A different take: America's leading physician groups have long had beef with the USDA nutritional guidelines, for example, because they have been promulgated by the Department of Agriculture rather than the Department of Health. Tetraethyllead was known to be carcinogenic as early as 1924, yet it wasn't fully banned until the '90s. PFAS were known to be problematic for 30 years before they were limited, etc. One of the aspects of a free, democratic society is any number of special interest groups are legally permitted to bend the guidelines to their will and often succeed in regulatory capture. You've met the FDA. Are they pure-of-heart? They love to talk about thalidomide, just don't bring up rofecoxib.

The duality at the heart of the MAGASphere is the conflicting beliefs that (1) if we're in the government everyone will have to listen to us (2) government can't be trusted. There was this idea that putting RFK as head of HHS would make everyone toe the line, rather than dissolve the credibility of HHS. It's like these people can't even remember back to how much they hated Janet Reno, who was eminently more credible in her role than RFK will ever be. RFK can steer funding but he can't steer thought, and that harsh reality is settling in this time even faster than it did last time.