The sun broke through the arch of the Rock window sandstone in northeast Arizona, and Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Bluejeans was finally in his element: on a hike.
It was the last day of the multilevel tour Make American Healthy Again, designed to highlight various aspects of Mr Kennedy’s plan to combat chronic disease, such as healthy school lunches and medical clinics that adopt a holistic approach to care.
Now, the Secretary of Health was walking with Navajo Nation President, Council of Nation Council representatives and the active director of the Indian Health Service, discussing the challenges of high quality health care providers in racial groups. Here, weaving through the desert brush, Mr. Kennedy seemed to hit his step.
Mr Kennedy had left Washington with questions growing to handle the measles event in West Texas and the triggering of thousands of officials from the Ministry of Health and Human Services. During the road to the west, she had to stop in Texas on Sunday to attend the funeral of a non -vaccinated 8 -year -old girl, the second child dying of measles in this outburst.
And at the beginning of the tour the next day, Mr Kennedy looked Stoic – perhaps nervous, even – as he was driven by a Salt Lake City Health Center focused on nutrients. He denied a bag of fresh grocery stores, citing his upcoming flight. In “Educational Cuisine”, he threw an ice cube, threw a lassi mango and stood without expression, as the medical student arrived to activate the secretary’s food processor without putting the lid. (A manager stopped her in time.)
“That would be bad,” the student said, looking at the white shirt of the secretary and the pressed suit. Finally, Mr. Kennedy broke a smile.
By Tuesday, Mr. Kennedy had relaxed, wearing a Stegosaurus tie and shaking hands with a toddler at a health center near Phoenix, as the boy learned to cook blue corn crepes. The health secretary pushed his head into the refrigerators of a food distribution center, examining food labels and shaking, as he said, “very impressive”.
There was one Faux PAS secondary at a tribal conference of 1,300 people, when Mr Kennedy tried to highlight his knowledge of Wampanoag’s costume, many of whom live in Cape Cod and Vineyard, Martha, Massachusetts. (“My Race,” he said.) As he spoke from a glittering stage of casinos, he pointed out the traditional earrings and necklaces and necklaces of the president of the tribal and announced: “If you want to know what it initially looked like, it is a museum!” (Ran.)
At a press conference on lunch legislation in the State Capitol, Arizona, Mr. Kennedy was framed by dozens of school children, many of whom are fluctuating posters with slogans such as “chemicals” and “stare at dyes”. There were rough applause, a “go bobby!” chant from the back. Until then, it was radiating.
On Wednesday morning, on the hiking trail, Mr. Kennedy offered a look at the person who had once appeared on the presidential path: an adventurous and spiritual man, a staunch of his beliefs – regardless of his popularity – who had failed to his newness.
He was the first to fight at the height of the window rock formation, a silhouette that balances 1,000 feet above the floor of the valley.
When it comes to his own battle against chronic illness, Mr Kennedy is based on a natural diet and intermittent fasting, as well as a morning routine that includes a 12 -step meeting, gymnastics and meditation. But since he arrived in Washington, he had to abandon a favorite daily ritual: a three -mile hike with his dogs.
On this trip, officials discussed initiatives such as a 2 % Navajo Nation tax on rough food adopted under the legislation passed in 2014, which also removed higher tax and vegetables and inspired similar policies. They also talked about the Navajo agricultural industry – a racial program that sells corn, beans and other products under the brand “Navajo Pride” to support the community.
To close his tour through the southwestern states, Mr. Kennedy visited the Hózhó Academy at Gallup, NM, a K-12 school that hosts gardening and cooking events for families and uses a curriculum to help students design their own goals.
Epidemiologists say there are a number of factors leading the rates of chronic diseases, including genetics, changes in the intestinal germicide and the fact that Americans live in general and therefore face new conditions that come with age.
Mr Kennedy tends to emphasize these factors, say experts, instead of focusing on childhood vaccines, psychiatric drugs and other variables. But here on the tour, Mr. Kennedy kept most of his attention on personal well -being as a key method for dealing with the crisis.
The secretary of the Secretary for the assumption of large food companies seems to be more aligned with the traditional policy left of the right. His fight against artificial food dyes – “poison”, as he called them – is an echo of California’s existing laws and his school visits are reminiscent of Michelle Obama Let’s Move’s move! A campaign that took over obesity to children.
For some, the champion of Mr Kennedy’s healthy eating legislation comes in a paradoxical moment, as widespread redundancies in the food and medicine service last week included laboratory scientists who examined food for infectious agents. The administration also eliminated a basic food safety committee and reduced funding for state -based food -based food inspectors.
And as Mr Kennedy promoted the prevention of chronic disease, basic efforts such as the diabetes prevention program, 29 -year -old research initiative, were eliminated. During his descent from hiking, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation Council, who struggled to obtain diabetes medication, prevented the secretary and disconnected her jacket to reveal a t -shirt with a handwritten phrase in it: “Save Ihs Jobs & Diabetes Program”. (IHS represents India’s federal health service.)
“A thin message,” he said.
Mr Kennedy promised her to talk to his team and see what he could do. She connected her hand with Mr Kennedy – worrying about maintaining the balance in her moccasins – and kept her down the way down there.
