Everyone wants better health. RFK Jr. and MAHA are selling the opposite.
From vaccines to food, they make millions by eroding trust in credible science.
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The MAHA (Make Americans Healthy Again) movement, its influencers, and RFK Jr. are the perfect example of why saying you care about health doesn’t mean you actually do. The policies and rhetoric they push will lead to more disease, bigger health disparities, less safety of our foods, and worse health outcomes across the board.
If you actually want to improve health, stop listening to these people.
The fact that the MAHA crew and wellness influencers suggest that real scientists and credible healthcare professionals don’t care about improving health is not only false, it’s insulting.
These people are millionaires by undermining things that improve health. In contrast, scientists like myself and healthcare professionals who are not wealthy have devoted our lives to studying, understanding, and developing ways to improve health.
Today the Senate votes on confirming RFK Jr as HHS Secretary. If he is installed as head of HHS, this rhetoric—and things that are detrimental to our health, will be legitimized. The outcome: worse health, especially for our most vulnerable populations.
I’ve collated articles I’ve written about RFK Jr here, for more detail on these topics.
Everyone wants to be healthier. MAHA and RFK Jr will make people sicker—and poorer.
It’s exhausting being accused of wanting people to “get cancer” and “stay sick” when my entire career has focused on the exact opposite. And I know my fellow scientists and HCPs that strive to use science-based medicine feel the same.
Make America Healthy Again, MAHA, claims it wants to improve American health, but MAHA actually opposes every single public health intervention and scientific innovation that improves health.
RFK Jr. and MAHA’s positions, rhetoric, and policy goals extend beyond anti-vaccine activism. The common theme: all of them will worsen people’s health. RFK Jr. and MAHA have shown, time and again, that they do not care about improving people’s health, only lining their pockets.
An anti-vaccine cult can’t call itself pro-health.
MAHA claims they want to tackle “chronic disease” yet ignore what this even means.
All organisms die—of something. Humans used to die prematurely because of acute causes. In 1900, US life expectancy was 47 years old and the leading causes of death were pneumonia, tuberculosis, and acute gastroenteritis (caused by food- and water-borne pathogens).
30.4% of all deaths in the United States in 1900 were in children younger than 5. Today, 0.75% of all deaths in the US are in children under 5.
Sit with that HUGE improvement. We are saving children’s lives because of scientific research, innovation, and medical developments.
We have eliminated the leading causes of death in 1900 from even being a blip on the radar in the US because of vaccines, sterilization, antimicrobials (antibiotics, antiparasitics, disinfectants), pasteurization, and hygiene measures (food hygiene, sexual hygiene, water treatment, plumbing, hand washing, etc).
People in the 1900s didn’t contend with chronic diseases because they were dying well before those chronic diseases would develop.
Today, leading causes of death are chronic: heart disease, cancers, and stroke top the list. MAHA claims this is cause for alarm: that there is a “chronic disease epidemic” — yet fail to understand that chronic diseases replaced acute illnesses as leading causes of death because of the public health interventions they demonize.
MAHA opposes vaccines, demonizes pasteurization, undermines community health measures, wants to defund social programs that address health inequities, and scares people about safe and nutritious foods and food production science (aka, farming and agriculture technologies). All of these things they stand for will measurably worsen health.
MAHA not only ignores key determinants of health, it is trying to worsen them for millions of Americans.
5 major factors determine someone’s health, and guess what? None of them are things that MAHA and RFK Jr. are advocating for.
Socioeconomic factors are the single biggest contributor to someone’s ability to maintain good health, accounting for roughly 40% of impact.
Wealth is the number one contributor to health. This is the biggest predictor of health outcomes, longer life expectancy, and reduced chronic disease rates.
Higher education attainment, stable employment, and social support are linked to income and as a result, healthcare access. In the US, health insurance and benefits (paid leave, family benefits) are tied to employment, so job instability and unemployment worsen health.
Healthcare access is the next leading determinant of health.
MAHA frequently misrepresents data on healthcare spending and health outcomes in the US compared to other developed nations.
They don’t realize they’re actually making the case for universal healthcare while they align with a political party that has hindered that at every turn.
I’m sure you’ve seen Calley Means, or Marty Makary, or Mark Hyman posting this graphic, right? They use this as some “gotcha” to suggest American citizens are being “poisoned” by food and our healthcare providers focus on “sick care” — ironically, they ignore the biggest difference between the US and these other countries: the US is the only developed nation without universal healthcare.
The ability to access and afford healthcare accounts for 20-30% of impact to health. Healthcare inequity leads to life expectancy disparities: wealthy people have high life expectancy and low income people have low life expectancy. This skews the average life expectancy down.
In the US we have huge health disparities:
8% of Americans have no health insurance at any point in a given year.
43% of working-age adults (19-64) are underinsured. That includes temporarily uninsured (9%), had gaps in coverage (11%), or had insurance on paper, but the insurance didn’t provide affordable healthcare access (23%).
5.8% of children do not have healthcare coverage.
In total, 34% of Americans are uninsured or underinsured.
Those most impacted are non-citizens, minorities, and lower income individuals—since here, we do a fun thing where we tie someone’s healthcare to their job.
MAHA claims that national healthcare would cost more, but that’s false. The opposite is shown in the graph they circulate. Even those who have health insurance in the US pay through multiple channels, increasing out-of-pocket costs.
I’ll use myself as an example.
I have employer-provided healthcare: my insurance plan is paid from contributions from me and my employer: a chunk of money is deducted from my paycheck every pay period, roughly $2,600 per year. I also have a deductible, meaning before healthcare is covered (including prescriptions), I pay that in addition to my paycheck premium. That is $1,800, meaning at a minimum, it costs me $4,400 a year to have health insurance.
That doesn’t mean after that everything is covered in entirety either.
Name-brand medications aren’t covered in full.
Vaccines outside ACIP recommendations are out-of-pocket (hello, $1,000 for my recent Japanese Encephalitis vaccines).
Vision, including contact lenses and glasses, isn’t fully covered.
Many dental procedures aren’t covered in full.
Telemedicine visits aren’t covered in full.
Psychiatric/mental health require 10% payment. So does radiology or imaging, hospital and emergency visits, and medical specialists.
That’s thousands of dollars every year for healthcare. And I have decent insurance: not the best, but not the worst. Hundreds of millions of Americans have worse healthcare access—or none at all. Here, if you have a medical issue and can’t afford care, you might not go to a doctor, or can’t get your prescription medication filled.
Lack of health insurance and affordable prescription medications directly contributes to increased rates of chronic diseases and health complications—much of which could be prevented with equitable and preventive healthcare.
Developed nations with single-payer, multi-payer, or universal healthcare like the UK, Canada, Germany, France, have lower out-of-pocket costs adjusted to income.
If we want to actually MAHA? ALL Americans need affordable, equitable, and national healthcare.
Health freedom isn't opposing vaccine requirements and an unfettered wellness industry with no oversight—it's ensuring that all Americans can afford to see a doctor when they need one.
Health behaviors: diet and nutrition, physical activity, substance use/misuse, and seeking preventive care contribute 30% to health.
Some health behaviors that actually impact health:
90% of Americans don’t eat recommended levels of fiber, directly increasing risk of colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, and more.
19 million Americans live in food deserts without access to grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Millions of Americans do not make a living wage.
We do not have walkable cities. People must rely on car and/or public transit, forgoing exercise as a way to commute.
Our work culture: we have no paid family leave, the lowest number of Federal holidays, no mandatory vacation time, and limited work-life benefits.
People have been convinced that more affordable fruits and vegetables are covered in “toxic pesticides” which causes lower income people to forgo eating produce.
Many people are impacted by poor diet quality and lack of exercise not because they choose this, but because they don’t have the privilege to access these things.
Instead of addressing these, MAHA influencers scream about red no. 3, seed oils, and pesticides. They simultaneously harm health by:
Discouraging vaccinations for infectious diseases, including those that prevent cancers (HPV and Hepatitis B), increasing risk of acute and chronic diseases. Vaccination rates in the US have reached record lows as a result of RFK Jr’s rhetoric.
Undermining preventative health measures like mammograms and proven cancer treatments, which improve survival and health outcomes to chronic diseases, while promoting unproven alternatives like dietary supplements, chiropractic, and thermography. People who forgo proven cancer interventions have substantially increased risk of death.
Fear-mongering about conventionally-grown produce and genetic engineering technologies which allow farmers to grow foods more affordably and with fewer pesticides. The unfounded fears cause people, especially those of lower income, to eat fewer fruits and vegetables.
Banning food dyes won’t make people healthier—but ensuring everyone, not just wealthy people, have accessible and affordable foods, walkable neighborhoods, and confidence in preventive health measures can.
Physical environment also contributes to health.
The quality of your housing and your neighborhood. Do you have good ventilation, new plumbing, lower air pollution, clean water? Do you have secure housing?
If you live somewhere subjected to extreme weather patterns that are increasing in frequency because of climate change, that also impacts your health. Drought, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, increased vector-borne disease…these are all environmental factors to health—both directly and indirectly (food crop insecurity as a result of natural disasters, for example).
Yet not a peep from MAHA about any of this. They want to worsen environment by removing fluoride from public water, a proven public health intervention.
Genetics and human biology contribute the last 10% toward health.
Inherited risk factors for chronic diseases like cancers and heart disease contribute to health outcomes. Life history, including past injuries and illnesses impact your health outcomes. Infectious diseases can lead to chronic health issues and complications.
Your age, sex, and ethnic background can influence health outcomes. For example, cancers are diseases of aging: the median age of cancer is 61 years old. 80% of all cancers occur in people 50 and older. If people didn’t live to those ages in 1900, then they’re not living to a point where cancer would develop.
MAHA wants to blame vaccines and “chemicals in food” for chronic diseases, but chronic diseases occur because we are living longer, thanks to the very scientific developments they demonize.
MAHA thrives on fear, including with food misinformation.
MAHA, RFK Jr, and their crew of “wellness activists” claim that “Big Food” and “Big Ag” are evil. Their rhetoric revolves around chemophobia. Food dyes, pesticides, vaccines: it’s all about scaring you about “chemicals” —and if we just removed “chemicals” we’d all live, disease-free, to 150. This is false.
Everything is chemicals. You’re a sack of chemicals. Chemicals are the reason you exist. They’re the reason you have food. They’re the reason you have medicines. They’re the reason humans have a life expectancy in the upper 70s today.
RFK Jr. and MAHA exploit low science literacy, chemophobia, and the appeal to nature fallacy to distract from actual issues that impact health and create outrage over things that don’t. For example:
Food dyes aren’t causing health problems, no matter how many clickbait headlines and viral posts claim it.
Food dyes in the U.S. are rigorously evaluated for safety and they aren’t banned in other countries. These colorings have been studied extensively, not just by US scientists. The FDA, EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Health Canada, WHO, and others have all determined they are safe at levels you’d be exposed to.
Yes, even red no. 3—which now, is banned in the US but not other countries, and solely because of a legal loophole exploited by anti-science activists like the Environmental Working Group.
Food dyes aren’t causing health issues. The data cited to ‘prove’ harm was a single study done in rats 40 years ago, where rats were fed 4% of their diet in food dyes.
This is not a real-world scenario. In fact, despite these activist groups trying to find a problem, these dyes are not linked to adverse health effects in people, including cancers and hyperactivity in kids. The strongest links to hyperactivity (aside from genetics) include sleep habits, overall diet (including sugar intake), and social structure.
But it’s much easier to get parents on board with “Red 3 made my kid act wild” than “My kid needs better sleep and more structure.”
Conventional pesticides don’t worsen health, but demonizing affordable fruits and vegetables does.
RFK Jr. and his crew stoke fear about pesticides, but only pesticides used in conventional farming, because they profit by pushing people toward organic foods.
Their favorite target is glyphosate. RFK Jr., Vani Hari, Moms Across America (led by Zen Honeycutt), the Environmental Working Group, and others claim that glyphosate causes literally every health outcome from autism to celiac disease, to cancer. This is objectively false, but they have made a lot of money over decades pushing this.
Glyphosate is an herbicide, meaning it specifically targets plants. Not insects. Not mammals. Not other animals. Not humans. It is one of the most studied chemicals in human history, in part because of the millions of dollars that RFK Jr and the MAHA crew have made by demonizing it over the last 40 years.
Dozens of global scientific expert agencies independently conclude that glyphosate poses no risk to human health both among farm workers, or consumers who might be exposed to miniscule levels in foods and has replaced herbicides with more safety and ecological concerns.
RFK Jr and MAHA falsely promote organic foods while demonizing conventional ones.
Spoiler: Organic farming still uses pesticides—and they’re not safer or healthier. Organic farming is 25-32% more profitable than conventional farming though.
Conventionally-grown foods do not have concerning levels of trace pesticide residues on them. Those levels are monitored and reported every year.
Organic farming is less sustainable than conventional farming methods. Yields are lower, pesticides are less effective (requiring more frequent application), and more land is needed to produce foods.
Conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables are about half the cost and equally nutritious, yet unfounded pesticide fears scare people from eating them.
If RFK Jr. and MAHA actually cared about improving health, quality of foods, and accessibility of healthy foods, they should be pushing to:
Eliminate food deserts, because food access actually improves health outcomes.
Teach nutrition literacy instead of food dye fear-mongering. We must stop with clickbait about yellow 5, preservatives, or singular food items and focus on overall diet composition.
Improve affordability of healthy food options. That means developing GE crops which reduce food costs, increase sustainability and food supply stability, and reduce pesticide use. That means addressing food insecurity for low income families. That means expanding SNAP, CHIP, WIC, and other social programs. That means no longer scaring people away from foods that are safe and nutritious.
Stop fear-mongering about science. Undermining safety of our food supply, telling people that everything at the grocery store is “poison,” and claiming our Federal scientific agencies are corrupt does not improve health. It causes disordered eating, medical conspiracism, worse nutrition choices, and erodes trust in legitimate scientific experts.
RFK Jr., the MAHA movement, and wellness influencers oppose these things.
RFK Jr. is the father of anti-science disinformation.
RFK Jr. has caused harm for decades, while making money off lawsuits, books, speaking fees, fundraising, and more. He amplifies medical misinformation that allows the unregulated wellness industry to profit and gets kickbacks from his buddies.
If RFK Jr and MAHA cared about health, we would see evidence-based policies:
Vaccination programs and health education.
Public health measures like clean water, air pollution regulations, and food safety.
Science-based chronic disease prevention: affordability of healthy foods (not removing one food dye only to replace it with another), exercise resources, preventive health screenings, reducing substance use.
Combating legitimate health threats: climate change, health disinformation, and wealth and healthcare inequities.
MAHA and RFK Jr. don’t want Americans healthier—they undermine trust in science, scientists and medicine, weaken public health policies and institutions, and profit off wellness misinformation that will make people sicker.
Health improves when people have accurate information and access to resources, not when they’re scared into avoiding life-saving health interventions and safe, affordable, and nutritious foods.
Unfortunately, if today’s Senate vote goes the way I think it might, we may be combating anti-science disinformation for decades to come. In anticipation of the deluge of grifting and fear-mongering, I’ll leave you with this.
If you want to be healthy?
Eat a balanced diet, exercise when you can, don’t use food rating apps, don’t waste money on organic, get vaccines, wear sunscreen, and stop listening to grifters who claim that Red 40 is worse than actual infectious diseases.
Now, more than ever, we all must join in the fight for science.
Thank you for supporting evidence-based science communication. With outbreaks of preventable diseases, refusal of evidence-based medical interventions, propagation of pseudoscience by prominent public “personalities”, it’s needed now more than ever.
More science education, less disinformation.
- Andrea
ImmunoLogic is written by Dr. Andrea Love, PhD - immunologist and microbiologist. She works full-time in life sciences biotech and has had a lifelong passion for closing the science literacy gap and combating pseudoscience and health misinformation as far back as her childhood. This newsletter and her science communication on her social media pages are born from that passion. Follow on Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and Facebook, or support the newsletter by subscribing below:
Thank you for being the voice of reason in all this mess!
Thank you! As someone who works on e-cigarette education, it really gets me that I don't hear tobacco / nicotine products discussed in the MAHA movement. Policies promoting decreased use (for example getting rid of candy flavors in vapes and menthol in cigarettes) are a very obvious way to make Americans healthier.