Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated by Donald Trump toOversee US Public Health
The First Two Terms of Repatriation: Implications for the America’s Health, the Future, and the Future of the MAHA Agenda
“A real litmus test is whether they take on economic interests that are contributing to the chronic disease epidemic and whether or not they are serious about it,” says former CDC director Frieden, who is now president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.
Popkin says reforms that go against the interests of industry will face a tough time in Congress.
“Given the desire to cut government, they’re going to want to cut regulations as a huge component. They did under Trump’s first term, they’re going to be more systematic about it even now,” says Popkin.
He tells anyone that is skeptical to look at the positives. The MAHA agenda is a golden area for true bipartisan reform.
He says Kennedy’s approach will be to insist on what he terms “accurate science” and adds that “it’s Congress’ job to allocate money. It’s Congress’s job to figure out how to rectify the broken subsidy systems that led to this poisoning of the American consumer.”
Now Kennedy wants to do more to rein in food and pharma. He’s calling for restrictions on a host of food additives and dyes. He wants to reduce the dominance of ultra-processed foods; he’s called for reforming the SNAP food assistance program — formerly known as food stamps.
The first administration installed industry insiders and made questionable decisions that were not in line with the priorities of the MAHA.
Source: RFK Jr. wants to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ He could face a lot of pushback
A Patient’s Guide to Health: Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, Ph.D., D.C.F., MAHA, MD
The idea of addressing the root causes of chronic diseases is exciting to me, according to Dr. Randall Stafford. “But I’m not sure that those goals are consistent with other goals to deregulate the economy.”
The ascendance of MAHA is a dizzying moment for scientists who’ve long pushed for more attention to lifestyle diseases — and agree reforms are desperately needed. At the same time, they’re deeply worried about Kennedy’s history of questioning scientific consensus on vaccines and his antagonism to mainstream medicine more broadly.
“I think this is a unique opportunity,” says Hyman, who is the founder of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and co-founder of Function Health. Donald Trump is a burn down the house kind of guy. Bobby isn’t looking for any change.
Over the years he has advocated for changes to the food supply, Dr. Mark Hyman claims that he has faced a lot of resistance.
He cites the revolving door between industry and government, the fees paid by pharmaceutical companies to the FDA, and experts who sit on advisory panels or carry out government-funded research while receiving industry dollars.
He says the public health expert class has made the public health collapse. “We are on the verge of, at best, a health crisis and, at worst, a societal collapse with 20% of GDP going to health expenditures. We’re getting sicker, fatter, depressed and infertile because of it.
Source: RFK Jr. wants to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ He could face a lot of pushback
A Spiritual Connection Between The MAHA Era and the Scientific Movement of the ‘Disinformation Diffusion’: A Conversation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Means — himself a former lobbyist for the food and drug industry — has emerged as one of the leading voices in the MAHA orbit. He and his sister, Dr. Casey Means, catapulted into the political sphere after publishing a bestseller on metabolic health. Both have business ventures in the health and wellness industry.
“Despite the media’s effort to silo this movement into fringe areas like vaccines or fluoride or things like that, the voters saw very clearly that big ideas were being talked about,” says Means. “I think a spiritual connection was hit.”
Kennedy’s influence could reach deep into health care, infectious disease prevention, drug pricing and approvals and more. But his vision for preventing chronic disease is one that he’s been particularly vocal about in the lead up to this appointment.
Some areas of overlap are between MAHA and scientists who have advocated for tackling the root causes of chronic illness.
Kennedy began his career as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist when he was a Democrat. Around 2015, he joined the board of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which alleges that conditions like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are caused by environmental factors, including harmful agents in vaccines. Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about vaccines and in 2021 was named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as one of the “disinformation dozen,” spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would nominate former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It’s the fulfillment of an implied promise that Trump made at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York in late October, where he said he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.”
MAHA, Big Food and Big Pharma: The Problem of the U.S. Health Care Sector in the Final Stretch of the November 2018 Presidential Campaign
MAHA has set its sights on big food and big pharma, arguing that these industries use lobbying power to maximize profits at the expense of the country’s health.
This message served as an animating force in the final stretch of the election, as Kennedy elevated concerns about ultra-processed foods and poor nutrition, food additives, pesticides and toxic chemicals, and the harms of industrial agriculture, among other issues.
Calley Means, an adviser to Kennedy and the Trump transition team, talked to NPR before Kennedy’s nomination and said that Kennedy and Trump had bonds over tying a distrust of institutions with corruption in health care industries.
Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, says that he would be happy with substantive policy changes that address diet related illnesses like obesity and diabetes.
HHS oversees 13 federal agencies—which Kennedy has indicated he would gut—including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.
In August, Kennedy suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Trump, saying, “If President Trump is elected and honors his word, the vast burden of chronic disease that burdens and bankrupts the country will disappear.” He launched a slogan to make America healthy again that focused on priorities such as protecting habitats and eliminating toxins in food, water, and air.
Kennedy’s account was banned for spreading vaccine misinformation. His account was restored in 2023, when he announced his run for office.
In contradiction to all the studies, he has implied that Covid-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people from HIV, and that vaccine mandates are worse than the Holocaust. He also said in a 2012 deposition that a worm ate part of his brain and then died.
US President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., is a former lobbyist for the food and drug industry. Kennedy will oversee 13 federal agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and threw his support behind Trump.