The moment wasn’t lost on Tony Lyons, president of MAHA PAC, which supported Cassidy’s chief rival, Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow.

“This is a powerful indication that MAHA is a gift to the Republican Party,” Lyons told The MAHA Report on Sunday. “Candidates who accept that gift will be rewarded in the midterms. Senator Cassidy defended Big Pharma and the broken medical establishment against the health and welfare of American families. Voters across the country are joining the MAHA rebellion because they are fed up with the corruption that allowed companies to poison their children. They just won’t accept it anymore.”

MAHA PAC supported Letlow with significant financial backing and grassroots mobilizing.

“We worked very hard to ensure that Julia Letlow dominated the primary,” Lyons said. “In addition to spending $750,000 of the $1,000,000 total pledged, we encouraged thousands of MAHA influencers to support Letlow on their platforms. This group of MAHA influencers represents more than 200,000,000 followers.”

MAHA PAC also produced many effective short video ads, texts and mailers — among them, some against Cassidy and others pro-Letlow.

Cassidy is the senator who held up the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, forcing him to commit to giving Cassidy unprecedented say over hiring and policymaking in the agency. Cassidy also firebombed Kennedy’s pick for CDC director, Dave Weldon, and his pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means. And he held up hearings at which he knew Kennedy would be attacked by former CDC employees, while initially denying the secretary an opportunity to testify in his own defense.

Cassidy also fought against Kennedy’s plan to reduce the high number of childhood vaccines. Despite Kennedy and others like Aaron Siri presenting strong evidence that many of the vaccines on the CDC schedule of recommended childhood vaccination carry serious risks of harm and even death, Cassidy, a physician, continued to insist that they are perfectly safe.

“Regarding vaccines, Mr. Kennedy has been insistent that he just wants good science and to ensure safety,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor before voting to confirm Kennedy as Secretary of HHS in February of 2025. “But on this topic, the science is good. The science is credible. Vaccines save lives. They are safe. They do not cause autism. There are multiple studies that show this. They are a crucial part of our nation’s public health response.”

In Louisiana on Saturday, Cassidy’s political career came to a sudden end as he was defeated in the Republican primary, coming in third after Rep. Julia Letlow – now a congresswoman representing Louisiana’s 5^th Congressional District who was endorsed by President Trump – and John Fleming, the Louisiana state treasurer who served in the first Trump administration, at HHS, and then at the White House as an assistant to the president.

Trump endorsed Letlow even before she announced she would challenge Cassidy, writing on Truth Social in January: “I know Julia well, have seen her tested at the highest and most difficult level and she is a total winner. Should she decide to enter this race, Julia Letlow has my complete and total endorsement, run Julia, run.”

Cassidy is the first sitting U.S. Senator to be defeated in a primary since 2012, when longtime Indiana Senator Richard Lugar was defeated by state treasurer Richard Mourdock.

Letlow was the clear leader on Saturday, winning 45 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for Fleming and 25 percent for Cassidy – a paltry showing for a two-term United States Senator.

The two highest vote getters – Letlow and Fleming – will now face off in a June 27 runoff, with the winner facing the Democratic nominee in November.

Aaron Siri, writing on X, noted that Cassidy’s loss comes two years after another U.S. senator faced a tough re-election battle for the opposite reason. In 2021, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin broke away from the pack and held his own hearings in rooms in the Senate office buildings to give a voice to people who’d been injured by the Covid-19 vaccine. These were non-official hearings that he and his staff live-streamed and to which he invited his Senate colleagues. None came. Johnson alone among U.S. senators listened to the stories of the vaccine-injured and worked to hold the CDC and FDA accountable for failing to warn the American public of the possibility of side effects from the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna. When he ran for re-election to the Senate in 2024, powerful interest groups poured millions into the race to try to bring him down. It didn’t work.

“So, Senator Ron Johnson bravely and vigorously supported medical liberty, the vaccine injured, and vaccine safety (which the media said would tank his reelection campaign) yet he won his reelection bid, while U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy did the opposite (which the media widely hailed, praised, and supported) yet he didn’t even win his primary. A lesson for all elected officials,” wrote Siri in a post on X on Sunday.

Cassidy, who was running for election to a third term, far outspent his rivals.

Federal Election Commission records show he had $8,650,205 in contributions as of April 26, and total receipts of more than $13 million. Letlow had far less – just $795,696 in contributions and $4.4 million in total receipts.

Cassidy had significant backing from the pharmaceutical industry, including contributions from political action committees connected to Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, Abbott Laboratories, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Takeda and Glaxo Smith Kline. Contributors also included the National Community Pharmacists Association PAC, the National Confectioners Association of the United States Inc. (known as CANDY PAC), the Health Industry Distributors Association PAC, and the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding PAC.

FEC records also show a $1,000 contribution from Stanley Plotkin, known as the “godfather of vaccines” and who has become infamous after admitting under oath in a deposition with attorney Siri that dozens of infants were killed to develop vaccines and that participants in many of the vaccine safety trials he supervised were only followed for a few days or a few weeks, too short a time for any participant to be diagnosed with a chronic disease like autism or asthma.

Why else did Cassidy lose? Certainly not just because of President Trump’s endorsement of Letlow, as medical freedom activist Sayer Ji points out in a Substack post on Sunday.

“MAHA was not acting as Trump’s instrument,” he writes. “It was acting on its own political logic – the logic of a movement that watches who chairs one-sided hearings against the official they sent to Washington to reform captured health agencies, and responds accordingly.” Cassidy will continue to serve in the U.S. Senate until next January, when his Senate term expires. It’s not known, however, whether he will continue to serve as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or whether another chairman will be appointed.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, also a physician and the chairman of the new MAHA Caucus in the U.S. Senate, may be next in line for the job.

Marshall gave one of the strongest endorsements of Kennedy during his confirmation hearings in January of 2025, telling him he is “the” person for the job and that God has a divine purpose for him as Secretary of HHS.

Stay on top of all the latest news from the world of MAHA: check out Caitlin Sinclair’s MAHA Minute every Friday across MAHA Action’s social media channels.

MAHA Wins Big for Moms

President Trump and Secretary Kennedy launched moms.gov, a comprehensive new website offering resources for pregnant women, mothers, and those trying to conceive, including information on IVF, prenatal and postnatal care, nutrition, and baby formula. Kennedy hailed the initiative as a major victory for the MAHA movement and the pro-life cause, describing it as a “one-stop shop” for maternal and family health needs.

And there’s more: As The MAHA Report contributor Amy Sapola writes, “During a White House Maternal Healthcare Event, hosted by President Donald Trump alongside HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and senior administration officials, the president also unveiled a proposed rule to expand access to fertility benefits, including IVF, through employer-sponsored insurance plans.”

CIA Whistleblower Vindicates MAHA on Fauci

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified under oath before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee that Dr. Anthony Fauci deliberately manipulated the intelligence community’s assessment of the origin of Covid-19. He alleged Fauci restricted input to scientists funded by his NIAID, many involved in gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, suppressing the lab-leak theory in favor of a natural zoonotic origin narrative.

The hearing, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul with no Democratic senators present, highlighted how funding compromised scientific judgments and enabled a broader cover-up of U.S.-funded research in China. Senators also connected it to earlier revelations of suppressed vaccine injury data, calling for accountability to prevent future scandals that contributed to millions of deaths and eroded public trust.

Whole Milk Back in Schools

The USDA issued a final rule implementing President Trump’s Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, restoring whole and 2% milk options in the School Lunch Program and the other Child Nutrition Programs, including the School Breakfast Program and the Summer Food Service Program. The change supports better childhood nutrition with nutrient-dense dairy as outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030.

President Trump Slams Vaccine Mandates & Overmedicalization

During an interview on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, President Trump offered his view on vaccine mandates and the propensity to over-vaccinate children – part of a wider problem of overmedicalization that Secretary Kennedy has pledged to end.

“I believe in vaccines,” said Trump, “but I don’t believe that, you know, you have to have a mandate for all of them. The polio vaccine’s amazing. It’s, you know, wiped it out. And I believe in vaccines, but you know, I think we’re up to 88 vaccines. And I really feel that if vaccines… they were given in smaller quantities… I would love to see much smaller shots, like four visits to the doctor. And I think you would have a much better result with the autism.”

Improvements on Food Safety Regulations and Reporting

Secretary Kennedy announced a new review process for food safety. “The FDA will, for the first time, continuously review chemicals already in our food—replacing a decades-old system with continuous oversight for the first time,” he said. “We will evaluate the science on an ongoing basis. We’ll identify risks earlier, and we’ll act when necessary to protect the public health. We’ll make our findings public. The American people have a right to see the data, and understand the decisions and hold us accountable.”

Vice President Vance & Dr. Oz United to End Medicaid Fraud

Vice President J.D. Vance and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a nationwide effort to combat fraud in the Medicaid system. “Today, we are sending letters across 50 Medicaid programs that will require them to show that they are effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states – and, if they do not, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units,” the vice president said.

ACF Launches $7 Million “A Home for Every Child” Innovation Challenge

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has launched the $7 million A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge. Beginning in October, the performance-based competition will incentivize state child welfare agencies by awarding prizes for the best foster homes-to-children ratio and the greatest improvement over one year. The initiative underscores ACF’s commitment to reaching a nationwide 1:1 ratio of available foster homes to children in foster care.

The two-day event, which ran May 1 and 2 and was co-produced by Acres, USA, brought together farmers, ranchers, federal and state-based policy makers –and even tech and venture capital firms. Their shared goal? To find a better solution for one of the cornerstone issues of the MAHA movement – healthy food.

Complete with beef tallow fries, local brews, and even an appearance by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conference celebrated “land, liberty, food, and the future of America.” It also laid out a vision of the future for American farmers – one that is free from a past filled with chemical inputs and dependence on government subsidies in hopes of leaving a better future for those that follow.

Rick Clark is a farmer who hopes to pass down a healthier America to his children and grandchildren. A fifth-generation farmer from Warren County, Indiana, with a family history of chronic disease, Clark is best known for pioneering farming practices that cultivate environmental stewardship without sacrificing profit.

Indeed, much of the commentary during the weekend was aimed at convincing farmers that yield should not drive farming practices, and that profitability is key. “Diversification drives the system,” said Clark, adding that he will “sacrifice yield to maintain soil health.”

Kennedy’s appearance on Saturday emphasized a key MAHA principle: Healthy food is the foundation of healthy Americans. But there is no healthy food without healthy soil. Decades of reliance on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, beginning in the post WWII era, have altered soil from a living ecosystem into something closer to an input‑dependent substrate. While generations of exploitative practices have contributed to the damage, these synthetic inputs have accelerated collapse in the soil microbiome, a decline in organic matter, increased erosion and topsoil loss, and reduced nutrient density and plant resiliency. Regenerative agriculture aims to heal the soil, and in turn heal our bodies.

The “food as medicine” theme reverberated throughout the weekend with talks from prominent doctors and activists connecting the dots between soil and human health. Dr. Ben Edwards, founder of Veritas Medical in Belton, Texas, discussed his path from “traditional” clinician to a doctor who began practicing functional medicine in 2012 in order to address root causes of chronic disease.

“Until we get back to nutrient-rich food, which means healthy soils, which is what regenerative ag is focused on, we won’t see reversal of this chronic disease epidemic,” Edwards told a captivated audience.

Erin Martin, founder of FreshRx Oklahoma, a produce prescription program treating chronic disease, spoke to the critical need to restore depleted soils through regenerative agriculture, arguing that healthier soils produce more nutrient-dense food, which can help reduce chronic disease, lower healthcare costs, and strengthen local farming economies.

And not for nothing, the food at Sovereignty Ranch was on point. Attendees were treated to beef and pork raised on the farm, gluten free options, fresh milk, Agua frescas, beef tallow fries, and sumptuous desserts. I took a particular liking to the sourdough chocolate chip cookies. Also on hand: An amazing charcuterie board for nibbles at a fireside chat with Nate Sheets, nominee for Texas agriculture commissioner. In brief, the crowd remained well fed throughout the two-day event.

What’s more, a live butcher demonstration educated guests on how to use a pig “nose-to-tail” and break down an animal with precision and respect.

While Secretary Kennedy did more listening than talking, in one of the last panels of the weekend, he shared his perspective on the interconnection of the land and the people who live and depend on it.

“We are destroying biodiversity, and in doing so, we are destroying something spiritually essential,” he said. “This is a spiritual battle.We are in a conflict between systems of darkness—ignorance and greed—and systems that seek light and regeneration.”

Kennedy encouraged everyone in the room to be the light that will guide change and renewal. He also assured the crowd that he would do all he could to ensure that soil becomes “the central focus of all of our public health discussions.”

“The quality and health of the microbiome in our body is absolutely dependent on the microbiomes of the soils from which our food is derived,” Kennedy said. “When the microbiome is not healthy, it is not producing the micronutrients required for brain function, physical growth, and bone growth.”

Secretary Kennedy showed a keen interest in the innovation and technology driving change in regenerative agriculture. Before he left he attended a demonstration by Greenfield Robotics, an autonomous robot that targets and cuts weeds with minimal disturbance to the soil.

Kennedy also watched a rainfall simulator by Grassroots Carbon and Gary Stevens of Wildlife Habitat Federation. The demonstration emphasized the difference between tilled soil, where water erodes the land and creates polluted run-off, and covered, untilled soil that can absorb water and produce clean run-off.

Finally, Morales Feed showed Secretary Kennedy a no-till drill that cuts precision holes to plant a seed and returns soil to cover the opening. It is a low intrusive way to mechanically plant seed in the soil with minimal disturbance to soil integrity.

Mollie Engelhart, co-founder of Sovereignty Ranch and head chef of its on-site restaurant, said in her closing remarks: “In a world overflowing with influencers and thought leaders, I’m deeply honored to have spent this weekend at Sovereignty Ranch surrounded by builders. Men and women willing to take risks, step out onto the skinny branches, and do the hard physical work of creating a future for my children and yours.”

Her statement summed up a sentiment I think many shared – that while farming dedicated to harmony with the natural world is hard work and demands sacrifice, the love and joy found in communion with those striving for a sustainable and bountiful future is what humans are made for – even if that future is unknown.

For Ryland Engelhart, Mollie’s brother and the co-founder of Sovereignty Ranch, the event was a dream come true.

“To bring so many amazing people together for the purpose of healing soil, farms and ranches, and the foundation of our food system is very inspiring,” he told me. “Sovereignty Ranch is literally our field of dreams.”

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Whole milk is officially back as an option in America’s school nutrition programs, signaling a MAHA-style shift away from outdated low-fat dogma and back toward real, nutrient-dense food for children.

On May 8, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that USDA has issued the final rule implementing the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, restoring whole and 2% milk options in federal Child Nutrition Programs for children and adults ages 2 and older.

“President Trump promised to Make America Healthy Again, and restoring whole milk to schools is a major step toward delivering on that promise,” Rollins said.

She continued, “For years, outdated federal rules kept nutritious whole milk off school menus, despite growing evidence showing the importance of healthy fats and nutrient-dense foods for child development. USDA is proud to implement the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act and give schools the flexibility to serve real, wholesome milk options that help children grow, learn, and thrive.”

President Trump signed the act into law on January 14, 2026. Now, USDA’s final rule puts that policy into practice across school and child nutrition programs nationwide.

The rule does not require every school to carry whole milk. Instead, it allows schools and child nutrition providers to offer whole and 2% milk again as part of federal Child Nutrition Programs.

“This bipartisan solution to school meals alongside the newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans reinforces what families already know: nutrient dense foods like whole milk are an important part of a healthy diet,” said Rollins.

A New Direction for School Nutrition

For decades, federal school lunch rules limited children to low-fat milk options, based on outdated research and medical dogma that treated dairy fat as a threat. At the same time, school cafeterias continued serving refined grains, added sugars, seed oils, and ultra-processed foods — the same dietary offerings that have fueled America’s childhood chronic disease crisis.

The whole milk rule begins to correct that imbalance. It is also one of the first practical signs of a broader nutrition reset taking shape under HHS Secretary Kennedy and Rollins. Earlier this year, the administration released the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which reintroduced full-fat dairy as part of a healthy diet. Now, with USDA’s final rule, that shift will begin to reach children in the school cafeteria.

Why This Matters for Children

Children are growing, learning, moving, and developing at a rapid pace. Their brains, bones, muscles, hormones, and immune systems all require real nourishment, including protein, minerals, fat-soluble vitamins, and healthy fats.

Whole milk dairy products provide protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins A, D, and B12. They also provide zinc, selenium, iodine, niacin, and pantothenic acid, all essential nutrients for growing children’s bodies and brains. Whole milk is especially important for young children ages 1 to 10 because of its role in supporting energy needs, brain, and nerve development.

For years, American families were told that the naturally occurring saturated fat in foods like milk increased disease risk. But as low-fat and fat-free products became standard in schools, children’s health worsened. Childhood obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease, ADHD, and other chronic conditions continued to rise. Whole milk’s return will not solve the childhood health crisis by itself, but it does represent a meaningful step in the right direction.

A Win for Farmers and Families

The rule also matters for America’s dairy farmers, who have long argued that school milk restrictions reduced demand for foundational farm products and weakened the connection between children, schools, and agricultural food.

Dairy farms remain an important part of rural America, and school milk programs have historically served as a bridge between local food production and children’s nutrition. By restoring whole and 2% milk options, USDA is supporting both children and the farmers who produce one of America’s most familiar traditional foods.

USDA says it is also continuing the multi-year process of updating school meal standards based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In the meantime, the department says it is taking immediate action to increase access to real, nutrient-rich foods in schools and child nutrition settings, including local beef and locally grown foods.

For MAHA, the significance is real. The school cafeteria is where federal nutrition policy becomes part of a child’s daily life, and restoring whole milk as an option is one step toward bringing real food back to the center of that daily routine.

While the return of whole milk may not transform school nutrition overnight, but it marks a clear shift in federal food policy for children. After years of restricting healthy fats in school meals, USDA is now giving schools more flexibility to serve more nutrient dense food options that support children’s growth and strengthen the connection between families, schools, and American farmers.

The final rule does not force schools to serve whole milk, but it reopens the door after years of federal restrictions. For MAHA, that is the point: giving schools the freedom to put real food back within reach of children.

As Secretary Rollins stated, whole milk is “the right move for kids, for parents, and for America’s dairy farmers.”

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This was a blockbuster hearing, which much the American public needs to hear, but not one Senator from the Democratic Party attended.

“Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional,” Erdman told the committee, adding that Fauci had corrupted the intelligence community’s assessment of Covid origins by ensuring that the CIA and the other intelligence agencies only consulted with his list of area experts, public health officials and scientists.

Erdman noted that over the years these experts had received millions of dollars in funding from Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and they were therefore indebted to Fauci for their careers. He described a research ecosystem where virologists and vaccinologists, many of whom were engaged in gain-of-function research (GoF), were well paid by Fauci.

Relationships with scientists in China also compromised the ability of Americans to provide accurate assessments of what may have transpired.

According to Erdman, a 20-year veteran of the CIA, American friendships with Chinese scientists around GoF research developed to the point where Chinese scientists had “infiltrated” the scientific community.

Wednesday’s hearing, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (R-KY), exposed the corrupt and dangerous nature of GoF and how the money Fauci quietly pumped into it altered the judgement of scientists. Fauci’s power stemmed from the purse he controlled. If Fauci’s experts stated what they believed privately (as we now know from emails) – that the pandemic was a result of a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) – their funding would have been put in jeopardy.

Did Fauci ever inform intelligence analysts that his agency funded GoF research at the Wuhan lab? Not likely.’

Erdman stated that the majority of people working in the intelligence community are honest patriots who want the best for America.

But the CIA was not happy with Senator Paul for subpoenaing Erdman. Liz Lyons, CIA Director of Public Affairs, stated that the committee acted in “bad faith” and described the hearing as“political theatre.” Lyons added, “As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”

While the CIA currently agrees that the pandemic started as a lab leak, that was not what the agency promoted in 2021.

Senator Johnson called on CIA Director John Radcliff to apologize for the agency’s characterization of the hearing and stated, “This is not political theatre. This is serious oversight work.”

Under the Biden administration, Fauci was at the height of his power. Scientists knew what they had to tell intelligence analysts.

In 2021, scientists employed by the CIA determined that the virus most likely ‘leaked’ from the WIV, and filed a report with their superiors documenting how they reached that conclusion. However, the CIA’s upper management pushed back. They issued a statement declaring that the virus had a zoonotic origin – in other words, it came from animals. That was to be the official narrative.

The Biden administration endorsed the zoonotic origin theory even when the intelligence community, as well as the medical community, knew it to be false. The legacy media trumpeted this narrative as fact, in many cases unwittingly championing mass censorship of Americans from questioning their government and thereby exercising their Constitutional right to free speech. Most legacy media continue to propose the natural origins theory or ignore the question of Covid’s origin entirely. In 2021, with Covid vaccines being distributed and eventually mandated, the false claim regarding Covid’s origins influenced public acceptance of Biden administration pandemic policies.

In his testimony, Erdman noted that within the intelligence community there was concern that the public’s perception of government pandemic policies – from masking, social distancing to vaccination - would turn if they knew the truth: That U.S. government funding led to the creation of the Covid virus.

During the hearing, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) asked, “Who runs the deep state?” and called for a special committee to examine it. Johnson noted that, as chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he’d uncovered emails where Dr. Peter Marks, then director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), who was responsible for ensuring vaccine safety, covered up 21,000 Covid-19 vaccine injuries early in 2021.

Johnson also asked why Marks, Fauci, and the Biden administration failed to warn the public and why the mainstream media still isn’t covering it.

But there’s more.

Wednesday’s hearing, and a recent hearing on the Biden administration’s role in covering up information about vaccine risks, paints a devastating picture of Fauci’s role in a coverup that could reasonably be called the biggest scandal of the century.

In April, Senator Johnson chaired a hearing titled, “Unmasked: How Biden Health Officials Purposely Turned a Blind Eye Toward COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Signals,” held before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Senators were told that as early as March 2021, during the second full month of the Biden administration, that officials were aware mRNA Covid shots had resulted in sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, pulmonary infarction, acute myocardial infarction, embolism/thrombosis, dementia, and increased mortality signals. At the time, Fauci led NIAID while also serving as chief medical advisor to the president.

Wednesday’s hearing, seen through the context of April’s hearing, suggests that Fauci was both aware of U.S. tax dollars funding systemically unsafe and inefficacious GoF research in China and that he was the ringleader of a coverup of the true origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid.

Moreover, when the Biden administration mandated experimental mRNA vaccines, Fauci lied not only about their efficacy, but also about their potentially deadly side effects. And a growing body of evidence reveals that Fauci also lied about masks preventing Covid and vaccines preventing transmission.

At its core, Wednesday’s hearing was about crimes of the Covid era that ultimately resulted in the deaths of millions. One refrain rang throughout: Fauci knew how to game the system. By controlling the money and ‘the experts,’ Fauci would get the results he wanted.

Why was this hearing necessary? As Senator Paul explained: “If we don’t expose this, it will happen again.”

This directive comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and can be considered a major win for MAHA – and for the FDA, which for years has been trying to rein in widespread SNAP fraud.

Retailers who accept SNAP benefits have until November 4 to comply with the new stocking standards. The change will be most noticeable at small stores.

“No more bare-minimum stocking or loopholes that let junk snacks count as ‘staple foods,’” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in a post on X on Thursday, May 7, adding that the change more than doubles the requirements to stock fresh food for stores accepting SNAP, also called food stamps.

“Under the old rule, the 240,000 retailers who accepted the food stamp, they had to stock 12 or more, quote, nutritious food [items] – real food. Well, today, we’re more than doubling that to 28,” Rollins said on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business. “But we’re also closing the loophole. So, Maria, before today you could stock jelly as a fruit and jerky as a real protein. All that changes today.”

Jelly is not fruit

Everyone who’s been in a Dollar General store or a Dollar Tree has probably seen that they accept SNAP benefits, allowing people who have EBT cards to use them to pay for any food they choose. But they may also have also noticed that the majority of such stores do not have fresh produce – only canned and boxed foods; and in coolers, milk and some packaged meat and cheese. Jelly was their “fruit” to qualify as a SNAP retailer.

Now retailers most likely have to stock real fruit and vegetables as the new USDA regulation requires perishable items in three of the four staple food categories.

SNAP, also referred to as the Food Stamp program, doled out a stunning $95 billion last year to reimburse stores for SNAP purchases – more than $260 million a day, on average. The retailers include Wal-Mart and other superstores, grocery stores, many convenience stores and dollar stores – and, in larger cities, bodegas.

As of January, almost 21 million American households were using SNAP benefits, down from almost 23 million in January 2025.

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that in some grocery stores in America, half of all shoppers are using SNAP benefits to buy their food, via an EBT card.

The list of things that can’t be purchased with SNAP benefits is relatively short: beer, wine and liquor; cigarettes and tobacco; vitamins and supplements; any hot food; and live animals, with the exception of shellfish that have been removed from the water.

What can be purchased with SNAP is about everything else that can be consumed, including: soda (in most states), candy (in most states), cookies, donuts, potato chips, filet mignon, oysters, crab legs, custom-made bakery cakes, ice cream, and party packs of snacks.

A total of 22 states have now been granted waivers by the USDA to prohibit purchases of soda and candy using SNAP benefits. But even these prohibitions are relatively soft. Florida, for example, just banned SNAP use for soda, energy drinks, candy and “ultra-processed prepared desserts” like Twinkies and Oreos. But SNAP can still be used to buy Gatorade, Pop Tarts, and Marshmallows.

The new SNAP regulation requiring the stocking of more fresh food comes in the wake of the defeat of an amendment to the U.S. Farm Bill that would have banned all purchases of soda using SNAP, nationwide. The amendment was introduced by Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) but was defeated by a vote of 238-186, with 55 Republicans joining 183 Democrats in opposition, demonstrating the power of lobbying groups like the National Beverage Association, which represents both Coca-Cola and Pepsico.

In 2025, at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the story of soda industry lobbyists pressuring USDA Secretary Rollins to allow SNAP to continue to be used to buy soda.

“She pointed out to them that there is no nutrition in a soda,” Kennedy told President Trump. “And they said, ‘Well, it’s not supposed to be about nutrition.’ And she said to them, ‘The name of the program is the Supplemental NUTRITION Assistance Program.’”

That got a big laugh from other Cabinet members and even members of the media who were attending the event (Allowing SNAP benefits to be used to buy soda seems silly to most Americans as it’s at odds with the stated reason for the program: to provide Americans with nutritional foods).

The first Food Stamp program in America began in 1939, during the Great Depression, as a way to use farm surpluses to feed hungry people. While it still does serve as a lifeline for the elderly and the disabled, and many other Americans who don’t earn enough to be able to cover the cost of basic groceries, it’s also being used by people who could pay, but would rather not pay, for their own food – preferring to buy a lot of things that do not qualify as nutrition.

About 10 percent of SNAP benefits are spent on purchases of soda, according to a 2016 government study, making soda the No. 1 most popular item purchased with SNAP benefits.

“We have 38 percent of our kids [who] are diabetic or pre-diabetic,” Kennedy said at that Cabinet meeting in the summer of 2025, “And we are paying on both ends. We are paying for the food – the food-like substances that make them diabetic – and then we’re spending a trillion dollars a year on metabolic dysfunction. It’s existential and it’s not sustainable.”

Dollar General is now one of the largest retailers in America with more than 20,800 stores as of March. Eighty percent of these stores serve communities with populations of 20,000 or under – many of them lacking a real grocery store. All of them accept SNAP. About 7,000 of the stores now have fresh produce, twice as many as five years ago. But the remaining 13,000 sell no fruits or vegetables, consigning regular shoppers to finding a way to make dinner using only canned and boxed foods, or choose from among the limited items in coolers and freezers.

The new stocking standards for SNAP retailers are meant to ensure a broader variety of nutritious food is available to Americans who use SNAP benefits to buy their groceries.

“To turn the tide on our nation’s health crisis, we need to ensure our nutrition assistance programs emphasize real food first, and that’s exactly what these updates to retailer requirements will do,” Rollins said in the USDA press release announcing the change.

This week’s conversation focuses on autism, including profound autism, especially on autistic people who do not use spoken language and instead communicate through supported methods such as letter boards and keyboards.

Guests will also discuss policy and systemic barriers that can limit access to communication supports and services, and the importance of expanding equitable access for autistic individuals with complex communication needs.

The discussion will include the experiences of families, medical professionals, and autistic individuals, highlighting dignity, support, and quality of life across the spectrum.

This week’s program features MAHA Action president and host, Tony Lyons; pediatric neurologist, Dr. John Gaitanis; chiropractor, Dr. Tony Ebel; co-founder of Spellers Method and author of The Spellers Guidebook, Dawnmarie Gaivin; co-author of Underestimated, JB Handley; co-author of Underestimated, Jamie Handley; founder of Communication and Disability Empowerment, and Sigma2chi, Caden Larson; author of forthcoming memoir, My Life on This Planet, Lina Hjalmarsson Lyons; CEO of Children’s Health Defense, Mary Holland; Executive Director of Communication 4 ALL, Elizabeth Bonker; functional medicine practitioner, Dr. Daniel Pompa; and author of Already Whole, Finding Lina, and Beyond Autism, Helena Hjalmarsson.

To attend our media hub, simply click the free registration link here.

All Media Hub events are open to the public and the press.

We hope to see you Wednesday at 4pm Eastern.

At the center of the announcement was the launch of Moms.gov, a new federal website designed to support women with information on pregnancy, nutrition, breastfeeding, mental health, fertility resources, and more.

On Monday, the administration added to its weekend announcement. During the White House Maternal Healthcare Event, hosted by President Donald Trump alongside HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and senior administration officials, the president unveiled a proposed rule to expand access to fertility benefits, including IVF, through employer-sponsored insurance plans.

“We’re taking historic action to help American families have healthy babies, healthy mothers, and a healthy future,” the president said.

Together, the announcements reflect a broader MAHA strategy that increasingly views maternal health, fertility, nutrition, metabolic health, and chronic disease prevention as inseparable.

A New Federal Focus on Maternal Health

For decades, maternal health conversations in the United States have focused primarily on labor and delivery. But federal officials are now framing maternal health much more broadly, emphasizing the health of women before conception, during pregnancy, and throughout the postpartum period.

In an official release on Sunday, Mother’s Day, HHS Secretary Kennedy states, “This Mother’s Day, the Trump Administration is strengthening its commitment to America’s families by equipping mothers and fathers with the resources and information they need to build healthy, prosperous lives.”

He continues, “Moms.gov delivers critical tools and support to help parents foster healthy pregnancies, strengthen young families, and create brighter futures for their children. This is how you Make America Healthy Again.”

The administration says the goal is to create a single, easy-to-navigate federal resource for women and families.

Why This Matters for Women

At Monday’s White House Maternal Healthcare Event, administration officials emphasized that maternal health begins long before the baby is born and is shaped by the overall health of women before conception.

“On Mother’s Day, we recognize that the health of mothers and the health of women are deeply connected,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health, Dorothy Fink, MD. “Through our Perinatal Improvement Collaborative, we have reduced maternal mortality by 41.5%. We remain committed to supporting women’s health throughout motherhood and at every stage of life.”

The message marked a notable shift away from viewing pregnancy as a short-term medical event and toward a broader understanding of women’s health.“For decades, we have treated pregnancy as an isolated medical event instead of looking at the overall health of women before conception, during pregnancy, and after birth,” Kennedy said during Monday’s event.

“The chronic disease epidemic is directly connected to the fertility crisis we are now seeing across America,” he continued, adding that, “We need to start addressing the root causes affecting maternal and infant health, including nutrition, metabolic health, environmental exposures, and chronic stress.”

For millions of American women, the message resonates and adds to a growing national conversation about the reality that women’s health does not begin at pregnancy or end after childbirth. The health of each generation of women helps shape the health trajectory of the next, influencing fertility, pregnancy outcomes, childhood development, and long-term health for generations to come.

The Biggest Policy Announcement: Fertility Benefits Expansion

“American families are the foundation of our country, and we’re going to support them like never before.” – President Trump

The administration announced a proposed Labor Department rule that would create a new insurance category for fertility benefits, similar to how dental and vision insurance currently operate.

Under the proposal, employers could voluntarily offer stand-alone fertility coverage without triggering certain Affordable Care Act insurance requirements that can increase costs for businesses.

Administration officials argue that reducing regulatory barriers could encourage more employers to offer fertility benefits to workers.

The proposed fertility coverage could include:

• Infertility diagnosis

• Infertility treatment

• IVF-related services

• Reproductive health conditions tied to fertility

The administration said lifetime fertility benefits would be capped at $120,000 per participant or family, with inflation adjustments beginning in 2029.

For many American families, this could be highly significant. A single IVF cycle can cost tens of thousands of dollars once medications and procedures are included, and many couples require multiple cycles.

Importantly, however, the proposal does not mandate fertility coverage nationwide.

What Still Needs to Happen

For women hoping for immediate changes to their insurance coverage, unfortunately, it is more complicated than that.

The proposal must still move through the federal rulemaking process before any changes can take effect.

Once finalized, employers would still need to voluntarily offer fertility benefits, and insurance companies would need to create new plans and set pricing structures.

Still, the proposal marks an important first step toward expanding national conversations around fertility care, maternal health, and family support. For many women and families who have struggled to afford fertility treatments or felt overlooked within the healthcare system, the announcement signals growing federal recognition that reproductive health, maternal health, and long-term family well-being deserve greater attention and investment.

A Brighter Future for American Families

The launch of Moms.gov and the proposed expansion of fertility benefits signal a broader shift in how the Trump administration, HHS, and CMS approach women’s health. The emerging vision is one that treats maternal health not as a short-term medical event, but as a foundational driver of the nation’s long-term health and that of future generations.

Rather than focusing primarily on treatment after complications arise, the administration is now emphasizing earlier support for women before pregnancy, stronger family infrastructure, improved access to fertility care, and a renewed focus on the underlying health factors that shape maternal and infant outcomes.

The broader goal is not simply healthier pregnancies, but healthier mothers, healthier children, and ultimately a stronger future for American families.

The policies announced over the last two days will not transform maternal health overnight. But they represent a meaningful step forward in advancing federal priorities to build systems that support women’s health across the lifespan while helping create healthier future generations.

Thorsen, who fled to Europe 15 years ago, is accused of stealing $1 million in CDC grant money for autism and genetics research. According to Georgia authorities, Germany agreed to extradite Thorsen earlier this year.

Thorsen, 65, was arrested last year in Germany after evading arrest in Denmark for over fifteen years. German authorities discovered an Interpol notice indicating that he was wanted.

In April 2011, Thorsen was indicted by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General on 22 counts of wire fraud. He fled to Europe before he could be arrested and has been a wanted man ever since.

Thorsen had been working as a gynecologist at a medical practice in Middelfart, Denmark, and somehow evaded capture until Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became Secretary of HHS and re-invigorated the effort to bring him to justice.

Germany’s Der Spiegel headlined its coverage last week, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nennt ihn »dunklen Zauberer«, Deutschland will ihn ausliefern” (Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calls him a “dark wizard,” Germany wants to extradite him.)

Thorsen is being held in detention in Atlanta and will face federal charges for wire fraud and money laundering.

“Poul Thorsen allegedly stole more than $1 million in federal grant money by submitting fabricated invoices and diverting funds to his personal bank accounts,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, as quoted in a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia. “International fugitives who think they can avoid responsibility for serious federal crimes by living overseas are wrong. Due to the unwavering persistence of my office and our law enforcement partners, Thorsen has been extradited to the United States and will face justice in federal court.”

According to author and investigator James Ottar Grundvig, Thorsen traveled freely around Denmark and all of Scandinavia, and even purchased a second home in Sweden, after his indictment and after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Previous administrations did not appear interested in pursuing Thorsen, but Grundvig, author of Master Manipulator, easily located Thorsen living openly, apparently without concern of being captured in Denmark.

“The master manipulator behind the CDC fraudulent autism and vaccine studies is no longer on the lam,” Grundvig told The MAHA Report. “HHS Secretary Kennedy now has the leader of CDC’s corruption in custody. Will Thorsen cooperate? Will he expose his old-guard collaborators? The 22-count indictment and his age – 65 – says he will. It is time to name names.” Grundvig added, “An entire generation of vaccine-injured children who are scarred for life, are waiting for the truth to emerge.”

Thorsen is accused of using CDC money to purchase a house in Georgia, two cars, and a motorcycle. He also allegedly used the agency’s money to fuel his organization, the North Atlantic Neuro-Epidemiology Alliance (NANEA). The purpose of NANEA’s research was to take health data from Denmark – not America – to conduct studies to determine whether vaccines were behind the rise in autism in the U.S.

NANEA was known to throw extravagant, catered parties in Denmark, where expensive liquor flowed.

As I detailed in our August 8, 2025 article, Aluminum, Vaccines, and the Wild Boys From Denmark, Thorsen’s organization lived the high life. And the NANEA researchers had exclusive access to Denmark’s autism data.

U.S. researchers do not have access to Danish medical data because of laws restricting access to foreigners in that country. Back in the 2000s, the CDC needed Thorsen, NANEA and Danish data.

Why American public health data was not used begs a lot of questions.

Thorsen’s NANEA no longer exists but it became the template of the Danish research on environmental causes of autism and other chronic diseases. His research buddies have continued to receive CDC research money and enjoy extensive coverage in U.S. legacy media outlets despite the tainted legacy of Thorsen’s research racketeering.

At NANEA, Thorsen’s team included Anders Hviid, the lead author of last year’s paper that once again used health data from Denmark to claim that aluminum in vaccines is not linked to autism and other chronic health conditions.

Last year, Kennedy wrote an editorial in the TS News entitled “Flawed Science, Bought Conclusions: The Aluminum Vaccine Study the Media Won’t Question,” and called for a retraction of Hviid’s aluminum paper.

Danish research recently emerged with another paper exonerating Tylenol in the increase in autism. Autism Speaks, which has a history of denying the autism epidemic, and all non-genetic causes for the disorder,while providing cover for Big Pharma, immediately published an article supporting the Danish Tylenol paper.

In April, Kennedy criticized the Danish Tylenol paper on X, writing,“The study is a garbage study; it should be retracted.” Kennedy noted that the study took its data solely from prescriptions, which he said limited the scope of women who took acetaminophen. In the U.S., Tylenol can be purchased over the counter.

Kennedy is not alone in criticizing Danish research as this article, What’s Wrong with “The Danish Study”? from Science, Public Health Policy and the Law, clearly enumerates.

Good information on the link between Tylenol and Autism is available in Dr. William Parker’s Tylenol and Autism.

The CDC has a history of using Danish research to produce papers to exonerate pharmaceutical companies from accusations that their products lead to spikes in autism rates and other chronic childhood illnesses. Pro pharma media and often promote Danish research, ignore the history of Thorsen’s research racketeering and the manipulation of shady data that is restricted from anyone who is not a resident of Denmark.

Thorsen’s NANEA research team produced a series of papers in the early 2000s which were used by the CDC to claim that vaccines do not cause autism. The research was enormously valuable at that time because 5,000 families had filed claims against the Secretary of HHS in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (the NVICP, otherwise known as the ‘Vaccine Court’), claiming that vaccine injuries triggered their children’s autism.

In a series of decisions by the Special Masters, who adjudicate cases in NVICP, Thorsen and Hviid’s research was used to rule against the families in a proceeding known as the Omnibus Autism Proceedings.

Had HHS lost in those proceedings, the payouts to injured children would have been in the billions. The reputation of vaccines would be forever tarnished.

Unfortunately, the CDC was complicit in using Thorsen’s research to deny justice and compensation for those families who had their cases wrongly dismissed by the illegitimate science that Thorsen produced.

Thorsen’s legacy has tainted the research that Denmark produces on vaccines. Public health authorities and media outlets should stop reporting on Danish research from Thorsen associates as, time after time, the studies produced are flawed and serve only the interests of Big Pharma.

Poul Thorsen now sits in detention in a federal holding facility in Georgia. He will soon face the American justice system.

Will Thorsen disclose damaging information about public health officials who facilitated his corrupt research? Will the mainstream medical associations and the legacy media finally admit that the autism research Thorsen directed was flawed?

We shall see.

Here at MAHA Action, we’re building a community, and The MAHA Report is a significant part of that with over two hundred thousand subscribers.

Our mission is to write and edit the types of stories that legacy media either doesn’t cover, or spins when they do.

With this brief note I invite you to join the most dedicated supporters of the MAHA Report by becoming a paid subscriber to our Substack.

Join us because you want a country that once again cares about your well-being.

Join us because you believe we all deserve a healthier America.

And join us because you appreciate what we’re doing, want to see more of it, and understand that we need your support.

As a paid subscriber, you will receive two downloadable Skyhorse Publishing books: The MAHA Cookbook and Forbidden Facts. And extra content in coming months!

Thank you all for your continued dedication to and support of the MAHA movement.

And an early Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Sincerely,

Tony Lyons

President, MAHA Action Inc.

Be sure to keep up-to-date with all of MAHA’s major wins. Check out Caitlin Sinclair’s MAHA Minute each Friday across MAHA Action media channels.

Kennedy Announces Historic Reform on Overmedicalization

Speaking at the MAHA Institute’s Mental Health & Overmedicalization Summit in Washington, D.C., Secretary Kennedy announced sweeping reforms to official mental health policy.

To instigate reforms, HHS, CMS, ACF, HRSA, and SAMHSA jointly issued a letter that sets forth new policy guidance on mental health treatments. The letter urges clinicians and provider organizations to adopt an approach centered on shared decision-making, patient autonomy, and fully informed consent. Patients should receive clear, accessible information about psychiatric medications at the start of treatment, throughout its course, and when discontinuation is considered.

This guidance specifies that discussions must cover the medication’s purpose, expected benefits, potential adverse effects, monitoring requirements, discontinuation symptoms, risks of abrupt stopping, chances of relapse, and the existence of evidence-based, non-pharmacological options. It notes that shared decision-making in mental health settings can improve patient outcomes.

At the MAHA Institute event, Kennedy said federal regulators will now prioritize regulations supporting evidence-based alternatives to medication, such as psychotherapy, strengthened social connections, behavioral strategies, sleep care, exercise programs, and dietary improvements.

Trump Admin Cracks Down on Foreign-Owned Meatpackers

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is advancing an an antitrust investigation, originally launched in November 2025, into alleged collusion and price-fixing in the U.S. meatpacking industry.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins spotlighted the problem: today just four firms process 85 percent of U.S. beef, the majority of which are foreign owned. Rollins connected the consolidation to several harms: market manipulation, elevated consumer prices, damage to independent ranchers, and threats to national food security. Secretary Rollins also pointed to broader risks, including potential corruption, cartel involvement, and labor issues.

The DOJ’s ongoing probe aims to address these anticompetitive practices, safeguard American beef producers, and strengthen the supply chain.

Trump Restores Presidential Fitness Test

President Trump signed the National Physical Fitness and Sports Month Proclamation, stating, in part, “Physical dedication sharpens the mind, steels the will, and produces the kind of character that Americans carry into every aspect of their lives. Citizens who hold themselves to that standard of excellence are capable of meeting any challenge of the world today.”

He also named May the National Physical Fitness month.

Speaking in the Oval Office during a signing ceremony, Secretary Kennedy added, “If we were going to maintain our national authority… we had to pay attention to our physical condition, and the Physical Fitness Test was a critical part of that.”

Drug Prices Continue to Fall

According to a new White House report on President Trump’s Most Favored Nations (MFN) agreements with pharmaceutical companies, the price for new drugs will deliver $529 billion in domestic savings over ten years, across all U.S. markets. These savings will include private insurance by offering lower launch prices while pressuring other nations to pay more fairly.

Secretary Kennedy and CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, each welcomed lower drug prices. “President Trump’s Most Favored Nation drug pricing initiative is delivering historic wins for American patients—lowering costs while preserving innovation and ensuring the U.S. no longer pays more than other wealthy nations,” said Dr. Oz.

Down with Prior Authorization

Secretary Kennedy praised UnitedHealth for delivering on its June 2025 commitment to reduce prior authorization red tape. Participating plans have already cut prior authorization use by 11 percent, avoiding delays for 6.5 million procedures.

Mike Tyson Schools Jimmy Kimmel on RFK Jr.

A vocal critic of Secretary Kennedy, comedian Jimmy Kimmel was forced to admit that Kennedy’s MAHA campaign for Real Food is beneficial to Americans.

On Kimmel’s show, Mike Tyson explained why he’s all-in for Secretary Kennedy and real food: He said he’s struggled with obesity and so did his sister, who died in 1990 from health consequences related to her obesity.

USDA Mandates Real Food From SNAP Retailers

The USDA issued a ruling that requires SNAP-authorized retailers to stock seven varieties of staple foods across four categories: proteins; grains; dairy; and fruits and vegetables. This more than doubles previous requirements, boosts perishable items, emphasizes whole foods, and closes loopholes allowing snack foods to count toward food staples. The changes aim to improve SNAP recipients’ access to nutritious options while reducing fraud and abuse.

The former head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), Fauci told Congress that he had not funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

As Senator Rand Paul (R–KY) recently noted, the statute of limitations on that crime expire on Monday, May 11. Paul is calling for a Fauci indictment. As the clock ticks down, Congress is making a grave mistake not to follow Paul’s lead.

On May 11, 2021, Senator Paul and Fauci had a heated exchange during a Senate Hearing in which Fauci adamantly denied funding gain-of-function research at the WIV. “We did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology!” Fauci said for the third and final time, under oath.

For those of you not sure what gain-of-function research is, here’s a quick summary courtesy of Congress.gov: “The term gain of function (GOF) refers to any genetic mutation in an organism that confers a new or enhanced ability . . . . One area of GOF research is the study of both naturally occurring and experimentally induced changes in viruses to better understand transmission, infection, and pathogenesis. Current U.S. policy focuses on GOF research that involves altered or enhanced pathogens with the potential to cause a pandemic.”

In other words, GOF is not child’s play; what is researched and created in biolabs can be benign but it also has a potential to kill tens of millions of people. Of course Fauci would deny any involvement with such labs.

The truth is that Fauci signed off on grants, awarded to Peter Daszak’s EccoHealth Alliance, which then passed taxpayer dollars to Dr. Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the Wuhan Lab, for her to manipulate Corona viruses to make them more lethal to human beings.

That truth comes dropping slow.

In the waning days of the Biden administration, Daszak and EccoHealth Alliance were cut off from federal funding and debarred from future government grants for facilitating “gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China without proper oversight and willingly violated multiple requirements of its multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant.”

Their debarment by the Biden administration is as good as an acknowledgement that Sen. Paul was right: Fauci had lied. There were other scientists assiduously working at biolabs and now they, too, are under investigation.

For several years, Shi Zhengli collaborated with Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist from the University of North Carolina (UNC), on gain-of-function experiments. Baric is generally credited as the world’s leading expert on Corona virusesDr. Shi Zhengli

In an expose published by Paul Thacker at Real Clear Investigations, the author reveals that Baric and UNC are being investigated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Baric has been removed from all NIH grants and UNC has placed Baric on leave. (According to Thacker, UNC is not cooperating with the investigation.

The cast of characters close to Fauci, now being investigated, doesn’t end with Baric.

On April 28, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Dr. David Morens, 78, for “conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.” Morens served as a senior advisor in NIAID’s Office of the Director (i.e., Dr. Fauci) from 2006 through 2022.

Morens was Fauci’s right-hand man.

He allegedly concealed and falsified information to suppress alternative theories of COVID-19‘s origins. During congressional testimony that virtually guaranteed his prosecution, Morens admitted that he and other government officials working under Fauci actively concealed information from those seeking to know more about the origins of Covid via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Morens disclosed that he and others received training on how to evade FOIA requests by NIAID’s “FOIA lady” and “to make emails disappear.”

Under Fauci’s leadership, NIAID became a viper’s den of corruption. One may assume that Fauci and Daszak are unindicted co-conspirators.

The corruption is no surprise to those who read Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s epic book, The Real Anthony Fauci. Kennedy lays out Fauci’s history of corruption in stunning detail, revealing how Fauci continually sacrificed public health and the American people for the enrichment of Big Pharma.

The Real Anthony Fauci is a treatise on how corporate capture can wreck once proud government institutions.

In the book, Kennedy exposes so much damaging information that Fauci would have easily won a defamation case against him, if Kennedy had made up any aspect of Fauci’s atrocious record.

Fauci’s problem is that the truth is an absolute defense in defamation cases.

Kennedy told America the truth.

The legacy media refused to cover The Real Anthony Fauci. No legacy media reviewed what many people now regard as the quintessential book on the insanity of the Covid era. Five years on and The Real Anthony Fauci stands as a testament to truth in an era of lies.

It is now clear why Dr. Anthony Fauci was granted a ‘pre-emptive pardon’ by former President Biden – or by someone who got access to the White House autopen.

Fauci was pardoned because he was guilty of lying to Congress. He was pardoned because he bypassed President Obama’s moratorium on gain-of-function research.

He lied to President Trump about research exonerating vaccines in the autism epidemic and about countless other issues during the Covid pandemic.

Anthony Fauci lied to all of us.

Now, as May 11 rapidly approaches, should an illogical, preemptive pardon go unchallenged? In the name of the millions who died as a result of Fauci’s lies, I say ‘no.’

Justice must be served.

The reason traces back to a 2015 FDA regulatory change that restricted approved use of testosterone therapy — what the agency calls “on-label” use — to men with a specific structural or genetic diagnosis. Most symptomatic men don’t fit that category.

FDA labeling doesn’t just guide medical decisions. It shapes the entire system around them, influencing whether a doctor is willing to prescribe, whether insurance will cover the drug, and what rules pharmacies have to follow. That’s how faulty labeling creates an access and affordability problem that looks like a physician too spooked to prescribe, a drug too expensive to afford out-of-pocket, a pharmacy too restricted to fill.

On April 16, the FDA encouraged manufacturers of approved testosterone products to pursue a potential new on-label indication – initially focused on symptoms like low libido – for men with idiopathic hypogonadism: low testosterone without an identifiable structural or genetic cause.

On paper, this is a narrow regulatory move. In practice, it signals something much larger. Here’s what that announcement means for the men this labeling has failed to help for a decade.

Why Most Symptomatic Men Don’t Qualify

Since 2015, on-label testosterone therapy has been restricted to men with classical hypogonadism, meaning low testosterone with a specific cause such as a pituitary tumor, Klinefelter syndrome, or testicular damage from chemotherapy. Men whose testosterone is documented to be low but with an unidentified cause are classified as idiopathic or age-related. Both categories are off-label. Men with either are far more vulnerable to being denied coverage by their insurance company.

“For most health insurers, any excuse to exclude a drug from coverage will do. Their most favorite is lack of FDA approval,” says Katy Talento, former special assistant to President Trump and the CEO of AllBetter Health. “That means that men needing hormone replacement therapy have long been discriminated against compared to women, for whom HRT is becoming the near-universal standard of care. Fixing the FDA testosterone label is only fair, and will save men’s lives, health, and bottom line.”

The current framework excludes on-label prescribing of testosterone replacement therapy for the majority of men, leaving them at the mercy of insurers. Data presented at the December panel helps explain why. Most men with low testosterone don’t have a problem with the testes. Their condition is driven by something much more common – obesity, diabetes, or metabolic dysfunction that affects how the brain signals the body to produce hormones.

Slides presented by Dr. Martin Miner, co-director of the Men’s Health Center at Miriam Hospital and clinical professor at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, suggested roughly 85 percent of testosterone-deficient men fall into the category of secondary hypogonadism, meaning the problem originates in the brain’s hormonal signaling. Of those, only 11 percent have a medical condition that qualifies for on-label treatment. In other words, the FDA’s current labeling is built around a small minority of cases, excluding the vast majority by design.

Compounding the issue is the way “age-related hypogonadism” has been defined. Testosterone declines with age, but only modestly. The bigger drops are driven by metabolic disease. “Aging alone has minimal impact on testosterone levels,” says Dr. Mohit Khera, a professor of urology at the Baylor College of Medicine. “Comorbidities, not age itself, are the main drivers of significant decline in serum testosterone.”

Across medicine, treating a hormone deficiency doesn’t require knowing the underlying cause. Clinicians prescribe hydrocortisone without a requirement to confirm why the adrenals failed. They prescribe levothyroxine without a requirement to confirm why the thyroid stopped working. Deficiency and symptoms are enough. Testosterone is held to a different standard.

The human cost is not abstract. Dr. Helen Bernie of the Indiana University School of Medicine described what happens when men get treated: “They think more clearly, they move more easily, they reconnect with their families... This is restoration of health and dignity.”

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary framed the move as part of a wider course correction.

“Just as we’ve worked to tell women the truth about hormone replacement therapy, we are now turning our attention to men’s health,” Makary told The MAHA Report. “This step is part of a broader FDA effort to align our labeling with gold-standard science and expand access to meaningful treatments for the men who need them.”

A Starting Gun Not a Finish Line

Manufacturers had until April 30 to contact the FDA, but change will take time.

The panel’s closing summary stated there is “no scientific basis for excluding age-related hypogonadism” from treatment eligibility. That exclusion is still on the books, however. Experts also advocated for removing testosterone from Schedule III controlled substance status. It hasn’t moved. Prostate cancer warnings remain. Routine screening and clinical endpoints have yet to be addressed. But bad policy often doesn’t get dismantled all at once, with one announcement. Instead, it happens through a sequence of events.

The FDA rolled back cardiovascular risk warnings in February of 2025. April 16 marks the first step toward making testosterone therapy FDA-approved treatment for the millions of men who are currently shut out.

The direction is clear. The men’s health crisis is finally getting a regulatory response. And this is just the beginning.

Tiffany Ryder is a licensed emergency medicine clinician, researcher, and founder of Red Flag Media. She writes on health policy, the MAHA movement, and the future of American medicine. Read more of her work at signalandnoise.online

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Despite the fact that the legacy media barely covered it, the book quietly sold over one million copies and sat on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 20 weeks.

What drew readers around the world to the book is precisely what repelled legacy media from it – the book dared to ask questions of the institutions and institutional figures, mainly Dr. Anthony Fauci (a physician and former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the U.S.), that the corporate media refused to ask.

For decades, Dr. Fauci was the unflappable face of expertise—calm, avuncular, seemingly above politics. Kennedy, who prior to his position as HHS Secretary was an attorney and environmental activist, reframes Fauci not as a humble civil servant but as the central architect of a half-century of regulatory capture, scientific suppression, and profit-driven policy.

Part legal brief, part historical autopsy, and part cri de coeur for evidence-based medicine and open debate, the book demands to be read.

What emerges is a portrait of a technocrat who, in Kennedy’s telling, consistently placed pharmaceutical profits and institutional power above public health—long before Covid-thrust Fauci into every American living room.

The book opens with the pandemic that defined our era. Kennedy meticulously catalogs the early decisions: the dismissal of repurposed drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, the promotion of remdesivir, the relentless focus on novel vaccines, and the sweeping lockdowns whose collateral damage—economic ruin, educational setbacks, mental health crises, and excess deaths from deferred care—would prove, in his view, more devastating than the virus itself for many populations.

In The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy contrasts the U.S. death rate with nations that pursued different strategies, marshaling data that will discomfort anyone who accepted the dominant narrative without question.

Yet the pandemic is merely one slice of the story Kennedy tells. He traces Fauci’s career arc from the AIDS era onward, arguing that the same patterns—suppression of dissenting scientists, elevation of expensive patented treatments over cheaper alternatives, ethical lapses in clinical trials (including disturbing accounts of experiments on vulnerable children), and deep financial entanglements with industry—repeat with incriminating regularity.

The HIV chapter is particularly harrowing, detailing what Kennedy calls a “template” for pharma profiteering: the rush to AZT despite its toxicity, the sidelining of alternative hypotheses, and the vilification of heretics. Kennedy is especially tough on the regulatory agencies (NIAID, CDC, FDA) that, his research suggests, have been hollowed out by the very industry they are meant to oversee.

What makes the book compelling is not just its litany of allegations but its grounding in regulatory capture—the “Pharmanation” Kennedy describes with cold precision. Fauci’s agency receives massive funding from industry user fees; NIH and its scientists earn royalties on products they help develop; career incentives align with blockbuster drugs rather than root-cause public health solutions. The chronic disease epidemic exploding under Fauci’s watch—autism, allergies, autoimmune disorders—receives sustained attention as a damning indictment of government priorities. While mainstream voices attribute these trends to better diagnosis or genetics, Kennedy demands environmental investigation and accountability that, he argues, never happened

Kennedy humanizes the stakes. The book’s dedication honors the “Heroic Healers Honor Roll”—doctors and scientists who challenged orthodoxy at great personal cost. Endorsements from figures as varied as Tucker Carlson, Tony Robbins, Alan Dershowitz, and Robert Malone give the project intellectual breadth, even as they underscore its heterodox appeal.

The writing is clear, blending legal rigor with moral passion. At times the accumulation of detail can feel overwhelming—but it needs to feel that way. This is a book meant to overwhelm (and alarm) the comforting simplicities peddled by legacy “news” and official pronouncements.

Some critics, those precious few who have read the book, have dismissed The Real Anthony Fauci as conspiracy-minded or partisan. That reflex misses the deeper service Kennedy performs.

In an era of elevated distrust of institutions, Kennedy’s work is a model of investigative journalism infused by moral outrage and palpable passion focused on ferreting out the truth and showing it to the world.

Science is not a priesthood; it is a method. When fear, money, and power distort that method—when debate is replaced by decrees, and dissent by deplatforming—democracy itself erodes. Kennedy shows how easily “public health” can become a vehicle for authoritarian impulses and concentrated wealth.

The upward wealth transfer during lockdowns, the censorship apparatus, the shattered small businesses and families: these are not side effects in Kennedy’s narrative but features of a system optimized for control and profiteering.

Whether one accepts every claim in the book or not, the book performs a vital civic function: it restores agency to citizens long conditioned to trust the ‘experts.’ It invites readers to examine primary sources, question what they’re being told to believe, and reclaim the spirit of skepticism.

In that sense, The Real Anthony Fauci is less about one man than about the fragility of democracy when its guardrails—independent science, free speech, accountability—are captured by the multinationals who own the media most Americans, and millions of people around the world, consume.

At nearly 500 pages plus endnotes, this is not light reading. But it is necessary reading — reading that will radically challenge the comfortable narratives we’ve all heard many too many times.

Finally, the book insists that public health serve people, not power. In an era desperate for accountability, The Real Anthony Fauci is an unflinching act of intellectual resistance in which ‘America’s Doctor’ meets his most formidable adversary: the documented record.

“We have a sick care system where people are compensated more for keeping patients sick” – Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Something is shifting in healthcare, and it is becoming impossible to ignore.

As chronic disease continues to rise and trust in conventional systems erodes, the questions are getting louder. Patients are no longer satisfied with symptom management alone. Practitioners are looking beyond protocols. The MAHA movement is helping to bring this reckoning into the open, creating space for approaches that have long been marginalized to be reconsidered – approaches like homeopathy.

Homeopathy is a system of medicine that has been used for over 200 years. It is based on the principle of similia similibus curentur (“like cures like”), in which a substance that can produce symptoms in a healthy person may, in highly diluted form, be used to stimulate the body’s self-healing response in someone experiencing similar symptoms. It emphasizes individualized treatment, selecting remedies based on a person’s unique physical, mental, and emotional presentation rather than a single diagnosis.

This year’s Joint American Homeopathic Conference, held in Reston, Virginia, brought the global homeopathic community together for a three-day gathering, April 17–19. Attendees traveled from around the globe, creating a distinctly international vibe. The program featured highly credentialed speakers exploring a wide range of topics, from chronic illness and women’s health to addiction, epidemics, and the role of homeopathy in supporting microbiome health and reducing antibiotic use. I was honored to present on the connection between MAHA and homeopathy, highlighting this moment as an opportunity for increased visibility, collaboration, and integration within the broader healthcare conversation.

For many, the conference offered a rare opportunity to meet distinguished leaders in the field, people like Kim Elia, producer of the film Introducing Homeopathy; Amy Lansky, author of the book Impossible Cure; Paul Herscu, who wrote The Homeopathic Treatment for Autism; and Kate Birch, the director of the nonprofit organization Free and Healthy Children International. And just as meaningful were the moments between sessions. Conversations in hallways, over coffee, and during informal gatherings allowed connections to deepen and ideas to unfold naturally.

The conference also served as the culminating celebration of World Homeopathy Awareness Week, bringing a week of global outreach and education to a close. A highlight was the screening of the pilot episode of Investigating Homeopathy.

Saturday evening brought a shift in tone. The awards dinner honored leaders in the field, followed by a lively 1970s-themed dance party. Before long, nearly everyone was dancing, fully immersed in the moment. It felt authentic, like a community that trusts each other and isn’t afraid to show up fully.

The conference concluded on Sunday evening, April 19, with a sparkling toast at the 126-year-old Hahnemann Monument in Washington, D.C.

Standing together to reflect on the weekend and honor Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy, there was a quiet sense of gratitude and purpose. As the sun set, conversations lingered, and goodbyes were filled with long hugs and tears. As one chapter closed, a more powerful one opened—one that has the potential to elevate the future of healthcare.

Reactions to the conference were overwhelmingly positive, with many attendees emphasizing both the clinical depth and the growing momentum surrounding homeopathy. Dr. Jamie Oskin described the conference as “one of the most energizing and affirming gatherings” he has attended as a naturopathic physician. He noted the breadth of homeopathy’s applications, from complex autoimmunity to chronic disease. What stood out most to him, however, was the momentum supporting advocacy for homeopathy that is now possible because of MAHA.

“MAHA isn’t just about removing toxins from our food supply,” he said. “It’s about restoring trust in whole-person, low-risk medicine that honors the body’s innate capacity to heal.”

At a time when questions around pharmaceutical overuse, environmental toxins, and root causes of disease are becoming more urgent, he emphasized that homeopathy deserves a seat at the table.

Paola Brown, president of Americans for Homeopathy Choice Action, expressed optimism about the introduction of H.R. 7050, a bill aimed at modernizing the regulatory framework while safeguarding access to homeopathic medicines.

“Homeopathic medicines are not supplements,” said Dr. Lisa Amerine, president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. “They are not fringe products. They are legal drugs with nearly a century of federal recognition behind them, and they deserve a regulatory framework that reflects that.”

She said she especially appreciated Dr. Mike Knapp’s presentation.

“He delivered exactly what this profession needs more of—real case management, without glitz or performance, just honest, precise homeopathic practice presented before a room of colleagues,” she told me. “He reminded everyone why we chose this medicine and what it truly looks like when practiced well.”

As the cracks in our healthcare system become harder to ignore, conversations around chronic disease, pharmaceutical overuse, and patient centered care are no longer fringe; they are front and center. Once dismissed, homeopathy is now being reexamined with renewed curiosity.

This year’s Joint American Homeopathic Conference did not simply reflect this change; it embodied it, revealing a global community stepping forward with clarity and conviction to help shape the future of healthcare.

Unfortunately, this year’s conference was the last one that will be in-person, as the National Center for Homeopathy will shift to focusing on strengthening engagement, while also taking on the role of hosting World Homeopathy Awareness Week.

Gabrielle Traub is a board-certified classical homeopath and M.Tech (Hom, CCH, HD (Hon). She is also the author of the 2022 book Live Right For Your Remedy Type.

MAHA leaders, many of whom gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court two days earlier to make their voices heard, felt vindicated. While their activism was around Monsanto v. Durnell (a ‘failure to warn’ case brought by John Durnell against Bayer/ Monsanto), the House victory was nothing short of a major win for them.

But not everyone felt that way. Many people derided the bill as an upsetting compromise. Moreover, the bill still has to pass in the U.S. Senate, no small hurdle.

Part of the complexity of crafting any Farm Bill is the sheer magnitude of policy areas encompassed by the USDA, which oversees agriculture (impacting the nation’s farmers but also a myriad of industrial manufacturers); the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); and the National School Lunch Programs (NSLP).

The budgetary impact here is profound, affecting hundreds of billions of dollars of annual public spending. The House bill was designed to be “revenue neutral,” resulting in all “stakeholders” scampering and battling for every scrap.

Fiscal policy converges in the Farm Bill with environmental lobbyists, farming organizations, industrial interests, and advocates for SNAP recipients. All of these policy areas intersect with the MAHA movement’s agenda.

The most salient issue of concern for MAHA was a win – the House voted in support of the (Rep. Anna Paulina) Luna amendment, which stripped pesticide liability immunity from the larger bill. Environmental groups and MAHA moms across the nation rejoiced that this pernicious, industry-favoring provision was chopped from the bill by strong bipartisan opposition.

Sadly, the battle for food and family safety is not over, as Monsanto and other chemical industry lobbyists petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to implement a de facto liability shield that would circumvent this legislative win by judicial fiat under federal preemption in the Monsanto v. Durnell case.

The Farm Bill process originated during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to provide price supports to struggling U.S. farmers, and quickly expanded to include conservation practices, crop subsidies, and nutrition support for low-income Americans. It seemed bureaucratically sensible for USDA to be tasked with matching commodity surpluses with needy citizens, but the resulting system has become so gargantuan and complex that many critics have suggested bifurcating farming from food relief.

Until that happens, the Farm Bill will remain the unwieldy albatross for resolving numerous conflicting special interests and hundreds of provisions. The nation’s farmers, currently struggling with high input costs (especially fertilizers) and anemic commodity prices, are held hostage by these complexities. This tangled web explains why the Farm Bill is routinely kicked down the road, and why this one is at least three years overdue. It also explains why there are so many trade-offs in its creation.

The big win for pesticide liability included some other positives hailed by farming groups. The creation of a pilot program to expand local slaughter and processing services for small farms, a variation of the long-fought-for PRIME Act, is a positive for both consumers and farmers. And the House version expanded payments for livestock losses to predators, increased crop insurance availability, and included incentives for new farmers. It also bans foreign nations (i.e., China) from buying up U.S. farmland.

Not all farming is the same, and thus some provisions in the bill received conflicting responses. This is especially true of the incorporation of the so-called “Save the Bacon” provisions that elevate federal agricultural practices above state regulations that conflict, an indirect assault on California’s Proposition 12, which mandated improved housing and treatment for swine.

Small farmers opposed the Save the Bacon initiative, while large farms, especially in pork-producing states, hailed it as a way to prevent conflicting state-law patchworks that undermine profitability.

Most farmers would oppose the electronic ear tags for interstate transport of cows, yet Congress gave the nod to continue government tracking by a vote of 355-69.

And most consumers would oppose the decision to refuse states the ability to restrict access to soda by SNAP beneficiaries (though the current version allows for hot, whole chickens!) A majority of voters oppose sickening SNAP beneficiaries with soda: A majority of Congress still appears beholden to the influential beverage industry that lobbied hard to continue its federal support subsidies, which is sickening in itself.

Perhaps the most controversial provision of the current House version of the Farm Bill is its failure to restore full funding for SNAP. However, that battle is hardly over and will very likely resume in a contentious Senate battle to reshape the bill in an ongoing back-and-forth.

Typical of responses to the House version of the bill is this one from Judith McGeary, a food rights veteran, attorney, and founder and executive director of Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA): “I was very relieved to see a strong, bipartisan vote to strip out the pesticide manufacturers’ liability shield, and of course, we have been strong supporters of the PRIME Act, and we’re pleased to see a pilot version of the program included,” said McGeary.

She continued, “Having said that, the bill as a whole still reinforces the current corporate-controlled, chemically-intensive structure for our agriculture, made worse by the inclusion of the so-called Save Our Bacon Act, removing local control over livestock production and undermining market opportunities for regenerative farms.”

In sum, the Farm Bill as currently hashed out by the House is a good step forward, but it has a long way yet to go. The MAHA movement has already made its mark by blocking a pesticide liability shield for manufacturers. More importantly, it is making a profound and enduring impact as millions of Americans scrutinize their food ingredient labels and the Farm Bill’s provisions like never before.

This week’s program features MAHA Action president and host, Tony Lyons; Principal Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to Secretary Kennedy, Stefanie Spear; U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 7th District, Tom Barrett; U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson; physician, inventor, scientist, and author, Dr. Robert Malone; author of the novel, The Confessions of Anthony Fauci, Bobby Kennedy III; “The Knowledge Doc,” Dr. Eric Berg; founder and president of Brownstone Institute, Jeffrey Tucker; author, health coach, and advocate for natural living, Liana Werner-Gray; comedian, podcast host, and consciousness explorer, Russell Brand; naturopath and former White House health policy advisor, Katy Talento; and President of Health Freedom Defense Fund, Leslie Manookian.

To attend our media hub, simply click the free registration link here.

All Media Hub events are open to the public and the press.

We hope to see you Wednesday at 4pm Eastern.

At a conference on mental health held Monday, May 4, at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., three young adults shared their stories about how they were first put on antidepressants, and how their lives were forever changed by these drugs.

The first speaker, Danielle Gansky, now 30, said she was put on an SSRI when she was still in elementary school.

“At just seven years old I was prescribed psychiatric drugs. I was far too young to understand what they were, let alone the lasting impact they would have on my developing brain,” she told the audience. “It started in the second grade when a teacher noticed I was fidgety, distracted and not keeping up academically.”

Her parents, she said, were advised to take her to a doctor for an evaluation and she was quickly diagnosed and put on medication – Adderall, then Ritalin, and then more medications to treat side effects from those drugs.

“This spiraled into a prescription cascade of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, all before my 10th birthday,” she said. “None of it ever felt right, but I was a child and I didn’t have the words to explain what was happening and I didn’t have the authority to challenge it. My completely normal childhood behavior was pathologized.”

In college, when she decided to get off the medication, the pain of withdrawal was extreme. Her brain felt like it was on fire, but her doctor denied that the withdrawal from an SSRI could be causing that much pain.

He might not have known, because almost all studies look at withdrawal from SSRI’s after a short period of time, never 10 or 15 years.

Danielle had been on SSRIs for 16 years by that point. Her 20s were spent grieving a life that was taken from her.

“I cannot come off of it because of the severe debilitating withdrawals,” she said.

But withdrawal, she said, is a misnomer. What it is, really, is a neurological injury caused by the earlier withdrawal she started at the age of 23. She now can only reduce her dose by a tenth of a milligram at a time, and so has been in protracted withdrawal for the last seven years.

SSRIs, which stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, are the most common type of antidepressants and include brand names Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro and Paxil.

One in six American adults now takes an antidepressant; one in 10 children are on prescription medication for their mental health; 30 percent of college students report using psychiatric medications in the last year; and in nursing homes, more than half of residents are on prescribed antidepressants.

Monday’s event, the Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit, organized by the MAHA Institute, a non-profit launched in 2025 by Mark Gorton, is dedicated to, as the home page on the company’s website reads, “fixing America’s broken health system and making America healthy again.”

Inner Compass Initiative, founded by Laura Delano, author of the 2025 memoir Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, co-organized the event.

On Monday, MAHA Institute president Gorton kicked things off by decrying the state of the American healthcare system.

“Today’s kids are medicated at rates that would have been unthinkable a generation ago,” he said, describing the medicalized system of healthcare in the United States as one that was “designed, built, bought and paid for by profit-seeking corporations.”

“Our system of experts and leading physicians is a cathedral of lies, paid for in large part by the pharmaceutical industry and guided with the purpose of maximizing corporate profits, not public health,” Gorton told the audience.

Medicaid spending on psychiatric drugs has increased five-fold since 1997, he noted, and Medicare and Medicaid combined have spent a staggering $335 billion on psychiatric drugs over the last decade.

Another young adult on the day’s first panel, Lauren Friedman, is a senior at Vanderbilt University. She told the audience that she’d suffered a side effect of an SSRI that is known as PSSD, for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, and that she’s been told it’s likely permanent.

It’s not just a loss of libido, she said, but also nerve system damage that results in genital numbness.

“For me – I clearly hate to talk about this – but my clitoris is completely numb as if it’s the back of my elbow. I have no sensation internally. I’m 23 years old. Sufferers also lose the ability to orgasm permanently, like for the rest of their lives.”

She described her injury as being a “sudden onset” of chemical asexuality, and said she now considers what was done to her by the SSRI as akin to “chemical castration,” given that it is likely permanent.

But the loss, she said, has not been limited to sexuality, but has also included an emotional numbness that has robbed her of part of her humanity.

“Before this, I was a super emotional, empathetic, loving, caring, like, Sylvia Plath-reading and resonating girl, and the day I woke up with this injury I quite literally felt my soul leaving my body,” she said. “It was the most unbelievable, inorganic thing I’ve ever experienced, and it’s a common symptom of people who have this condition.”

To this day, she said, she cannot feel love for her own mother, choking up as she described this as “the hardest thing on earth.”

When asked later by a member of the media what she thinks the government can do, she said she thinks written, informed consent must be a legal requirement, with patients signing a consent form that informs them of potential side effects before starting to take a medication.

Her doctor, she said, admitted he was aware that PSSD was a potential side effect of the SSRI he was prescribing her, but didn’t tell her.

“Nothing should be withheld when it’s your nervous system,” she said. “That was my decision to make.”

Following the emotional first discussion, “Newsmakers Hour - Lived Experience Presentations,” the day included four panels: 1) The Current State of Mental Health in America - and How We Got Here; 2) Psychiatric Drugs: Informed Choice and Building Safe Off-Ramps; 3) Children First - Addressing the Overmedicalization of Childhood and Fostering the Future; 4) Federal Reform: A Coordinated Path Forward and Q & A.

The MAHA Institute summit brought together a number of citizens and advocates with astonishing stories and also a number of people representing the public health agencies, including Admiral Brian Christine, a physician and the Assistant Secretary of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, who sat in the audience and listened to the panelists.

In his speech, Christine said he thinks, as a nation, we have to be honest about the problem of “overmedicalization” and need to take a more complete view of health that includes nutrition, sleep and movement.

He also spoke specifically to the topic of men and mental health, saying we need to ask why so many men are struggling.

“I do know that we’ve created a culture where a lot of men feel like they are on the outside, looking in,” he said. “Their traditional anchors – work, family, responsibility – they don’t feel as stable as they once did. In some spaces, the message is that masculinity itself is something to be minimized, something to be criticized, and by some, something to be demonized, and we can see the effects.”

Also representing HHS at the event was Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, who addressed the over-medication of foster care children.

“Too often the foster care system responds to the trauma and instability facing the lives of kids, and they respond with medications as the most accessible response rather than one component of coordinated care,” he said. “Psychotropic medications can play an important role in treatment, but when they are used appropriately as part of a broader, coordinated care plan.”

On an afternoon panel, an assistant professor and researcher at Florida State University, Jeffrey Lacasse, spoke about the theory of a ‘chemical imbalance’ in the brain as the cause of depression and anxiety – specifically, a lack of serotonin.

“We probably never had any good reason to believe this theory,” he said, noting that even with the lack of evidence supporting it, and the general acknowledgement among most researchers that it’s probably false, it is still something that many people, including clinicians, believe.

“The self-correcting nature of science didn’t work,” he said. “It’s sort of a zombie theory that goes on and on and on.”

Another panelist representing veterans spoke of the overmedication of veterans for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with SSRI’s, often causing sexual dysfunction.

“The reality is that what we’re doing is not working,” said Derek Blumke, a Veteran Policy Fellow at the Grunt Style Foundation. “Seventy percent of all veterans that are VA-prescribed medications and this is the result.”

Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at the conclusion of the summit, announcing that HHS had issued guidance to all healthcare providers nationwide, through a “Dear Colleague” letter, requesting that they expand the use of non-pharmacological treatment for mental health issues and strengthen both informed consent and shared decision-making.

Kennedy said HHS is offering new guidance on prescribing and national training modules on the tapering and de-prescribing of psychiatric medication and also billing guidelines issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that will allow clinicians to be paid for de-prescribing work for the first time.

“We’re aligning policy with practice,” said Kenney. ‘“Psychiatric medications have a role in care, but we will no longer treat them as the default. We will treat them as one option used when appropriate, with full transparency, and with a clear path off when they are no longer effective.”

[Below are links to the full MAHA Institute event]

Part 1: MAHA Institute Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit

Part 2: MAHA Institute Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit

Kennedy was the last speaker at a summit organized by the MAHA Institute: the Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit, held Monday at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Introduced by Mark Gorton, President of the MAHA Institute, the secretary began his prepared remarks, saying: “The issues that you’ve been addressing today at the Maha Institute Summit demand action – and I’m here to take them on with you.”

Kennedy continued, “The United States does not just face a mental health crisis, we face a dependency crisis driven by over-medicalization. The data is clear: one- in-six American adults take an antidepressant. One in 10 children are on prescription medication for their mental health. 30 percent of college students report using psychiatric medications in the past year. And in nursing homes, more than half of the residents are on prescribed antidepressants. That’s not a marginal issue.”

Secretary Kennedy said HHS and four of its sub-agencies have issued a “Dear Colleague” letter, directing healthcare providers across the country to expand their use of “non-pharmacologic” treatment for mental health, and strengthen informed consent whereby patients are informed of a medication’s risks and side effects.

Kennedy also said the traditional doctor-patient relationship must change; instead of a doctor being the sole decision maker on how to treat a patient’s mental health issues, as has been the practice for generations, the HHS will recommend that decision making on treatments will be a shared decision between doctor and patient.

Following the MAHA Institute event, The MAHA Report obtained a copy of the letter to which Kennedy referred. It comes from HHS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

“HHS encourages clinicians and provider organizations to support a treatment approach grounded in shared decision-making, patient autonomy, and fully informed consent,” the letter reads. “Individuals should receive clear, understandable information regarding the potential benefits and risks of psychiatric medications at initiation, during ongoing treatment, and when discontinuation is being considered.”

The letter continues, “That discussion should include the purpose of the medication, expected benefits, possible adverse effects, monitoring needs, potential discontinuation symptoms, the risks of abrupt cessation when relevant, the possibility of relapse or recurrence, and the availability of evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions. Evidence from mental health settings suggests that shared decision-making interventions may improve patients’ perceived involvement in decision-making and related person-centered outcomes”

Kennedy told the audience at MAHA Institute’s event that, moving forward, federal health regulators will advance regulations that support evidence-based treatments that don’t rely on medication. Such alternatives to medicalization include psychotherapy, building social connections, behavioral strategies, sleep-focused care, exercise programs, and dietary improvements.

These approaches, Kennedy said, should not be framed as direct substitutes for medication in every situation or presented as sufficient on their own for all patients. Instead, they should be integrated into a comprehensive menu of proven mental health services. Treatment choices must balance the strongest available research, clinical expertise, and each individual’s personal goals and preferences.

“Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications—especially among children,” Kennedy told the MAHA Institute conference attendees. “We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach to mental health.” He added that federal agencies will specifically focus on the overmedicalization crisis among foster children and those living in senior facilities.

The Dear Colleague letter maps out the subsequent actions HHS and its sub-agencies will take.

Later in May, the SAMHSA will issue a report on prescribing trends aimed at reducing excessive prescribing while preserving appropriate access, accompanied by a fact sheet for prescribers and patients.

Throughout June and July, SAMHSA will host educational webinars for prescribers and other health professionals. These sessions will focus on raising awareness of psychiatric medication side effects, best practices for deprescribing, and evidence-based non-medication treatments.

Also this summer, SAMHSA and HRSA will co-host a joint webinar tailored for Federally Qualified Health Center providers (community-based, patient-friendly clinics) emphasizing holistic care models that incorporate nonmedication approaches and clinically appropriate deprescribing and tapering of psychiatric medications.

In July, HHS will convene a Technical Expert Panel, bringing together health professionals, patients, families, government agencies, and professional societies to help shape formal HHS clinical guidance on psychiatric medication use, tapering, and discontinuation. .

“Taken together, these activities reflect a shared federal commitment to ensuring that people with mental health conditions have access to the full range of evidence-based care,” the letter reads. “That includes medication when clinically indicated, but it also includes psychotherapy, family engagement, and lifestyle and behavioral interventions, with careful reassessment of ongoing treatment over time. It also includes ensuring that individuals are meaningfully involved in decisions about their care.”

The title tips the paper’s hand: “Profound Autism Is Difficult Enough Without This Debunked Method.” The ‘method’ the Times’ guest author, Amy Lutz, says is debunked is, not surprisingly, not debunked. In fact, it is helping thousands of Americans with profound autism communicate in a way they never have before.

Lutz writes, “Facilitated Communication, or F. C., is an intervention in which profoundly autistic individuals spell messages with the physical support of a nondisabled facilitator, who generally provides direct touch to the speller’s hand, wrist, elbow or shoulder.”

Two paragraphs later she writes: “Here’s the thing about F.C., though: the science doesn’t back it up.”

If I had a quarter for every time I’ve heard the word “science” used in this way, I’d be a rich man. Science on just about everything, but especially autism, is evolving. It’s no monolith.

Citing a variety of studies, none of which is by any measure definitive, Lutz argues that people with profound autism are not actually using F.C. to communicate; rather, it is their facilitators doing the heavy lifting.

“Over time,” Lutz writes, “many such studies have reported essentially the same thing: Spellers could not communicate information unknown to their facilitators.”

But what does this mean? Does it negate their ability to communicate if those who are closest to profoundly autistic people are assisting in the process? I have seen and heard how well the method in fact does work. Such empirical evidence is a blessing; it is not, as Lutz concludes, “almost irresistible” false hope.

Which brings me back to the meeting last week in Bethesda, Maryland, where a federal autism committee took the boldest action that it’s taken in its 25-year history, putting people with autism and their families at the forefront of driving recommendations for federal government programs for the first time.

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) was established in the year 2000 to advise the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on all federal programs related to autism spectrum disorder. Unfortunately, the IACC has had a history of funding projects that have had a negligible impact on the lives of people with autism. Representatives of the public health establishment, many of whom denied the existence of the autism epidemic, steered research dollars away from scientific inquiry that would address environmental causes of autism or other controversial areas of investigation.

But that is now changing.

At the April 28 meeting, under the leadership of IACC ‘public members’ – committee members from the autism community who were not representing federal public health agencies – votes were cast in favor of several crucial initiatives that will recharge the federal government’s response to the autism epidemic. The initiatives seek to provide the first meaningful improvements in the lives of people with autism and for the families who love them.

The committee approved several important proposals that addressed issues such as establishing Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) diagnosis codes and safety measures; policy objectives to address the dangerous wandering behavior that plagues many people with autism; and a framework intended to support more consistent clinical recognition of co-occurring medical conditions, reduce ‘diagnostic overshadowing’ (the tendency to attribute physical symptoms to mental illness), and improve safety assessments in autism care.

Finally, the committee voted to acknowledge an important and underserved subgroup – people with “profound autism” – those with the highest and most persistent support needs. [Full descriptions of the proposals and other important IACC meeting information is provided here.]

Dr. Sylvia Fogel, IACC Chairwoman

Under the guidance of IACC Chairwoman Dr. Sylvia Fogel, working groups were established to begin work on committee initiatives ranging from biomedical treatments for autism, autism causation, and the need to provide care for people with autism throughout their lives.

One may ask: “Shouldn’t all of this have been done before?”

It should have been

The fact is that previous iterations of the committee took little meaningful action and avoided decisions that were controversial despite calls from the autism community for bolder action.

In January, the 21 public members of the IACC were all replaced by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with the replacements representing some of the strongest advocates for advancing the fight against autism.

“President Trump directed us to bring autism research into the 21st century. We are doing that by appointing the most qualified experts –leaders with decades of experience studying, researching, and treating autism,” Kennedy said at the time. “These public servants will pursue rigorous science and deliver the answers Americans deserve.”

John Gilmore, the founder and executive director of the Autism Action Network, is one of the new members appointed by Kennedy.

“The public members of the committee are leading the way, and we will finally see meaningful progress for the autism community after years of broken promises,” Gilmore said at the April 28 meeting. He added that it was good to see that many government committee members had joined them at the meeting.

The IACC includes members representing the CDC, NIH and several other federal agencies.

The restructured IACC is charting a new course toward meaningful research and a more hopeful future for all people with autism.

This, and Facilitated Communication for the profoundly autistic, is not false hope.