How deep will the anti-science MAHA invasion penetrate into Mississippi? Can beleaguered state health officer Dr. Daniel Edney convince legislators to stay the course on vaccinations, fluoridation, pasteurization and other science-based health policies?
Such policies face challenges by advocates of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda.
“More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law,” states an Association Press investigation published last week.
The news organization aligns Kennedy’s “health freedom” effort with profiteers. “Powerful anti-vaccine advocates and people selling potentially harmful goods are profiting from the push to write anti-science policies into law,” wrote AP. Other reports cite doctors’ reports of deaths and hospitalizations of patients who refuse vaccinations, abuse drugs like ivermectin and take medical advice from podcasts and social media.
The AP report listed Mississippi as one of the states where bills were introduced in the legislature to hinder vaccinations, water fluoridation, and milk pasteurization.
For example, Sen. Angela Hill and Rep. Dan Eubanks introduced bills to prohibit discrimination against individuals who refuse certain medical interventions and to allow the sale of unpasteurized raw milk to consumers.
Hill also introduced legislation to prohibit the health department from requiring water systems to fluoridate water. Rep. Randy Boyd introduced a bill to prohibit administration of Covid-19 mRNA vaccinations. Rep. Carolyn Crawford introduced one to prohibit health insurers from denying claims because the insured did not get a health department recommended vaccine.
AP reported many such bills garner support from four national groups connected to Kennedy: MAHA Action, Stand for Health Freedom, the National Vaccine Information Center and the Weston A. Price Foundation. AP noted these groups “send out alerts, organize phone campaigns, flood lawmakers’ inboxes and social media, hold Zoom calls with activists nationwide, and send members to testify in statehouses.”
None of the above Mississippi bills passed. But bills forthcoming for the next session may fare better given the MAHA push. These could include bills to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates, criminalize administration of vaccines, and designate mRNA as a “bioweapon” and prohibit its use.
Dr. Edney says he will stick with science-based health policies as long as he can. He told the Magnolia Tribune, “The Mississippi State Department of Health and the State Board of Health have a responsibility to give the best guidance and advice to protect our communities from disease through science-based strategies, including vaccination.”
Will our legislators stick with him?
“But evil people and imposters will proceed from bad to worse” – 2 Timothy 3:13.
Crawford is the author of A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.
