The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has gained significant influence over the U.S. health care system, according to a new report from Public Citizen. With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), MAHA’s unscientific ideology and influencers made their way into the mainstream.
report, MAHA, Means Money: MAHA’s influence in US healthcare means big money for Big WellnessReveals how MAHA influencers exploit vulnerabilities in the American healthcare system by promoting unproven medical treatments and unregulated health supplements while stoking distrust toward certified healthcare providers.
Along with the report, Public Citizen I filed a complaint To the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calls for an investigation into whether Dr. Casey Means, current nominee for Surgeon General, violated the FTC’s policy on influencer marketing, citing multiple examples of undisclosed product ads.
“MAHA influencers’ messages strike a chord with many Americans because they pinpoint that much of the U.S. health care system is beholden to corporate interests like Big Pharma and the insurance industry,” he said. Eileen O’Grady is a researcher in the Public Citizen’s Congressional Oversight Division. “But instead of fighting to lower drug prices, ensure patient safety, or build a more equitable health system for all, they are selling consumers their own version of graft: excessive testing, unproven and unregulated health supplements, and assurances that only their products hold the key to better health. While MAHA power brokers reap the benefits of lucrative sponsorship contracts and, in some cases, political appointments, ordinary Americans are being cheated once again.”
Key findings of the report include:
- While MAHA health influencers criticize conventional medicine, they have amassed their own health empires built on selling products and ideas based on distorted views of public health.
- Surgeon General candidate Dr. Casey means She has a significant conflict of interest that may jeopardize her ability to serve the role effectively. Dr. Means’ metabolic testing company may have already benefited from Secretary Kennedy’s promotion of wearable health trackers.
- Dr. Means also likely violated the FTC’s rules on influencer marketing by failing to adequately disclose sponsorship relationships in dozens of web and social media posts promoting wellness products. In total, it failed to disclose its relationship 79 out of 140 (56%) times it promoted products from companies with which it had financial relationships.
- Senior Advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services Kali meansHe founded TrueMed, which has repeatedly used his platforms to promote dangerous and false health information, based on a legally questionable business model.
- Maha’s leading character Mark Hymanwho has close financial and personal ties to the Kennedys, Mehmet Oz, and the Means brothers, oversees a health empire that will benefit greatly from the policies of the Kennedy-era Department of Health and Human Services.
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