what the MAHA men are up to

Keeping up with RFK Jr., Bhattacharya, and Makary

We’re just over 6 months into MAHA’s reign. Let’s check in with its leaders.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

RFK Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services

HHS Director Bobby Kennedy (yes, we call him Bobby here at Running On Butter) hasn’t pulled any punches in his short tenure. Alongside the MAHA Manifesto—which I broke down in detail—he’s now managed to get mercury out of the flu vaccine.

Tough week for Team Mercury. One former vaccine committee member called the decision a “farce.”

For context: thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative) was used to keep multi-dose flu vials shelf-stable. That’s it. With this change, the flu shot will now be made without the preservative. So basically it’s like a gluten-free sandwich now.

Some critics warn that removing mercury could fuel vaccine skepticism. They insist thimerosal was “safe,” and that questioning it only plays into the hands of anti-vaxxers, validating broader doubts about vaccines.

I disagree.

If we want people to trust vaccines—especially in a post-Covid world—the only way forward is radical transparency: clear info on ingredients, safety, and process.

MAHA moms have been flagging concerns like this for years. Dismissing them as kooks hasn’t shut them up. It’s only made them louder, smarter, and more resilient.

For vaccine proponents, defending mercury feels like a weird hill to die on. If you want to be taken seriously by MAHA moms (and honestly, the broader public), start by acknowledging the obvious: we don’t need mercury in vaccines. Budge where you can—because you can.

This isn’t a scientific compromise; it’s common sense.

Another vaccine-related initiative RFK Jr. has promised is to give the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) a long-overdue overhaul.

The VICP was established in 1986 after pharmaceutical companies warned they would stop producing vaccines if they remained liable for injury lawsuits. In response, Congress granted vaccine makers legal immunity and created a government-run program to handle injury claims.

The idea was to protect the vaccine supply for public health reasons. (It probably didn’t hurt that both political parties receive substantial funding from pharmaceutical interests.)

Under the VICP, individuals who experience a vaccine injury don’t sue the manufacturer; they file a claim with the federal government.

The program has paid out more than $5.4 billion since its inception. But it remains obscure and difficult to navigate. Many Americans don’t even know it exists, and the burden of proof falls entirely on the injured.

Vaccines are classified as “unavoidably unsafe,” yet the companies that make them bear no legal responsibility. It’s hard to imagine any other product—cars, food, other medicines, consumer goods—being granted that kind of legal protection.

Kennedy hasn’t yet released details about how he’d reform the VICP, but reform should’ve happened yesterday.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of National Institute of Health

The NIH has one job: medical research.

But over the past few decades, it’s veered off course. Bloated, politicized (see: Covid, 2020), and increasingly negligent when it comes to studying the lifestyle factors that actually determine how we live and die.

Metabolic health—not genetic anomalies or obscure protein markers—is the real crisis. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s, etc. These are what are consuming Americans’ health.

And yet, the NIH has long funneled billions into (A) weak epidemiological studies that establish correlation but reveal nothing about causation, and (B) extremely rare genetic conditions that affect 0.1% of the U.S. population.

Bhattacharya was given a clear mandate from the American people: restore the NIH to its original mission—funding high-quality, relevant, reproducible science.

His tenure has been dramatic out the gate. The NIH has become a proxy battleground in the president’s wider war with the Ivy Leagues. Columbia University alone had nearly $400 million in NIH research contracts.

Aside from the political drama, the jury is still very much out on the success of the new NIH director.

But one of the small, early victories: No more “access fees” to scientific journals.

“These fees, typically a few thousand up to $17,000 (for an article in Nature), are charged to authors to enable their articles to be freely read,” journalist Nina Teicholz explains. “Historically, the NIH paid these fees—more than $1 billion a year of taxpayer money—to journals.”

And despite the institutional pushback, Bhattacharya is steering the NIH back toward research on the deepest problems in America.

Would love to see a clinical study on seed oils versus butter. 👀

If you aren’t familiar with Dr. Bhattacharya, check out his interview with Bari Weiss:

Dr. Marty Makary

Dr. Marty Makary, FDA Commissioner

With all due respect to the other MAHA men, Makary is probably my favorite. After reading his book Blind Spots last fall, I got a sense of his worldview. The man knows what’s up, medically and nutritionally.

And he’s done a number of impressive things at the FDA already.

1. He’s working with the food industry to phase out petroleum-based food dyes.

2. Last week, he hosted a long-overdue roundtable with top psychiatrists and psychologists to weigh the risks and benefits of antidepressants during pregnancy. There’s a black box warning on SSRIs, but the public’s awareness of that? Basically nonexistent. From the hearing, via The New York Times:

“The public needs better information, and the F.D.A. must strengthen the warnings,” said Dr. Adam Urato, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at MetroWest Medical Center.
“Never before in human history have we chemically altered developing babies like this… and that must end.”

3. He worked with the USDA to set a clear, scientific definition for “ultra-processed food.” This is crucial. The phrase gets thrown around like candy, which, if I have my way, will also be banned.

4. He’s also working to remove processed foods from SNAP benefits, which is sending Big Food into a tailspin.

5. And maybe most importantly for us Buttercups: He’s publicly called out the saturated fat myth, calling it “dogma, not medical research.” He’s now revising the federal food guidelines to reflect what the science and the infallible truth that is Running On Butter. A government official standing up for real food? Butter? Am I dreaming?