Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that more than 50 medical schools would embrace a federal framework for nutrition education, after a monthslong campaign to pressure universities into accepting the government’s curriculum recommendations.
Thursday’s announcement gave Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda a stronger foothold in a medical community that has often criticized the secretary’s ideas, especially on vaccination, as conspiratorial and unscientific. The announcement also reinforced how the Trump administration is seeking to infuse American colleges and universities with its ideology, a departure from the country’s tradition of academic independence.
“This is how we implement the MAHA agenda,” Mr. Kennedy said as he debuted what he called “a transformative breakthrough in medical education that will reshape the way we train doctors in our country.”
Mr. Kennedy’s appearance in Washington on Thursday alongside Education Secretary Linda McMahon came one day after The New York Times detailed the federal government’s effort to secure support from medical schools. The Health and Human Services Department used a blend of approaches, including the threat of funding cuts and the prospect of public praise, to entice schools to sign on.
None of the elite universities that previously reached funding-related settlements with the Trump administration — including Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern — agreed to back Mr. Kennedy’s plan, even though they have some of the nation’s best-regarded medical schools.
But Mr. Kennedy attracted a range of other institutions. Many are public schools in conservative states, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Florida, the University of Kentucky, the University of Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Others are in more left-leaning areas: the University of California, Irvine; George Washington University; New York University; and Tufts University.
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50 Medical Schools Back Kennedy Plan on Nutrition After Pressure
