Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA
I have previously described the article Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA, by Johns Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Joseph Marine, as propaganda. That’s harsh, but I don’t throw around such accusations casually. It’s worthwhile to examine this article further, not just because it shows how unethical it is for doctors to profit from it, but because it’s a typical example of a larger project to normalize disinformation agents and numb people to their threat.
Dr. Marine’s article was published on the monetized misinformation Substack Sensible Medicine. Here’s what he said about RFK Jr.’s nomination to run the HHS:
The selection is likely to provoke strong reactions in the medical and public health establishment, as RFK threatens to upend a system under which they have succeeded. He plans to turn over the moneychangers’ tables in the medical temple. I argue that we should embrace the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda and try to convince our medical leaders to work for major changes in our dysfunctional health agencies and deteriorating health care system.
RFK Jr has tapped into a strong sense among the public that government health agencies, and the health system at large, have been corrupted by corporate interests that have become increasingly misaligned with the public interest, a fact that was exposed by the disastrous authoritarian covid response.
Centering himself and his delicateness, Dr. Marine expressed outrage not because COVID killed 1.2 million Americans, but rather because “They required us to wear rags over our faces as a condition for entering public places.” I hope Dr. Marine can one day recover from this trauma. RFK Jr. agrees with Dr. Marine about the “disastrous authoritarian covid response” and has openly fantasized about prosecuting people who tried to save lives in 2020. Dr. Marine says doctors should love, not worry about this impending Lysenkoism.
Dr. Marine’s article only mentioned vaccines once. He said:
When zero covid failed, the rationale shifted again to “saving lives” until Big Pharma produced magic vaccines that would “end the pandemic.” When the magic shots failed to end the pandemic and the masks went back on, and the virus surged again, public health leaders decided to vilify and scapegoat the minority of people who chose not to take them and attempted to mandate the shots for nearly everyone, a program that proved to be illegal and unconstitutional.
Dr Marine is right that doctors promised “magic shots”, though he refused to tell his readers that it was Dr. Vinay Prasad, a founder of Sensible Medicine, who claimed that COVID vaccines offered 100% protection against severe disease, that they blocked transmission and would end the pandemic. However showing great concern for the brittle feelings of anti-vaxxers, Dr. Marine expressed outrage at public health leaders who supposedly “vilify and scapegoat the minority of people who chose not to take” COVID vaccines.
In contrast, Dr. Marine showed no concern about people who died because anti-vaxxers like RFK Jr. lied to them about COVID vaccines. Incredibly, Dr. Marine even defended RFK Jr. regarding the “Samoa smear”, saying, “Their measles outbreak had nothing to do with RFK.”
I do not think installing an MMR->autism, AIDS/HIV denialist, C19 ethnic targeting, ivermectin/HCQ for C19 promoting crank is going to improve faith in public health
On social media, honest brokers pushed back against Dr. Marine by sharing crucial facts he deliberately omitted. Dr. Albert Lin said:
Call me naive, but I do not think installing an MMR->autism, AIDS/HIV denialist, C19 ethnic targeting, ivermectin/HCQ for C19 promoting crank is going to improve faith in public health. It will improve beliefs in conspiracies.
It’s hard to argue with that, though Dr. Marine tried. He wasn’t done trying to cover-up reality. He replied to Dr. Lin by saying:
MAHA is more than RFK and has little to do with vaccines. The thesis that corporate interests have captured most elements of the US healthcare system and are failing to improve health is compelling and needs a response from the medical profession. The principles are bipartisan. I expect that both parties will run on these issues in ’26 and ’28.
Imagine writing that- MAHA is more than RFK and has little to do with vaccines. I won’t insult Dr. Marine by pretending he actually believes it. Undermining vaccines has been RFK Jr.’s raison d’être for 20-years. In fact, at the same Dr. Marine wrote that absurd sentence, RFK Jr. was distributing the movie Vaxxed III: Authorized to Kill.
Dr. Marine doesn’t care about that however, and he doesn’t think anyone else should either. Showing pure contempt for his readers, Dr. Marine refused to tell them key information about RFK Jr. He doesn’t trust them enough to tell them the truth. Although RFK Jr. has spread rank quackery and conspiracy theories for decades, enriching himself in the process, in Dr. Marine’s fantasy world, RFK Jr. is a selfless soul who just wants to “work for major changes in our dysfunctional health agencies and deteriorating health care system.” Dr. Marine is so indignant about having to wear a mask in a store for a few months 4 years ago, he is willing to spread blatant propaganda on behalf of America’s #1 anti-vaxxer, even if it means measles, diphtheria, and polio return.
These are frightening times. According to one recent news report, Louisiana Forbids Public Health Workers From Promoting COVID, Flu and Mpox Shots. If RFK Jr. could make this policy for the entire U.S., there’s no doubt he would. Doctors who say RFK Jr. just wants to study vaccines or that his agenda “has little to do with vaccines” are trying to trick people and blind them to the grave threat he poses. RFK Jr. is dangerous above all else, and so doctors deliberately hides his anti-vaxx disinformation are also dangerous.
Unfortunately, this gross revisionism isn’t just happening with RFK Jr. Credentialed academics such as Dr. Leana Wen and Harvard President Alan M. Garber are similarly sanitizing and obscuring the pandemic records of misinformation doctors and Trump nominees Drs. Marty Makary and Jay Bhattacharya. These doctors’ false declarations of herd immunity, pro-infection advocacy, and appalling embrace of RFK Jr. are deliberately covered-up and replaced with a fantasy where they are “a ray of hope” and “a serious and dedicated researcher who has always been well-intentioned.”
I’ve been writing about this a lot recently because I am still hopeful. RFK Jr.’s confirmation is not a sure thing. We should do all we can to educate Senators about the dangers of RFK Jr. while there’s still time, because if Dr. Marine’s revisionist account wins the day, I am confident we will soon find out a tough truth- MAHA is all about RFK and has everything to do with vaccines.
There is no virtue in under reacting to such threats. If I am wrong, and RFK Jr. leaves vaccines alone for the next 4 year, I will happily admit it. If RFK Jr. relentlessly attacks vaccines, will Dr. Marine admit error?
I think we all know the answer.