Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said the remarks were delivered on his first day at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pledged to make chronic disease the department’s top priority and promised an open, wide-ranging inquiry during the agency’s first 100 days.

“I could read you a list of statistics proving that Americans suffer far higher levels of chronic disease, obesity, addiction, cancer, infertility, and depression than ever before in history and more than any other country in the world,” Kennedy said. He added officials would examine “every possible contributing factor” to the epidemic and “leave no stone unturned.”

Kennedy said the review would include food, medicine, water, lifestyles and the environment and that the department would “listen to the experts and to the dissidents,” including “insiders and . . . whistleblowers.” He also said regulators would seek greater transparency: “There’s gonna be no more hidden conflicts of interest, no more secrecy, no more profiteering on the substances that we’re supposed to be regulating. We’re gonna earn the public’s trust with honest, unbiased science.”

He framed the inquiry as part of a broader effort to unite Americans around health issues and repeated a timeline: “In our first hundred days, we’re gonna examine every possible contributing factor to the epidemic of chronic disease.” Kennedy also said, “President Trump has made it 1 of his top priorities, and I promise to do everything in my power to carry it through.”

The recorded remarks end with a production credit: “Produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services.” The remarks do not include additional details about specific studies, staff assignments, funding, or formal orders to initiate particular reviews, and no formal actions or votes were announced during the recording.

Kennedy’s statements in this recording are presented as his own characterizations and commitments; the recording attributes its production to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.