Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowing them to make more health claims. As Derek argues, this is what Kennedy has always been aiming for: shuffle as many alt-med products into circulation as possible while ensuring they don't need any of those pesky regulations pharmaceuticals must endure.
Show Notes
West Virginia House Bill 4760
Texas HR 7050
Supplements Are a $70 Billion Industry. RFK Jr. Is Good for Business.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA Movement Picks Up Steam State by State
With RFK Jr. in Charge, Supplement Makers See Chance To Cash In
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Supplements Grift Debate00:09:22
On January 22nd, West Virginia House Bill 4760 was introduced into the legislature.
Here's how it opens.
A bill to amend the Code of West Virginia 1931 as amended by adding a new article designated 3359A1 relating to health and requiring insurance to cover costs for dietary supplements and nutrition prescriptions.
H.R. 7050, which was introduced into the National House of Representatives by Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, fits a similar mold.
The Homeopathic Drug Safety Quality and Transparency Act would ensure that homeopathic products are exempt entirely from any regulatory framework other drugs have to go through.
So much for transparency.
If passed, the FDA would be explicitly prohibited from requiring pre-market approval for homeopathic products, which is the core mechanism by which the FDA evaluates whether drugs are safe and effective before reaching consumers.
The bill explicitly shields health claims from FTC false advertising enforcement and blocks private rights of action based on lack of clinical trial evidence.
So if you get fucked up from a homeopathic product, which is unlikely since they don't contain any active ingredient, although some do, there's no mechanism by which you can sue or hold the company accountable.
Sound familiar, RFK Jr.
This bill would call for the creation of a 10-member homeopathic drug product advisory committee with nine of the 10 seats going to homeopathic practitioners, manufacturers, and consumer advocates.
So basically, everything Kennedy criticizes the pharmaceutical industry for, he's opening the doors wide open for his buddies in homeopathy, which again, is complete nonsense the entire field because there's no plausible mechanism of action.
And then when there is minute amounts of an active ingredient, they don't have to be tested.
But now, if this bill passes, they can make all sorts of health claims and there's no way you can hold them accountable.
A year ago, when Kennedy was installed as secretary of HHS, I made two predictions.
One, that he was only being given the position if he were going to abide by Project 2025's deregulatory agenda.
And two, his tenure would be marked by the privatization of health care with gifts to the alt-med and supplements industries.
Over the last year, we've watched the first phase of the classic guru playbook play out in DC.
Maha has been breaking down its cult members and the American public broadly through fear conditioning.
Across numerous states and at the federal level, Kennedy and his Maha team have attempted to make Americans be frightened of fluoride, over-the-counter painkillers, GLP-1 medication, food dyes, seed oils, carbohydrates, processed foods, and of course, vaccines.
Now we're entering phase two.
Sell the solutions.
Make people scared and then say that you're the ones who can cure that fear.
And this legislation in West Virginia is the first step in opening the doors wide open for supplements grifters, as well as the legislation in Texas.
I'm just learning about this bill and read it this morning, though, at the time of recording.
So I'm going to focus on the West Virginia bill for this episode.
I'm Derek Barris, and this is a conspiratuality brief.
Maha is a supplements grift because, of course, it is.
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Now, let's get into it.
West Virginia Bill 4760 was introduced by House Republicans Adam Burkhammer and Evan Worrell.
Burkhammer is a businessman and politician serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates from the 64th District, where he's on the Health and Human Resources Committee.
He has adopted or fostered 10 kids with his wife.
And that's important because that's where the sort of Maha origin story for him begins.
One of their foster children apparently struggled with hyperactivity.
Burkhammer claims that they removed synthetic dyes from the family's diet and reported significant behavioral improvements.
So he turned that experience into legislation, sponsoring a bill to ban seven food dyes in the state, which became law in March of 2025, making West Virginia the first state to enact such a sweeping ban.
Since then, he's become a prominent figure in the state-level Maha movement.
My guess is that if this supplements bill passes, you're going to find a whole lot of other states introducing similar bills.
Evan Worrell works as a healthcare data analytics consultant and also chairs the House Health and Human Resources Committee.
He was a key legislative champion of the same food dye ban and has criticized state governor Patrick Morrissey for, quote, being worked over by the Beverage Association.
You might remember Morrissey from a joint press conference with RFK Jr. last year when Kennedy said, The first time I saw him, I said, you look like you ate Governor Morrissey in front of a live televised audience.
He then said he was putting Morrissey on a carnivore diet.
Now, Morrissey kind of laughed along a little bit, but yeah, good job, Kennedy.
Burkhammer and Worrell, along with other Republican members of the West Virginia State House, have introduced dozens of bills targeting vaccines, fluoridated water, and PFAS, aka forever chemicals.
Now, to be clear, I don't necessarily have a problem with the latter.
We do have problems with certain chemicals in our environment.
West Virginia was one of the first states to jump aboard the Don't Let SNAP recipients have soda wave, a block that took effect in the state on January 1st of this year.
While the politicians behind that move claim that they're going to replace soda with healthy nutritious options, I've heard much less about how they're going to mandate supply chain infrastructure reforms to allow for that to happen.
Governor Morrissey has stated they'll have access to healthy bundles of fresh produce, lean meat, and hot foods, though there's been no word on that actually happening.
Roughly 300,000 West Virginians, which is one in six residents, rely on SNAP benefits.
One quarter of residents live in areas that are classified as food deserts.
Which gets to the heart of the problem.
I'm pretty sure most Americans, regardless of political affiliation, want a healthy population.
As public health experts know, accomplishing that means addressing structural problems in society.
In this case, it would mean making sure those 300,000 West Virginians have access to those healthy bundles, then taking soda off their list of options.
To be clear, I'm not arguing whether that's the right move or not, but from a structural perspective, you first make sure the solution is in place, then you tackle what you perceive to be the problem.
But that's not how Maha works.
Kennedy and crew consider handshake deals with food companies that claim they're removing food dyes, and state legislation that bans products from state programs wins, when the actual win would be providing SNAP recipients with healthy bundles that they like to market about.
And this is all because Maha is really just a marketing operation.
I don't believe they have any real concern about infrastructure and supply chains.
Kennedy avoids all talk of the social determinants of health.
When asked about socialized medicine, he toes the Republican line that people want choice, which is an absurd punt since we could create a system where people both have access to healthcare no matter their income level and they have a choice in who they want to see.
The will just isn't there in a deregulatory administration though.
Supplements and Immune Function00:04:38
That's because it's antithetical to their goal of privatizing as many aspects of healthcare as possible.
Which again brings us to Bill 4760.
The following graph really jumps out at me.
Nutritional wellness and prevention means nutritional measures and products, including dietary supplements whose primary purposes are to enhance health, improve nutritional intake, strengthen the immune system, cleanse the body of toxins, address specific health needs and aid in resisting disease, nutritional and dietary counseling, and nutrition prescriptions.
All this sounds like it was written by a wellness influencer, not someone who takes science and medicine seriously.
First, the idea that supplements strengthen the immune system.
According to the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, only certain vitamins and minerals show very modest effects in specific populations, with a caveat that I'll get to in a moment.
So let's go through the three that they've identified as showing some sort of efficacy.
Vitamin D, very popular one, of course.
Clinical evidence shows supplementation reduces the risk of common cold and acute respiratory infections by 5% overall, with an 18% reduced risk among men, but no significant effect among women.
A British medical journal meta-analysis of 25 trials found vitamin D supplementation was protective against acute respiratory infections with the greatest benefits in people with the lowest vitamin D levels.
Vitamin C, the effects are modest.
Supplementation shortened cold symptom duration by 9% and was more effective in people with low vitamin C status.
Do you notice a theme here?
I mean, this makes sense because it's a supplement.
So if you're deficient in vitamin D or vitamin C, of course it's going to work for you.
And then there's zinc.
Studies show zinc supplementation shortens diarrhea duration by about a half a day in children over six months.
This was studied primarily in Asian countries with high zinc deficiency rates.
So if you're deficient in something and you supplement, oh my God, it might actually help you.
But for the general population, as the saying goes, it's probably just expensive piss.
Here's the caveat.
Harvard Medical School has found there's no evidence these supplements help in fighting disease.
The very idea of boosting the immune system is flawed because the immune system is finely tuned already.
While some supplements and preparations alter immune function components, there's no evidence they bolster immunity to the point where you're better protected against infection and disease.
That's not big pharma refusing to test supplements as so many wellness influencers like to claim.
This comes from decades of clinical evidence.
At least there's some hints of truth when it comes to immune system strengthening.
Then we can cleanse the body of toxins, which is just influencers speaking nonsense.
This is pure marketing language.
It has no scientific basis.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which is literally an organization started to try to appease people who wanted to study alt med, they published a 2015 review that concluded there was no compelling research to support the use of detox diets for weight management or eliminating toxins from the body.
Johns Hopkins Medicine found that liver cleanses aren't recommended because they lack clinical evidence and don't reverse damage from overeating or alcohol.
Some supplements have even been shown to cause liver injury.
The University of Chicago's hepatology department found that there are very few, if any, well-designed scientific studies showing benefit to detox supplements.
It's ironic that wellness influencers always think that big pharma is hiding this evidence because if there was clinical proof, drug companies would probably be making trillions of dollars on them at this point.
Your liver naturally eliminates toxins and waste through bile and urine, so regardless of liver function, it doesn't need anything extra to function well.
Supplements and Liver Injury00:07:30
Your kidneys and liver already perform the functions necessary for detoxing.
The irony of all this is that there are ways that you can help your immune system and liver function properly.
They include eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, staying hydrated, getting good sleep, avoiding excessive alcohol, all the basics we've heard about forever.
But that's not sexy and it doesn't move products.
Instead, you get Kennedy calling supplements suppressed when they're nearly completely unregulated.
And now, through the Maha coalition he's built over the past year in state governments, he's about to open the door for a whole lot of his friends to make a killing by forcing insurance companies to pay for their products.
Here are just a few Kennedy confidants with a vested interest in this particular legislation.
Of course, we have to start with Callie Means, Kennedy's senior advisor who co-owns TrueMed, a platform that helps companies selling supplements, classes, and snacks become eligible for purchases with tax-free health savings account dollars.
Because he's classified as a special government employee, he's exempt from divestment requirements because, of course, he is.
Callie's sister, Casey Means, who is up for Surgeon General, she's earned more than a quarter million dollars from supplements companies via newsletter sponsorships, partnerships, and speaking fees.
Mark Hyman, whom Kennedy called his friend and partner on these issues for 20 years, runs Function Health, whose valuation skyrocketed from $191 million in June 2024 to $2.5 billion in February 2025, which just happens to be the month Kennedy took office.
He also has many supplements for sale on his website and through his podcast, he's always shilling for something.
Vanny Hari, the food babe, owns the supplement company Truvani, and she's appeared alongside Kennedy at press conferences, like when they announced the food die ban.
Kennedy called her an extraordinary leader.
Gary Brecca owns or co-owns 10x Health System.
They sell $133,000 light bed and oxygen machine.
They also sell 10 different supplements on the downline from a $600 genetic test kit.
Kennedy chums around with Brecca often.
He stated that at-home test kits and devices like continuous glucose monitors for non-diabetics should be more widely available.
So I expect plenty of products to be covered by insurance as well.
Paul Saladino, who did pull-ups with Kennedy at an airport and shared raw milk shots with him in the White House, owns Heart and Soil, an organ meat supplements company.
You have people like Will Cole, Josh Axe, and Roe Nutrition co-founder George Padilla, who are also closely aligned friends with Kennedy.
They all sell supplements.
Mark McAfee, who is the CEO of Raw Farm in California, has been in regular contact with Kennedy.
Kennedy asked McAfee to apply to be an FDA advisor on raw milk policy.
Now, as stated with Saladino, Kennedy is a big raw milk fan.
And remember, this West Virginia House bill is also for nutrition prescriptions.
So I expect raw milk will be covered as well, because of course it will be.
Speaking of, you have Sally Fallon Morrell, who is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
This is like the OG conspiracy theorist group.
They connected Kennedy with raw milk distributors and they've been pressuring him on creating raw milk policy.
Then there's the Alliance for Natural Health, which published a pamphlet entitled The Maha Mandate.
This pamphlet outlines how Kennedy can, quote, free supplements companies to make broader health claims.
Right, because they're not free right now.
Medical writer Arthur Allen covered Kennedy shortly after he was confirmed at HHS.
He writes, in fact, the FDA can't even require that supplements be effective before they are sold.
When Congress, at the agency's urging, last considered legislation to require makers of vitamins, herbal remedies, and other pills and potions to show proof of their safety and worth before marketing the products, it got more negative mail, phone calls, and telegrams than at any time since the Vietnam War by some accounts.
That backlash resulted in a 1994 law that enabled the dietary supplement industry to put its products on the market without testing and to tout unproven benefits, as long as the touting doesn't include claims to treat or cure a disease.
Annual industry revenues have grown from $4 billion to $70 billion since.
That law, of course, was Daesha, which was introduced by two senators who benefited from the supplements industry through lobbying.
That was 32 years ago, and there's more money.
I mean, there's a fuck ton more money to be made from what are virtually unregulated pharmaceuticals, aka supplements.
Yes, I know wellness influencers love to claim the naturalness of their products, but most of these supplements are synthesized in the same manner as prescription drugs.
That's part of their sleight of hand.
As the Wall Street Journal recently wrote about Kennedy's love for supplements, quote, Kennedy has said in podcast interviews that he takes a ton of vitamins and has trumpeted stories of people using vitamins to treat infectious disease.
In his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, which critiques the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he writes about a Detroit-area holistic medicine doctor who treated COVID patients in their cars with vitamin A, C and D, iodine, and hydrogen peroxide.
Look, earlier this week, Kennedy publicly stated that the keto diet can cure schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
It's on our social media feeds if you did not see it.
He cited Dr. Polland at Harvard, by which he likely meant Dr. Chris Palmer, not Pollen.
After extolling these completely unproven benefits of a keto diet, which is a high-fat diet, by the way, Kennedy said Americans need to eat protein.
Keto is a low-protein diet.
But why start making anything coherent at this point?
Kennedy failed his way to the top of the nation's public health infrastructure, where he continues to spread misinformation on a daily basis.
Besides, the crowd at that event started clapping when he said, eat protein.
I mean, who needs science when you got vibes?
And tons of state legislators are willing to do your bidding so your buddies in the private market can make a killing.