Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, paid a visit to Utah to celebrate new laws that championed his Make America Healthy Again movement.
Kennedy has gained notoriety for questioning the safety of vaccines and a presidential campaign centered around conspiracy theories. His response to the measles outbreak in Texas is also under scrutiny.
The Utah efforts he applauded, though, mirror policies he is pushing for nationally.
“I’m very proud of Utah, it has emerged as the leader in making America healthy again,” RFK Jr. said. “We have a public health crisis now in our country like nothing that we've ever seen before.”
Kennedy went on to list a litany of things including the notion that a male teenager has “less testosterone than a 68-year-old man,” and girls are “reaching puberty six years early.” Reports show young girls are starting puberty six to 12 months earlier, but not six years. And testosterone levels dropping among young men is prevalent.
During the 2025 legislative session, Utah lawmakers successfully banned adding fluoride to public water systems, becoming one of the first states in the nation to do so. Other laws prohibited artificial coloring and preservatives in school lunches and will bar Utahns from using food stamps to purchase soda and other carbonated beverages that hold “no nutritional value.”
House Speaker Mike Schultz and Republican Reps. Stephanie Gricius, Kristen Chevrier Karianne Lisonbee, along with Sens. Brady Brammer and Heidi Balderree, joined Lee Zeldin, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Kennedy to discuss the legislation that aligns with the secretary’s vision for public health policy.
“We're not afraid to lead on these issues, even though they are very controversial in some circumstances. We know that when Utah leads, other states will follow,” Schultz said.
During a February committee hearing on the fluoride bill, Gricius said her bill wasn’t in response to Kennedy’s past stance on fluoridated water. Rather, she cited health concerns, the lawsuit against the EPA and that the government shouldn’t determine that an “entire population require[s] medication in publicly provided drinking water.”
“It is incumbent upon each individual and the rights of parents in determining what medical treatment is best for them and their children,” she said on Feb. 13.
In her appearance with RFK Jr., Gricius again reiterated her belief that individuals and families can make their own decisions on fluoride. Her bill allows pharmacists to prescribe fluoride supplements.
“This approach enables Utahns to receive fluoride in a manner that takes into account proper dosage as well as personal health needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all,” she said.
In his praise, Kennedy added that fluoride had a strong justification in the 1940s when “people didn’t understand the science.” He said now it doesn’t serve the public to continue placing it in water systems and that “the only advantage comes from topical application.”
Research from the National Institutes of Health, however, shows a greater benefit to oral health through fluoridated water paired with topical use, such as fluoride toothpaste. Research has also shown that extreme levels of fluoride can result in negative health benefits, including lower IQ in children.
The Utah cities that fluoridate the water, like Salt Lake City, don’t inject more than 0.7 milligrams per liter into the water system. The study states the association between low IQ and fluoride levels was null at less than 1.5 milligrams per liter.
“It makes no sense to have in our water supply. I'm very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will come,” Kennedy concluded.
The Associated Press reports that Kennedy intends to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation nationwide. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it will review “new scientific information" on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.
Kennedy doesn’t have the power to stop communities from adding fluoride to their water, but he can tell the CDC to stop recommending it and work with the EPA to change the allowed amount. State and local governments decide whether to add fluoride to water and, if so, how much — as long as it doesn’t exceed a maximum set by the EPA, which is currently 4 milligrams per liter.
The health secretary has encouraged companies to remove artificial dyes from food and urged the federal government to prohibit the use of food stamps to buy soda as part of his pledge to overhaul the American diet. Chevrier’s two bills were viewed as moving the needle on that mission.
“Removing harmful ingredients and returning the real to real food will help ensure that our children receive the nutrition that they both need and deserve,” she said. “Removing soda from SNAP [supplemental nutrition assistance program] funding is a benefit both to the overall health of our state and to taxpayers whose dollars were meant to be spent on keeping our most vulnerable neighbors alive and well.”
Both bills barely squeaked out of the Legislature. But from Chevrier’s viewpoint, the legislative green light and stamp of approval from Gov. Spencer Cox marks a “cultural shift” toward disease prevention.
Overall, Kennedy’s appearance in the Beehive State signified something more to Speaker Schultz than a job well done. He said the state has a request out to the federal government to be a testing ground for different projects ranging from public health to transportation. As a result, Utah wouldn’t face funding freezes from the federal government.
“We'd like to stand as a national experiment, allowing the state of Utah to keep some of its federal dollars and tax dollars,” he said. “We manage more effectively, more efficiently and more affordably than the federal government, certainly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
