OPINION:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again platform is admirable and has directed necessary attention to our nation’s dietary and lifestyle concerns. These certainly deserve careful consideration. Yet what is waiting to be debated are the differing views on what is most unhealthy and threatening to our citizenry, particularly our “bookend” populations: older Americans and children.
Changing dietary practices means shifting our eating habits. As complicated as this is for adults, it is even more so for our children and older Americans.
About 14 million American children are living in food-insecure households. Without proper nutrition, children have associated impairment of growth and learning capacity, as well as adverse psychosocial outcomes and diminished immune competence to fight off infections. Children cannot independently address such dire nutritional shortfalls for growth, development and survival. Although a full-blown famine, such as in Sudan, is not prevailing in the U.S., it is hard to take pride in having so many children experiencing food insecurity. With disruptions in federal support programs, the situation is worsening.
Also at higher risk from poor eating habits are older Americans — baby boomers and beyond — whose immune systems are in a state of declining efficiency. Infections and other acute conditions impose considerable danger, as do advancing chronic diseases. Persuading older Americans to radically shift their diets represents a very different undertaking, which could take decades to achieve. Many of our contemporaries in the 65 and older demographic will likely go to their graves grasping their daily indulgence of their favorite unhealthy snacks. Old eating habits die hard and are unlikely to change dramatically or impactfully in the near term. This isn’t an excuse for not trying; it’s human nature.
We have ignored improving America’s health through better nutrition for too long. Although it is something we must prioritize, it is not the only or most urgent thing.
The good news is that, when it comes to protecting America’s “bookend vulnerables,” we already have tools proven to be effective over decades of use: vaccines for children such as the MMR vaccine to prevent measles, mumps and rubella, and the dPT inoculation to protect against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. For those of us in the baby boomer and beyond category, vaccinations help our aging immune systems fight off pneumococcal pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus, the annual flu and COVID-19. These respiratory threats have effective, safe vaccines that save lives and prevent medical complications.
To activate and energize America’s MAHA moment, we must begin with the most immediate and impactful means to protect our most vulnerable citizens: vaccinations. This refocusing does not diminish the importance of managing nutrition as a potent and cost-efficient strategy for better health. Still, our imperative should be to take immediate steps with the most potential for dramatic near-term improvements. With these proven interventions, we can save lives now. Our children and elders will be well served. Achieving better health through better nutrition and safe and effective vaccinations isn’t a mutually exclusive proposition; it’s a smart, proven and complementary public health strategy.
• Dr. Timothy R. Franson is a principal at Faegre Drinker Consulting. Peter J. Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, is a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner.
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