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STAT+: RFK Jr. attempts to rally FDA workers to his MAHA agenda
Trump's health secretary told FDA workers that tackling childhood chronic diseases should be the agency's chief priority.
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. covered a lot of ground in a speech to Food and Drug Administration employees on Friday morning, as he attempted to rally them to his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
He jumped between an anecdote about watching peregrine falcons fly down Pennsylvania Avenue as a kid to asserting that regulatory agencies have become captured by the industries they’re charged with overseeing. And he said tackling childhood chronic disease should be the FDA’s chief priority, according to a recording of the speech obtained by STAT.
One thing Kennedy did not address: his decision to lay off 3,500 FDA employees, almost 20% of the agency, as part of a broader reduction in force across the Health and Human Services department. The layoffs have sunk morale and, sources told STAT, will likely compromise the agency’s ability to carry out core functions — making it more difficult to evaluate therapies, release regulations, and communicate critical information to the public.
