Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, who served under former President Biden, criticized Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday for suggesting he could identify children suffering from mitochondrial challenges just by encountering them in public settings.
“I’m sorry but what?” Jha wrote in a post on the social platform X, responding to a clip from an event in Texas.
“Our Health Secretary says that he sees kids at airports and can tell by their faces that they have mitochondrial challenges,” Jha continued.
“This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff people,” he added. “This is not normal.”
Kennedy made the controversial remarks in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) legislation alongside the HHS secretary.
The health secretary reflected on the children he’s encountered since arriving in Texas, saying at the event, “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”
“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” Kennedy said.
“You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection,” he continued. “And I know that that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”
The comments were met with some resistance, especially by those who questioned how Kennedy arrived at his diagnosis of the children he encountered at the airport.
The Hill has reached out to HHS for a response.
Kennedy has spearheaded the so-called MAHA movement, which aims to refocus the nation’s efforts on preventative health and overall wellness in the hopes of spending less time treating those who are already sick.
Kennedy has talked about putting lifestyle and diet at the fore of U.S. health policy by banning artificial food dyes, eliminating soda from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and addressing rising rates of chronic illness such as diabetes and asthma in kids.
But some worry Kennedy’s focus on America’s overall health has come at the cost of other priorities, like vaccine development and other biomedical research, both of which have seen significant cuts since Kennedy has taken over the agency.
Kennedy is embroiled in a separate controversy over resignations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the director was pushed out on Wednesday. Kennedy has defended the shakeup at the CDC.
