The American Academy of Pediatrics - mining children for profit
Story at-a-glance
- The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies, influencing policies that promote more medical interventions for children while reducing parental control
- The AAP’s top priority is to eliminate parental authority over childhood vaccination decisions, replacing it with state or provider control
- Major child health issues like rising obesity, increasing autism rates, and chronic illness prevention are absent from the AAP’s top 10 priorities
- The AAP uses rare measles outbreaks to justify removing personal and religious vaccine exemptions, despite measles mortality already being near zero before mass vaccination began
- Ignoring preventive strategies, the AAP’s approach sets children up for lifelong dependence on pharmaceutical products rather than building lasting health
In North America, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) holds enormous influence over how children’s medical care is shaped. Its public positions and policy priorities steer the direction of pediatric practice, often setting the tone for what’s considered standard care. What’s less visible is how those priorities are formed, and how the balance between child health, industry interests, and parental authority is struck.
Over the past several decades, the health landscape for children has shifted dramatically, with chronic illness becoming far more common. Yet the way the AAP addresses these changes reveals as much about its focus as it does about what it leaves out. By examining what the organization elevates — and what it avoids — it becomes clear how policy direction affects the day-to-day decisions parents face.
This isn’t just about medical recommendations; it’s about the framework that decides whether prevention, treatment, or industry-driven measures take center stage. The details of the AAP’s own published priorities show where the balance tips, and why the very first item on their list directly impacts your ability to make informed choices for your child.
AAP’s Priorities Reveal a Profound Shift Away from Parental Rights
The AAP is structured to prioritize its members’ income over children’s well-being, according to David Bell, senior scholar at Brownstone Institute and a former medical officer and scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO).1 The published article by the Brownstone Institute outlines how the AAP’s top priority is to remove parents from decision-making about whether their children receive certain medical procedures, especially vaccinations.
With 67,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the AAP’s influence is enormous. Its funding from pharmaceutical companies like Moderna, Merck, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline creates a direct financial link between the organization’s policy positions and industry profit.
• The organization’s published priorities reveal striking omissions that directly affect children’s health outcomes — Among its top 10 goals, the AAP does not address three of the most urgent and widely discussed issues affecting children today: increasing obesity, the autism epidemic, and the overall rise in chronic illness.
While these problems are acknowledged elsewhere by the AAP, the focus is on managing — not preventing — them. This means that as a parent, you’re unlikely to see the organization push for real, root-cause solutions that would improve your child’s long-term health.
• Its strategy aligns with creating lifelong pharmaceutical customers rather than fostering lifelong health — The article points out that promoting chronic illness in children nearly guarantees those conditions will persist into adulthood, ensuring ongoing revenue for drug manufacturers. This isn’t simply a byproduct of flawed policy — it’s an outcome that benefits the same corporations funding the AAP.
• The AAP’s stance on bodily autonomy erodes long-standing human rights norms — The group operates on the view that personal medical decisions should be subordinate to state requirements or a doctor’s orders, even when those orders involve products the doctor is financially incentivized to promote.
This approach mirrors early 20th-century technocracy and medical authoritarianism, where “experts” made health care decisions without patient consent. For you, this translates into diminished control over your child’s body and health choices.
• Their vaccine policies ignore the reality of already low measles mortality before mass vaccination began — In the U.S. and other wealthy nations, nearly all measles-related deaths had already ended before the introduction of mass vaccination programs. Improved nutrition, especially in micronutrients, was likely the key factor. This is important context, because it challenges the AAP’s justification for overriding parental choice based on rare outbreaks.
Financial Influence Drives Pediatric Policy Choices
When an organization receives funding from companies whose business model depends on high product use, the policies it produces will often reflect those companies’ commercial priorities. In this case, it means promoting more pharmaceutical interventions for children, removing parental veto power, and ignoring preventive health strategies that would reduce dependency on medical products.
• AAP uses selective statistics to justify eliminating exemptions — Dr. Jesse Hackell, chair of the AAP’s Committee on Pediatric Workforce, cited the deaths of two children in recent years from measles to argue for removing personal choice.
The article stresses that claiming vaccines are “safe” without acknowledging that they carry risks and cause adverse effects is “a stupid claim in medicine and biology.” For you as a parent, this means policy decisions are being made using emotionally charged but statistically rare events, rather than a balanced risk-benefit analysis.
• Religious and cultural objections to certain vaccines are dismissed outright — Many parents have concerns about vaccines developed using cells from induced abortions, yet the AAP officially supports overriding these objections. This disregard for moral or cultural beliefs signals that your deeply held values could be deemed irrelevant in decisions about your child’s care.
• The broader impact is a public health model that treats children as a market, not individuals — The AAP’s actions align less with science-based health care and more with marketing strategies for an expanding pediatric pharmaceutical market. If these priorities succeed, future generations of children will grow up in an environment where medical compliance is enforced, personal choice is diminished, and preventive care is sidelined.
• AAP’s published priorities are a direct signal of where pediatric care is headed — Unless challenged, these policies could mean fewer rights for parents, greater exposure of children to medical interventions without your consent, and an ongoing neglect of prevention-focused health care. Understanding this shift is the first step in protecting your ability to make informed decisions for your child’s long-term well-being.
Practical Steps to Protect Your Child’s Health and Your Right to Decide
When an influential organization pushes policies that remove your voice from your child’s health care, the most effective way to respond is by addressing the root of the problem — both the health risks to your child and the erosion of your authority as a parent. Your goal is twofold: keep your child healthy so they’re less likely to need chronic medical interventions, and take deliberate steps to protect your ability to make informed decisions about their care.
1. Build your child’s health from the inside out — Focus on a diet and lifestyle that supports strong immunity and balanced development. Limit ultraprocessed foods, eliminate vegetable oils, and replace them with nutrient-rich fats like tallow, ghee, or grass fed butter.
Prioritize whole fruits, root vegetables, and quality proteins such as grass fed beef and pastured eggs. A strong nutritional foundation, along with regular daily movement, sound sleep, and stress management, reduces the likelihood your child will need long-term pharmaceutical treatments.
2. Stay informed about medical products and policies — Read the actual policy statements from organizations like the AAP rather than relying on summaries in the media. If you’re a parent who wants full knowledge of what’s being recommended for your child, you need to know exactly what is on the priority list — and what’s missing. Understanding the gaps, such as ignoring obesity or autism prevention, helps you spot when an agenda is driven by profit instead of health.
3. Document your decisions and communicate them clearly — Keep written records of your preferences regarding your child’s care, including your stance on specific medical interventions. If you’re enrolling your child in school or a new activity, provide those documents in advance. This ensures there is no confusion about your expectations and puts your position on record before issues arise.
4. Address chronic illness risks early and naturally — If your child is showing signs of early health problems — such as excess weight gain, fatigue, or developmental concerns — intervene now with lifestyle changes. Increase daily activity, ensure regular outdoor time for sun exposure, and create a consistent sleep routine. By preventing or reversing early issues without medicalizing them, you reduce the likelihood of your child becoming dependent on ongoing drug-based treatments.
5. Engage in local and state-level advocacy — Join parent groups or community organizations that support medical freedom and parental rights. If you’re concerned about policies being pushed at the legislative level, showing up at school board meetings or contacting lawmakers directly is one of the most effective ways to make your voice heard. Organized, informed parents are far more difficult for institutions to ignore.
FAQs About the AAP
Q: What is the main concern with the AAP?
A: The AAP has shifted its focus away from prevention and root-cause solutions for children’s health, prioritizing policies that remove parental authority over medical decisions — especially vaccinations — while receiving funding from major pharmaceutical companies.
Q: Why does the AAP’s funding matter for parents?
A: When an organization is funded by companies that profit from more medical interventions, its policy positions often align with increasing the use of those products. This means parents are more likely to face pressure to comply with recommendations that benefit industry rather than focusing on long-term health outcomes for their children.
Q: What important child health issues are missing from the AAP’s top priorities?
A: The AAP’s published priority list leaves out major public health concerns like rising childhood obesity, increasing autism rates, and the broader epidemic of chronic illness. These omissions suggest a lack of interest in prevention-focused health care strategies.
Q: How does the AAP justify removing parental choice on vaccines?
A: The AAP cites rare measles outbreaks and isolated cases of death to argue for eliminating personal, cultural, or religious exemptions, despite the fact that measles mortality in the U.S. had already dropped to near zero before mass vaccination programs began.
Q: What can parents do to protect their rights and their children’s health?
A: Parents can strengthen their child’s health through nutrition and lifestyle choices, stay informed on medical policies, document care preferences, address health risks early with natural approaches, and participate in local or state advocacy to protect medical decision-making authority.
Sources and References