At MAHA Summit, the Movement Spreads its Wings

By John Klar, Contributor, The MAHA Report

The MAHA Summit at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., held on November 12, offered an invigorating glimpse into the irreversible impact of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential run and tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Summit, which attracted over 900 attendees, also revealed an expanded definition of what it means to be MAHA, with many people mingling at the Summit hailing from the world of startups and tech — all leaning into the movement with the primary goal of improving American health outcomes.

The gala was exceptional for a combination of factors that reflect the extraordinary diversity of the growing MAHA movement. The bipartisan lineup for the all-day affair included an array of high-profile speakers, including Secretary Kennedy, Vice President JD Vance, Jay Bhattacharya, Marty Machary, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Danica Patrick, “Food Babe” Vani Hari and other special guests from the worlds of tech, science and fitness. Subjects addressed ranged from psychedelic medicines, neurological breakthroughs, longevity therapies to reverse aging, and AI-driven patient care.

Practicing what speakers on stage preached, the Summit served up organic snacks and a nutritious lunch. Even the coffee was organic! The mandate of the day was clear: celebrate a nationwide drive to change Americans’ attitudes toward health.

Moreover, the MAHA movement is about proactively preventing illness, eliminating bureaucratic impediments, and applying evolving technological innovation to further these goals. While vaccine safety and cleaner foods have generally predominated as MAHA themes, the November 12 summit featured an added dimension – technologies that promise to more effectively implement healthcare through government agencies revamped to prioritize patient outcomes.

During the MAHA Summit, Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health, explained how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to transform U.S. healthcare to improve disease prevention and treatment – by integrating medical records and patient data; scheduling visits more efficiently; and proactively doing the work of healthcare rather than AI just serving as a technological tool.

AI, Dr. Bhattacharya said, can also be employed to improve insurance provisions and efficiency, resulting in cost savings that can be allocated to patients instead of being absorbed by technocracy. Nicole Kleinstreuer, Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, emphasized that MAHA translates to better health outcomes for Americans by shifting the NIH and other agencies to investigate environmental pollution, lifestyle choices, and other factors that will make a difference. Calley Means, an advisor to Kennedy on health policy, enthusiastically shared that MAHA is about people from across political and professional spectrums “coming together to improve health.”

Marty Makary, Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the FDA, shared numerous examples of how government research is being improved to seek enormous medical gains rather than incremental advances. He announced that animal testing has been eliminated, approval processes are being streamlined, and transparency is increasing to create the FDA of the future, in which “the goal is the end of the medicalization of everyday life.”

‘Food Babe’ Vani Hari shared similar optimism, relating how a grassroots petition demanding Kellogg Company improve breakfast cereal quality evolved into a MAHA movement that Secretary Kennedy took to the campaign trail, which included Democrats and Republicans alike, because, she said, “we all eat.”

The MAHA movement has never been solely about vaccines, despite mainstream media’s efforts to label it as such. The MAHA Summit demonstrated that the movement is a broad tent encompassing not only vaccines and diet, but also tech innovation, AI, and the recruitment of industry actors as allies rather than adversaries. Food dyes were eliminated by appealing to companies to step up, and many more companies have agreed to join what is essentially a private-public cooperative effort.

One of the most hotly anticipated and attended events during the one-day Summit was a fireside chat featuring Secretary Kennedy hosting Vice President JD Vance for about fifteen minutes of dialogue about the MAHA movement and its implications. In response to Kennedy’s at times playful probing, the Vice President expressed what he sees as the potent force behind the MAHA movement:

“... I just love that Bobby’s put together a team of people who are not terrified to think about things in new and different ways…. [Y]our team is willing to ask questions that people in government haven’t been asking in a long time and if you think about how unhealthy the American population has gotten in the past twenty or thirty years, you’re not gonna fix that problem unless you have people at the table who are asking different questions than than the ones that were asked twenty years ago. …There is no way that this country is gonna advance unless we’re comfortable with people who are willing to challenge orthodoxy.”

This is indeed what distinguishes the MAHA movement from other movements that have emerged in America: it is not bureaucratic business as usual, but grassroots impetus fused with intellect and courage. Dr. Oz has said many times (and repeated at the Summit) that the word that best defines MAHA is “curiosity.”

Contrast that to previous administrations. As Marty Makary observed, his predecessors at the FDA identified the agency’s number one priority as ending disinformation. Makary declared that his MAHA-inspired FDA’s number one priority is to deliver more cures and healthier food for children. Makary added that he and his team are, for example, discussing the gut microbiome not pharmaceutical interventions, and identifying environmental toxins to prevent cancers rather than focusing on developing new chemotherapies.

Dr. Makary proclaimed that the MAHA movement does not seek greater government regulation but rather societal change and that the system of allowing food additives that are Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) is being changed with better pre- and post-market review, in cooperation with companies. Makary also criticized ubiquitous Big Pharma advertising campaigns and explained that the FDA has issued numerous enforcement letters under existing regulations to restrict certain advertising and clarify disclaimers. He identified highly processed foods in children’s school lunches and snacks that make kids lethargic and distracted – and criticized the plethora of drugs administered to children when they cannot maintain their attention or sit still in class.

The MAHA Summit featured a broad swath of the curious, who brought fresh energy, innovative spirits, determination and courage. They didn’t come as conservatives or liberals. Rather, there were Americans, young and old, united by a sole objective: to improve the health of all Americans by challenging entrenched regulatory capture and bureaucratic orthodoxy.

Key Takeaways:

– The MAHA Summit on November 12 in Washington, DC, featured a diverse line-up of highly qualified MAHA voices from both the private sector and government agencies. Technology and AI featured prominently, focused always on improving health and the efficient delivery of healthcare services.

– The MAHA revolution is fueled by healthier food, more efficient government services, and a multi-disciplined determination to combat chronic disease while attracting more Americans, on both sides of the aisle, to join the revolution.

PLEASE NOTE: The MAHA Summit will be replayed today - live to tape - starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Watch live on MAHA Action YouTube, Facebook, X, and Rumble. No registration required.