the soft eugenics of MAHA.

The rest of the membership show little evidence of anything resembling expertise in the subject areas necessary to “make America healthy again.” Stephen Miller? Seriously? He’s known for his xenophobia and anti-immigration stances, rather than any expertise in public health. Linda McMahon? She’s a former professional wrestling promoter and entrepreneur turned Secretary of Education. Michael Kratsios? He’s a former businessman turned political operative. Russell Vought? He’s the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and believed to be more the one behind all the budget cuts at HHS, as well as the defunding of so many previously awarded NIH research grants. Worse, he’s someone whose child benefited from NIH research but who has since being appointed OMB Director mercilessly hacked away at the NIH budget. Then, of course, many of the members have purviews in economic policy, rather than in medicine, research, public health, or science.

. . .

[hlthe2b]

1. Thank you to Dr. Gorski (surgical oncologist) for taking first crack at this unconscionably biased & error-filled

report. His review confirms my assumption that there is no understanding of virtually any medical, scientific, or epidemiological principle in the entire document. I have been putting off actually reading more than a summary, and feeling a bit guilty for talking about it without fully reading it. Dr. Gorsky at least gives me a little time to dissect the entire monstrosity.

[area51]

2. Of course they leave out the fact that medical outcomes will be influenced

by the fact that we don't have universal healthcare in the US.