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A year ago this week, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm vaccine opponent, environmental lawyer and politician Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.head of the US Department of Health and Human Services, valued at $1.7 trillion. The vote was divided 52 to 48 on party lines, with the only Republican “no” coming from Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a polio survivor.

To his confirmation hearing a few weeks earlier, Kennedy had made a number of promises under oath to these American senators:

“I promise not to fire anyone who is doing their job.”

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“I support vaccines. I support the childhood calendar.”

“My approach to HHS, as I have said before…, is radical transparency.”

“I’m in favor of good science.”

Health experts say Kennedy dramatically changed those statements. His tenure at HHS saw the US Childhood Immunization Program reduce the number of vaccines recommended to protect against 11 diseases instead of 17, thousands of civil servants (many of them are scientists) were licensedthe normative scientific practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health have been replaced by “gold standard» imposes on scientists call dishonestand the judges have blocked funding cuts are considered illegal. Kennedy and HHS officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The secretary has spoken widely about his goals this year to Congress and the public. In September, before a Senate committeehe described his “comprehensive” mission as “to achieve a once-in-a-generation shift from a health care system to a true health system that addresses the root causes of chronic disease.” Her “Making America Healthy Again» (MAHA) agenda, now married to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, places Kennedy at the head of a new, unorthodox American political coalition. He gathers a supporter distrust of science with a deep-rooted skepticism towards medicine and the food industry. According to a KFF survey, around four out of ten parents support the MAHA movement.

“Who can argue with the fundamental goal of ‘Make America Healthier’? to want parents want healthier lives for their children,” says the dean of the school of public health at Washington University in St. Louis. Sandro Galeaauthor of the book Within reason: liberal public health for an illiberal era. A lot of goals of the MAHA movement, in particular by increasing life expectancy in the United States has stalledimprove children’s health and fight against overmedicalization – are shared by public health experts.

“It would be great to see MAHA be a force for good,” says Galea. “But frankly, some of his ideas will end up harming people.” In particular, Kennedy’s vaccine decisions will inevitably lead to epidemics, Galea says, and the return of preventable infectious diseases such as measles. “We really haven’t seen an HHS mandate like this in our lifetime.”

HHS is largely the national social insurance arm of the United States, with a secondary role in medical research and public health. It oversees the massive Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs, as well as the FDA, CDC and NIH. In many ways, the colossal agency today, continues to operate as normal: Social Security checks, Supplemental Security Income, or both are still arriving in almost all countries. 75 million mailboxes each month, one in five Americans has Medicaid coverage, and the Affordable Care Act that the department administers always covers more than 24 million people across the country despite Trump administration cuts spending health insurance and food aid. On February 2, Kennedy announced a $100 million pilot program to fund outreach, medical treatment and other support for homeless people and people with substance use disorders in eight cities, including the kind of bipartisan response has the overdose crisis long sought after the world of public health.

This decision, however, came after layoffs at HHS. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and undo and restore 2 billion dollars in funding for its programs in January.

This kind of tumult is now the standard rate at HHS. During his first year, Kennedy fired his CDC’s own hand-picked leaderrelated Tylenol for autism with little evidence and urged farmers to leave bird flu “browse” their flocks (an idea that could make the chicken explode prices are skyrocketing And stimulate the spread of the virussay experts). In total, the agency lost more than 17,000 civil servants by layoffs and resignations in 2025, including many scientific leaders of the FDA, CDC And NIH. An HHS spokesperson defended Kennedy’s cuts to “bloated bureaucracies that were long overdue” for ProPublica in August.

At the Senate hearing in September, Kennedy accused a critical lawmaker of “insane speech,” took out his phone and began scrolling through it while another spoke. “We’re denying people the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the physician chairman of the Senate health committee. “You are wrong” Kennedy replied to Cassidy, who had provided a crucial Republican vote last February for Kennedy’s confirmation.

Kennedy “comes across as a wealthy, privileged man with an air of entitlement,” says Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, whose organization demanded Kennedy’s resignation in April after mass layoffs at the CDC, FDA and other health agencies. “He is completely overwhelmed by this job, has no experience, no training in the areas of health he affects and causes great harm.”

Vaccines

Kennedy has a long history of opposition to the vaccine. He joined the board of directors of the anti-vaccine association Child health advocacy in 2015, when it was known as the World Mercury Project (and stepped down as president in 2024); the organization led numerous prosecutions against vaccine manufacturers. The shift from environmental lawyer to anti-vaccine activist has proven timely for post-pandemic politics; attacks on COVID vaccines are being courted Republican voters. During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy refused to disavow links between vaccines and autism, a favorite theory of incitement outfits vaccine hesitancy between parentsalthough many studies have found no link. “The media has claimed that I’m anti-vaccine or anti-industry,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing. “I’m neither; I’m pro-security.” What Kennedy meant by security has since become clear, Benjamin says: his own judgment.

The FDA’s top vaccine official, Peter Marks, resigned in March. Kennedy’s writing“truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he desires slavish confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” During the pandemic, Marks had resisted political pressure to approve COVID shots without safety testing. Now he’s out. An HHS official told NPR that Marks “has no place at the FDA” due to his opposition to the secretary “restoring science to its gold standard and promoting radical transparency” within the agency.

In May Kennedy COVID vaccines removed from the list of injections recommended for healthy adults and pregnant children without consulting CDC safety panel experts. In June, he fired those experts and replaced them with people scientists call without reservationnot verified vaccine opponents. He then withdrew $500 million in funding research into mRNA vaccines to fight diseases such as COVID and flu, falsely claiming they had stopped working like the viruses have evolved. He followed that decision by firing then-CDC chief Susan Monarez, a microbiologist, who I wouldn’t automatically approve votes from the panel she called “newly filled with people who have publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric” in a Wall Street Journal opinion article.

Kennedy later claimed that Monarez told him that she was not “trustworthy”; in Senate testimony, she denied doing so. “The question before us is whether we will maintain faith in our children and grandchildren, ensuring that they remain safe from the diseases we have fought so hard to protect against: polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough and many others,” Monarez said during the September 17 Senate hearing. “Cancel these pr ogrès would not only be reckless, but it would betray all the families who trust us to protect their health. »

In December, Kennedy’s reconstituted vaccine panel voted to stop recommending that all newborns be vaccinated For hepatitis Ba disease that contributed to the death of 1.1 million people in the world in 2022. HHS next reduces the number vaccines for children in the United States to protect against 11 diseases instead of 17, basing the decision on the rules of Denmarka country with a relatively small and homogeneous population and publicly funded health care for all. Most recently, the chair of the vaccine panel, a cardiologist, told POLITICO that this year the focus would be on reviewing vaccines. vaccine side effects rather than on its longstanding mission of evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines.

Well-being

“I’m walking through airports today… and I see these kids who are just overloaded with mitochondrial challenges“Kennedy said in August during a signing ceremony for the Texas state law “Make America Healthy Again.” Ashish Jha, the Biden administration’s former pandemic response czar, called the airport diagnosis “wacky, flat-earth voodoo stuff» on X (formerly Twitter).

But for Kennedy’s MAHA followers, this probably sounds familiar. Concern about mitochondria has gone from a nascent field of medical research to a staple of trillion dollars wellness industry. Along with exercise and vitamins, the industry is embracing medical “freedom” movement opposed to conventional medicine, including vaccines. The movement’s rhetoric echoes many of RFK Jr.’s claims about MAHA, says Richard Pan, a California doctor and former lawmaker who opposed Kennedy’s California fight. vaccine laws in 2019. Many corners of the wellness world are joining strange longevity remedies, unpasteurized milk, unfluoridated water, questionable nutritional supplements and claims from influencers such as Casey Means, Trump’s president candidate for the position of general surgeonwhich maintains that many chronic diseases such as such as diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease come from “mitochondrial dysfunction.” This dysfunction, she claims, is due to poor sleep, poor diet and inactivity. These are all the real problemsbut they are the ones who have uncertain links with sleeping children in airports.

“I think what we’re seeing is a mutual partnership between RFK, Jr. and what he says “It enhances MAHA’s existing values ​​and ideals,” says wellness industry expert Mariah L Wellman of Michigan State University. Kennedy’s rhetoric reflects common ground with influencers like Means, she adds. “I absolutely think there are deep connections between the way the wellness industry exists. [and] It’s currently being talked about on social media and RFK, Jr.’s beliefs.”

In May, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kennedy called for the end of genetic research on the causes of autism, suggesting instead that “environmental toxins“were the source. Kennedy often claims there is autism”epidemic,” but improved diagnosis largely explains the recent increase in cases.

A report from the MAHA commission released by HHS in September reflected the movement’s characteristic mix of concern about real problems, such as rising obesity and childhood illness, with “Kennedy pet peeves and half-baked science that doesn’t really address the root causes of poor children’s health,” said Peter Lurie of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Alongside calls for research on cell phone signal effects on health and vaccine injuriesthe report became light investigate pesticides and the food industrydisappointing some environmental figures.

In September, Kennedy joined Trump in suggesting that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism—another belief espoused by the wellness industry—based on weak evidence. Scientists say, however, that whether the drug is linked to autism—a link that is not yet clear—it could be fever and infections Tylenol, not the pills themselves, was supposed to address the increased risk of autism. Nonetheless, HHS has initiated the process of a warning from the FDA to be added to the analgesic label.

that of January US Nutrition Guidelines Reset The HHS also borrowed some wellness ideas, calling on people to eat “real foods” like beets, strawberries, and beans (foods endorsed by wellness nutritionists as well as, apparently, by Mike Tyson, the boxer known for his bite the ears of one of his opponentswho preferred to eat real food in a Super Bowl commercial promote change). The guidelines include whole milk and red meat despite more than six decades of research that has shown that saturated fats are linked to heart disease.

The recommendations match Kennedy’s, Benjamin said. “I see him as sort of an environmental purist,” he says, rejecting medicine just as he once opposed pollution. an environmental lawyer. “Real” fatty foods, while linked to heart disease, seem less threatening to a worldview shaped by fear of something. »artificial» causing harm, even if (unnatural) prescription medications such as statins actually reduce the risk of heart disease. “He’s an advocate and he sees the world as a place of advocacy, not a place of advocacy. [for] the balanced point of view of a scientist or a doctor,” says Benjamin.

Antidepressants and heart disease drugs are now in MAHA’s crosshairs. Kennedy claimed that such drugs are overprescribed because of what he sees as corruption that has affected medical studies-an accusation that echoes his own rhetoric of the environmental movement.

Policy

“Don’t you want a president who is going to make America healthy again?” Kennedy said at an August 23, 2024, campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, during which he endorsed Trump. At the event, as Trump introduced Kennedy to his supporters, he announced his intention to release the files on the assassination of Kennedy’s uncle, John F. Kennedy.

RFK Jr.’s life was tragically marked by the deaths of his father and uncle. His own allegiance to MAGA came in the wake of an assassination attempt on Trump in the electoral campaign. That of his famous political family rejection of his support for Trump, a “betrayal” in the words of his brother, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, is is also part of his heritage.

“RFK Jr. certainly has his own goals and ideology that overlap with Trump’s and are also distinct,” says Pamela Herd of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. “But at the end of the day, it’s the Trump administration, and he’s going to limit himself to what they are or aren’t comfortable with.”

In other words, Kennedy is just another politician leading a federal agency in the Trump era. In March he kept silent while the EPA repealed mercury pollution rules, along with others, despite protests over their proposed rollback in 2017. (He also pledged during his campaign to remove toxic chemicals food.) He also bent to the administration’s industrial allies by shedding light on pesticide manufacturers and move away from the initial calls to regulate ultraprocessed foods.

And Kennedy’s overall goal of curbing chronic disease continues to clash with today’s political calculus, Axios rated in April. By taking the ax to research into disease in minorities and disadvantaged peoplehe cut off aid to most affected by diabetes, heart disease, cancer and covid. In April, Kennedy told ABC News that the administration’s funding cuts to federal agencies were “does not affect science”, but in 2025 more than 3,800 grants ended up being killed or frozen at the NIH and the National Science Foundation.

At a December campaign briefing, held on the first floor of HHS headquarters in the Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., Kennedy announced ambitious plans to restrict gender-affirming care for American minors. Kennedy recognized political activists and conservative politicians in his opening speech. Gender-affirming care has not been a historical concern of Kennedy or the wellness industry, but rather a concern “where the [Republican] party sees an advantage», observed POLITICO.

“I think that MAHA and MAGA [movements] “They’re intersecting circles in a Venn diagram,” says political scientist David Lewis of Vanderbilt University. Currently, the two movements form a political coalition held together by Trump, he says.

Overall, the most significant effect of Kennedy’s tenure at HHS, according to Herd, is the firing of scientific leaders and the replacement of expertise with political activism, including upending the childhood immunization schedule. The politicization genie won’t go back in the bottle easily, she says. “I think this is a much more radical change and difficult to roll back.”

MAHA and MAGA are now inextricably linked. In February, Kennedy spoke at an event hosted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation: “A year to make America healthy again“, in the presence of political activists and Senator Tommy Tuberville. Tony Lyons, president of the political group MAHA Action, described the group’s action. commitment to supporting Republican candidates approved by Trump, a sign that the political coalition forged during the 2024 elections will hold up until the midterms. “It’s a joy to work for [Trump]”, Kennedy said on stage. “He lets me do things that I don’t think anyone else would ever let me do.”