Learn English with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who is on a mission to make America healthy again. In this episode, Robert Kennedy Jr. talks about his vision for the agency and the need for it to focus on public health.
00:02:21.960And they operate often at cross-purposes with each other with no sense of a unified sense of mission that we're here to protect public health.
00:02:31.600In many cases, they, for example, I found that some of these groups collect health data from America and have these big databases that are very, very valuable in figuring out what's wrong with our health.
00:02:46.800But they won't give that data to other parts of the department that could actually, you know, make health better.
00:02:53.580They sell it to them for, in some cases, very, very extravagant prices in order to support their own little fiefdom rather than public health as a whole.
00:03:05.100And so we're cutting 20, and there's a lot of redundancy.
00:03:08.660We're going to eliminate the redundancy.
00:03:10.660We're going to streamline the agency so that we can inspire all the workers who work there.
00:03:17.660And it's really, it's an extraordinary group.
00:03:20.660Most of the people who work there are very conscientious, great public servants that want to do their job, but they're not able to because of perverse incentives and because of these, you know, the, because there's no overall mission for that agency that everybody wakes up every day and says,
00:03:37.420My job today is to improve the health of the American public.
00:03:42.420We're going to recalibrate the trajectory of the agency so that everybody knows we are going to end the chronic disease epidemic in this country.
00:03:50.420We're going to study all the ingredients in our food.
00:03:53.420We're going to eliminate the ingredients that are not keeping us safe.
00:04:00.420And, you know, 10% of our SNAP program is going to soda drinks, sugar water.
00:04:07.420Well, this just came up this past week.
00:04:10.420There was a suggestion that maybe the federal government would stop subsidizing soda through various welfare programs.
00:04:17.420And then, all of a sudden, I saw a social media campaign from big social media accounts, ostensibly even on the right, saying this is government overreach.
00:04:28.420Actually, no, we need to continue to subsidize soda.
00:04:31.420And they made all sorts of bogus arguments for it.
00:04:33.420Well, the soda industry is very frightened, and they went out and paid all these influencers.
00:04:39.420That's not been demonstrated, actually.
00:04:55.420Why is the taxpayer, you know, paying money that is supposed to be for food for poor children?
00:05:03.420And we're giving them Coca-Cola, which is giving them diabetes, or other sodas, which is giving them diabetes, which then we have to pay for on the Medicaid program.
00:05:30.420A pediatrician in my age, my youth, would typically see one case of diabetes in his lifetime over a 40- or 50-year career.
00:05:39.420Today, more than one out of every three kids who walks through his office door is diabetic or prediabetic.
00:05:45.420It's because we're giving them soda when they're kids.
00:05:48.420Well, this is my question, then, even beyond soda.
00:05:51.420You've obviously now, we've all encountered this massive special interest campaign to stop you from achieving your goal of making America healthy again.
00:05:59.420What other sorts of special interests have you run up against since you took office?
00:06:04.420Well, you know, I've been meeting with all the food companies.
00:06:09.420I met with all the baby formula companies.
00:06:11.420We launched Operation Stork Speed to make sure American mothers can get really healthy formula for their babies.
00:06:19.420And, you know, we have a crisis in our formula providers.
00:06:23.420One, because it's a very narrow market and there's not enough of it.
00:06:31.420And, you know, it's not well tested for heavy metals and other contaminants, which we're finding at it.
00:06:38.420And then there's ingredients in there like corn solids, which are not good, particularly for creamies, and can make them very, very sick and even kill them.
00:06:54.420So, you know, we need to do it better.
00:06:57.420We're going to do a good job at FDA, at streamlining the regulations, at fast-tracking them, at doing everything we can to make sure that the formula companies can improve and maximize the improvement of their formulas as soon as possible.
00:07:12.420Well, I know you've written at length about agency capture.
00:07:15.420And so you're no stranger to the influence of lobbies and special interests.
00:07:20.420So how do you practically fight against that?
00:08:04.420They're giving us real food instead of food like substances that are loaded with poison.
00:08:10.420And we're going to make sure that our medicines are well tested, but that they're available and that we can fast track that testing.
00:08:17.420We have the capacity now through AI to really shorten the length of clinical trials.
00:08:26.420And we have really smart people who are in the agency.
00:08:28.420We have people coming in through Elon and Doge who are, you know, people who are walking away from very, very important businesses just because they want to improve the government.
00:08:59.420It's very difficult being part of a disruptive process because, you know, there's 20,000 people who are losing their jobs and that nobody likes that.
00:09:10.420But, you know, at the same time, we have a responsibility to the American public and public health.
00:09:16.420And, you know, my job is to achieve those goals of making America healthy again.
00:09:23.420Yeah. There was an article in The Wall Street Journal, I think it was about a month ago, on innovation, specifically in biotech.
00:09:29.420You know, are we at the brink of a sort of deep seek moment in biotech?
00:09:33.420So it's great to hear you talk about, you know, innovation in health care because it seems like you have two tasks.
00:09:39.420One is to stop abuses, to actually slow things down that have been fast tracked in HHS.
00:09:47.420I know the question that you've been asked throughout your confirmation hearings, of course, was about the public's, I think, justifiable concern with the growth of vaccines.
00:09:57.420And the senators asked enough questions about that, but I don't think you need to rehash a lot of it.
00:10:03.420But for the people who are asking questions about whether or not they'll vaccinate their kids or whether they should vaccinate their kids, will anything change about vaccine policy?
00:10:14.420Yeah, everything's going to change because we're going to have good information.
00:10:19.420And, you know, none of the vaccines that are given, you know, people said to me during the hearing, oh, well, this link between autism and vaccines has been disproven.
00:10:31.420None of the vaccines that are given during the first six months of life have ever been tested fraud.
00:10:41.420And that one study that was done, according to the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Science, that found that there was a link.
00:10:49.420They threw out that study because it was based upon CDC surveillance system, VAERS, and they said that system is no good.
00:10:56.420It begs the question is why doesn't CDC have a functional surveillance system?
00:11:01.420We're going to make sure they do have a functional surveillance system.
00:11:04.420Right now, surveillance system is a system that because they don't do pre-licensing safety testing for vaccines.
00:11:11.420They're the only product that's exempt.
00:11:13.420So what they say is if there are injuries, we'll capture them afterward.
00:11:18.420They have a system that doesn't capture them.
00:11:20.420In fact, CDC's own study of its own system said it captures fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries.
00:12:31.420President Trump campaigned with you on these exact issues.
00:12:34.420I don't think it's overstating it to say that your presence was a significant part of the reason that President Trump was elected.
00:12:41.420So it seems to me the wind is at your back.
00:12:43.420And I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Secretary.
00:12:46.420I mean, I'm really grateful to President Trump because I don't think, you know, a lot of people have criticism or problems with President Trump.
00:12:55.420But I don't, you know, I've watched him in action.
00:12:58.420I think the characters of him are absolutely incorrect.
00:13:02.420And that, you know, I've seen somebody who genuinely cares about people and who wants to fix the situation.
00:13:11.420You look at, you know, for the past four years, I've never heard a Democrat talk about all the deaths in Ukraine.
00:13:19.420And every time that President Trump talks about Ukraine, he talks about the deaths that, you know, four million people have died, a million soldiers on both sides.
00:13:27.420And saying, him saying, that's not good for any of us.