In fall 2024, Andrea Love, PhD, and Katie Suleta, DHSc, MPH, MS, wrote an op-ed for on how the growth of the wellness industry is a double-edged sword, offering both benefits and risks for public health. Now, with President-elect Donald Trump nominating unconventional leaders for U.S. health agencies, Love and Suleta revisited the topic to discuss their concerns for health and wellness under the incoming administration.
The sells a seductive premise: pursue personal well-being and empowerment by bypassing the perceived failures of conventional medicine. This narrative fuels a market of unregulated supplements, unproven tests, and vague diagnoses -- all sold under the guise of taking control of your health.
With the incoming Trump administration tapping individuals like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, MD, Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, and others to be in top health and science roles, we fear that the wellness industry could gain unprecedented power to shape public health policy, dismantle regulatory oversight, and institutionalize medical conspiracism.
Among these nominees are people who do more than just dabble in pseudoscience and conspiracies -- they are, arguably, its creators. We believe they are a threat to science-based public health and the very institutions designed to protect people from predatory, profit-driven wellness schemes.
When Medical Conspiracies Replace Scientific Evidence
Kennedy, a , has spent years about . During the COVID-19 pandemic, his vaccine-challenging organization, , capitalized on misinformation and brought in (2022). If Kennedy becomes HHS secretary, vaccination rates could plummet, potentially leading to the resurgence of preventable diseases like measles and polio. In fact, members of his team have already launched an offensive .
Beyond vaccines, Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement attempts to disguise his long-running war . Kennedy has stoked fears about and , spreading misleading statements and misinformation that undermines technologies critical for improving nutrition, addressing food security, and combating climate change. His rhetoric doesn't just harm public health -- it makes healthy choices, like , seem dangerous.
The Weaponization of Medical Credentials
While Kennedy's non-evidence-based views on scientific topics are well-documented, several of Donald Trump's other nominees pose a subtler but equally dangerous threat. Oz and Bhattacharya use their medical degrees to lend credibility to the misinformation and doubt they arguably sow in science-based medicine and public health.
Oz, of TV's "Dr. Oz Show," built his brand and much of his by promoting unsafe supplements, giving a platform to pseudoscience like , and touting other unproven health trends. More than he made on TV were false or lacked evidence. If confirmed as head of CMS, Oz's track record suggests he might prioritize unproven treatments and supplements over evidence-based medicine.
Bhattacharya, the potential head of NIH, co-authored the , which advocated for COVID-19 "herd immunity" through uncontrolled spread -- a policy that millions more. His rhetoric against lockdowns and vaccines has likely emboldened anti-vaccine activists and wellness influencers. If he leads the NIH, funding could shift from critical scientific research to studies amplifying unproven approaches or policies. Of note, Bhattacharya after medical school and .
Deregulation Fuels the Wellness Industry
The wellness industry's exponential growth is thanks, in part, to the (DSHEA), which limited FDA's power to require safety and efficacy testing for supplements. Under DSHEA, supplement manufacturers can sell products with , as long as they include a disclaimer that they're "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease," among other limited requirements.
This regulatory black hole allows for:
- Unproven Claims: Products boast vague promises like "boosts immunity" or "detoxes toxins" without evidence.
- Unsafe Products: The FDA can only act after harm occurs, leaving dangerous and on shelves.
- Consumer Exploitation: Passed by Congress as an , DSHEA handed a power and profit motive to the wellness industry and exposed the public to and untested products.
Trump's continued during his second term could drive wellness industry profits at the expense of public health, with . With reduced oversight over the wellness industry, safety testing for products could become more lax; more and could flood the market unchecked; or science-backed vaccines could become vilified.
Wellness Profiteering in Policymaking
The wellness industry's intersection with politics is deliberate: it uses the same tactics to appeal to those skeptical of the government. We view medical conspiracism -- that the government and their affiliates like "Big Pharma" and "Big Food" are suppressing health interventions to harm us -- as a central tenet of the wellness industry. The wellness industry often positions its products as altruistic, "natural" alternatives, arguing that regulation is a barrier to true health.
Anti-science rhetoric reinforces this message, portraying conventional medicine and public health measures as corrupt and untrustworthy. We believe figures in the Trump sphere, like Oz, Kennedy, and (a wellness industry entrepreneur and lobbyist), repeat and amplify this narrative. The Trump administration's focus on deregulation and anti-establishment rhetoric makes it an ideal ecosystem for wellness pseudoscience to become mainstream.
This isn't just a threat to federal safeguards, it's a direct assault on science-based medicine. Trump's nominees could and medical conspiracism, eroding public trust in health agencies, dismantling vaccination programs, and reversing in food and drug safety. This isn't just bad policy, it's a green light for pseudoscience to dictate public health, divert research funding, and strip away federal oversight. The result could be the undoing of decades of public health progress, putting all of us in harm's way.
Healthcare in America needs reform -- but handing the wheel to wellness profiteers isn't the answer. Real reform means strengthening public health systems, addressing systemic inequities, and holding industries accountable to rigorous scientific standards. If policymakers and consumers don't push back against the lucrative influence of the wellness industry, we risk trading a flawed system for an even more dangerous one -- one that prioritizes profit over safety, conspiracy over evidence, and pseudoscience over public health.
is an immunologist and microbiologist with expertise in infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity. She works full-time in life sciences biotech, is the founder of ImmunoLogic and the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, and writes a monthly column for Skeptical Inquirer. is a trained epidemiologist with a background in infectious diseases and health informatics. She works as a regional director of research in graduate medical education and is a science writer.