For many mothers, the COVID-19 pandemic was the moment they took a second look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Before 2020, he was known to many mainstream suburban mothers as a kooky coconspirator of actress Jenny McCarthy, back when anti-vaccine views were on the societal fringes.
Then the pandemic happened. And suddenly, the idea that the entire medical establishment was conspiring and keeping vital health information from the public, that it didn’t have the health of children at the top of the agenda, turned from a fringe view to far more mainstream. The pathway to optimal health became polarized, and for Democrats, it was represented by strong faith in the medical and health establishment, embodied by government bureaucrats such as Dr. Anthony Fauci. For Republicans and many independents, these bureaucrats weren’t just not the experts, but they became the villains.
Drea De Matteo, an actress famous for her role on The Sopranos and a mother of two, took that second look at Kennedy after the pandemic. She told the Washington Examiner, “There’s no science behind what the Democrats have been pushing for the last five years. What they’ve been doing is political science.”
For many mothers, this distrust of the handling not just of the pandemic but of the COVID-19 vaccine’s development and promotion was a red pill moment about the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines. Anger over the COVID-19 vaccine became a gateway drug into normalizing all vaccine hesitancy, as reflected in dropping rates of childhood immunizations nationally.
Before the pandemic, few people knew much about the indemnification of vaccine manufacturers against liability or the bureaucratic process necessary for all drug approval. Suddenly, thousands of people were paying attention to the process and deeply uncomfortable with what they were witnessing.
Writing about Kennedy’s record on various controversial matters, Dr. Vinay Prasad explained where he believes Kennedy is on the mark.
“RFK Jr. wants to put an end to [Food and Drug Administration] officials cashing in on their government stints by joining pharma companies as soon as they leave the agency,” Prasad wrote. “In the BMJ, my research team showed that over 60 percent of FDA cancer drug reviewers go to work in biopharma when they leave the agency.”
Prasad adds that this proposal from Kennedy “would be incredibly popular with Americans — and might help restore trust in the government’s vast health apparatus.”
De Matteo wasn’t the only woman who moved to support President Donald Trump because of Kennedy’s endorsement. Molly, a 40-year-old woman in Florida managing a chronic illness, shared with the Washington Examiner, “I didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 or 2016, but [for] a third party. I voted for him in 2024 only because Kennedy dropped out. I was 100% behind Kennedy. He spoke to what matters [and] what needs to change and wasn’t afraid to stand up to his own Democrat-wielding family.”
Kennedy garnered widespread appeal in the 2024 election due to his promotion of “MAHA,” the “Make America Healthy Again” movement. His supporters describe this as an initiative to restore national well-being. With a focus on wellness, clean food, water, and air, and physical activity, Kennedy’s messaging around MAHA became far less polarizing than his views on vaccines had been. It’s hard to argue that Kennedy is off the mark on making people healthier when we look at rates of obesity and preventable chronic illnesses.
Famously, the New York Times accidentally made Kennedy’s point for him in trying to discredit his crusade against processed foods. “Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version,” the authors wrote. “But he was wrong,” the article continued smugly.
“The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada’s has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used ‘for freshness,’ according to the ingredient label,” the New York Times said.
It’s hard not to believe Kennedy might be on to something regarding our food supply when that’s the best that the New York Times can throw at him. Even before Trump took office, the FDA took action against red food dye 3, banning its use in food, beverages, oral drugs, and dietary supplements.
Television anchor Sage Steele told the Washington Examiner she is “disappointed” by how long it has taken the government to be more upfront about our food, Big Pharma, and vaccines.
“Thanks to people like RFK Jr. and the health movement he has created, I am blown away by and so grateful for how much I have learned over the last year,” Steele said. “As a mother of kids who are now ages 18, 20, and 22, I’m trying to forgive myself for not knowing more and forgive myself for trusting our leadership. That is why I believe it’s imperative to make sure RFK Jr. is leading the way, protecting all of us, and making sure other parents don’t feel the way I do.”
In his same article on Kennedy, Prasad defended Kennedy’s questioning of the inclusion of some vaccines in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule in relationship to other countries’ alternative schedules, for example, our placement of the hepatitis B vaccine as mandatory at birth. But he draws the line at Kennedy’s past demonization of the MMR vaccine.
“All European countries recommend using MMR vaccines in children,” Prasad writes. “No country I am aware of warns against using it because it leads to autism. If RFK Jr. uses his perch as [health and human services] secretary to discourage parents from getting their children inoculated with the MMR vaccine, severe negative repercussions could result, including measles outbreaks and childhood deaths. This is not a good policy.”
Post-COVID, Trump’s appeal was his promise to decenter science as religion as the policy of the U.S. government. Throughout the pandemic, questioning “the science” became verboten. Any doctor accused of spreading “misinformation” was at risk of losing his or her medical license. Doctors such as Jay Bhattacharya became subject to campaigns of delegitimization by social media giants intent on silencing their alternative views on the wisdom of the COVID lockdowns. As a result, Trump nominated Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health.
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The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is an extension of that reimagining of what American policy should promote in the realm of the sciences. The “in this house, we believe in science” signs are down, and in their place are leaders who are open to bringing debate back into the field and trusting people to make their own choices about their bodies, on everything from raw milk to fluoride to medications.
That’s not to say that questioning comes risk-free, but the total shutdown of debate and conversation has eroded trust in science more than most people believed possible. Trump’s picks for these key health positions are a realignment many people believed deeply necessary and long overdue, and they were why he had as much support from suburban women and mothers.
Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a homeschooling mother of six and writes and podcasts at The Mom Wars. She is the bestselling co-author of Stolen Youth.