AP investigation: Anti-science health legislation in states
More than 420 anti-science bills attacking vaccines, milk safety and fluoride have been introduced this year in legislatures across the United States, “part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law,” says The Associated Press.
The legislation has been introduced in most states, pushed by people with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., AP says.
“The effort would strip away protections that have been built over a century and are integral to American lives and society,” AP says.
About 30 bills have been enacted or adopted in 12 states so far, according to AP.
Experts say global vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives since 1974, milk pasteurization has saved millions of people from foodborne illness, and cavities have declined dramatically since community water fluoridation started in 1945.
But despite those successes, activists are spreading conspiracy theories, some dating back decades, that vaccines injure or kill large numbers of people, that pasteurization makes milk less nutritious and mainly benefits the dairy industry, and that fluoride is used to poison the population, says AP.
In its analysis of legislation, AP focused on these three public health issues, which have clear medical evidence behind them and are targets of the Make America Healthy Again movement.
AP searched 2025 legislation in all 50 states, analyzing more than 1,000 bills collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the bill-tracking software Plural on whether they undermined science-based protections for human health.
Most bills haven’t passed – some died and others are pending – but at least 26 anti-vaccine laws have been enacted in 11 states this year.
Most of the bills were supported by at least one of four national groups connected to Kennedy: MAHA Action, Stand for Health Freedom, the National Vaccine Information Center, and the Weston A. Price Foundation, AP says.
MAHA Action has been run by people close to Kennedy, including his longtime book publisher, Tony Lyons, and former campaign staffer Del Bigtree, AP says. Stand for Health Freedom was co-founded by Sayer Ji, who now advises the group and is a volunteer with MAHA Action.
The group Kennedy used to lead, Children’s Health Defense, sponsored conferences by NVIC and Weston Price, and Kennedy has been a featured speaker for both of the groups, AP says. When Kennedy purged the federal committee that advises on vaccines, he chose NVIC’s research director as a new member.
Here is more on how AP tracked and analyzed the legislation.
And here is another AP article on who is profiting from the push to write anti-science policies into law.
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