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Boston Globe

Who runs ‘MAHA'? Inside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s inner circle as health secretary.

At the core of the so-called 'Make America Healthy Again' movement is scrutiny of ingredients in food, agricultural production, and vaccines, as well as a rejection of decades of scientific consensus, sometimes favoring fringe and debunked theories. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here are the key people in Kennedy's orbit leading the charge. Advertisement The inner circle Kennedy's two closest advisers from the MAHA world are Calley Means and Stefanie Spear . Spear, the press secretary for his 2024 presidential campaign, is his deputy chief of staff and senior counselor. She's a longtime environmental activist who joined forces with Kennedy in 2011 to turn her environmental news and activism venture EcoWatch into an online operation. In 2020, she joined Kennedy's antivaccine group, Children's Health Defense, to run its news and activism arm. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder of Waterkeeper Alliance, walked through the Cleveland Rowing Federation boathouse with EcoWatch founder Stefanie Spear before speaking at an event in Cleveland in 2011. AP Photo/Mark Duncan/Associated Press At Health and Human Services, Spear remains his top communications adviser, managing his public appearances. She has, at times, drawn consternation from others in the administration for Advertisement Calley Means is a more recent arrival to Kennedy's orbit, having started working with him roughly a year ago, Means said in an interview last month. In that short time, he has become hugely influential. Means told the Globe he helped connect Kennedy with Trump when Kennedy's independent presidential campaign sputtered. Means is a health and wellness influencer and entrepreneur who runs a company that allows people to get letters of medical necessity to use their pre-tax health savings accounts to buy fitness and nutrition products from his company's partners. He is also the brother of surgeon general nominee Casey Means. He is a vociferous critic of sugar and processed foods, as well as the food industry, and has been a Means is serving the administration as a special government employee, an arrangement that allows him to bypass some ethics requirements for administration officials and maintain his ties to his business ventures. He is one of the most visible members of MAHA, appearing regularly in the press and at events organized by outside groups supportive of Kennedy. Means and his sister, however, have The outside influencers MAHA has its roots in social media and podcasts, where a coterie of health and wellness influencers have reached Americans with a broad cross-section of political views. Some are former Democrats, and many lean on their experience as parents to land their message. Advertisement The Free Press' Honestly with Bari Weiss hosts Jillian Michaels, Vani Hari, and Calley Means on January 19 in Washington, X and The Free Press host Inauguration Eve Vani Hari , known online as 'the Food Babe,' has earned millions of social media followers after Jessica Reed Kraus is a self-described 'mommy blogger' with a strong online social following. She built her media presence largely by purveying in celebrity gossip and conspiracy theories, but during COVID, she publicly opposed health mandates and later gained special access to cover the Kennedy campaign and Trump world, according Alex Clark is an online influencer The deputies The government's key health positions have been staffed with Kennedy allies or fellow ideological travelers. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, is flanked by, from left, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Markary; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; President Trump; and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as he spoke in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, May 12, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya joined Kennedy in the world of COVID contrarianism, authoring a declaration from a group of scientists challenging mainstream public health views during the pandemic. Formerly a Stanford professor and physician-economist, Bhattacharya is overseeing efforts to overhaul how government scientific research funding is distributed, halting billions to traditional research with stated goals of investing in understanding the causes of disease rather than treatment. Advertisement Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin A. Makary is one of the longer-standing supporters of MAHA, having testified in Congress last year at a roundtable on the topic. Formerly a liver and pancreatic surgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, Makary is an author who has criticized traditional medicine's dogmas and was also a COVID-era contrarian. Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer, left, and journalist Megyn Kelly attended a confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the Secretary of Health and Human Services post at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 29. Ben Curtis/Associated Press Casey Means , the sister of Calley Means, has been nominated to serve as surgeon general. She is a wellness author, influencer, and entrepreneur who has advocated a The outside support Some of Kennedy's staff and allies from his presidential campaign have transitioned to boosting his administration's agenda. Del Bigtree, founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, during an antivaccine rally outside the New York State Capitol in Albany in 2019. DESIREE RIOS/NYT Del Bigtree , a longtime antivaccine activist and filmmaker who served as communications director for Kennedy's campaign, took over as CEO for one of the outside big money groups that backed Kennedy's presidential bid, rebranded as MAHA Action. Bigtree was a constant presence at Kennedy's confirmation hearings, and the group coordinated press coverage of Kennedy's appearances as it produced glossy MAHA promotional content. Before his confirmation, Kennedy transferred ownership of the MAHA trademark to Bigtree. Bigtree, however, recently left the group, Advertisement Separately, publisher Tony Lyons and tech and finance millionaire Mark Gorton recently launched the MAHA Institute, a rebranded version of the dark money group they co-led alongside a political action committee that financially backed Kennedy's presidential bid. Lyons runs Skyhorse Publishing, a The launch of the MAHA Institute earlier this month The Hill ally Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's choice to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as he testified before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 29. Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press Kennedy has picked up a number of supporters on Capitol Hill who have taken up his MAHA brand or who share his skepticism of vaccines, but Senator Ron Johnson , Republican of Wisconsin, is arguably his most stalwart ally on the Hill. Last September, not long after Kennedy endorsed Trump and debuted his MAHA message riffing off of Trump's 'Make America Great Again' slogan, Johnson Tal Kopan can be reached at