RFK Jr's MAHA project funnels millions from public health to private wellness industry (Jun 2025) MAHA’s Goal Is Not Health. Robert Kennedy’s movement promises more privatization Article

[Michael Harrop]

• https://boingboing.net/2025/06/27/rfk-jrs-maga-project-funnels-millions-from-public-health-to-private-wellness-industry.html
• https://www.accountabilityjournalism.org/insights/mahas-goal-is-not-health

Some parts seem concerning. Other parts are written to raise concern, but aren't necessarily concerning. Some parts seem obviously biased. Privatization is not necessarily bad, given how badly the public research system has been failing us. It all depends on the details.

If things continue as is, with the new administration ignoring FMT, then I would say this article is depressingly correct.

We'll know how genuine they are about their desire to MAHA depending on what they do with FMT.

connecting the dots between RFK, Jr.'s vision of health, some of the main players in his orbit, and the financial interests of everyone involved. RFK, Jr. has cut over 800 million dollars from public health research and wants to move those interests from the public good to the private market of functional health diagnostic labs and alternative medicine companies. And, wouldn't you know it, the people he's appointed to various positions in our public health institutions run diagnostic testing companies and/or wellness and supplement companies, and thus stand to do very well, financially, when RFK, Jr.'s vision of is realized.

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RFK, Jr. views the future of medicine and health through the lens of "functional medicine," which Derek Beres describes as a "pseudoscience category of alternative medicine that claims to be searching for the 'root cause' of disease." Further, Science-Based Medicine explains that functional medicine, which has largely been debunked as a pseudoscience and a massive grift, relies heavily on its practitioners ordering "reams of useless lab tests" and then trying "to correct every abnormal level without considering (or even knowing) what these abnormalities mean, if anything." The bottom line? Functional medicine practitioners "make up fake diagnoses and profit."

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Some parts of this are true. I wasted a lot of time and money going to alternative health practitioners, but "regular" doctors weren't any better, other than me not having to pay.

Mark Hyman, who Derek Beres calls the "don" of functional medicine, currently earns 28 million dollars a year on diagnostic testing subscriptions, supplements, and books.

Beres explains that Hyman:

believes most diseases—cancer, autoimmune disease, asthma, depression, autism, ADHD, to name a few—can be attributed to a made-up condition called leaky gut, which is related to intestinal permeability (a real thing) but way leakier (a not real thing).

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Hyman is poised to earn even more if the functional-medicine-diagnostic-testing-to-supplements-pipeline is expanded and legitimized as the official approach to public health.

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I don't agree with their characterization of "permeability vs leaky gut". They are essentially the same thing.

Another health influencer who stands to make big bucks if RFK, Jr.'s vision of health is realized is Calley Means, who was appointed by Trump in March, 2025 as a White House advisor to assist with "Make America Healthy Again" issues. Calley runs a company called "Truemed," which allows consumers to use HSA and FSA money to choose alternative medicine products such as, according to its website, "cold plunges, fitness equipment, gyms and studios, health tech, red light therapy, saunas, sleep aides, supplements" and more.

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And Calley Means' sister, Casey Means, who is Trump's pick to be our next Surgeon General, is a wellness influencer and co-founder of the functional health diagnostics company called "Levels." Levels sells an app that integrates with "wearables" (think Apple watches and other devices that can monitor heart rate, glucose levels, and more) — like the ones HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. recently said he wants every American to be wearing within the next four years.

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In his article, Derek Beres includes almost a dozen more wellness influencers who sell supplements or other wellness products and who certainly stand to gain from a health system focused on a diagnostic testing system that focuses on "natural" solutions to health problems. Beres explains:

Supplements have long been an ideal monetization stream for wellness influencers. Since they're basically unregulated and completely untested, they make perfect foils for pharmaceuticals without the burden of all those pesky clinical studies. The influencer economy is powered by charisma and marketing, not science.

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