From butchered pronunciations of “acetaminophen” to nods to the Amish, the White House conference about recent medical findings regarding the roots of autism held on Sept. 22 was nothing short of a misleading, vaccine-hating dumpster fire.

The conference could only be summarized as an hour-long session of spewed misinformation, as President Donald Trump gave unsubstantiated medical advice that linked Tylenol and vaccines to childhood autism. In his speech, Trump warned against using Tylenol during pregnancy unless absolutely “medically necessary” and urged pregnant women to simply “tough it out.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, followed with similar sentiment — albeit a bit more conservatively than Trump — and, of course, went on his typical anti-vaccine tirade, despite scientists repeatedly debunking a link to autism.

When Trump and Kennedy noted a meteoric rise in childhood autism as one of the most “alarming public health developments,” they failed to recognize that the increase largely reflects increased societal visibility of autism and the establishment of a broader, more comprehensive spectrum system to facilitate more accurate diagnoses.

The “Make America Healthy Again” movement — now a federally backed commission — emerged in the biopolitical zeitgeist to address America’s ongoing health crisis. It was the brainchild of Kennedy, with his long-standing skepticism of current health practices, rooted in “revolutionizing” health freedom.

The issue with the MAHA movement is not its desire to reform our flawed healthcare system, but rather, its misunderstanding of how to do so to protect the most vulnerable people in our country.

MAHA appeals to followers by pointing out offensively obvious flaws within the U.S. healthcare system and providing analyses that fall short, serving up half-baked truths to lend a faint degree of validity. By doing so, it creates illusions of political expertise to fool the media illiterate.

If one were to ask MAHA’s demographic of seed oil-hating moms and carnivore-diet finance bros, they would be quick to point out that, despite spending two times as much per capita on healthcare among developed nations, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy, prioritizing bills over adequate treatment.

This much is true. Where MAHA supporters’ arguments begin to derail is with their disdain toward life-saving prescriptions in favor of unsubstantiated holistic medicine methods, such as raw milk.

Proponents of MAHA cherry-pick studies to bridge their wellness agenda with health governance, ignoring any evidence that doesn’t coalesce with their narrative.

MAHA supporters employ anti-establishment narratives to justify federal cuts in the name of wellness — this was made clear with Trump’s July 4 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut federal spending on health insurance coverage, including slashing $536 billion from Medicare services.

70 million people in the U.S. rely on Medicaid, 2.9 million of whom are Angelenos — that’s 21% of America’s poorest, most vulnerable people losing their health insurance. Even 27% of USC’s student body identifies as low income, according to USC’s Financial Aid website, experiencing the ripple effects of these detrimental policy shifts.

Los Angeles, in particular, bears the brunt of the U.S.’ prejudiced healthcare system, with individuals in the county owing over $2.9 billion in medical debt, driving low-income residents into a perpetual cycle of financial burden and economic disparity.

MAHA isn’t looking to expand healthcare access at all — it’s helping wealthy people avoid paying taxes on emblems of upper-class wellness by siphoning money away from programs like Medicaid into Health Savings Account coverage. By doing so, healthcare becomes an even more expensive commodity exclusive to higher classes.

Make America Great Again’s intention with MAHA was never truly to make America healthy again; it was about further privatizing healthcare, fusing it with the wellness industry and serving wealthy politicians and figures like Kennedy and U.S. Surgeon General nominee Casey Means. Meanwhile, MAGA simultaneously seeks to leave low-income Americans out to dry. At its best, MAHA offers empty promises; at its worst, it is a means of reinforcing classism.

If Americans truly wish to “Make America Healthy Again,” they must tear down barriers to healthcare access altogether, especially for those undermined by our systems, and guarantee universal healthcare for all. We must relentlessly question systems that no longer serve us and demand substantial reform so they equitably benefit everyone. To have an America that is healthy, we must first have an America that can simply live.