In MAHA’s verse, Bernie’s die-hard and conservative mothers find a political home

In other news, it doesn’t sound like John Kilian and Allison Cecil are part of the same political party.

Kilian, an IT specialist and retired nurse in Middletown, Conn., spent part of 2021 analyzing Covid vaccine data for the US Army, and he could clearly see the benefits. He is concerned about the vaccine hesitancy that caused the measles epidemic in 2019, and as he said, “it is a highly contagious disease and the risk-reward balance favors the vaccine.” He plans to get a chest shot. He said: “The last time I got the flu was the last time I didn’t get the flu.”

Cecil, a middle school teacher in Owensboro, Ky., is skeptical about vaccine ingredients. If she were to have another child today, her answer to many of the childhood pictures she has been told would be “burnt.” Others, he would have to think more. He wouldn’t want his baby to get measles, but he also wouldn’t want to vaccinate a child with things he doesn’t trust the government to fully investigate. “You can always vaccinate, but you can’t vaccinate,” he said.

However both are supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – not just ordinary viewers, but willing enough to organize campaign events. Their differences show how Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, or MAHA, created a political home for the disaffected across the board.

It brings together former Bernie Sanders die-hards and evangelical MAGAs, stay-at-home parents and small business entrepreneurs, mom bloggers and bro podcasters, and it’s about more than vaccines. only – although vaccinations are the main argument. Many people are worried about the increase in chronic diseases, the dreaded illness that may strike their families if it hasn’t already, and they are looking for a clear answer as to whether the problem is caused by what. Concerns about chemicals in food are high on the list, too.

Underlying all of this is a disturbing perception that the health system and its administrators do not have people’s interests at heart. For MAHA followers, financial interests prevent government officials, scientists and health care providers from speaking out. Some see health guidelines as basic education and believe that basic information is not shared openly, even in scientific journals. They want such findings and recommendations to be debated, openly, even if most of them are considered sound science.

Now, with Kennedy set to be named the next secretary of Health and Human Services, his supporters are hoping their government will start taking their concerns about vaccines, food and medicine seriously. Different old ideas have the potential to become strategic. In some cases, however, MAHA fans also have fears about how Kennedy’s platform will fare under President Donald Trump’s pro-industry policies.

Mistrust is the beginning

Others were drawn to MAHA because of a chronic illness, death in the family or the need to care for elderly parents. For Ailyn Carmona, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the worries started long before Kennedy ran for president. Her mother had a massive stroke in 1988 and spent decades dealing with the health care system until her death in 2018. That left Carmona blind. Although he knew many doctors who were caring and considerate, many others did not deserve his trust.

Small orders can turn into serious problems. Once, when her mother was in a long-term care facility, Carmona visited her late at night and noticed one of her hands was purple. Someone had left a tourist with his upper arm tied after drawing blood, Carmona said.

On one occasion, his mother was hospitalized due to breathing problems and the nurses quickly sent her for a CT scan. Carmona told STAT that she believes the nineteen scans damaged her mother’s pacemaker, and doctors had to rush her into surgery to replace it. Research suggests that the possibility of such problems occurring with modern equipment and machines is low, but not zero. “I think they were fine, you know, running the insurance bills,” he said. “It’s very biased in my experience.”

If those conditions were sparking mistrust, social media provided plenty of fuel. Why is the number of cancers increasing? What does fluoride do in the body? The questions haunted him, and the answers he found eventually led him to RFK Jr. Carmona, who relies on sustainability, became convinced that the increase in cancer is fueled by issues in our food supply, that fluoride in drinking water weakens human capacity. to think deeply. (A 2019 study linked a slight decrease in children’s IQ to maternal fluoride exposure, but other researchers said the paper did not prove fluoridation caused lower IQ scores, which were measured years later.)

Concerns about chemicals in our food are important to many MAHA followers. That’s what drew Marci Kenon from New York City to the organization. He read about a loophole through which companies can put untested food on the market by saying it is “generally known to be safe,” allowing chemicals in our food that are not allowed in Europe, for example. Kenon, who is a health educator and anti-toxin campaigner, said Kenon, “This has become a big part of the food industry to decide what is safe to put on food.”

Those worries are neither empty nor fair. In fact, it is widely shared. Policy and nutrition professors at Harvard, New York University, and Tufts have written about it. Democratic Sens. Edward Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation to try to solve this problem. The Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this year plans to improve the inspection process for food additives.

Less accepted among public health professionals is the distrust of vaccines by many MAHA followers. Evidence shows that vaccines against diseases such as polio and measles are among the most effective medical tools we have. However, many of Kennedy’s supporters say that security information is hidden, inadequate or non-existent. In some cases, they accuse public health officials of hiding information about adverse events or ignoring real cases of vaccine harm to protect pharmaceutical interests.

Epidemics as an important factor

Covid was a baptism for many who were among the ranks of MAHA. Kenon did not get a Covid vaccine, even though his sister-in-law died early in the outbreak, partly because of fears that mRNA, a key component of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, would what do to his body. Carmona, too, found herself filled with regret that she had allowed her son, now 20, to receive all the recommended childhood vaccinations while watching the right-wing advocate’s documentary. minister who called vaccines “poison.” He said that if he had a child today, they could go unvaccinated.

For Shelly Cobb, 60, of Santa Barbara County, Calif., the epidemic has provided a similar, transformative path. Her mother was a registered nurse, so she had never asked about vaccinations. But the new mRNA technique used in Covid Shots gave him pause. When he asked his doctors about them, he found their answers unsatisfactory. From Kennedy’s video, he learned about the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which provided liability protection to vaccine manufacturers and created a compensation program for vaccine-injured people.

“I was stunned,” he said, and decided against the Covid shot. He lost friends and was expelled from the book club as a result, although he was willing to take exams and wear masks to make others feel comfortable. “I was treated like the devil,” said Cobb, a longtime Democrat and environmentalist. I felt very alone and it was a very difficult time for me.

In the midst of that loneliness, the announcement of Kennedy’s presidential campaign in April 2023 sounded like an opportunity. He immediately signed up to volunteer, speak at farmers markets, organize an Earth Day event, and help get Kennedy re-elected in California. Cobb felt the same kind of excitement he did when Bernie Sanders ran, but he was even more excited about the fact that Kennedy could tone down the political ugliness that had damaged relations during the Covid.

Even Kilian, who has seen the benefits of Covid vaccines, has lingering doubts about the epidemic. He thinks closing schools would have done more harm than good, for example. You have questions about how HPV vaccines have been tested. Another thing that initially drew him to the MAHA was the perception that the Democratic Party, which he founded, did not include Kennedy. It made Kilian start to look more seriously at Kennedy’s allegations.

Regarding the election, Kilian says he has mixed feelings. He’s keen that Kennedy can recognize ideas he shares, but he doesn’t trust Trump. “There are thousands of lies that someone has told,” said Kilian. Cobb is willing to defect to Trump if Kennedy aligns with the president-elect.

“I voted for Kamala,” said Kenon. As a black woman living in Spanish Harlem, she’s scared of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric — she’s scared of her immigrant neighbors, and she’s scared that people like her will be caught up in the attacks. For him, the possibility of Kennedy becoming health secretary is a silver lining. With a self-proclaimed businessman in the Oval Office, will RFK be able to enact his anti-Big Food policies? “This is going to be the 100 million dollar question,” he said.