Be skeptical of RFK Jr.'s messaging shift
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate committee on the president's health care agenda in September 2025. Credit: EPA-EFE / Shutterstock / Shawn Thew
Early on, it was easy to paint the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement with a broad brush — as a group of moms universally opposed to vaccination and vaccination requirements, who seek to put parental rights above public health.
But recent polling has shown that MAHA moms may be a misnomer, as there are more men than women who identify with the movement. More importantly, most who associate with MAHA prefer to spotlight more universally concerning issues, including limiting ultra-processed foods, artificial dyes and microplastics. A Politico poll found that nearly 60% of MAHA supporters don't consider vaccination and parental authority over medical decisions "core" to their movement.
That's good insight — especially if Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. follows their lead. He — and the White House — are certainly paying attention before the midterm elections. Bloomberg News reported that an internal White House memo asked Kennedy and HHS to shift their messaging away from vaccines and toward more widely embraced topics like food and nutrition. Recently, Kennedy has publicly avoided talk of vaccination altogether.
That's a shift many could get behind. Renewed attention on the public's health and well-being, on the chemicals in and the excessive processing of our food and on our physical activity, would be welcome. So would a move to curtail yearslong efforts by Kennedy and others to amplify unfounded concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, upending the childhood vaccine schedule and making it easier for schoolchildren to avoid vaccination.
But let's not fool ourselves. Kennedy is who he is and still deeply believes in his anti-vaccine, anti-science messaging. The White House can try to tamp it down or keep him quiet, but as long as he leads HHS, his stamp — vaccine opposition and doubts about the need for public health measures — will remain.
And in many ways, the damage already has been done.
As of a week ago, there've been 1,671 confirmed cases of measles nationwide this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year saw 2,286 confirmed cases.
In 2023, the nation reported just 59 cases — all year.
Locally, the impact has been extraordinary. While vaccine skepticism and opposition has always existed on Long Island, it has grown exponentially and moved from the shadows to the norm since Kennedy's ascendancy as the nation's highest public health official. It's no longer unusual for parents to post to local social media groups seeking physicians who will delay, spread out or even avoid vaccinations. It's now common for parents to seek home day care and homeschooling environments where their children can go unvaccinated, no matter the risk. A recent Newsday Opinion analysis found that just 82% of Long Island children under the age of 2 received at least one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine last year. Herd immunity — which prevents the spread of measles — requires a 95% vaccination rate.
A shift in the public national message, with attention to improving the food we eat and the air we breathe, can help. But if it's not accompanied by a massive effort to restore the public trust in vaccination, to encourage parents to inoculate their children, and to stand by existing mandates, it won't be enough.
The many moms and dads who share doubts in vaccines and more broadly in science and public health aren't going anywhere. They'll still be loud and still be pushing to undo mandates, expand exemptions and sow distrust. We underestimate them at our peril.
Columnist Randi F. Marshall's opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
