To RFK Jr., What Now?

Looking at the metric for a successful HHS Secretary

Dear Bobby,

Despite your problematic history and the fact that you and the current administration are surrounded by Scientologists (seriously, WTF?!?), it’s only proper that we communicate a few key points with which we can measure the success of your appointment as leader of our health.

Before we get into the weeds, I have to point out the obvious — when it comes to health and government, we’re stuck in a contradictory dilemma. We equally want to get the government the hell out of our health decisions AND also regulate the shit out of poisonous elements in our ecosystem. Freedom of choice wins over any day and perhaps it’s better to compartmentalize regulations into two groups: individuals and corporations/agencies. This way we both honor the agency of each citizen and hold money-grabbing-depop-seeking-emapthy-lacking blobs accountable.

Let’s dig in.

Food

Meat

Most consumers are largely removed from the food they eat. When it comes to meat, we don’t raise the stock, someone we don’t know transports it, a different person slaughters it, yet another butchers it, and some low-paid worker at a box store packages it up for us. At every step along the way, a stranger makes a decision about something that would eventually end up in our bodies, from what jabs to pump into the animal to keep it disease-free, to what it’s being fed to fatten it up, to adding some appealing color dye to its flesh at the supermarket.

We all know that factory farming produces subpar results AND lacks empathy for the animal that is about to give its life for our sustenance. I, personally, gave up meat in solidarity with the awful ways animals are kept and slaughtered. Spiritually, I am convinced that animals suffering from the conditions of factory farms pass the trauma onto us in the form of toxicity as we consume it. But you might not believe that, so let’s lay out a few tangible points sans the woo-woo that could be used to measure the before-and-after of a Kennedy HHS term.

1. Revise standards for organic foods: At this point, smaller farms are buckling under the requirements while larger ones find loopholes through imported foods, taking advantage of regional laws or implied labeling (there’s a difference between “100% organic” and “organic,” and if something says “natural” or “farm-fresh”, it is under no obligation to be USDA organic.) If you are going to offer subsidies, they’re better off going to smaller farms to help meet organic standards. Create incentives for our food to always be organic and penalize producers for non-organic choices until “organic” becomes the norm.

2. Cattle feed: Assure that cows are fed a strictly vegetarian diet and restrict feeding them chicken byproducts and waste, which caries disease. Allow responsible grazing on federal lands, which will serve the dual purpose of providing sustenance to animals whilst maintaining the health of wild grasslands. Eliminate all dyes in feeds - they’re harmful and unnecessary - their only reason for being added is cosmetic, to create a more appealing meat to the consumer when perhaps the color might indicate lesser quality.

3. Ease slaughterhouse requirements: Small farmers who deal in small animals and poultry should be allowed to slaughter in-house as long their quality remains high. When we go to Europe, we take these chances, just like here, at home, partake in Amish steaks, and we know no one goes over to survey those.

4. Wild game: enable food quality production for hunters to sell wild animal meat hunted in certain overpopulated areas. As it is, any animal that has been trapped, hunted, or the victim of road kill (we already do this with Moose in Alaska; just ask anyone on the roadkill list) can produce quality food.

5. Animal vaccinations: allow farmers to make their own choices on vaccinating their animals and require the meat to be labeled accordingly with all vaccines and medicines that the animal has been exposed to so consumers who might be affected can make an informed choice.

6. Balanced fishing: remove any ban on fishing by small family enterprises whilst allowing commercial production — if you want to reduce overfishing, make it unprofitable for giant companies to rake in.

7. Revise food inspection, destruction, and disposal: This should include but not be limited to: finding proper ways to quarantine animals that are suspected of disease instead of mass murdering them senselessly and without any proper reimbursement for farmers who might be simply adjacent to an outbreak; lifting cattle age requirements so bovine can live past three years of age at which point their meat becomes more nutrient dense without the worry of mad cow disease which has a lot more to do with unhealthy living standards than age (consequently, farmers end up feeding calfs soy and other fattening-up agents instead of normal food which all results in unhealthy food for the consumers); allow organ meat consumption, yes even pork thyroid, which has unique health benefits and is consumed everywhere else around the world; legalize raw milk — it is nutrient dense and pasteurizing it kills all the good stuff, depriving us of its benefits — we have proper refrigeration and don’t need to fatten up the pockets of processors to make it last forever; don’t allow imported meat to be labeled “product of USA” simply because it was packaged here as it allows for producers to purchase cheaper, lesser quality meat and sell it marked up to the consumer without proper inspection; but do allow the traditional meat imports, including raw cheese and cured meat AND lift restriction from making these here, at home as these methods of bacteria fermentation have been passed down generations and have proven to be safe and delicious.

Produce

Most vegetarians and vegans flock to produce because they think it’s a healthier alternative but the truth is that there are just as damaging toxins in the produce as the meat. You could tell that what you’re eating isn’t exactly right because the texture is rubbery and synthetic.

Anyone who knows me personally has heard me say at some point that I don’t think Americans have ever tasted a real tomato. If you did, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all at its fruit classification. A real tomato is tangy and sweet and juicy and tastes like heaven. Whether it’s GMOs, or Monsanto, or soil depletion, or pesticides, food here simply doesn’t taste as delicious as it does in other parts of the world. Fixing our food will go a long way to achieve health goals.

1. EBT for farms: Instead of offering food stamps for cheap processed food that not only makes us fatter and sicker, which in turn becomes an increased cost for government-subsidized healthcare, we can incentivize healthier food options to help our poorest citizens shake off the addiction to disease-inducing crap. Bonus points for anyone who starts and maintains gardens, especially in urban food deserts. The feedback loop of healthy food-healthy bodies as less straining on the healthcare system can be a scone that feeds two birds.

2. Stop insuring Monsanto crops: it incentivizes farmers to use poisonous pesticides and grow nutrient-void mono-crops. In the event of a crop failure, the high insurance payout encourages farmers to grow more crap food and even receive more money for a failed crop than a successful one. And while we’re looking at pushing thumbs on scales, any payouts for fallow land that has been utilized for political gain or to limit the quantity of the food supply to create a false increase in food price should be halted. This also extends to federal farm subsidies that should be ended immediately as we don’t need large farms growing low-quality GMO foods using toxic chemicals that end up in our bodies slowly killing us. If anyone should be subsidized at this point, it should be small farmers who can focus on growing organic nutrient-dense food.

3. “Ugly” produce: Start normalizing the fact that food doesn’t look perfectly shaped all the time. Expecting picture-perfect fruit only encourages cosmetic appeal at the expense of nutrition, not to mention the tons of disregarded food going to waste because it might have been slightly odd-shaped.

4. The soil: We must begin cleaning up all the toxins from our soil and ban all pesticides. We import poisonous sprays from countries where they are banned, yet we don’t hesitate to use them here.

5. Farmer markets: Whether you’re a rural or urban farmer, only organic produce should be sold at farmer markets. Since this process cuts out many middlemen, it should be more affordable than store-bought produce.

6. Label produce: It used to be that any raw ingredient you buy wouldn’t require labels because there were no hidden additives. But now there’s synthetic waxing to preserve appearance; fruits come in extraordinary sizes; myriads of toxins are sprayed to control bugs. All these can affect individuals and should be clearly labeled.

Stop encouraging all people to follow one specific diet. How many times has the food pyramid changed without ever acknowledging that individuals come in different shapes, sizes, and needs? Be upfront about what to avoid: sugar (the most addictive silent killer in our foods), processed foods, GMOs, etc., and be done with it. Not only will the carnivore, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, and macrobiotic diets benefit various people differently, but they will affect each individual differently throughout various phases of their life.

Regulations

Something is lost in translation between regulatory agencies, producers and manufacturers, and consumers. This is true across the board for most products, but it is especially egregious regarding our food, which everyone needs for basic survival. Below is an outline of what the FDA can do to help reduce unhealthy products making it to the market, and reduce the overall health crisis of Americans, which, in turn, will also reduce the healthcare burden, and provide true informed consent to citizens.

1. Baby food, WIC, and school lunches: Even as regulated as baby food is, it still contains harmful materials such as seed oils, pesticides, and heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead.) Paired with a misleading label that reads something like “Beechnut Naturals,” these unhealthy offerings are the first introduction to food for our newly minted babies. WIC programs designed to help struggling moms with the purchase of formula and baby food are often the biggest victims. Rigorous inspection of anything going inside the body of a baby should be expected, and moms should be given the choice to supplement actual breast milk from donor banks instead of inferior formula. School lunches (including snacks and breakfasts) are beyond the pale with their high levels of sugar, sodium, and unhealthy fats, contributing to child obesity issues. Removing harmful substances from school lunches is beyond obvious.

2. End seed oils: The first step towards stopping this complex problem is to inform the public. Corporations have gotten away with misleading the public for way too long about the harms of seed oils. Make it harder and more expensive for cheap additives to be used, and eventually, healthier options such as olive and avocado oil or real authentic butter will prevail.

3. End food fear-mongering: One day, eggs will kill you, the next, they save you from cancer; butter will give you a heart attack, only to save you from one the following year. Stop. If the food is organic and void of harmful additives (including sugar!), there will always be some foods that are beneficial for some but less so for others. To each his own.

4. Eggs: A protective layer called a “cuticle” enables eggs to stay fresh at room temperature for weeks without refrigeration. By washing eggs and then recoating them with harmful oils, we’re wasting resources and lessening the natural timespan of their freshness. In addition, urban coops should be encouraged, and neighborly egg farms could help reduce box store burdens and transportation.

5. End food dyes: This one should be pretty self-explanatory as these artificial dyes have been linked to cancer, inflammation, and behavioral issues, and our children are the biggest consumers.

6. Cottage food laws: Encourage every state to have regulations that allow citizens to prepare and sell food directly from their homes. Kitchen inspections are simple but could jump-start millions of small business entrepreneurs.

7. Labeling: This is where it all begins because an informed consumer is 90% of the challenge and lets the free market take care of the rest. This is a long list, and it includes:

   1. list all ingredients, including the so-called elusive “natural and artificial flavors,” “Generally Recognized As Safe,” and disallow sales of any secret recipes. List everything. People need to know what they’re putting in their bodies. Bugs ground up into flour and added in? Make sure those are labeled loud and clear. None of this “Acheta domesticus," ” Locusta migratoria,” or “Tenebrio molitor.” This isn’t Dead Language class and we need to know if we’re consuming crickets, locusts, or mealworms.

   2. accurate nutrient labels (tested instead of calculated) with small businesses under Cottage Food Laws or a certain number of sales excluded.

   3. restaurants should also include ingredient lists, and although they should avoid food enhancers such as MSG, which can spike sodium levels in already high-sodium foods, at the very least, they can inform the consumers that they’re ingesting them. We require food manufacturers to list ingredients, restaurants shouldn’t be excluded.

   4. end misleading labels such as “natural,” “made with real fruit, ” “Just Egg” (no actual egg,”) “superfood," “Beyond Meat” (not actual meat,) “light,” “low-fat,” or “fat-free” as they contain other unhealthy ingredients but fool the consumer they’re a healthier option. This list is not exhaustive. Producers use all sorts of tricky labeling to amplify something about their product while hiding the nature of its true ingredients.

      

   5. label EVERYTHING: list ingredients in alcohol, household cleaners, beauty products, fragrances, cooking materials, clothing, and anything and everything that touches our skin, hair, or food or could be potentially inhaled should have an ingredient list. Honestly, this shouldn’t be controversial at all. This goes a bit beyond food, but it is adjacent so I’m including it here.

   6. ban all pesticides for home use, including lawn and home garden care as don’t need our children rolling around in these harmful substances in their backyards nor do we need them consuming them while we teach them how much better food from the garden is.

The biggest metric for the success of any of these measures will be the halting (or even better, the reversal) of obesity and chronic disease in this country that includes (but is not limited to) cancer, diabetes, autism, allergies, and asthma. Because these health issues are two-pronged and strongly linked to both food and medicine, it is only proper that we move on to that category.

Medicine

This portion is close to my heart as I have been navigating the medical field this last year and trying to avoid being poisoned by solutions and drowned in medical debt. I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve had to partake in medical tourism in Mexico because my own country, although a so-called leader of the developed world, restricts doctors in the type of care they can provide for their informed patients. This is an absolute travesty. But let’s jump in with the biggest third rail of them all.

1. Vaccines: Although the Covid jab has been an abysmal failure and most people, even those who jabbed themselves multiple times over, are finally seeing through the scam, the conversation hasn’t even begun. Enough of the “I’m not an anti-vaxxer” rhetoric, anyone with common sense should be considered an anti-vaxxer until all conditions for rigorous safety have been met. For those who still denigrate people questioning vaccines while pledging docile, unearned trust to pharmaceutical companies, it’s obvious how little you actually know about immunology and vaccinology, but I understand how scared shitless all the propaganda has made you and it’s ok for you to start somewhere. Let’s look at the main points.

   

   1. make manufacturers liable for any harm caused by their products, including vaccines. Repeal the disastrous National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and reinstate penalties paid out by companies and not a no-fault compensation paid out by federal tax dollars that often eschews real injuries despite real documented harms.

   2. drop any vaccine mandates as it is a form of discrimination and a Civil Rights Act violation to refuse participation in society based on an individual medical choice. There is no blanket “good” for all people. Even aspirin will be harmful to a subset of folks. Someone’s medical choice is no business of anyone else, and if vaccines really work properly, then they are there exclusively for the protection of the taker, not the person next to them. Implying that everyone jabs up to save grandma is the equivalent of everyone saddling up a bra to hold up her sagging titties. Except a bra might kill you a lot less.

   3. relook at each individual vaccine and its necessitation. Some diseases have already been eradicated through simple hygiene, others are not dangerous until certain ages (why are we jabbing babies with HPV vaccines when they’re neither having sex yet nor have they proven to be at risk?), and yet others could simply confer stronger immunity by having it (chicken pox parties with the cousins, anyone?)

   4. list ALL ingredients of each vaccine and mandate doctors to know each ingredient and its potential side effects, as they’re blindly pushing jabs without having the proper knowledge, which results in uninformed patients.

   5. rigorously test how vaccines and their adjuvants behave in an accumulative state. The fact that this hasn’t been done since we started vaccinating (with six vaccines prior to the 80s all the way to the 72 shots we now administer to children before they’re 12) is a staggering disaster. Also, test each vaccine against a true placebo and not against an older vaccine.

   6. ban all “bribes,” “threats,” or otherwise cajoling of people who refuse to vaccinate. This is a personal decision made by an individual and their doctor, and it has nothing to do with the government or other people, no matter how well-meaning, informed, or afraid they are.

2. End pharmaceutical ads: There should never be any direct advertising to individuals. We’re one of the few developed countries that do it, and this practice should be stopped immediately. We stopped cigarette commercials; we can surely ensure that medicines are just as regulated, especially since we can’t even buy these meds without a prescription from a doctor. The practice is absurd and is used as a narrative manipulation by pharma companies that entangle sponsorship dollars in media networks.

3. Childbirth: Women have been giving birth to babies since forever. Before pre-natal advice came into fashion, before elective C-sections became a trend, and before they started poking and prodding newborns in sterile cold environments. Childbirth is natural and divine and downright miraculous, but what it isn’t is some medical procedure that needs to be done in some hospital meant for sick people. Babies don’t need to be chemically cleaned or early umbilically clamped, or jabbed up right out of the gates. Most babies would profit from a natural birth as the struggle through the birth canal equips them with the necessary muscle and grit.

4. Cancer: Eliminate carcinogenic elements our of our air, water, and diet and release the mounds of information available on the pathology of cancer and its cures. Stop treating what in its essence is inflammation as a death sentence and rethink treatment options that are worse than the disease. Stop villainizing alternative cancer treatments while forcing everyone to ride the factory line of one-blanket-fits-all treatment which also happens to be the gravy train for pharmaceuticals and oncologists. No doctor should ever be allowed to purchase chemo wholesale and mark it up for resale to patients.

5. The revolving door: You can be a Pharma CEO, or a lobbyist, or a regulatory agent, but you can’t two or three of those. Stop the revolving door of the medical industry

   

6. Financial incentives: During Covid, certain procedures were financially incentivized, resulting in unnecessary (and erroneously deadly) intubations, Remdisivir administrations, and testings. This practice pointed out the obvious truth that since Medicaid is the payout for most procedures and treatments, they’re the real client of the medical industry and not the patient. This top-down influence forces doctors and hospitals to follow bureaucratic orders and line up their pockets whilst rejecting patient wishes. No doctor should receive bonuses for boosted vaccination rates, prescribing certain pills, or performing procedures. Eliminate any act that is unnecessary or excessive by turning off the money spigot.

7. Medical research: All publicly paid research should be available to the public. All publicly paid grant research approvals should involve the public. All publicly paid grant research distribution should be decided by the public. Many alternative and natural treatments and cures are shafted because they won’t make a corporation money while the lack of transparency allows for an employee, or an ex-employee, or a future employee of some Pharma agency “researches” the next lucrative medicine.

   

8. Natural medicine and herbology: These therapies have been in use for thousands of years, and calling them “alternative” is in itself a thought-terminating cliche as they are the original way people heal themselves. Impress the importance of nutrition as medicine. Offer studies in natural medicine, herbology, and nutrition as part of school curricula and definitely as part of any medical professional’s degree. Bring back the wise way of ancestral healing and ensure that insurance is expanded to cover alternative healing modalities from red light therapy to Vitamin C infusions to chiropractors to gyms to psilocybin. Institute flexible spending accounts for anything that seems not in line or out of approval windows. Allow patients to make informed choices. And stop censoring the dissemination of empirical and anecdotal evidence.

   

9. Insurance: This is a giant can of worms, and obvious rehaul is necessary. But if the other points on this list are addressed, it’ll make this Herculean task a tad more manageable. After that, treat insurance subjectively. Any condition that is contingent on a lifestyle choice should be priced as such. No reason that someone who is smoking two packs a day, gorging themselves on McDonalds at every meal, and drinking themselves into a grave should pay the same amount as someone who is treating their body as a temple. The absurd burden on health care should be both the right of every individual and the responsibility of every individual.

10. Elective Surgery: Plastic surgery can be downright harmful and should only be considered in restorative situations.

11. Trans or “gender-affirming” care: No permanent changes in body modifications should be allowed for children and teens. Chopping off your privates should warrant at least the same limitations as getting piercings and tattoos. Any adult should be allowed to do whatever they want with their body; it’s theirs. But a few things to consider: gender dysmorphia is classified as a mental disorder that affects .01% of the population. The last time we tried curing a mental condition with surgery was during the 50s, and we all know how well lobotomy faired in the end. Some folks could use some therapy, and some could find themselves living happier lives as the opposite sex. But how others perceive you, well, your identity is always a negotiation between you and the rest of society, so some will play along and others won’t, but to demand a mandate on acceptance is silly. Claiming gender isn’t indicated by genitalia consequently makes a weak case for removing it to affirm.

12. Mental health: SSRIs have gotten a pass for years, but it’s time to relook at patterns of suicide rates and mass shootings and how mental health drugs are involved in these scenarios. Stop normalizing mental conditions or glorifying autism. No matter how many films about exceptional children we make, it isn’t going to help the parent who has to wipe her teenager’s bottom while juggling to provide or worry about how the child will go on after the parent’s death. Provide direct support to caregivers.

13. End-of-life care: Nursing homes and hospices are the biggest slaps in the face for someone about to exit their existence from our realm. The people who work at these places are paid poorly to deal with the body’s messiest secretions. No wonder there is rampant abuse of elders. Rethink end-of-life caretaker options, including but not limited to support to keep aging parents at their homes (or the homes of their children), death doulas, a small community elder care.

Having just gone through a healing cancer journey, the amount of research and information I’ve accumulated can rival a medical professional. Perhaps that oncologist who death-stared me upon my suggestion that we begin cancer treatment with non-cytotoxic elements can even learn a thing or two about alternative cancer treatment.

We should encourage education to include a hefty amount of knowledge on the body and the ways it heals. We are, after all, stuck with the one body we got.

Air and Water

If corporations can figure out how to monetize the air we breathe, I’m sure they’ll be on top of it. The mere fact that water is being sold is a travesty. Access to clean air, water, food, and medicine is a human right.

1. Fluoride, chlorine, and all toxic additives: The unprocessed hazardous waste contaminated with multiple toxins (including arsenic) we use to fluoridate our tap water is an industrial waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry. Chlorine in drinking water has been linked to cancer. There are much safer alternatives for water filtration and sterilization in this day and age.

2. Reduce microplastics: these little particles are found everywhere: in our air, water, and food, even inside our own bodies. Microplastics are found inside the breastmilk of Innuit women. Bring back bottle deposits. Replace kitchenware with stainless steel (hot food should specifically not touch plastic containers), glass, and ceramic. And for the record, replacing plastic straws with paper ones covered in forever chemicals is not a solution.

3. Artificial Fragrances: Ban, limit, and/or label all toxic substances in air fresheners, candles, deodorants, shampoos, perfumes, etc. Inform the public as to the benefits/risks associated with each substance and/or use natural aroma enhancers.

4. Geo-engineering, cloud-seeding, chem-trails: Whatever name they go by, and whoever is behind them, these practices must be halted immediately.

   

5. Filters: better quality filters for cars, trucks, and airplanes to avoid pollution made by these vehicles being immediately inhaled by passengers.

6. Regulate corporate waste: Instead of telling people to take cold showers and give up eating meat, focus on ensuring businesses comply with proper filtration for air and water so none of their waste harms us or the environment.

Energy

Technology is moving at an incredibly rapid speed, and we lack the ability to test and measure how this affects our health. Even older technology considered safe can sometimes lack the proper testing. These are a few examples.

1. EMF exposure: We’re such space monkeys when it comes to EMF, cell radiation, and particularly 5G towers. The FCC is overriding citizen concerns in favor of corporate interests, but we know they’re capable of blocking EMFs when it comes to information. Let’s ensure they’re thinking about our health first and foremost.

2. LEDs: Some studies indicate that LEDs are incompatible with human biology and before we overhaul all of our light sources, we really need to slow down our roll here.

3. Microwaves: Have you ever put water in a microwave, cooled it down, and watered your plants with it? Your plant dies within a month. A bit extra damage goes out to those nuking their food in plastic containers.

4. Solar farms: alternative green energies are not a bad idea, but let’s use up tops of buildings and parking lots which could lend their dead land instead of grassland and vital ecosystems that are better utilized growing organic and nutrient-dense foods.

   

Conclusion

I don’t speak for all, but I do speak for some. I am cautiously optimistic that you don’t just talk the talk. If you do this right, Bobby, your legacy will forever reverberate in the halls of institutions and in the memory of concerned citizens who worry and care about the health of our society. I will treat this article as a report card to return to in four years to see how much has been accomplished. H/t to Tan Man on X for inspiring this post.

As I was wrapping up this post, I stopped before publishing to watch this speech. It calls for radical transparency. I accept nothing less.

A follow-up post will be published 4 years from now. Hoping for As across the board.

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