The sun was exploding through the sandstone arc of the windows of a rock in the northeast of Arizona, and the Minister of Health was Robert F. Kennedy Junior, in Blogins, at the end in its element: on a picnic.
This was the last day for the Make Make Make Health Again tour, designed to highlight various aspects of Mr. Kennedy’s plan to fight chronic diseases, such as health school lunch and medical clinics that take a comprehensive approach to patient care.
Now, the Minister of Health was wandering with the President of Navajo Nation, the representative of the National Assembly and the Acting Director for the Indian Health Service, discussing the challenges of providing high -quality health care for tribal groups. Here, the fabric through the desert brush, Mr. Kennedy seemed to hit his step.
Mr. Kennedy left Washington with questions growing about his dealings with the outbreak of measles in West Texas and the release of thousands of employees of the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services. On his way to the west, he had to stop in Texas on Sunday to attend the funeral of a 8 -year -old girl, the second child who dies from measles in this fascism.
At the beginning of the tour the next day, Mr. Kennedy seemed to be nervous, even – as he was leading him through the Sold Lake City Health Center, which focuses on nutritional meals. He rejected a bag of fresh groceries, citing his next trip. In the “training kitchen”, he dropped an ice cube, and he put a mango Lassi and stopped without expression when a medical student arrived to activate the food therapist in the minister without applying the cover. (An official stopped it in a timely manner.)
“That was bad,” said the student, who looks at the white Secretary shirt and his pressure. Finally, Mr. Kennedy broke a smile.
By Tuesday, Mr. Kennedy had eased, wearing a stegosaurus tie and shaking hands with a navajo child in a health center near Phoenix, where the boy learned to cook blue corn. The Minister of Health invited his head in the refrigerators of the Food Distribution Center, where he examined food and gestures, as he said, “very impressive.”
There was Paux PAS, at a tribal conference of 1,300 people, when Mr. Kennedy sought to show his knowledge of Wampanoag clothes, many of whom live in Cape Code and Martha Fenard, in Massachusetts. (“A home tribe,” he said) While he spoke from a sparkling casino stage, he referred to earrings and necklaces of the traditional kiss of the smell, and declared, “If you want to know how he appeared and was originally, it is a piece of museum!” (Show.)
At a press conference on school lunch legislation in Capitol Arizona, Mr. Kennedy was surrounded by dozens of school children, and many of them waving stickers with slogans such as “chemical cutting” and “eliminating dyes”. There was a loud applause, “Go Bobby!” Cheers from the back. By that time, he was cheerful.
On Wednesday morning, on the path of walking for long distances, Mr. Kennedy gave a glimpse of the character he once presented on the path of the presidential campaign: an adventurous and spiritual man, excited about his convictions – regardless of his popularity – who had been abandoned by him From heroin addiction By throwing himself New extremism.
He was the first to scramble to the top of the window rock formation, which is a 1000 -feet silhouette on the valley floor.
When it comes to his battle against chronic disease, Mr. Kennedy relies on a Natural diet and intermittent fastingIn addition to the morning routine including a 12 -step meeting, gym time and meditation. But since his arrival in Washington, he had to give up the favorite daily rituals: a height of three miles with his dogs.
On this trip, officials discussed initiatives such as the Navajo Nation tax, which is 2 percent in length on unwanted foods, which were adopted as part of the legislation approved in 2014 that also removed a higher tax on fruits and vegetables and inspired similar policies in neighboring cities. They also talked about the manufacture of agricultural products in Navago – a tribal program that sells corn, beans and other products under the “Navajo Pride” brand to support the community.
To close his tour through the southwest states, Mr. Kennedy visited the Hózhó Academy in Gallup, NM, a K-12 School hosts gardening and cooking for families and uses a curriculum to help students plan their own health goals.
Epidemiologists say that there is a group of factors that drive the rates of chronic diseases, including genetics, changes in intestinal microbium in the intestinal canal and the fact that Americans generally live for a longer period, and thus face new conditions that come with age.
These experts say, Mr. Kennedy tends to remove the emphasis on these factors the focus On childhood vaccine schedules, psychological medications and other variables. But here in the tour, Mr. Kennedy maintained most of the personal wellness as a major way to address the crisis.
The enthusiasm of the Secretary Take large food companies It appears to be more in line with the traditional political left than right. His battle against artificial food dyes – “poison”, He also called them It is an echo of the current California laws, and its school visits remind us of Michel Obama’s Let’s Move! The campaign that took obesity in children.
For some, the paid to Mr. Kennedy for health food legislation. It comes in a contradictory moment, as the widespread layoffs in the Food and Drug Administration included laboratory scientists last week who tested food for pollutants; Also management Excluded A major food safety committee and reduce the financing of government food inspectors.
Since Mr. Kennedy Rouge to prevent chronic diseases, the main efforts such as the Diabetes Prevention Program, a 29 -year -old research initiative, It has been eliminated. When he got out of the hiking, a delegate from the National Assembly, Navajo, who struggled to obtain diabetes medications and break her jacket to detect a shirt with a handwritten phrase: “Save ihs Jobs & Diabetes”. (IHS means Indian Federal Health Services.)
“Hidden message,” she said.
Mr. Kennedy promised her that he would speak to his team and see what he could do. She tied her arm to Mr. Kennedy – worried about maintaining balance in her staple – and keeping him there all the way.
