Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
Some leaders in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement on Sept. 21 warned President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over their inaction regarding messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, including vaccines against COVID-19.
"While the centerpiece of the MAHA and health freedom agenda has been removal of mRNA shots, you have failed to take decisive action on this front despite overwhelming credible evidence to the harm of this technology," the activists said in an open letter to Trump and Kennedy.
"Instead, your policies related to mRNA technology are neutered and self-defeating, putting pregnant women and children at risk, misleading parents and eroding their rights, and failing to help those harmed by vaccines."
They added, "If you continue to ignore our central issue of removing the mRNA platform, the MAHA and health freedom movements will withdraw their support of you, and you will face the political consequences."
The letter came after Kennedy told supporters that it takes time to make change inside the government, and that officials under him are carrying out vaccine safety studies that will inform future developments.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Texas doctor, organized the letter. She has criticized several actions by Kennedy and the officials he oversees since he became health secretary in 2025 and heads Americans for Health Freedom.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and commentator Tucker Carlson, all one-time Trump allies who have fallen out of favor with the president, signed the letter.
Other signatories include Dr. Joe Varon, president and chief medical officer at the Independent Medical Alliance; Dr. Robert Malone, who was chosen by Kennedy to advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines; Leslie Manookian, founder and president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, which has fought vaccine and mask mandates in court; and Dr. Joel Wallskog, who was injured by a COVID-19 vaccine and serves as co-chair of the vaccine injury advocacy group React19.
The coalition took exception with how mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which Kennedy once described as the deadliest vaccines on the market, remain available for Americans. They also raised concerns about how the administration recently cleared an mRNA vaccine against influenza even though it was not tested against a placebo, which ran counter to a promise made by Kennedy that no new vaccines would be approved absent placebo-controlled trials. And they said there has been an "absence of meaningful help for those injured from the mRNA shots."
"The man who spent years warning America about mRNA vaccines now presides over a department that has approved another one," Malone and his wife, Jill Glasspool Malone, wrote in a blog post on Monday.
That is not a minor detail. It is the sort of contradiction that the medical freedom movement once would have torn apart."
Proponents of mRNA vaccines, including CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz, say data show they are safe and effective.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told news outlets in a statement that Kennedy "has been clear that he believes mRNA products warrant heightened scientific scrutiny."
The spokesperson added: "HHS continues to support mRNA research where the science shows promise, including for hard-to-treat cancers. At the same time, HHS wound down investments in mRNA vaccines for upper respiratory viruses because the technology does not effectively protect against infection from rapidly mutating viruses such as COVID and flu."