MAHA Is Filling the Vacuum Public Health Left Behind

As families isolate and vaccine guidance retreats, RFK Jr.’s movement thrives on distrust — and Doctor Mike is fighting back where it matters: online.

Welcome back to The Red Letter.

This Christmas, I learned my brother doesn’t want my parents going to church — not because of politics, but because he’s afraid they’ll bring home measles or mumps to his unborn child.

That’s where we are now: families isolating not because of lockdowns, but because trust in public health has collapsed.

At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control quietly lowered the number of recommended childhood vaccines this week from 17 to 11 — no longer advising universal protection against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, influenza, or respiratory syncytial virus, the leading cause of hospitalization among American infants. The agency also altered vaccine scheduling to mirror smaller, less populated countries like Denmark.

This wasn’t just a bureaucratic recalibration. It was an admission of reality: public health no longer has the authority it once did. Trust has eroded so deeply that even evidence-based recommendations now risk backlash, politicization, or outright rejection.

Into that vacuum stepped a movement that calls itself MAHA — a brand built on distrust, fear, and certainty without evidence. It claims to protect children while convincing parents that the very systems designed to keep them safe are lying to them.

I recognize this collapse of trust because it’s the same reason I left legacy journalism. When institutions stop explaining themselves, when they close ranks instead of opening up, people don’t become more informed. They become suspicious. And suspicion is fertile ground for misinformation.

That’s why YouTube star Mikhail Varshavski, known as Doctor Mike, caught my attention. I stumbled on his recent Jubilee debate where he faced 20 RFK Jr. supporters, not to humiliate them, but to engage them.

“I think [RFK Jr.] realized that in the era of short form communication where nuance is not necessary. His buzzy messaging thrives,” he told me on The Tara Palmeri Show.

“Ten years ago, maybe 20 years ago in traditional media, if RFK Jr. said something inaccurate, then what would happen? The American Academy of Pediatrics would send their chief medical officer or their CEO or whoever’s in charge to 60 Minutes to Nightline. And all of America would tune in or at least highlights of it would be across all the major networks and therefore that message would get squashed because an expert proved it to be untrue. But now there is no fact-checking process.”

The collapse of authority, trust, and shared reality is what MAHA exploits. And it’s why Varshavski sees this moment as existential, not ideological.

With 14.6 million followers, Varshavski may be uniquely positioned to challenge MAHA on its own turf. Not by shouting louder, but by explaining more and by admitting failure where it exists and refusing to abandon the public to algorithms and fear.

The pendulum always swings. The question is how much damage is done before it does.