HHS spokespeople didn\u2019t respond to emails seeking comment.<\/p>\n
To be sure, Kennedy\u2019s ascendance represents a breakthrough for the MAHA movement, a broad collection<\/a> of gadflies, groups, and wellness influencers who extol raw milk<\/a>, metabolic health, and sustainable farming while lambasting Big Pharma, vaccines, and processed foods.<\/p>\n The coming months will test Kennedy\u2019s ability to juggle the challenges and achieve Trump\u2019s goals without losing the support of MAHA adherents, especially special interest and advocacy groups that helped him reach his influential perch overseeing one of the nation\u2019s largest federal agencies. HHS, with a budget of almost $2 trillion, includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.<\/p>\n But the MAHA goals aren\u2019t top agenda items for GOP voters, who tend to be focused more on the price of eggs than whether they\u2019re organic.<\/p>\n The MAHA faithful \u201cexpect action\u201d but their to-do list is not necessarily a high priority for voters or lawmakers, said Robert Blendon, a professor emeritus of health policy and political analysis at Harvard. \u201cAnd should there be a big measles outbreak or avian flu, it would hurt the White House if there was a big conflict over vaccines going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n An additional challenge for Kennedy is that not all MAHA and MAGA goals overlap. Trump wants to slash the workforce, which Kennedy has embraced. But fulfilling MAHA wishes will require more regulation, which runs counter to MAGA dogma favoring a smaller federal government.<\/p>\n MAHA wants fluoride out of water because followers say it leads to lower IQ levels in children, as well as arthritis and bone cancer. Kennedy said on X<\/a> that fluoride is dangerous and that the Trump administration would recommend it be removed from America\u2019s drinking water. Fluoridated water is credited for vastly reducing rates of tooth decay in the U.S. In 2015, the CDC called water fluoridation one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, and only 15% of Americans think fluoride is harmful or detrimental to the public, based on a poll in January<\/a> by market research company Ipsos.<\/p>\n MAHA adherents believe in the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and Kennedy just tapped a vaccine opponent<\/a> to work on a study on possible connections. In fact, HHS has launched an effort that Kennedy said will determine by September<\/a>\u00a0what has caused the \u201cautism epidemic.\u201d Many autism researchers say this timeline sows doubts<\/a> about the study\u2019s seriousness. Most\u00a0voters support vaccines and believe in their benefits. Eight in 10 parents with children under age 18 say they normally keep them up to date with recommended childhood vaccines, according to a KFF poll in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n And MAHA wants to replace seed oils, which the movement\u2019s followers claim without evidence are unhealthy, with animal fats such as beef tallow, which is high in saturated fat<\/a>, which can contribute to high cholesterol and heart disease. Only 13% of Americans believe seed oils are unhealthy to consume, based on a poll by the industry-backed International Food Information Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps no goal is more important to many MAHA followers, however, than banning the mRNA technology<\/a> behind covid vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big threat is that we still have covid-19 vaccines on the market,\u201d said Peter McCullough, a former cardiologist<\/a> who has been criticized for spreading covid misinformation and has informally advised Kennedy. \u201cIt\u2019s horrendous. I would not hesitate; I would just pull it. What\u2019s he waiting for?\u201d<\/p>\n The FDA says covid shots are safe<\/a>. They are credited for saving millions of lives worldwide during the pandemic, and two NIH-funded scientists who advanced mRNA technology were awarded the Nobel Prize<\/a> in physiology or medicine in 2023.<\/p>\n Yanking authority for mRNA-based covid vaccines could backfire because Trump sees \u201cOperation Warp Speed,\u201d the federal effort to develop the shots, as one of his signature achievements, according to one of the people close to Kennedy. And it would have been impolitic to take action before the confirmation of an FDA commissioner, the person said. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, was confirmed on March 25 to the post.<\/p>\n Kennedy also isn\u2019t calling all the shots. He was initially unaware of the appointment of Gerald Parker<\/a>, a veterinarian who recently chaired an NIH advisory board, to head the White House\u2019s pandemic office, according to one of the people.<\/p>\n Kennedy did choose Susan Monarez, a former deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, as acting CDC director. Trump nominated her for Senate confirmation to lead the agency on March 24. Kennedy felt she had worked well with Trump\u2019s job-cutting Department of Government Efficiency and did a great job in her acting director position, one of the people close to him said.<\/p>\n Kennedy is also in a difficult position regarding Trump\u2019s Make America Healthy Again commission<\/a>, which Kennedy chairs. The panel\u2019s charge to investigate and deliver an action plan on the nation\u2019s decades-long increase in chronic illness, with a special emphasis on children, is a clear pitch to the MAHA movement. But Trump has told Kennedy, according to one of the people, that he wants to see measurable progress in a year to 18 months \u2014 which is hard both to define and to achieve.<\/p>\n While Kennedy is a scion of the country\u2019s most famous Democratic family, he is widely distrusted in the medical community because of his fringe views on vaccines and his rejection of established science. Since taking office, he has tried to cultivate relationships with MAGA-leaning state officials, including West Virginia\u2019s governor, Republican Patrick Morrisey. And his alliance with Trump is new. When Kennedy was running for president in 2024, Trump took to his Truth Social platform<\/a> to say, \u201cKennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, and always will be!!!\u201d \u2014 though Trump\u2019s administration includes other onetime adversaries such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n Many of Kennedy\u2019s nutrition and health goals would require regulation, which clash with Trump\u2019s anti-regulatory agenda and his focus on a lean federal government.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he\u2019s relied on his principal deputy chief of staff, Stefanie Spear, a longtime Kennedy aide who has taken on the role of traffic cop in the department. He\u2019s also leaned on HHS chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson for expertise. She was a senior adviser to former HHS Secretary Alex Azar in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s close circle of informal advisers includes nontraditional doctors, fellow vaccine opponents, media personalities, and self-appointed health gurus. Some have gained unprecedented influence and access to the innermost workings of federal health agencies.<\/p>\n Calley Means<\/a>, for example, is a Kennedy ally whose business sells wellness products<\/a> such as saunas and supplements. His statements have dismayed some scientists, such as when he called covid vaccine mandates for children a \u201cwar crime\u201d and said without evidence that \u201cmetabolically healthy<\/a>\u201d people don\u2019t die from covid. In March, Means joined the White House as a special government employee and MAHA adviser.<\/p>\n Others in Kennedy\u2019s orbit include Del Bigtree, a television producer who founded the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, and some officials from the previous Trump administration. Aaron Siri, a lawyer for Kennedy, is no longer involved in vetting candidates for HHS positions, one of the people said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Nontraditional\u2019 as a description for these people is not enough. We\u2019re talking about beyond the outer fringes of medicine,\u201d said Irwin Redlener, senior adviser for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, of Kennedy\u2019s inner circle. \u201cThis faux expertise is really dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as some MAHA adherents press for swifter action, Kennedy\u2019s recent comments and actions suggest public health ideas once dismissed as fringe or unscientific now have an advocate at HHS.<\/p>\n Kennedy claimed without evidence that cod liver oil<\/a> is an effective treatment for measles. He\u2019s suggested letting the bird flu virus rip unchecked<\/a> through infected chicken flocks even though scientists say that could unleash dangerous mutations.<\/p>\n And he\u2019s backed cellphone bans in schools, saying phones cause cancer<\/a> in kids. Most studies have found no such link.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.walkwithremar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RFK-MAHA-resized-scaled.jpg\")
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