RFK Jr., intends to focus on chronic diseases, continues to be plagued by the impact of HHS slaughtering

As far as he came from Washington, DC, as Secretary of Human Services and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Climbing the top of the sandstone curve that rises in the Rural Arizona with a group of Navajo nation leaders, the impact of the cutting of the agency reaches further.

Wearing a shirt with a clear request written in the front, “Save the IHS Jobs and Diabetes program,” a delegation of the Navajo Council, Eugenia Charles-Newton, approached Kennedy to tell him that he was worried that HHS cuts had an impact on the diabetes program that he relied on for treatment.

Charles-Newton said he heard that funds were not renewed for aspects of the diabetes program specifically for India, a program in Indian health services (IHS) at HHS. Fast restructuring at HHS has made it difficult to track the actual impact, he said.

Kennedy, who listened and then walked with Arm-in-ARM with Charles-Newton for the final leg of the increase, promised to look into the program and whether there were funds influenced by the restructuring of HHS-Wide. The improvement of Navajo’s health care that he asked seemed to look like “common sense,” he said.

Navajo Nation President, Buu Nygren, also mentioned programs affected by low-income home energy assistance, or Liheap, which provided federal funded assistance to reduce utility bills and help with weather houses. Navajo people – living with extreme desert temperatures – are very dependent on their help, he said.

But the program was destroyed by HHS cutting. Nygren told ABC News that he held out the hope that Kennedy, made aware of the importance of Navajo Nation, might consider returning it.

Since the beginning of the layoff, Kennedy insisted that there was no “important service” that would be cut. “Cutting on all our agencies does not affect science,” Kennedy told ABC News last week.

But the scope of slaughtering – and the work has an impact, from the assistance of utility bills in Navajo Nation, to examining black lung disease for coal miners, to divisions that monitor exposure among children – continue to Kennedy dogs, raising questions about supervision and involvement in large restrictions.

Overall, ethnic leaders really appreciate Kennedy’s visit, who was part of his first big journey as Secretary of HHS. This trip focuses on fighting chronic diseases, with great emphasis on the importance of healthy food and not processed.

Nicknamed the Make America Healthy Again tour, Kennedy also visited Utah, the first state in this country which passed the law to eliminate fluoride from the drinking water system, and met with local officials. While there, he toured the Osher integrative health center at the University of Utah, which aims to focus a healthy diet and exercise in health care conversations, and get their “food pharmacy”, which provides healthy food that is prescribed to patients.

In Arizona, which approved the law to prohibit recipients from using assistance for soda, Kennedy held a press conference with the legislators who fought for the bill and toured to the Phoenix health center that offers a healthy cooking program for the local native community. He also stopped by the panel discussion at the Tribal 2025 government conference, sitting with tribal leaders including the Wampanoag tribes, who he described with time to spend time around his childhood in Massachussetts.

In Navajo Nation, the crowd gathered at the foot of the Rock window, a warning, praising him for his faithful attention to the issue of outdated medical centers, lack of water infrastructure and inadequate access to healthy food.

“Processed food hurts all of us. That disproportionately hurt the indigenous people,” Kennedy told the group of Navajo leaders, who nodded in agreement.

But they also use the opportunity to tell Kennedy that they need more support, no less – warning to the impact of the cutting of the agency. It was a conversation received by Kennedy.

“We will all return with a long list of tasks we need to do. And I will give you my commitment today that I am available and listen to you,” Kennedy said.

In an interview With CBS News aired on Wednesday, Kennedy scored a tone similar to what he said to tribal leaders in Navajo Nation – that he would see cuts that he did not realize, and returned those who had disturbed “scientific research.”

“There are a number of studies that are cut into our concern and inappropriate, and we return them. Our goal is not to reduce any level of scientific research, it’s important,” Kennedy said In an interview with CBS News on Wednesday.

Kennedy’s comments came after he also told ABC News last week that studies and personnel were being restored, adding that his plan always made great cuts and then the error “fixed”.

But government officials then walked back to the comments, and mostly standing near the slaughter, which reached almost one fifth of the workforce in the two centers of control and prevention of disease and food and drug administration.

On Wednesday, HHS did not respond to the request from ABC News for clarity about which research studies were referred to by Kennedy in his interview with CBS News, and whether they had been restored.

Asked about various deductions in CBS interviews, from grants for diabetes research at the University of Michigan up to more than $ 11 billion in cutting to Covid recovery efforts at the state level, Kennedy said he was not “familiar,” but would examine it.

Across the CDC, the FDA and the National Health Institute, three of the HHS main public health weapons, there has been no significant change in the cuts that hit around 10,000 employees last week.