The MAHA Sympathizers Are Wrong
The Real Truth About Vaccines
It has been surprising to see so many MAHA sympathizers come out to defend MAHA and say that public health needs MAHA.
To be clear, public health does not need MAHA in any way, shape, or form.
The MAHA Sympathizers Are Wrong
For one thing, most of these folks are wrong on just how big MAHA is.
“Public health has a responsibility not to dismiss 40% of the country who feel heard by this movement and are frustrated that the system has failed them.”
Does public health *need* MAHA?
MAHA does not represent 40% of the country.
In reality, there are likely less than a few million highly active, core MAHA followers.
These are the MAHA supporters who volunteer and regularly attend MAHA events, and push and promote MAHA ideas - the major advocates and organizers behind MAHA.
These are the folks funded by millionaires, trying to make it appear that MAHA is a grassroots cause.
And this is the anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-public health movement that has co-opted a few public health talking points that many people support and used them to trick everyone into thinking they really have our best interests in mind.
They don’t!
What MAHA Has Really Done
MAHA sympathizers should remember that MAHA has:
helped drive vaccine hesitancy and a further drop in childhood vaccination rates
created confusion about our childhood vaccination schedule
revived the discredited claim that vaccines are associated with autism
advocated for the idea that individual actions alone shape our health outcomes, ignoring the effects of health inequality, systemic factors, or social determinants of health
And MAHA sympathizers should understand that all the good ideas that MAHA might seem to have actually all predate the MAHA movement!
After all, MAHA didn’t invent the idea that exercising more and eating healthier foods were important issues.
Remember the Let’s Move campaign and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010?
They were successful campaigns that led to healthier eating - without all the anti-vaccine and anti-science BS!
Unfortunately, they were ridiculed and eventually broken by many of the same politicians who now support MAHA.
Or how about RFK, Jr’s new upside food pyramid?
He has been all excited that he turned the food pyramid upside down!
A food pyramid that we had not been using since 2005. A food pyramid that was replaced by MyPlate because pyramids are considered confusing to use.
Even one of the core MAHA ideas about the problems of ultra-processed foods predates MAHA by many years.
NIH researchers had discovered the problems with these foods in 2019, and this led to many recommendations for people to limit eating ultra-processed foods.
Research that likely couldn’t be done today because MAHA has severely restricted the amount of research now being done.
Also know that before that, we were getting hit with warnings to eat fewer highly processed foods!
What about the costs of health care and drug prices - other core MAHA issues?
Long before MAHA, policymakers were addressing medical affordability through insurance subsidies, Medicaid expansion, drug-price negotiation, surprise-billing protections, price-transparency rules and experiments in value-based care. These measures had uneven results and did not solve America’s cost problem, but the issue -and substantial efforts to address it - clearly predated the MAHA movement.
And again, many of those policies did not succeed because they did not have bipartisan support.
But those aren’t even the worst things about MAHA!
The worst thing about MAHA is the continued drive to discredit real public health experts - the very people who we should all trust and go to for advice about public health issues.
And you would at least think MAHA sympathizers would recognize that as a problem, especially as we continue to get hit with one public health crisis after another, from record-breaking measles outbreaks to thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis across the country.
What MAHA Is Really Trying to Do
And that leads us to the real MAHA agenda.
MAHA is simply trying to:
repackage vaccine skepticism behind a more popular message, a message that has even sucked in some traditional public health providers who have become MAHA sympathizers.
make you think that everyone is unhealthy, so that they can link that to vaccines
undermine established health institutions and public health experts
create even more opportunities for the alternative-wellness industry, from acupuncturists and chiropractors to homeopathic and integrative/holistic medical providers who scare people away from traditional treatments, like vitamin K shots for newborns and who are even pushing natural cures for people with cancer!
revive ideas reminiscent of the eugenics era
But folks should know that supporting MAHA or any part of MAHA won’t make any of us healthier.
If you want to help us all get healthier, then start voting for your own self-interests.
Choose leaders and policies that will really get us healthier foods, cleaner air and water, and more affordable health care.
“The rise of MAHA is something that scientists and physicians cannot and should not ignore. Only united in promoting evidence, transparency and public understanding can we hope to counter the enduring harms from modern Lysenkos and expose that peddling snake-oil and conspiracy theories does not “Make America Healthy Again”—it makes everyone sicker, more divided and less informed. Only by uniting and unifying our voices to advocate for evidence-based policy, can we offer better alternatives to the insidious disinformation underpinning MAHA and address the real and systemic problems facing not just Americans, but all citizens of the world.”
“Make America Healthy Again” will make the world sicker
And stop believing that MAHA has any answers!
More on MAHA
MAHA Propaganda on the Growth of the Childhood Vaccine Schedule
The Hantavirus Outbreak Reinforced the Importance of Real Public Health Experts
Anti-Vaccine Influencers React to the Air Force Base Flu Outbreak
Beyond the Noise #87: RFK Jr. says we need to stop trusting experts
Does public health “need” MAHA? No more than medicine “needs” CAM!
Why the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Movement is Dangerous
The Language War: How MAHA Wins the Messaging Battle Before Science Speaks
AAP - Food Additives and Child Health (2018)
AAP - The Role of the Pediatrician in the Promotion of Healthy, Active Living (2024)
MAHA Says Its Focus Is Chronic Diseases – Kennedy and Trump Actions Show Otherwise
RFK’s Strategy to Address Poor Health of US Children Offers Few Concrete Solutions
‘Make America Healthy Again’ report cites nonexistent studies: authors