Members of the task force used the first meeting to touch on topics they hope the group can cover over the summer interim—from mental health to physical fitness to a renewed focus on prevention.
"We do too much sick care. We don't do well care," Rep. Marianne Proctor said, lamenting the conveyor-belt feeling of modern medicine. "There's not an in-depth analysis of what's going on... It's really easy to prescribe medication for long-term diseases and so many of them are preventable."
While the task force chairs hope to avoid more politically-charged issues and keep a general focus on healthy food and food availability, co-chair Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer said the recently-released MAHA commission report will play a role.
"This report will inform some of the structure of our next committee meetings," she said.
The MAHA report on children's health drew scrutiny this week following an investigation by the nonpartisan news outlet NOTUS, which uncovered misrepresented findings and at least seven non-existent studies cited in the report.
US Health and Human Services says the report is being updated.
One speaker urged the panel to add "electro-magnetic radiation exposure" and chemtrails to their list of discussion items.
"Government agencies and private institutions have acknowledged experimentation with atmospheric aerosol injections under the banner of climate intervention," she said.
Asked Wednesday about state health agencies' response to controversial recommendations coming out of the Trump administration, Kentucky Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said state health authorities will continue to draw on what they considers solid scientific data.
"Because traditionally, sound public health done for the entire nation relies on a healthy partnership between the federal, state, and local layers of government," he told WUKY. "And I think right now we're seeing the ground shift beneath our feet, and we're going to have to figure out what that means and how we can help empower our citizens, certainly here in Kentucky, to have the information they need to make good choices."
The MAHA Kentucky Task Force was launched this year by the legislature to align the state with the Trump administration's priorities on the health front.