Individuals don’t sometimes have a cause to consider the fluoride of their water, however this isn’t a typical week. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the previous unbiased presidential candidate whom Donald Trump is eyeing as his well being czar, has vowed to take away the mineral from ingesting water if he’s appointed to the subsequent administration. Kennedy has mentioned that the chemical lowers kids’s IQ, although research overwhelmingly present that it’s secure. Trump apparently agrees, and in his victory speech on Wednesday, he informed Kennedy to “go have a very good time” engaged on public well being.
The prospect of giving Kennedy any semblance of energy over the nation’s well being is alarming, and never solely due to his preoccupation with fluoride. (And to be truthful, many scientists have made severe and nuanced inquiries about fluoride.) Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no background in well being, is greatest identified for his skepticism, if not outright antagonism, towards vaccines. He additionally has an extended observe report of championing different pseudoscientific and conspiratorial views, such because the baseless perception that antidepressants are chargeable for mass shootings.
Once I appeared up his full “Make America Wholesome Once more” platform, I anticipated to see wacky conspiracies. As a substitute, its targets may have been pulled from any liberal public-health marketing campaign. MAHA’s key ambitions embody addressing the foundation causes of power illness, enhancing the meals provide via regenerative agriculture, preserving pure habitats, eliminating company affect from authorities well being businesses, and eradicating toxins from the surroundings. The marketing campaign acknowledges the necessity for systemic interventions equivalent to growing entry to nutritious meals and prioritizing preventative well being care, initiatives touted by Democrats equivalent to Michelle Obama.
MAHA represents a mixture of considerations from throughout the political spectrum. “The problems he’s citing in the case of well being and meals are extra recognizably left,” Rachel Meade, a political scientist at Boston College who has studied Kennedy’s politics, informed me. Blaming our well being issues on firms can also be a transfer from the left’s playbook, Meade mentioned. Certainly, Bernie Sanders has spent the previous yr railing towards Ozempic’s producer for making the drug so costly. Assessed solely by its targets and never its treatments, MAHA makes plenty of sense. That’s additionally what makes it harmful.
Everybody can agree that “eradicating toxins from the surroundings,” one in every of MAHA’s said targets, is a good suggestion. However not everybody agrees on what a toxin is. Fluoride is one, from Kennedy’s perspective. MAHA rightly factors out that America’s “poor food regimen” should be addressed. However what counts as a very good food regimen? To Kennedy, it would embody uncooked milk, which poses severe well being dangers. Addressing “insufficient healthcare” is essential, after all—however to Kennedy, that might entail treating COVID with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, different treatments which were confirmed to not work.
RFK Jr.’s targets aren’t the one a part of his platform that will attraction to greater than conspiracy-addled Trump supporters. His overarching prognosis of the nation’s well being issues is that Individuals are being misled by unhealthy science and the establishments that assist it. “As soon as Individuals are getting good science and allowed to make their very own selections, they’re going to get rather a lot more healthy,” he mentioned in an interview with NBC on Wednesday. This notion—that folks ought to do their very own analysis and take their well being into their very own arms—resonates extensively. The idea that scientific establishments aren’t working spans the political spectrum, bringing collectively subcultures together with anti-vaxxers, seed-oil truthers, carnivore-diet fans, and wellness influencers.
Kennedy himself is politically slippery. He was a Democrat till 2023, when he campaigned for president as an unbiased earlier than dropping out and endorsing Trump. His anti-vaccine beliefs are traditionally related to crunchy liberals, and his environmental views align with the left. However he matches in simply amongst Republicans, too. Many on the fitting adopted anti-vaccine views throughout COVID. Extra pertinently, his anti-establishment angle towards well being matches neatly in Trump’s us-versus-them narrative. Kennedy, like Trump, thinks of himself as a populist; he frames public-health points by way of corrupt establishments duping on a regular basis folks, no matter their social gathering. The bipartisan alliance shaped round opposition to mainstream public well being has created a wierd new faction that counts Kennedy amongst its figureheads. A technique to consider it, as my colleague Elaine Godfrey has written, is “woo-woo meets MAGA.”
MAHA appeals to this group—and will maybe develop it. “Anti-establishment populism that has features of each left and proper is a outstanding narrative in different media areas,” Meade mentioned. Kennedy’s skepticism about well being resonates amongst followers of influencers equivalent to Russell Model and Joe Rogan, who steadily entertain health-related conspiracies; Kennedy himself has been on their podcasts. Like Kennedy, lots of them are disaffected former Democrats whose politics could be laborious to pin down: Though Rogan endorsed Trump, he has known as himself a “bleeding-heart liberal.”
It’s nonetheless doable that Kennedy may not get a outstanding job within the Trump administration. His wariness of firms doesn’t jibe with Trump’s embrace of them, and Trump has already made clear that environmental considerations gained’t be a precedence: “Bobby, avoid the liquid gold,” he mentioned in his victory speech, referring to grease. Kennedy’s historical past of weird conduct—together with dumping a bear corpse in Central Park—could give some in Trump’s internal circle pause.
Even when Kennedy by no means joins the Trump administration, his concepts will proceed to have broad attraction. America has seen what occurs when folks lose belief in public-health establishments. Pandemics drag on as a result of persons are afraid to get vaccinated. Measles outbreaks return to colleges. Individuals drink bleach. And perhaps quickly, Individuals will not be ingesting fluoridated water.