Juana Summers

Thanks for stopping by.

This episode was produced by Elena Burnett and Connor Donovan with audio engineering by Hannah Glovna.

It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watanonan.

Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan.

It's Consider This from NPR.

I'm Juana Summers.

In one year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

has made dramatic changes to the country's public health system.

He has cut vaccine funding, reduced the number of federally recommended childhood vaccines, and laid off thousands of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services.

It's all part of his Make America Healthy Again mission.

That is Kennedy speaking in February of last year after his confirmation.

Along with President Trump, he's made promises to their base as well.

Here is Kennedy in September 2024.

Kennedy spent much of his career as an environmental lawyer fighting against glyphosate.

That's the pesticide used in Roundup.

In 2018, he won a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the maker of Roundup, arguing that the weed killer likely caused his clients cancer.

Then last week, Trump issued an executive order.

clearing a path for the U.S.

to produce more of it domestically.

And in a lengthy response on social media, Kennedy defended the order, saying, quote, President Trump did not build our current system.