Does RFK Jr.’s HHS Have a Vested Interest in the Wellness Industry?

On July 14, Stephanie Armour reported for KFF Health News that the Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) notables have financial ties to the extensive and mostly unregulated $6.3 trillion global wellness industry.

While Kennedy criticizes federal agencies that he claims are overly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, Armour wrote, RFK Jr. and some other figures of the MAHA movement—such as siblings Calley and Casey Means, Robert Malone, and Peter McCullough—have financial ties to the wellness industry, which they also support and promote.

“Kennedy and those four advisers — three of whom have been tapped for official government roles — earned at least $3.2 million in fees and salaries from their work opposing Big Pharma and promoting wellness in 2022 and 2023, according to a KFF Health News review of financial disclosure forms filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Department of Health and Human Services; published media reports; and tax forms filed with the IRS,” Armour explained. Notably, she said, “The total doesn’t include revenue from speaking fees, the sale of wellness products, or other income sources for which data isn’t publicly available.”

“Some public health leaders and ethicists say the financial ties raise red flags, with the potential for personal profits to shape decision-making at the highest levels of federal health agencies.” “Critics, including health policy leaders and physicians, say they worry the revamped HHS and its agencies are now harming public health. For example, they point to a recent Kennedy decision to remove and replace all the members of a vaccine advisory group,” Armour reported.

Furthermore, she wrote, “McCullough, a former cardiac doctor who has financial ties to the wellness industry, has been part of Kennedy’s circle of informal advisers, according to people close to the secretary. He also has enough sway with some GOP lawmakers that they’ve had him testify before Congress.”