It has been a turbulent few weeks for Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
At the end of last month, he dismissed Susan Monarez, Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after just 29 days. She accused her former boss of firing her for “refus[ing] to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” A slew of senior CDC officials followed Monarez out the door. Last week, nine former CDC directors called on Kennedy to resign in a New York Times op-ed. The uncertainty at the agency led CVS and Walgreens to pull their Covid vaccines from stores in 16 states. They cited the “current regulatory environment” for the decision.
On Friday, RFK Jr. appeared in a fiery Senate hearing—and it wasn’t just Democrats asking the difficult questions. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the number-two Republican in the Senate. Asked about vaccines on Friday, Donald Trump appeared to put some distance between himself and his HHS secretary when he said, “They’re just, pure and simple—they work. They’re not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used.” (The White House says RFK has the president’s full support.)
The same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that a forthcoming report on the causes of autism will link the disorder to Tylenol use in pregnancy. Also last week, Florida’s surgeon general announced the end of all vaccine mandates in the state, including for children. (Read our editorial on that change here.) And on Saturday, Trump’s own former surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said he thought Trump should fire RFK Jr. for “the sake of his legacy.”
RFK defended himself on Sunday on Fox News, saying “I’ve been brought in as a new manager. My job is to shake up the [organization].”
In short, the fight over public health is at a fever pitch—which makes this a pivotal moment for one of the most interesting movements in American politics today: MAHA. The campaign to Make America Healthy Again has mobilized an unlikely coalition of Republicans, crunchy moms, and health activists. Their mission is to replace what they see as a failed and corrupt public health elite that has allowed America to grow sicker and sicker. But now the MAHA crowd, and their leader RFK Jr., are in charge.
So how’s it going? Does all the dramatic MAHA news mean we’re watching a slow-motion car crash? Or is this simply what the kind of disruption RFK promised looks like?
In other words: Has MAHA so far been a success, a disaster, or a disappointment?
That’s what we asked a range of doctors, journalists, and other public health experts. Here’s what they told us.
