In the coming weeks, President Donald Trump hopes his cabinet nominations will be swiftly confirmed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) — who ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential election before dropping out and supporting President Trump — is eyeing an important position given America’s increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, as Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services.
RFK Jr.’s ascent into the national spotlight is derived from his standing as the figurehead of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement — which aims to attack the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S. by cutting chemicals and additives used to prolong shelf-life out of America’s food, increasing access to organic meals for children in schools and legislatively curbing the influence drug companies exert on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Not surprisingly, RFK’s and the MAHA movement’s goals have bipartisan support. In a recent YouGov poll, 74% of Democrats and 81% of Republicans support banning food additives, especially dyes. 68% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans can get behind cutting processed foods out of public school lunches. A whopping 84% of Democrats and 83% of Republicans feel heavier nutritional education should be included in U.S. medical education.
Having grown up in Ohio and witnessed rural communities with no grocery stores for miles, I understand the need for increased access to healthy food. Therefore, I unequivocally supported the work of RFK Jr. like most Americans hearing about it on the news or in their TikTok feed for the first time.
However, the more I investigated this health utopia RFK and the current administration envision for the U.S., the more I realized Americans were boarding a ship overlaid with so many promises on its deck, they would not even notice the holes in its stern.
Looking past the nutritious food and the banned additives, Kennedy strongly opposes the fluoridation of water. He points to studies demonstrating high levels of fluoride in drinking water as the catalyst for osteoporosis, arthritis, and muscular damage to back his proposal. However, the development of those conditions is extremely rare and only brought about by significantly higher levels of exposure to fluoride than drinking water could reasonably expose someone to.
In fact, the American Dental Association reports that low levels of fluoride in drinking water improve dental health and prevent tooth decay by 25%. If Kennedy’s demand to ban water fluoridation practices comes about, Americans will most certainly not be on track to healthier dental lives.
Additionally, one topic everyday citizens and the higher-ups of the MAHA movement bond over is hatred for corruption and businesses utilizing their influence to poison Americans.
“We need to end the corruption. 50% of FDA's budget comes not from the taxpayer, but from the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy stated on Sept. 26, 2024, proliferating the suspicion many Americans hold that Big Pharma can overflow the FDA’s wallet with donations in exchange for less intense safety regulation and expedited approval on certain drugs.
In theory, I actually support this idea, as taking steps to weaken corruption, even if said corruption has not yet been substantiated, could not hurt. However, RFK Jr. hasn’t proposed how he plans to replace the 50% cut the FDA’s budget would experience if companies were no longer allowed to make donations. On the one hand, the burden would be on the taxpayers, essentially stripping lower and middle-class Americans of money that could have gone to more groceries or paying their rent. And on the other hand, the 50% cut would not be made up through taxes, leading to delays in the approval of and therefore delivery of new drugs that could improve the lives of those in this country.
On top of that, RFK Jr. has paraded baseless conspiracy theories about the safety of vaccines as facts, as though his unsubstantiated suspicions trump the thorough processes the FDA follows before giving the public access to a vaccine. Such behavior stems all the way back to 2005, when he, most notably and controversially, linked an organomercurial compound called thimerosal that was used before 2001 as a preservative in vaccines to the development of autism. As suspected, research has undeniably refuted that rumor. With the dangerous consequences such comments from a potential member of the president’s cabinet can give rise to, RFK Jr.’s record on vaccine rhetoric was put under the microscope by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee during the former’s confirmation hearing.
What surprises me more, however, is that such caution around vaccines has gained traction since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the same YouGov poll from earlier showed that 41% of the Republicans surveyed believed vaccines have been shown to produce autism.
To some, that statistic may indicate America’s lack of education or even stupidity. But I see it as a numerical representation of a bigger issue in this country that gives rise to the misguided support of movements like MAHA: distrust in the government and the healthcare system.
Jessica Gorge of the New York Times observed the posts of “Covid-skeptical momfluencers” on social media.
“They often had a scary medical problem during pregnancy or immediately postpartum and they felt unheard by their obstetrician or pediatrician or mistreated by their hospital. That experience planted a seed of fear and suspicion,” she wrote. “Online merchants peddling “natural” remedies and those who espouse debunked theories about the danger of vaccines were more than happy to validate their raw feelings when the medical system did not.”
The solution to this widespread distrust in the government and its operations does not have an easy solution. However, I know the answer most certainly is not to treat these vaccine-skeptical mothers as idiots in the way social media influencers and politicians alike do. Because as society shuns these individuals who have been failed by a system with its fair share of issues, people like RFK Jr. and those in the MAHA movement will step in with open arms, plunging many into a sea of disinformation that could lead to life-long health consequences.
