MAHA, Kennedy Winning on Merits as Courts Attack Progress

On its merits, the Make America Health Again (MAHA) has been a successful departure from business as usual inside American government regulatory agencies and political corridors. In some instances, a revolutionary upending.

Corporate media and politicians openly tout the talking points and successes:

-The Phase-out of petroleum-based synthetic food dyes (major regulatory/food win)

-Overhaul of the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) loophole (key regulatory reform)

-Updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans (food policy shift)

-SNAP waivers restricting unhealthy foods in 18 states (political & food regulatory progress)

-Nutrition reforms in federal programs (food access and Head Start investment)

-Operation Stork Speed and infant formula safety improvements (regulatory/food safety)

-MAHA Commission strategy and Surgeon General advisory on screen time (political & public health framework)

Perhaps even more important showing the sustained, future momentum of the ideology, MAHA-focused legislation has been enacted in 37 states giving proof-of-concept to its broader political power outside of D.C.

Deemed by some as controversial and incomplete to date, Kennedy and his federal regulators have moved the needle in the public health vaccine, water fluoridation and crop chemical spaces.

And here’s where the problems began appearing. On merit alone, the current health administration has accrued many high-level wins upending decades of intrenched corporate influences. There was little political answer to stop MAHA momentum.

Until the courts and legal processes began impeding.

A first glimpse was witnessed when a one-two punch came from the unlikely source of the Trump administration in the form of an Executive Order protecting the cancer-causing crop chemical glyphosate in the name of national security.

Kennedy appeared on an interview with Joe Rogan to state:

“It wasn’t something I was particularly happy with…but I also understand the President’s point of view. The President didn’t create the system he’s dealing with the problem that was created over the past 60 years.”

The second punch came when the Trump administration’s DOJ filed amicus briefs supporting Bayer in the Supreme Court, urging the justices to invalidate tens of thousands of cancer lawsuits tied to the Roundup weedkiller.

Kennedy’s ACIP committee was marching forward, unfazed by flimsy media hit-pieces, making incremental and meaningful progress in the public health vaccination arena.

Having launched a formal review of the cumulative effects of the full childhood vaccine schedule while shifting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to shared clinical decision-making, seen as a middle ground step as many wanted it withdrawn from the market for good reason. The newly formed ACIP panel successively (and scientifically) made the public argument to downgraded the universal hepatitis B birth dose to individual/shared decision-making.

This was all until, in the name of ‘science,’ a judge ruled against ACIP’s further investigation, debate and actions surrounding vaccine safety and those injured by the liability-free products.

In short, a judge with a questionable track record performed a hostile takeover of the federal policy nationwide to entrench the status quo in the face of reform. It wouldn’t be the last time.

The MAHA Report issued just over a year ago listed water fluoridation as an environmental exposure that may effect children’s health. A San Francisco court’s 2024 landmark ruling in which the judge stated:

“Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA.”

The ruling and MAHA-renewed focus at the federal and state levels spelled disaster for the water fluoridation lobby.

Last week, a Ninth Circuit panel overturned a federal court lawsuit brought against the Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to prohibit risky concentrations of fluoride in drinking water. The lawsuit began in the summer of 2020 and lasted 4 years. In that time, extremely relevant bodies of scientific evidence and research were published by both the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) both conclusively finding that increased concentrations of fluoride are inversely correlated to reductions in children’s IQ.

Courthouse News writes:

“In an unsigned opinion, the three-judge panel vacated Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s ruling and sent the case back to him in San Francisco with instructions to rule on the dispute based on the evidence presented at a first bench trial rather than on additional evidence.”

The opinion, insultingly short for such a complex case, didn’t address most of the arguments made during the extensive court case.

Speaking to The HighWire, lead Attorney for plaintiffs in the case Michael Connett stated:

“The court has ordered the judge to bury his head in the sand and ignore everything the court has learned since 2020 to make a decision that effects the health of millions of Americans.”

The latest, robust science from JAMA and NTP apparently doesn’t matter.

This past week, liberty-minded Americans were delivered another potential setback again from a legal angle.

Instead of full embracing the ideals of religious freedom concerning vaccine mandates, the Trump Administration’s DOJ sided with nuance leaving the door open for states to possibly skirt the American right.

MAHA is much more than an acronym, label or political slogan it is a powerful movement built on the backs of everyday families and parents over decades. Its spirit spans generations and is rooted in reality, justice and the holistic expression of the human experience without corporate chemical overlays and chronic disease from preventable environmental toxins.

It currently resides under the Trump administration which has pros and cons that come with any political space. Yet MAHA, and more importantly its essence and spirit devoid of political jockeying, belongs to no party.

Its power and appeal are stronger than ever and state, local and federal level politicians are jockeying to appeal to its voters as midterms and eventually presidential elections occur.

Whatever political container it happens to operate under in the future can never claim dominion over an idea whose time has come.