Notes of a Bobby Watcher Episode V

And Now the MAHA Movement

I have pause. I am concerned.

First, I will say that I am pleased some of Secretary Kennedy’s plans to make us healthier will examine such things as: processed foods, food dyes, over-utilization of medication and certain food ingredients, the prescription of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and stimulants.

Good as long as he uses a science-based approach.

Coming down the pike is the MAHA . . . Make America Healthy Again movement, ostensibly instituted by The Secretary. Since it might result in something positive for the health of our citizens, I see a sunlight ray of optimism peeking through the tangle of trees. Maybe our Secretary has something going. Maybe. To date, his track record has been off the cinders.

At every turn to date, he has flubbed. That is why I have pause, i.e., it gives me concern that The Secretary always throws in that mis/disinformation wrinkle when he says that Americans are “the sickest people on earth.” The Wrinkle? He does not acknowledge that the nations at the top of the healthcare rankings have the two things he doesn’t like and avoids: universal healthcare and comprehensive vaccine programs.

Look at some of his ideas.

Kennedy believes Americans are not beset by:

· a privatized fee-for-service labyrinth

· scant price regulation

· a hospital system engulfed by private equity, and

· rampant greed

. . . all of which I have encountered in my thirty-five years of practicing medicine. Believe me, they beset us.

He believes people are overcome by their own ignorance and poor choices. Really, Secretary? Do you believe people want to be sick?

That gives me pause.

Here’s an irony. The MAHA movement champions disease prevention but opposes many of the fundamental tools of preventive care. For example:

· vaccine schedules for kids

· mammograms for adult women

· annual flu shots for all

That gives me pause.

MAHA people warn their followers that mammograms cause breast cancer by exposing patients to low levels of radiation. Kennedy blames his voice disorder, spasmodic dysphonia, on the flu vaccine. Really, Secretary? There is NO proof whatsoever in either case.

That gives me pause.

The MAHA faithful are wary of antibiotics that can lower the measles mortality rate if there is a secondary bacterial infection.

More pause.

The Secretary posits that a well-nourished child has little to fear from measles and that it is nutrition, not vaccines, which protects a person against measles and other diseases. Baloney! Pure baloney.

That gives me pause.

So I am given pause, I am concerned because, at the outset, the MAHA movement contradicts proven healthcare practice.

The Secretary exaggerates the health benefits of certain food substances while minimizing their risks. For example, raw milk.

Dairy milk can carry harmful microbes.

Before 1938, milk was responsible for 25% of all food-based disease outbreaks like tuberculosis and typhoid. A mere fifty years later, milk was responsible for less than 1% of these outbreaks. What happened? Well, it was the widespread adoption of pasteurization: the application of moderate levels of heat to food products to kill harmful bacteria. Unpasteurized milk is “raw” milk.

Kennedy argues raw milk “advances human health.” He accuses the FDA of suppressing it as part of its “war on public health.”

He is attributing exaggerated benefits to raw milk and downplaying its risks.

Look at this:

Last November, the California Department of Public Health reported that containers of raw milk sold by a farm in Fresno tested positive for H5N1 bird flu, which has infected dairy cows and some people who have come into contact with the livestock.

Secretary Kennedy’s advocation of raw milk gives me pause.

Secretary Kennedy is concerned about food additives and ultra-processed foods (UPFs), claiming "ultra-processed food is driving the obesity epidemic.” He also links UPFs with other medical conditions like cancers in young adults and mental health conditions.

Though recent research shows many health problems, including cancers, obesity, and depression associated with diet, there’s no clear evidence yet that they are caused by UPFs.

So his statements are not backed by science. Pause

And oh yes, his take on bird flu, potentially transmitted through his raw milk suggestion.

Kennedy said on Fox News that instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, who are immune to the disease.

That gives me pause because …

Veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be dangerous and have enormous economic consequences.

Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks in every state. More than 166 million birds have been affected. Every infection is another opportunity for the virus to evolve into a more virulent form. Experts claim that if H5N1 were allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, that’s five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate.

Secretary, what are you thinking? Again, you spout another ill-founded theory where you don’t understand science and don’t listen to the experts.

Pause, again.

Now there is the Make America Healthy Again Commission whose mission is to combat lagging American life expectancy and rising rates of chronic disease by focusing on the food and pharmaceutical industries.

The policy is to combat rising numbers of mental health disorders, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases by directing federally funded research to focus on transparency, open-source data, and the root causes of chronic illness. Noble.

But, here’s what gives me pause.

As far as I am able to discern, cabinet members and other government officials will comprise the commission, but no scientists.

So far, I see little precaution, disinformation, misinformation, rare science and a heap of confabulation.

Any wonder why I have pause?

What will the Watch Birds say?

Prove me wrong, Secretary Kennedy.

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