WASHINGTON — Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday praised HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s willingness to question established science and embrace unconventional voices in health care, saying that often throughout history, “all the experts have been wrong.”
In a fireside chat between the two men at the Make America Healthy Again summit in the nation's capital, Vance also supported Kennedy MAHA Movementsaying it is “an important part of our success in Washington.”
Vance's words show how Kennedy, whose destructive approach to public health agencies and long-standing vaccine skepticism have made him a polarizing figure among the public and in Congresswas hailed by the White House as a necessary force for change.
“Of all the specific initiatives that you guys have worked effectively on, the most important thing is that your team is willing to ask questions that people in government haven't asked in a long time,” Vance Kennedy said on stage.
The Vance-Kennedy meeting was broadcast live, but the summit was otherwise closed to the press.
Although President Donald Trump and Kennedy have been at odds on issues from COVID-19 vaccines to abortion, the White House has largely left Kennedy alone this year as he made sweeping changes to the agencies he leads, including laying off thousands of workers, firing scientific advisers and revision of vaccine guidance.
The Trump administration touted Kennedy's efforts to phasing out artificial colors in food products, wage war with ultra-processed foods and update national dietary guidelines. As health secretary, he said he wanted to find the root causes of chronic diseases and help Americans reduce their exposure to toxins.
Critics, including some of the country's leading medical associations, say Kennedy's disdain for established science is fueling public distrust of conventional medicine and that his views, once considered fringe, have been strengthened by his post as health secretary. Kennedy and his allies argue that their program is anti-science.
Vance nodded to the fact that many in Kennedy's network do not come from traditional medical backgrounds, and some have more business experience than health care. In fact, many of the health minister's close allies and new staffers have flatly rejected medical consensus on topics such as vaccines and treatments for chronic diseases.
“We have to feel comfortable challenging some of these old orthodoxies, and part of that is that we welcome people who are a little unusual,” Vance said.
Vance noted that Kennedy's interest in disrupting bureaucracy comes under a president with a similar mentality.
“That’s a good description of Donald Trump: He drives a bulldozer to Overton’s windows every day,” Vance said. According to Britannica.com, the Overton Window refers to “the range of policies that the majority of the population considers acceptable.”
The MAHA event at the Washington hotel came on the heels of another meeting in Austin, Texas, attended by several of the same participants: the annual conference of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group once led by Kennedy.
That weekend's conference, which featured Kennedy's wife, Cheryl Hines, as the keynote speaker, was more focused on immunization, with topics including “The Enduring Nightmare of COVID mRNA Technology” and “Understanding the Horrific Harms of Vaccines.”
Wednesday's packed room of Trump administration officials, biotech entrepreneurs, MAHA influencers and others included sessions on topics such as using artificial intelligence in healthcare, reversing aging, making food healthier and more.
MAHA Action, the Kennedy support group that hosted the event, said Trump's support for the movement marks a “decisive turning point in U.S. health care policy.”
“Today is an important milestone,” Tony Lyons, president of MAHA Action, said in a press release. “This is the culmination of a movement that has been 40 years in the making.”
