There is a “cultural shift” afoot with a growing number of Americans becoming more self-aware of different methods to address their health, Calley Means believes.

Means, a special government employee for Health and Human Services who serves as a health advisor to President Trump and Kennedy, attributes this trend to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, which has emerged since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office as Health and Human Services Secretary.

Earlier this month, Means noted that the shift is especially apparent in his conversations with medical professionals, including a doctor and friend who manages one of the largest dermatology clinics in the country that includes 1,000-plus physicians.

“She told me they have statistics where, five years ago, the average appointment was eight minutes long, and most people with skin issues would just listen to the doctor, get the medication, and go on their way,” Means explained during a guest appearance on the MAHA Action Media Hub.

“Now the average appointment is double. It’s like 16 minutes long. My friend was very frustrated with me and with the MAHA movement because she said it’s an outrage among the doctors in her practice that patients are asking so many questions,” Means continued.

Means noted that his physician friend said that around 80 percent of patients inquire about natural remedies for skin issues and natural solutions, and they ask about root causes, which the doctor admitted often result from food.

“We all feel we want to move faster on the policy level, but the federal government’s not ready for massive, fast change. This is going to be a 10-year battle,” Means said.

“The most important thing we’re doing is we’re giving people information, which is leading to more research and questions, and a demand for more change. That cultural shift will help accomplish the movement’s goals,” Means added.

Before it had an official name, MAHA was born around Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Kennedy became Secretary of Health and Human Services earlier this year and began to implement his agenda on issues including food ingredients, autism, and vaccine safety.

Since then, advocates, groups, and individuals have pivoted to helping meet “the greater desire for accurate information not tied to mainstream media so people can make the most informed decision possible.”

Tony Lyons and Mark Gorton were co-founders of the American Values 2024 super PAC that supported Kennedy’s presidential campaign. When Kennedy suspended his campaign and backed now President Donald Trump, the PAC focused on helping Trump win a second term and then advocate for Kennedy to get confirmed as HHS secretary.

Now, Lyons and Gorton spearhead the MAHA PAC, MAHA Action, and the MAHA Institute, which are designed to impact education and policy to complement HHS initiatives.

MAHA Action is working to promote the movement’s initiatives in states, including education about legislators’ voting records on MAHA-related bills.

“Politicians at the federal and state levels are seeing that voters are concerned about public health and are interested in electing candidates who are going to support decisions that improve the health of their families,” Lyons told The Epoch Times.

“We’re encouraging them to look closely at the policies that are supported by each candidate and say, you know, is this a candidate that you can believe in?” Lyons added.

For avid supporters, the movement itself is not new. It began long before Kennedy’s presidential campaign and subsequent confirmation as health secretary.

When Kennedy delivered a speech in August 2024 announcing that he was suspending his campaign and backing then-former President Donald Trump, he said that Trump was giving him the opportunity to help make America healthy again.

What followed was a social media frenzy with “Make America Healthy Again” and “MAHA” hashtags. An acronym was born.

As health secretary, Kennedy has a mandate to fight chronic disease, improve children’s health, and address corporate influence on government agencies. He has pledged to remove toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, increase transparency, improve vaccine safety, and make significant changes to the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—operating divisions within Health and Human Services.

These plans, along with encouraging Americans to grow their own food and buy meat and produce from farmers who do not use pesticides and toxins, are among the movement’s initiatives.

Krista Cobb, 41, illustrates the MAHA movement’s impact on Americans’ outlook on health.

Cobb grew up in rural southern Kentucky where “growing food and preserving food was a way of life.” After moving to urban Dayton, Ohio and living there for several years, she bought a two-acre property in St. Paris, Ohio two years ago and transformed it into a homestead where she raises turkeys, and egg-laying and meat-producing chickens. She said she plans to add goats and rabbits in the next year, and expand her garden to include medicinal herbs.

Several years ago, Cobb said, she learned about the “dangerous side effects of vaccines” and started using holistic medicines.

The last two years, as more awareness has arisen about chemicals and dyes in foods, and interest has grown in learning about the ingredients in food, Cobb has taken notice.

“More people are reading labels of what they find on grocery store shelves,” she said. “I want to be completely self-sufficient. If I don’t grow it, I want to know who grows it and how they grow it,” Cobb said.

“Make America Healthy Again has inspired people to return to our ancestral roots of raising our own food and getting our food locally from people we trust,” Cobb added. “We can’t on our own control what happens with Big Ag and Big Pharma, but we can control what we put in our bodies.”

Cows graze together on the farm of Derek and MaryJo Perry in Pelahatchie, Miss., on Sept. 24, 2025. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The MAHA agenda has helped shape the second Trump administration. Early actions have targeted ingredients in vaccines, artificial food dyes, and ultra-processed foods; and addressing what Kennedy has termed “the corporate corruption of government health agencies.”

MAHA Action focuses on educating Americans with “truthful” information the movement’s initiatives at the federal and state levels, Lyons said.

The MAHA Action Media Hub is one of the organization’s communication tools. The program airs weekly and features wide-ranging figures “who directly communicate with the public without censorship,” Lyons noted.

A call on Oct. 8 drew 5,000 influencers and included Means; Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and Gary Brecka, a biologist and anti-aging expert, among others. Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were speakers on Oct. 15.

Lyons told The Epoch Times that the media hub is focused on “counteracting the mainstream media response to the MAHA movement, Secretary Kennedy and his team.”

“Americans are inundated with information that is intended to protect the profits of big pharmaceutical companies and big food companies,” Lyons said.

“For example, the New York Times has published articles claiming that toxic food dyes are actually not so bad for you, that mercury and vaccines are not so bad for you, and that pesticides are OK,” Lyons added.

“Yet we suffer from such incredible chronic disease and have the sickest people on the planet, even though we spend three times what any other country spends on health care. We’re committed to reach people and arm them with accurate information,” Lyons said.

Sayer Ji, co-founder of the Global Wellness Forum and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom, is another frequent guest on MAHA Action’s Media Hub. He spoke to The Epoch Times before appearing on the Oct. 22 program.

Ji noted that he sees a “rapid change” where more Americans are questioning what they are told by health agencies about the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, and about “the safety of what we eat and drink.”

“Food is our medicine, not eating poisonous pharmaceutical derivatives and synthetic biologicals. Generations were brainwashed into being obedient about what they were told by Big Pharma and government health agencies, yet we are a sick and unhealthy country,” Ji said.

“I think people have finally had enough and know that changes must be made, in their own lives with how they eat, and the food and medicine they put in their bodies, and how our government health agencies operate,” Ji added. “What’s happened since Bobby Kennedy campaign, and what’s happened since he became HHS secretary, has opened more eyes about what they should do.”

Since Kennedy took office, and pro-MAHA groups have increased their presence, board rooms of major food companies are addressing the removal of chemicals and dyes in food and beverages, more Americans are reading food labels, and schools are looking into what they are serving children, Means noted.

Later this year, he added, there will be revised dietary guidelines which will involve an update to the food pyramid that Means calls “an ultra-processed food marketing document” because it emphasizes carbohydrates and demonizes meat and eggs.

“It still, to this day, says that added sugar for a two-year-old can help their diet. It still essentially demonizes meat and source of protein in favor of carbs,” Means said.

When the new dietary guidelines are released, Means said, officials that support Kennedy’s efforts are hopeful they have a similar cultural impact as the food pyramid from 1992.

“I think we can all expect this to take a strong stance on sugar. I think we can expect this to be welcome news for our farmers who grow vegetables, and our ranchers,” Means said. “We want to celebrate whole food – real food. Seventy percent of a child’s diet in the United States is from ultra-processed food. It’s 10 percent in Spain, France, and Italy.”

Jacqueline Capriotti helped manage Kennedy’s presidential campaign in New Jersey. She founded the Victory Garden Alliance and Health Revolution USA.

Capriotti’s Victory Garden Alliance originated during the final stages of Kennedy’s presidential campaign, when she encouraged supporters to plant Kennedy Victory Gardens. Now, through the organization’s efforts, Americans are growing gardens nationwide.

“The original Victory Garden movement during World War II was one of the most unifying cultural shifts in our history. Ordinary Americans became extraordinary citizens, each doing their part to feed the nation and strengthen morale. It wasn’t political — it was patriotic, practical, and deeply communal,” Capriotti told The Epoch Times.

“Modern-day victory gardens do the same for the MAHA movement by celebrating homegrown and homemade food, empowering families to localize their food supply, and honoring our American farmers,” she added.

Gorton said “there is a certain magic around MAHA” because it includes Americans from both sides of the political aisle.

 

“People are real believers and truth seekers. Vaccine injuries, abuse from the medical system, poisonous chemicals in food – it all impacts you whether you are rich or poor, Democrat or Republican,” Gorton said.

“At a time when our country seems so divided, our movement is a place where many Democrats, Republicans, and independents can find common ground because everyone cares about the health of themselves and their families.”