STAT+: The MAHA era is here. RFK Jr.'s troubles are only beginning

WASHINGTON — It was the contradiction of contradictions: Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, a physician who’d treated patients with vaccine-preventable illnesses, had in the span of a week been transformed from a skeptic of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his partner-in-MAHA. 

“I want Mr. Kennedy to succeed in making America healthy again,” Cassidy said Tuesday, after his vote in the Finance Committee set Kennedy up to likely be confirmed by the full Senate as health secretary.

RFK Jr.’s rise to power comes after an unpredictable, unprecedented, and ideology-bending journey — and despite his lack of government or health experience, his decades spent peddling pseudoscientific claims, and the many skeletons in his closet. In less than a year, his MAHA movement — a semi-grassroots coalition of wellness influencers, concerned parents, vaccine-avoiders, raw milk lovers, and regular people of many stripes — has become a political darling. The movement seems here to stay, with the potential to shape United States health policy beyond any actions of RFK Jr. himself. 

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