HJNO Jul/Aug 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2025 9 him go wild on medicines.” This alliance struck fear in many and may have seismic implications. The Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment should have sparked a national reckoning. It labels corporate influence and regula- tory “cronyism” as public health threats. Instead, it made a brief media splash and was quickly dismissed, as most retreated to the echo chambers they trust. Scientists saw sloppiness, advocates saw vindication, reporters saw scandal. Few saw the opportunity to look past the messenger, interrogate the substance, and ask the question that matters most: What is happening to our kids? Ignoring this report wholesale is a mistake. Yes, the report is messy, chaotic, unsettling, but so is the condition of America’s children — especially in this state. As a journal, we have the luxury of analyzing while you carry on with your busy lives. We decided to publish the full report, showing the footnote fiasco with corrections — a warning of our times to any who now use AI as a writing or research aid, as AI can and will hallucinate information. This speaks to the importance of competent sources. In a digital world where things can be made up and posted on so many platforms, where something is published is critical. Although being the public health disrupter that he is, RFK, in this report, accuses respected medical and trade journals of editorial manipulation by the forces who advertise in and support them. As a local healthcare journal, we wanted to run statewide equivalent data adjacent to this report. In trying to gather this data, we were shocked at the number of people who had not read this report. Even more disturbing was how many were unwilling to provide relevant public health information. We are the sickest wealthy nation on earth, and Louisiana’s health outcomes could be more easily equated to Third World outcomes. And the unbelievable response we got from the Louisiana Department of Health was to file a public records request. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, May 27, 2025 Subject: Request for Public Health Data in Response to MAHA Report – For Inclusion in The Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge, New Orleans Dear Emma, I’m reaching out to request input for the upcoming Jul/Aug issue, which will spotlight the White House’s recent Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Assessment. We are inviting health departments in the states we cover to comment on the findings and share current public health data to better understand how national trends compare to the state’s. For reference, the full MAHA Assessment is available here: [White House MAHA Assessment PDF] Requested Data Points: 1. Childhood obesity rates (statewide and by race/ethnicity) 2. Type 2 diabetes in children 3. Child suicide rates and youth mental health ER visits 4. Pediatric ADHD, anxiety, and depression diagnoses 5. Antipsychotic prescriptions for minors (volume, demographics, and use cases) 6. Childhood cancer rates, ideally broken down by type 7. Chemical and pesticide exposure risks (monitoring, cluster data, etc.) 8. Number and locations of Superfund sites in the state 9. Hot food access for SNAP recipients (any pilot programs or policy efforts) 10. Thoughts on public school phone and vending machine bans If your office would like to provide a brief (200–400 word) response to the MAHA report, we would be happy to include it in the issue. We hope this format makes your response easier to assemble, and we welcome any additional context or links to publicly avail- able dashboards. If possible, we would appreciate responses by June 5. Kindly, Dianne Hartley US Healthcare Journals _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday, June 5, 2025 Ms. Hartley, Please use our public records request portal below to submit a public records request for the records you are seeking. Once we receive your request, we will forward it to the appropriate department within LDH that may maintain the records you are seeking. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. https://ldh.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/ (S(fh0mzigtcfke3ga4yfgegfyt))/SupportHome.aspx Sincerely, Mark J. Semien Louisiana Department of Health Attorney Supervisor, Bureau of Legal Services _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________