Kennedy's hypocrisy is exhausting
MAHA can't keep its story straight
It’s all so confusing.
For years, Robert F Kennedy, Jr has decried the pharmaceutical industry. Sure, the broken clock lands at the right impulse on occasion, like the fact that Americans pay too much for drugs. Yet Kennedy has repeatedly called the system “sick care,” going so far as to claim doctors aren’t interested in healing people and that the healthcare system intentionally keeps people sick in order to extract as much profit as possible.
While American healthcare is certainly extractive, Kennedy never offers a real fix by advocating for socialized medicine. He claims citizens want “choice,” parroting longstanding right-wing propaganda that distracts from the fact that people inside of socialized systems have a choice of medical providers. If anything, our current system is the one that limits medical freedom.
By joining the Trump administration, Kennedy was tasked with an impossible mandate: appease his anti-vax base while adopting the free market ethos of the Heritage Foundation, whose blueprint, Project 2025, remains Trump’s north star. That means as much deregulation and as much private market intervention as possible.
Good little worker bee he is, Kennedy has kowtowed since his installment as Secretary of HHS, and his stans remain supportive, laser focused on the inconsequential “wins” he’s racked up while avoiding discussion of his dismantling of our public health apparatus.
Along these lines, the White House sent out this marketing card yesterday, which Kennedy seems to appreciate.
Let’s go through this one by one, closing with one last example of his outright hypocrisy.
Launched the CMS Digital Health Tech Ecosystem
Kennedy has long warned about the dangers of surveillance tech. The notion of being tracked is a return fright theme on his nonprofit Children Health Defense’s website. So when he announced that every American should use wearables, more than a few eyebrows were raised. For a man so concerned with privacy, he’s strangely willing to sell everyone expensive tech, whose data will inevitably be tracked by centralized systems. Yet considering his pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means, founded one such company, perhaps it’s not that surprising. Apparently he doesn’t mind surveillance provided he’s the one peeking inside your window.
Reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test
The Presidential Fitness test is and always was a joke. While I agree that sacrificing physical education for STEM courses, for example, is a bad move, judging kids by pull ups or toe touches is shortsighted. Natalia Petrzela covers this topic, writing:
Upon this week’s announcement, many took to social media to express how traumatizing they found the Presidential Fitness Test. That is, how the test Trump is resurrecting undermined the council’s goals, in that it celebrated the best athletes and alienated others, turning off many from a future of movement.
Multiple companies committed to removing artificial colors from America’s food supply
Artificial food dyes are just a distraction that will do nothing to achieve Kennedy’s supposed goal of reversing chronic health conditions. Plus, these commitments are verbal handshakes, many of them years in the future, when these companies can easily forget about them should a new administration be voted into power.
Secured an agreement with Coca-Cola for the company to begin using real cane sugar
The celebratory laps MAHA stans have taken about this announcement is odd given that sugar is otherwise considered the devil incarnate. When it comes to Kennedy, it’s blatantly hypocritical, given earlier this week he wrote:
Genes don’t cause epidemics. They may provide a vulnerability, but you need an environmental toxin — and we know what it is. It’s sugar and ultra-processed foods.
You can’t have it both ways, Bobby. Coke adding “real” sugar (which produces the same physiological effects as HFCS) is either a good thing or an “environmental toxin.” Which is it?
FDA approved the natural food dye Gardenia Blue
See above re: food dyes.
HHS moved to restore public trust in vaccines by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices
Disbanding ACIP’s expert panel to install anti-vaxxers does the opposite of “restoring public trust.” As this chart shows, people are becoming less trusting of vaccines than anytime in recent memory, mostly due to Kennedy and crew’s constant fear-mongering about them.
MAHA Commission released its “Making Our Children Healthy Again” report
This MAHA Report? The one that hallucinated studies that never existed, and when corrected, was uploaded again with new errors? That’s a win?
HHS released a report demonstrating the dangers of studies on “gender-affirming care” for minors
This letter speaks volumes about Kennedy’s victory lap for his anti-trans views:
We cannot trust RFK Jr. to lead with facts and science or to ensure access to essential healthcare. This nomination is a threat to the progress and innovation that has led to substantial improvements in the health of LGBTQI+ people over the last two decades. RFK Jr. does not have the biological, embryological, medical, or psychiatric expertise, experience running an agency, nor the moral character needed to lead the agency charged with protecting and promoting health in the U.S. He will be little more than a Yes-Man who will follow and facilitate the worst impulses of the President and his far-right policy advisors, rather than uphold the high level of scientific rigor and focus on equity that this station is charged with. This isn’t leadership–it is reckless endangerment.
And, finally…
Speaking of reckless endangerment, canceling nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts certainly qualifies. I break down his announcement video here:
But I want to point out something essential: his reasoning for ending mRNA research is to shuffle that half-billion dollars into “whole virus” research, which he says will lead to “safe, effective vaccines.”
The problem: he’s previously stated there are no safe and effective vaccines. When announcing the US was pulling funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, he cited the use of whole-cell vaccines. He’s also questioned the effectiveness of the polio whole-virus vaccine.
And remember this greatest hit?
“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated,” Kennedy said.
Once again, every MAHA win is a loss for our health. By the time that reality sets in over the coming years, he’ll have moved onto something else.
‘You can’t have it both ways, Bobby. Coke adding “real” sugar (which produces the same physiological effects as HFCS) is either a good thing or an “environmental toxin.” Which is it?’
What drives me nuts about all this is how often these influencers tout honey and shame HFCS, but honey is a high fructose syrup. So is honey an “environmental toxin?”
Food Science Husband on titanium dioxide fear:
"it's an inert compound when ingested."
I mean, Junior is going to have to take on the supplement industry if he is concerned about TiO2, because vitamins use a sh*t tonne of it.
*note: I did go look at more recent studies and, indeed, there are concerns about nanoparticle-sized TiO2 but not enough evidence to say yea, or nay, so the EU no longer considers them safe out of an abundance of caution. Note that most concerns are around titanium dioxide that is NOT food grade, so we consider it still safe to ingest (here).
As per the Health Canada Food Directorate:
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/reports-publications/titanium-dioxide-food-additive-science-report.html