Episode #43 Deep Dive – MAHA Goes Prime Time
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› Dr. Oz apparently missed the memo on vaccines
His boss RFK Jr. has consistently cast doubt on vaccines, saying they may cause autism and other neurological diseases, contain “fetus debris”, and claimed that “they’re not safety-tested.” Despite this, Dr. Oz went on CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash last Sunday and urged Americans to get the measles vaccine in the face of the largest outbreak of measles since it was declared eradicated in the US over two decades ago.
However, he also defended Kennedy. When Dana Bash asked him if South Carolina’s outbreak was “a consequence of the administration undermining support or advocacy for measles vaccines,” he replied, “I don’t believe so, we’ve advocated for measles vaccines all along. Secretary Kennedy has been at the front of this—” “Oh, come on,” she replied. She then pointed to a statement made by Kennedy’s anti-vaxx group Children’s Health Defense saying “there’s no reason to fear measles”, a disease that has killed at least 60 children this season.
Watch the segment HERE (starting at the 7:40 mark.)
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, likened Dr. Oz’s comments to taking a garden hose to a forest fire.
“When you cast those kinds of doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness, one interview on one news show is not going to move the needle,” he said.
Dr. Osterholm argued that Mr. Kennedy began sowing distrust in the vaccine soon after he was confirmed last February. As measles spread through West Texas, he appeared on national television, encouraging vaccination and then, almost in the same breath, raising questions about its safety.
In case you thought Kennedy has changed his mind about vaccines, he hasn’t. Just this week, his FDA refused to review Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology:
Moderna received what’s called a “refusal-to-file” letter from the FDA that objected to how it conducted a 40,000-person clinical trial comparing its new vaccine to one of the standard flu shots used today. That trial concluded the new vaccine was somewhat more effective in adults 50 and older than that standard shot.
The letter from FDA vaccine director Dr. Vinay Prasad said the agency doesn’t consider the application to contain an “adequate and well-controlled trial” because it didn’t compare the new shot to “the best-available standard of care in the United States at the time of the study.” Prasad’s letter pointed to some advice FDA officials gave Moderna in 2024, under the Biden administration, which Moderna didn’t follow… Moderna said the FDA [had already agreed] to let the study proceed as originally planned.
››› Dr. Oz wants Americans to work longer
At an event at the National Press Club on Monday, Dr. Oz revealed his plan to eliminate the deficit, keep Medicare Part A solvent, and shore up social security: Make Americans work longer by starting work earlier in their lives and retiring later.
Watch his comments HERE.
Democrats pointed out that Trump’s big beautiful billionaire tax giveaway added roughly $3.4 trillion to the already existing federal deficit, suggesting that’s why Dr. Oz is talking about this now.
››› The public meeting between the AMA’s President and RFK Jr. has created an internal firestorm
At the beginning of the year, we talked about American Medical Association president Bobby Mukkamala meeting with RFK Jr. He posted on his Facebook page that he was “excited about the AMA working with HHS to improve the health of our country by focusing on what we eat.” “There are aspects of healthcare that we differ on,” he said, “But there are many we can work on together.”
The statement was made in response to the release of new dietary guidelines issued by RFK Jr. that puts increased emphasis on red meat, whole milk, and cheese at the top of the food pyramid in an effort to “end the war on saturated fats.”
POLITICO reported recently that the meeting is not sitting well with some AMA members:
A meeting this month between the head of the American Medical Association and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has prompted infighting within the nation’s leading lobbying group for doctors.
Following the Jan. 7 meeting, a contingent of member doctors wrote to the AMA’s board chair because they view Kennedy as a threat to public health whom the group should shun, according to correspondence obtained by POLITICO. [...]
The dissenting AMA members said the group, which speaks for more than 250,000 doctors and commands one of the country’s biggest lobbying war chests, should not have used its clout to back Kennedy’s new dietary guidelines. [...]
The dissenters told the AMA board they should have been briefed. “This meeting was not communicated at all,” said an AMA delegate, a member of the group’s policymaking body. “It was basically a tacit approval without saying anything specifically. It makes it look like the AMA is supporting this disinformation on nutrition.”
››› RFK Jr. says the keto diet cures schizophrenia
At an event in Tennessee last week touting new nutrition guidelines that emphasize eating a diet rich in red meat, whole milk and animal fats, RFK Jr. said that a doctor at Harvard had “cured schizophrenia using keto diets” and that there were studies showing people “lose their bipolar diagnosis by changing their diet.”
In his speech, Kennedy mentioned a “Dr. Pollan” at Harvard, but there appears to be no such person there or elsewhere who has studied the keto diet and its effect on schizophrenia; he may have meant to cite Christopher Palmer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. [...]
“While I appreciate the secretary’s [apparent] enthusiasm for my research, I have never claimed to cure schizophrenia, and I have never used the word cure in any of my talks or my research,” Palmer says.
Some find Kennedy’s penchant for advancing unproven cures and treatments while casting doubt on proven approaches like vaccines and anti-depressants to be perplexing at the very least. However, he has free rein to do so because, as he told an audience at an event sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, Trump “lets me do stuff that I don't think anybody else would ever let me do.”
››› Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom has some spicy words for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill
WWLTV reports that Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill plans to take California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Kathy Hochul to federal court in an effort to compel the extradition of doctors facing criminal charges in the state, her spokesperson confirmed in a statement Thursday. The move stems from two cases in which doctors are accused of mailing abortion pills to Louisiana residents, violating state law.
Newsom did not mince words: “Louisiana plans to sue me because I won’t extradite a doctor for providing an abortion,” he tweeted. “@AGLizMurrill: Go fuck yourself. California will never help you criminalize healthcare.”
››› Boxer Mike Tyson featured in a MAHA ad during the Super Bowl
The ad was titled, “Processed Food Kills, Eat Real Food.”
MedPage Today took a look at who was behind the ad:
The Super Bowl ad showing boxer Mike Tyson biting into an apple and criticizing processed food was produced by a new nonprofit aligned with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda.
The 30-second spot -- in which the former heavyweight champion says he contemplated suicide after gaining significant weight -- was funded by the MAHA Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by Tony Lyons, a central figure across multiple MAHA-branded groups.
The exact launch date of the MAHA Center remains unclear. While domain data show the center’s website was registered in October 2025, the Internet Archive shows no publicly available content before Feb. 6.
The identities of the donors who financed the ad are also unknown… Super Bowl ads cost an average of about $8 million this year, with some spots reaching $10 million, CNBC reported.
Tony Lyons, a co-founder of the group MAHA PAC, is supporting Sen. Bill Cassidy’s Republican primary challenger, Julia Letlow, in the November midterms. He was also involved in the creation of the $7 million ad that aired during the Super Bowl in 2024 announcing RFK Jr.’s decision to run as an independent.
Lyons recently put out a memo warning Republicans not to take MAHA adherents for granted when it comes to elections.
In a new memo obtained by POLITICO, Lyons described the Republican Party as “renting MAHA voters” but not fully committed to “purchase.”
Lyons told the officials running the party’s national, Senate and House campaign arms, as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, that needed to change.
“We need to convince every Republican to buy into the MAHA movement, just like Trump has,” he wrote in a late Wednesday memo.
Using polling commissioned from Trump’s campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, Lyons encouraged Republicans to talk more about five of Kennedy’s policy goals:
— getting Americans to eat real food instead of ultraprocessed,
— making it more affordable to live a healthy life,
— removing toxins from food,
— limiting pesticides in agriculture, and
— addressing “overmedicalization” in children.
Now that TrumpRx is live, let’s see what’s in it
AXIOS reporter Maya Goldman took a look at the new government website and found that more than half of the 43 TrumpRx drugs have a less expensive alternative:
20 of the 43 drugs listed on TrumpRx as of the website’s launch have generic alternatives, according to a tally by Anna Kaltenboeck, a drug pricing expert and president of Verdant Research.
Another six contain components that are available as generics or compounded products, or have tentative approvals, meaning consumers will have access to the lower-cost products in the near future.
“To the extent that a patient was buying these without insurance, I don’t see this being a benefit,” Kaltenboeck said.
The New York Times points out the Trump potential family grift involved:
Democratic lawmakers…questioned whether the president’s family could be profiting from the site through BlinkRx, a small health technology company whose board of directors includes Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son. Last summer, a week after Mr. Trump demanded that drugmakers sell their medicines directly to patients, BlinkRx announced a new offering in which drugmakers could pay it to help them quickly set up direct-buy programs.
A spokesman for BlinkRx, Drew Hudson, declined to comment on whether his company was involved.
Trump Jr. joined the company’s Board just over a year ago.
[F]or most Americans, this initiative represents not a solution to our prescription drug price dilemma, but rather a distraction from it. In fact, TrumpRx won’t help most Americans because it is designed for cash-paying, uninsured patients rather than the roughly 85% of Americans with prescription drug insurance coverage. [...]
So, who might actually benefit from TrumpRx? The uninsured, those with high-deductible health insurance plans, and those patients with high incomes who already pay cash for medications not typically covered by insurance, like drugs for weight loss, cosmetic Botox, or fertility treatments.
“Every American familiar with the Trump record knows that all roads in TrumpRx will lead to Trump’s pocket. TrumpRx is nothing more than a glorified coupon book,” Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement Friday. He also said, “There is no greater fraud than Donald J. Trump when it comes to lower drug prices.”
In a fact sheet titled, “10 Reasons TrumpRx is a Utter Joke,” Protect Our Care points out that TrumpRx’s “deals” benefit Big Pharma way more than Americans and gives drugmakers the opportunity to squeeze as much profit and political goodwill as they can from drugs on the decline. They call it Big Pharma’s “biggest victory in years.”
Links for a deeper dive on Episode #43
Dr. Oz on CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash (measles vaccine portion begins at 7:45)
People: RFK Jr. Falsely Claims Measles Vaccine Contains ‘Fetus Debris,’ Asks CDC for New Treatment
CIDRAP: CDC’s FluView shows 8 more pediatric deaths as flu activity drops
The New York Times: Oz Offers Forceful Call for Vaccination as Measles Becomes More Dire
AP: Moderna says FDA refuses its application for new mRNA flu vaccine
Bezinga (via Yahoo! Finance): Dr. Oz Says Americans Starting Work ‘Right Out Of High School’ Or Retiring One Year Later Would ‘More Than Remove’ The National Debt
Democratic National Committee: Dr. Oz Wants To Raise the Retirement Age to Fund Trump’s Tax Cuts for Billionaires
AMA Pres. Bobby Mukkamala’s Facebook post with RFK Jr. is HERE
POLITICO: A meeting with RFK Jr. set off recriminations inside doctors’ lobbying arm
Scientific American: RFK, Jr. just claimed the keto diet can cure schizophrenia. Here’s what the science says
RFK Jr. saying Trump lets him do thing nobody else ever would
WWLTV: Louisiana plans to sue California and New York over abortion pill cases
Super Bowl ad featuring Mike Tyson: Processed Food Kills, Eat Real Food
The New York Times: MAHA Group Pledges $1 Million to Help Defeat Senator Cassidy in Louisiana Primary
AXIOS: More than half of TrumpRx drugs have a cheaper alternative
The New York Times: Trump’s Online Drugstore Opens for Business
PRN Newswire: BlinkRx Welcomes Donald Trump Jr. to Board of Directors
US Senate Committee on Finance: Wyden Statement on TrumpRx Announcement
US Senate Committee on Finance: Wyden, Senate Democrats Blast Trump’s Drug Pricing Fraud, Lay Out Agenda for Lower Prices
Protect Our Care: Fact Sheet: 10 Reasons Why TrumpRx Is an Utter Joke
Maya Goldman’s work at AXIOS is HERE
Maya Goldman on LinkedIn
Maya Goldman on X
Maya Goldman on Bluesky
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