Kennedy Must Go, Say Critics Of All Stripes – MAHA Is A Sham

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Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr., Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), insists that the US has a chronic disease epidemic that he can solve with his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) program. The MAHA report chronicled how children in the US have poor diets, are exposed to environmental chemicals, lack physical activity, experience stress and chronic disease, are obese due to consumption of ultra-processed foods, and are overprescribed medications. (The report has been criticized for several false and misleading citations, which shook supporters’ confidence in him early on.)

Lots of these objectives originally sounded like a step forward, right? That is, until we saw how RFK Jr. chose to implement them. He placed emphasis on certain foods, chemicals, and processes that have little scientific evidence to back them up. He drew upon what Emily Bass at the Breakthrough Institute calls “overly simplistic assumptions about the relationship between agricultural systems and food-related health outcomes.”

He’s had little impact on food production practices or public health or environmental outcomes in the US. Instead, he’s made the US food supply less healthy and more expensive. In fact, the disconnect between MAHA’s stated health goals and its narrow focus on certain food production practices “is setting MAHA up to fail, diverting resources away from more serious public health threats, and making healthy foods less affordable and accessible to the American public,” Bass concludes.

As if that ineptitude wasn’t enough, RFK Jr. has been at the center of controversy for his anti-vaccine positions. Advances in medicine have been accompanied by the development of effective vaccines, which save millions of lives globally each year and help protect communities from preventable diseases. The World Health Organization has noted that, over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives and reduced infant deaths by 40%.

Yet RFK Jr. has done little more than to roll back decades of science and life-saving public health measures. His anti-vaccine position is likely to be deadly, but his incompetence goes way beyond vaccines. RFK Jr. is cancelling, cutting, and deconstructing essential agencies and programs in practically every area of public health.

Few people are buying his MAHA recipe for success. Calls abound for the faux health leader to resign or be fired.

The RFK Jr. Hearing: Rational Voices Across The Aisle

During his confirmation hearings, RFK Jr.’s past comments on anti-vaccine rhetoric, unscientific remarks about Black people’s immune systems, and other false medical claims were revisited. It was clear then that RFK Jr.’s focus was on promoting conspiracy theories, and his claims earned him a reputation as one of the leading spreaders of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, including claims that vaccines cause autism.

A Senate hearing this week was designed to discuss the Trump administration’s health care policy. But it dissolved into vocal discord, with RFK Jr. insisting that the CDC response to COVID was all wrong; this is despite overwhelming opposition of the medical community to his position. RFK Jr. cited “data chaos” at the CDC as a barrier to knowing how many people died during COVID. He failed to explain how HHS safeguards are in place to ensure decisions are based solely on science and not politics. Kennedy accused Susan Monarez, the CDC director he dismissed, of lying instead of refusing to sign off on Kennedy’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

Sure, you’d think that US Democratic Senators would have been disturbed by RFK’s hyperbole in the Congressional questioning on Thursday. But it was the Republicans, too, who gave him a grilling to remember. Senate Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), an orthopedic surgeon, testified before the Senate Finance Committee. “I support vaccines. I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” he asserted. He added to his list of concerns a national measles outbreak and questions raised by the leadership of the National Institutes of Health over mRNA vaccines.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Finance panel, said that JFK Jr.’s decision to fire all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was “contradictory” to his pledge to senators earlier this year “not to impose” his “beliefs” about vaccines on the nation’s health agencies.

And then Trump went on his social media site to announce that lots of vaccines are good, proven, and people in the US should take them.

Even the Kennedy clan can’t tolerate the guy. Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, sibling Kerry Kennedy, and JFK grandson Jack Schlossberg have all come out against RFK Jr., as reported by Politico.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote an editorial in the New York Times last week in which he refuted RFK Jr.’s position about vaccine danger. “It is absurd to have to say this in 2025, but vaccines are safe and effective,” Sanders muttered, adding that RFK Jr. “is endangering the health of the American people now and into the future. He must resign.” Sanders argued that, instead of making the US a healthier nation, “President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite.”

To remedy the situation, Sanders has called for Trump to listen to doctors and scientists. He must nominate a health secretary and a CDC director who will protect the health and well-being of people in the US — “not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories.”

Is RFK Jr. going to get the Musk treatment from the White House? It seems like a sure bet.

Farmers Express Dissatisfaction With MAHA, Too

RFK Jr. said during the hearing that his team had met with over 140 farm “interests” over the last three months to ensure his MAHA agenda fits with the agriculture community. US farmers had identified with Trump’s campaign promises to improve wages and lower inflation; they continued to identify with MAHA messages around improved diet and nutrition. One of his proposed solutions to improve diet and public health measures is through nutrition education across every stage of medical training.

However, as Eoin Higgins writes in the New York Times, RFK Jr. has allowed programs beneficial to US farmers to be cut. Farmers are widely expressing that they find RFK Jr.’s “hypocrisy troubling” due to “unwillingness to stand up to policies within his own administration that undermine American farmers.” For example, the cancellation in March of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and Local Food for Schools federal programs came at the expense of providing schools, child care centers, and food banks with fresh food from local farmers. So much for reducing diet-related chronic diseases.

Alarm over the anti-science rhetoric coming from the MAHA movement is wide-spread. RFK Jr. needs to be removed quickly and replaced with an expert in the field who can base policy on peer-reviewed research.