Trump Admin Will Encourage All Americans To Use Wearables, Says RFK Jr.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will soon start a massive advertising blitz to encourage uptake of wearables such as fitness trackers among Americans, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on June 24.

“We’re about to launch one of the biggest advertising campaigns in HHS history to encourage Americans to use wearables,” Kennedy said on Capitol Hill in Washington during a congressional hearing.

Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) spoke positively about what he described as innovative wellness tools and asked Kennedy to describe how the government is promoting access to such tools. Balderson noted that research suggests that increased patient engagement can result in improved health.

“It’s a way people can take control over their own health, they can take responsibility, they can see what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics as they eat it, and they can begin to make good judgements about their diet, about their physical activity, about the way they live their lives,” Kennedy said.

“We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda, Making America Healthy Again. My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years.”

Balderson also asked about concerns over keeping data from wearables private. Kennedy declined to address that aspect of the matter.

In addition to his role as health secretary, Kennedy is chairman of the MAHA Commission, established by President Donald Trump to study ways to improve the health of Americans.

The commission, in its first report, published in May, only mentions wearables once. It says that electromagnetic radiation is “an exposure due to the proliferation of cell phones, WiFi routers, cell towers, and wearables,” with some studies linking exposure to the radiation to issues such as reduced sperm count.

Other research has found that wearable trackers can lead to skin irritation and other dermatologic problems, although many user issues were resolved, and they continued using the trackers.

Two divisions of HHS said separately in May that they would be utilizing information from wearables for research, trying to discern the causes of autism.

Kennedy said some of his friends have experienced profoundly positive impacts from wearables.

They “utterly changed their lives just from wearing a glucose meter,” he told members of Congress on Tuesday.

He then indicated that the administration is looking into making sure the costs of wearables are covered, bringing up the weight loss drug Ozempic.

“It’s a miraculous impact on health in our country,” he said. “It’s $80 a month, we’re exploring ways of making sure that those costs can be paid for. Ozempic is costing $1,300 a month. If you can achieve the same thing with an $80 wearable, it’s a great thing for the American people.”