One recent morning, curiosity led me to a video promoting Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. With the hospital’s cacophony of ventilator and heart rate monitor sounds in the background, I watched Mr. Kennedy stand in a grassy field and promise to find and target the root causes of chronic illness — with few actual specifics.

Martin Makary, an author and surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, has appeared frequently on Fox News to talk about health issues.

A state Senate committee on Tuesday advanced a resolution to form a task force aimed at determining how to implement Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” strategies in Kentucky, where chronic health conditions such as heart disease and obesity are ...