259: MAHA is Project 2025’s Trojan Horse

We’ve been talking about RFK Jr for years, and even dedicated an entire chapter to him in our 2023 book—and we’re going to keep covering him. Since his power and influence has only grown, and since he’s now in charge of America’s entire health apparatus, there’s no way to avoid it.

This week we catch up on the last few months of MAHA. Derek looks into why he believes Kennedy’s apparatus, despite claims of being about health, is really a cover for Project 2025’s deregulatory agenda. Julian discusses a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Covid contrarians Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, who now both work under Kennedy. Finally, Matthew will contemplate Kennedy’s crude remarks on autism through the lens of disability politics.

Show Notes

What Has All This Restaurant Food Done to My Gut?

Function Health is Another Theranosesque Scam

MAHA’s Goal Is Not Health: Robert Kennedy’s movement promises more privatization

RFK Jr. meets with health tech startups, most backed by Andreessen Horowitz

COVID infection no longer gives lasting immunity

Hybrid Immunity May Be the Key to Developing Better Vaccines

Makary, Bhattacharya in New England Journal of Medicine

Consequences of Work Requirements in Arkansas: Two-Year Impacts on Coverage, Employment, and Affordability of Care 

Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations - PMC 

Adler-Bolton, Beatrice, and Artie Vierkant. 2022. Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto. Verso Books.

SURPLUS. Adler-Bolton, The New Inquiry. October 18, 2022. 

Extractive Abandonment - Stimpunks Foundation 

Social and medical models of disability and mental health: evolution and renewal - PMC

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