WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week rolled out a series of high-profile actions aimed at reshaping child health policy, tightening oversight of pharmaceutical advertising, and cracking down on illegal e-cigarette imports.
On Sept. 9, the Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., unveiled the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy, a plan featuring more than 120 initiatives to confront the nation’s childhood chronic disease crisis. The strategy calls for broad reforms to nutrition, food labeling, medical research, and environmental health.
“The Trump Administration is mobilizing every part of government to confront the childhood chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said. “We are ending the corporate capture of public health, restoring transparency, and putting gold-standard science—not special interests—at the center of every decision.”
The plan includes executive actions to reform dietary guidelines, strengthen food labeling, restrict harmful chemicals, and close loopholes in drug advertising. It also proposes expanding NIH research into chronic disease prevention and environmental exposures, promoting school-based health initiatives, and encouraging private-sector commitments such as removing artificial dyes from food products.
On the same day, HHS and the Food and Drug Administration announced a reversal of a 1997 advertising policy that allowed drugmakers to omit full safety warnings from television and digital ads. Under the new rules, companies must disclose all major risks and contraindications directly in their advertising.
“Pharmaceutical ads hooked this country on prescription drugs,” Kennedy said. “We will shut down that pipeline of deception and require drug companies to disclose all critical safety facts.”
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary added that drugmakers spend up to a quarter of their budgets on advertising, calling the reforms an opportunity to redirect resources toward lowering prices.
Separately, on Sept. 10, HHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the seizure of 4.7 million unauthorized e-cigarette products valued at $86.5 million in what officials described as the largest operation of its kind. Nearly all the shipments originated in China and were falsely labeled in an apparent attempt to evade inspection.
“We will never allow foreign actors to threaten the health of America’s children,” Kennedy said. Makary emphasized the FDA’s stepped-up enforcement, pledging to end practices such as “port shopping” and block noncompliant products from reaching U.S. markets.
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet Sept. 18–19 in Atlanta to review vaccine guidance.
Together, the initiatives mark one of the administration’s most aggressive weeks of health policy actions, touching on chronic disease, drug safety, tobacco control, and immunization.
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