Between now and Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump and his allies will have the monumental task of appointing 4,000 people to staff his administration. Trump campaign surrogate and “Make America Healthy Again” flag bearer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears positioned to exert broad influence over who will lead the country’s healthcare-related agencies. He has already started recruiting nominees – albeit in an unconventional way.
It’s still unclear whether Kennedy himself will end up at the Department of Health and Human Services or elsewhere, making whoever he recommends an even more uncertain prospect. But that hasn’t stopped Kennedy from launching a web page to crowdsource potential candidates for government positions. So far, the people’s choices are standard MAHA fare from unconventional influencers, wellness entrepreneurs, and doctors with dubious claims to fame.
The public page, called “Nominees for the People”, allows anyone to submit names for consideration (there appears to be some screening to get a Boaty McBoatface situation). Kennedy announced the rollout in a tweet just before election day. Users can vote and comment on nominations, while moderators perform the more mind-numbing tasks of flagging incomplete forms and grouping redundant entries. The page uses an open source platform created by the company Discourse.
It is not surprising that many users want to see Kennedy in a leadership position, such as HHS Secretary. That idea seems fragile after that comments from last week by Trump transition leader Howard Lutnick. Nevertheless, if Kennedy really goes “out of the closet” on health, he may look to the people his supporters love, including doctors pushing Covid misinformation, prominent anti-vaccine influencers and others with grudges towards the scientific establishment. STAT has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment about the site.
Casey Means, the nutrition-focused functional medicine doctor, is a popular nominee on the portal. She is reportedly being considered for a job at the Food and Drug Administration, but STAT has not independently confirmed that claim.
Among the site’s top nominees is Simone Gold, who founded America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group of doctors that railed against Covid vaccines and protocols and made recommendations ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as Covid treatments. Large studies and meta-analyses could not support its use. (However, the surge in interest in hydroxychloroquine in 2020 made it difficult for many patients who had used the drug to get refills.)
Gold gained additional clout among her fans when she was sentenced to two months in prison on Jan. 6 for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol following Trump’s failed 2020 re-election bid. Earlier this year, Gold was reprimanded by the California Medical Board for his participation to the uprising.
Like many in the MAHA sphere, Gold also has a health-related business. In 2022, she started a membership-based wellness and telehealth service called GoldCare. “We provide a gateway to exit the Medical-Industrial Complex, eliminating government and insurance conflicts of interest, providing a path to wellness rather than disease management, and putting you in charge of your health,” the website says.
As of Friday afternoon, Gold had received 610 votes on the MAHA nomination portal.
The vaccine haters
Kennedy fans also support other doctors who have become famous for opposing public health guidelines during the pandemic. Some want their persecuted icons to ascend to the same public health titles that previously banished Covid deniers and vaccine skeptics – a form of poetic justice.
Pierre Kory is such a figure. He is chairman of the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance and promoted ivermectin before turning full-scale against vaccines, conventional medicine and pharmaceutical companies. His book, ‘The War on Ivermectin’, was published under Kennedy Pal’s publishing house Tony Lyonswho also started a pro-Kennedy PAC. Earlier this year, the American Board of Internal Medicine revoked Kory’s board certification for promoting misinformation.
Cardiologist Peter McCullough became internet famous as a Covid contrarian. He left his job as deputy chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center for a podcast and 1.1 million followers on should be top notch #MAHA priority over trans fats and fluoride.”
His McCullough Foundation does the work behind the scenes: producing a wide range of media, funding infectious disease research, advising lawmakers on policy and providing legal help in cases where doctors lost their jobs for spreading false information.
Sherri Tenpenny fits the bill as an anti-vaccine activist and osteopathic physician. She has promoted the unsupported idea that vaccines cause autism, gaining notoriety when she told Ohio lawmakers that Covid vaccines made people who received them “magnetic” and connected to cell phone towers. The Ohio State Medical Board revoked her license for failing to cooperate with an investigation. It was recovered quickly.
“It is an incredible honor to be nominated for positions at America’s Health and the Department of Health and Human Services,” Tenpenny posted on Instagram on Thursday, urging her nearly 70,000 followers to vote for her on the MAHA website. She continues to run an osteopathic clinic and sell supplements.
The wild cards
One contender that emerged seemingly overnight is the social media influencer Gretchen Adler. As the founder of Gretchy, Adler shares recipes and tips for following an “ancestral diet” – avoiding seed oils, artificial sugars, dyes and preservatives “at all costs.” She belongs to a generation of online “tradwives,” or traditional women, who use a soothing voice, elaborate cooking projects and an aesthetically pleasing environment to promote a return to domesticity. Nearly 700 people had voted online to appoint Adler to HHS as of Friday afternoon.
If Kennedy’s followers could handpick the new FDA leadership, it appears that Zen Honeycutt, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Moms Across America, would be their top choice. Nearly 900 users had voted positively for her nomination on Friday. Honeycutt’s group focuses on environmental toxins and has gotten Costco to stop selling the weedkiller Roundup. (Kennedy worked as a lawyer on cases against RoundUp maker Monsanto.)
Honeycutt promotes the use of certain diets to cure “food allergies, autism symptoms and asthma.” She has also appeared in videos by the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccination group Kennedy founded.
A final wildcard, Joel Salatin, says he has already been offered a position as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture. Salatin, a self-described “Christian, libertarian, environmentalist, capitalist crazy farmer,” has gained popularity in online welfare circles with his farming style. Kennedy has spoken about the need to invest in regenerative agriculture and small organic farmers.
In a blog post about the supposed job offer, Salatin criticized his enemies: income taxes, big agriculture, federal involvement in education, government lobbyists and public health officials.
“This is a turning point to look at our country’s sacred cows in a creative and serious way and make some serious burgers,” he wrote.
STAT’s coverage of chronic health conditions is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Us financial supporters are not involved in decisions about our journalism.