“When MAHA Met Mercury—Corporate Capture Masquerading as Health Revolution” - 16 November 2025

Mōrena Aotearoa,

Ko wai te tangata kia rere ure ki te pae tapu o Hawaiki?

He tangata kia toa, he tane.
Who is the person to put himself in the forefront of battle?

A brave man, a warrior.

The mask slips on November 14, 2025. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic turned Health and Human Services Secretary, deploys a curious phrase to defend Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff: “chaos agents“. When physician Mary Talley Bowden—a notorious ivermectin promoter who lost her Houston Methodist privileges for spreading COVID-19 disinformation and was later reprimanded by the Texas Medical Board—responds that “calling dissenters ‘chaos agents’ is a CIA tactic“, she accidentally reveals the game. Cui malo? Who benefits from the chaos?

Not whānau. Not the vulnerable. Not those crushed by America’s for-profit healthcare industrial complex. The beneficiaries are corporate lobbying firms, pharmaceutical giants, and a movement that weaponizes legitimate health concerns to advance a reactionary, anti-science agenda that threatens collective wellbeing while enriching insiders.

This is the story of how Mercury Public Affairs—whose client roster reads like a MAHA nightmare (Pfizer, Swisher International, Kellogg’s, Kraft-Heinz, Nestlé)—placed its co-chair at the apex of American power, while Kennedy purges Trump loyalists who dare to maintain scientific integrity, all under the banner of “Make America Healthy Again.”

Background: The Whakapapa of Betrayal

Te Kauwae Runga: The Unseen Realm

Mercury Public Affairs operates as a bipartisan bridge between corporate power and government policy. Susie Wiles, its co-chair from 2022 to 2024, maintained her position throughout Trump’s campaign. She lobbied Congress on “FDA regulations” for Swisher International—a tobacco company that paid Mercury $120,000 between 2023 and early 2024. Mercury counts among its clients the pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer, alongside junk food manufacturers whose products Kennedy explicitly vows to remove from school lunches.

Wiles did not sever ties with Mercury until after November 7, 2024—the day Trump named her Chief of Staff. By third quarter 2025, Mercury reported $6.8 million in lobbying revenue, more than double its revenue from the previous year.

HHS Leadership Purge Timeline: Three major personnel terminations under RFK Jr in 2025

Te Kauwae Raro: The Tangible Realm

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as HHS Secretary on February 13, 2025, by a narrow 52-48 Senate vote. He inherited a department with 80,000 employees and a $3 trillion budget. His nomination followed decades as founder and chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit that saw revenues balloon to $23 million in 2022 before declining to $16 million in 2023—a $3 million loss coinciding with Kennedy’s presidential campaign.

Kennedy’s 38-year relationship with Stefanie Spear—his former EcoWatch publisher, Children’s Health Defense communications director, campaign press secretary, and now HHS Principal Deputy Chief of Staff—forms the immovable center of his power structure. Former campaign officials describe Spear as Kennedy’s “safety blanket,” a “gatekeeper” requiring that “any appearance by Kennedy, even on an internal campaign call, be run through her”.

This creates the structural tension:

Trump’s White House inserted loyalists Heather Flick Melanson (Chief of Staff) and Hannah Anderson (Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy) to “tether RFK and Stefanie”. Flick Melanson served in Trump’s first administration under HHS Secretary Alex Azar as acting general counsel, acting secretary for administration, and senior adviser. Anderson brought extensive Republican credentials from the Senate Health Committee and America First Policy Institute.

Both were fired in July 2025.

The Purge: Bodies, Budgets, and Broken Promises

Kennedy’s first year demonstrates methodical dismantling of institutional resistance through serial terminations:

July 2025: Heather Flick Melanson (Chief of Staff) and Hannah Anderson (Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy) fired after approximately 150 days. Sources describe “internal disagreements” and conflicts with Stefanie Spear.

August 2025: CDC Director Susan Monarez fired after 30 days. Kennedy and Spear demanded she resign; when Monarez refused, they ordered her to fire senior vaccine policy officials “without justification” and pre-approve all Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations. Monarez testified to the Senate: “I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity”. Kennedy labeled her “untrustworthy”. Four senior CDC officials resigned in protest.

October 2025: Steven Hatfill, senior biodefense adviser, fired after 180 days. Hatfill, a hydroxychloroquine advocate who influenced Kennedy’s cancellation of $500 million in mRNA vaccine research contracts, was dismissed for “misrepresenting his authority” and “not coordinating policy-making with leadership”. Hatfill claimed his firing was “part of a coup to displace Mr. Kennedy”—a claim that HHS chief of staff Matt Buckham flatly denied: “terminating an employee for cause does not equate to a coup”.

June 2025: Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—medical and public health experts developing vaccine recommendations—replacing them with his own appointees, some with histories of vaccine skepticism. Dr. Marcus Brewer, a fired ACIP member, told media: “All of us heard about it through an editorial in the Wall Street Journal... It was shocking”.

Workforce Decimation and Infrastructure Collapse

HHS workforce reduced by 20,000 through layoffs, early retirements, and buyouts. Administration for Children and Families staffing cut from 2,400 to 1,500. Five out of ten HHS regional offices—covering over 20 states—closed without notice to employees or local providers. Head Start regional staff fired en masse. Social Services Block Grant distribution staff—managing $1.7 billion annually for child welfare, foster care, adoption, day care, counseling, and disability services—dismissed entirely.

The Public Health Crisis

Measles cases reached 1,300 across 40 states by August 2025, the highest in 33 years. An Associated Press investigation found over 420 anti-science and anti-vaccine bills introduced in statehouses nationwide, pushed by groups tied to Kennedy and MAHA. Cases of whooping cough made comebacks as vaccination rates fell.

Tikanga violation: Kennedy promised Senator Bill Cassidy he would not interfere with vaccine policy, would accept ACIP recommendations, and would not remove government statements that vaccines don’t cause autism. He broke every promise.

HHS Power Dynamics: MAHA Loyalists vs Trump Administration Appointees

The MAHA Machine: Follow the Money, Name the Names

Make America Healthy Again emerged in August 2024 when Kennedy endorsed Trump. The slogan instantly spawned infrastructure:

MAHA Alliance: Super PAC raising $50 million, managed by Children’s Health Defense donors and staff.

MAHA Action: Led by Del Bigtree, CEO of Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), an anti-vaccine group that paid him $234,000 in 2023. ICAN brought in $23 million in 2023, a 74% increase, allocating nearly $17 million to legal disputes and anti-vaccine advocacy. Bigtree’s companies received $350,000 from Kennedy’s 2023-2024 campaign and $184,000 from MAHA Alliance in October-December 2024. Bigtree served as Kennedy’s communications director before leading MAHA Action.

MAHA Institute: Launched May 2025 as a Washington, D.C. policy and advocacy organization. Co-chaired by Tony Lyons (publisher) and Mark Goodwin. Leadership includes Mary Holland (CEO of Children’s Health Defense), Zen Honeycutt (Moms Across America), and Matt Connor (Bravery for Choice). The Institute’s six pillars: encouraging state-level MAHA initiatives, providing expert support to officials, connecting HHS with “experienced personnel,” supporting MAHA policy specialists, amplifying Trump and Kennedy successes, and fundraising for the national movement.

Children’s Health Defense: Founded by Kennedy in 2016, revenues grew from $1.1 million (2017) to $6.8 million (2020), $16 million (2021), and $23 million (2022). Kennedy earned $510,000 in 2022 and $326,000 for 15 weeks in 2023 before taking leave for his presidential campaign. The group now funds a lawsuit against Kennedy—in his capacity as HHS Secretary—for failing to create a childhood vaccine safety task force.

These entities form a self-reinforcing ecosystem where Kennedy’s closest allies profit from promoting anti-vaccine narratives while Kennedy wields federal power to legitimize those narratives. Cui bono?

The Revolving Door: Mercury, Pfizer, and the Lobbyist-in-Chief

Susie Wiles’ Mercury Public Affairs represents the pharmaceutical and food industries Kennedy publicly vows to dismantle. Yet Kennedy defends her as MAHA’s “best friend in Washington”.

The Evidence

Mercury’s client list includes Pfizer, whose COVID-19 vaccines Kennedy spent years attacking. Wiles lobbied for Swisher International on “FDA regulations” while running Trump’s campaign. Mercury lobbies for Kellogg’s, Kraft-Heinz, and Nestlé—junk food manufacturers whose ultra-processed products Kennedy pledges to remove from school lunches.

Mercury’s lobbying revenue more than doubled from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025, reaching $6.8 million. The firm hired 87 clients in 2025 for $5.6 million through mid-year. Wiles’ daughter Katie was promoted to lead Continental Strategy—whose biggest client is Swisher International’s parent company Hay Island Holding, which paid $135,000 in 2024—the day after her mother became Chief of Staff.

September 2025: Trump and Pfizer announced a deal to lower drug prices. Kennedy praised the deal: “No family should ever be forced to choose between filling a prescription and putting food on the table”.

Susie Wiles’ Corporate Clients: Mercury Public Affairs Lobbying Conflicts with MAHA Mission

This is not reform. This is regulatory capture wearing a MAGA hat.

Analysis: Mātauranga Māori Exposes the Contradictions

Whanaungatanga—Collective Relationships

MAHA rhetoric emphasizes “health freedom” and parental choice. Mary Holland of Children’s Health Defense states: “We oppose all medical mandates... It really should be between the parents, the child and their health care practitioners”.

But individualism weaponized against collective immunity destroys whanaungatanga. Measles, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable diseases do not respect “parental choice”—they attack the vulnerable: infants too young for vaccination, immunocompromised children, pregnant women. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric contributed to Samoa’s 2019 measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children.

In June 2019, Kennedy visited Samoa to meet with local anti-vaccination activists including Taylor Winterstein and Edwin Tamanese, whom he called a “medical freedom hero”. Kennedy also discussed vaccines with then-Prime Minister Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi, and campaigned against the vaccine on social media. By October 2019, only 31% of Samoan infants had received the measles vaccine, falling from as high as 90% in 2013.

When the outbreak exploded, Kennedy sent an extraordinary four-page letter to the Samoan prime minister suggesting that the measles vaccine itself might be the true cause of the crisis. During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy falsely claimed: “Eighty-three people died. When tissue samples were sent to New Zealand, most of those people did not have measles”.

Samoa’s Director General of Health, Aiono Professor Dr. Alec Ekeroma, called this “a complete lie”. He told media: “There was only one post mortem—no tissues were sent to New Zealand for the rest of the deaths in Samoa, because it was not necessary, because it was obvious these people died from measles”. The Ministry of Health confirmed blood samples or swabs sent early during the outbreak confirmed the Samoa outbreak had the same measles strain as New Zealand. Ekeroma was scathing: “I think this would be a disaster for public health in the world”.

At least 20% of babies aged six to 11 months contracted measles. One in 150 babies died.

This is the consequence when individualism masquerading as “freedom” destroys collective immunity. The whakapapa of harm: corporate-funded misinformation → vaccine hesitancy → outbreak → 83 dead children. Kennedy’s hands are not clean.

Manaakitanga—Care and Hospitality

The MAHA Institute, led by Mary Holland (formerly Professor at NYU School of Law, now CEO of Children’s Health Defense) and Zen Honeycutt (founder of Moms Across America), claims to care for children’s health.

Yet manaakitanga requires evidence-based care, not pseudoscience. Vitamin A supplementation can reduce measles mortality in children with deficiency, but it does not prevent measles infection or transmission. Harvard’s Christopher Sudfeld, associate professor of global health and nutrition, states unequivocally: “Vitamin A supplements will not prevent people from getting measles. Only vaccination does that”.

During Samoa’s outbreak, anti-vaccination groups sent boxes of vitamins, received by Edwin Tamasese, who opposes the use of paracetamol and antibiotics for measles patients. Virologist Ian Mackay told media that anti-vax rhetoric about vitamin A peddled on social media is “not correct”: “The only way to prevent getting measles—the disease—is to have the vaccine, and have both doses of it. It’s a safe vaccine. And that’s what works. That’s the only thing that works. No other personal medications or vitamin concoction or magical oil will prevent that virus from spreading. It’s only vaccination”[].

True manaakitanga protects the collective, especially the most vulnerable. MAHA’s “care” sentences children to preventable disease.

Kaitiakitanga—Guardianship

Kennedy claims to guard children’s health against corporate capture. The reality: his Children’s Health Defense lost $3 million in 2023, yet Kennedy personally extracted $326,000 for 15 weeks of work before his presidential campaign. Del Bigtree’s ICAN brought in $23 million in 2023, paying Bigtree $234,000, while allocating nearly $17 million to legal disputes—not health programs.

This is not kaitiakitanga. This is profiteering.

Wairuatanga—Spirituality and Life Force

MAHA weaponizes spiritual language—”medical freedom,” “health freedom,” “natural immunity”—to obscure material harm. Kennedy falsely claimed vaccines cause autism during a 2023 Fox News appearance, a claim repeatedly disproven. He has falsely claimed the 1918 influenza pandemic and HIV originated with vaccine research. He repeatedly touted misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Wairuatanga honors life force. Kennedy’s misinformation extinguishes it—83 dead Samoan children, 1,300 U.S. measles cases in 2025, countless preventable hospitalizations.

Kotahitanga—Unity and Collective Action

The MAHA movement fractures public health consensus. Kennedy’s firing of all 17 ACIP members destroyed institutional memory and expertise. Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a Stanford professor of global health and infectious diseases who was fired, stated: “When you remove an entire committee, you’ve left no institutional memory, no institutional history”.

One just-dismissed ACIP member told CNN: “I’ve never seen anything this damaging to public health happen in my lifetime. I’m shocked. It’s pretty brazen. This will fundamentally destabilise vaccination in America”.

Kotahitanga requires truth. Kennedy’s administration operates on lies.

Rangatiratanga—Self-Determination and Sovereignty

True rangatiratanga empowers communities with accurate information to make informed decisions. MAHA restricts choice through disinformation. Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to confirm Kennedy, stated: “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion”.

Kennedy’s broken promises to Cassidy—that he would not interfere with vaccine policy, would accept ACIP recommendations, and would not remove government statements that vaccines don’t cause autism—constitute betrayal of democratic process. Rangatiratanga denied.

Aroha—Love and Compassion

Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a physician who helped vaccinate people in Samoa during the 2019 outbreak, told CNN: “Basically what he did is he scared that country away from vaccinations, and measles will kill young people. That’s what RFK did, and if he is confirmed as HHS secretary, what he will do is he will cast doubt on vaccinations programs across America. That will mean thousands and then millions of people will consider not getting vaccinated; we will not have herd immunity, and physicians like myself and paediatricians and all sorts of other health-care providers will see cataclysmic spread of disease”.

This is not aroha. This is negligent homicide at scale.

Hidden Revelations: Five Threads of Corporate Capture

1. The Mercury-Pfizer-MAHA Triangle: Susie Wiles’ Mercury Public Affairs lobbied for Pfizer while Kennedy attacked Pfizer vaccines. Yet when Trump and Pfizer announced a September 2025 deal to lower drug prices, Kennedy praised it. The “revolution” accommodates pharmaceutical profits when politically expedient.
2. The Nepotism Network: Wiles’ daughter Katie was promoted to lead Continental Strategy the day after her mother became Chief of Staff. Continental Strategy’s biggest client is Swisher International’s parent company, which paid $135,000 in 2024. Family enrichment through tobacco lobbying—while Kennedy claims to prioritize health.
3. The MAHA Monetization Machine: Kennedy earned $326,000 from Children’s Health Defense for 15 weeks in 2023. Bigtree’s companies received $534,000 from Kennedy’s campaign and MAHA Alliance. ICAN allocated nearly $17 million to legal disputes in 2023. Health freedom activism as profit center.
4. The Regional Office Closures: HHS closed five regional offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco, leaving 22 states and five territories without direct points of contact for heating assistance, child care programs, and Meals on Wheels. This wasn’t efficiency—it was deliberate dismantling of oversight capacity. Providers have no idea who in the federal government to call when they have urgent concerns. Chaos serves corporate interests when regulators disappear.
5. The Samoa-to-America Pipeline: Kennedy’s Samoa lies—claiming tissue samples showed deaths weren’t from measles—mirror his U.S. strategy. Anti-vaccine activists falsely blamed Texas measles cases on the vaccine itself, echoing Kennedy’s Samoa claims. The playbook: sow doubt, blame vaccines, profit from fear, repeat.

Implications: Quantified Harm and Threatened Mana

Public health collapse: 1,300 measles cases across 40 states by August 2025—the highest in 33 years. CDC workforce reduced by 20,000. Five regional offices closed, affecting 22 states and five territories. $1.7 billion in Social Services Block Grants—funding child welfare, foster care, adoption, day care, counseling, and disability services—now administered by unknown personnel.

Children at risk: Administration for Children and Families cut from 2,400 to 1,500 employees. Head Start regional staff fired en masse. Oversight vanished. Kennedy cut 2,400 CDC jobs while measles surged.

Scientific integrity destroyed: All 17 ACIP members fired and replaced within two weeks, with insufficient time for proper vetting or conflict-of-interest checks. Some new appointees lack traditional infectious disease or vaccinology expertise, with several having previously expressed positions inconsistent with established vaccine science.

Corporate profits secured: Mercury’s lobbying revenue more than doubled to $6.8 million. Wiles’ daughter enriched through tobacco lobbying. Children’s Health Defense, ICAN, and MAHA entities continue extracting millions while children’s vaccination rates plummet.

Rangatiratanga Action and Moral Clarity

The November 14, 2025 moment—Kennedy defending Wiles as MAHA’s “best friend” while labeling critics “chaos agents”—crystallizes the con. A pharmaceutical lobbyist sits in the White House. An anti-vaccine profiteer runs HHS. A 38-year loyalist controls access. Scientists are purged. Children die from preventable diseases. Corporate profits soar.

This is not revolution. This is regulatory capture in MAHA drag.

The path forward requires mātauranga-grounded action:

Iwi and community mobilization: Establish parallel vaccine advisory committees independent of federal corruption. The Vaccine Integrity Project, launched in 2025, represents this model—medical professionals creating trusted guidance when government fails.

Legal accountability: Children’s Health Defense is suing Kennedy for failing to create a vaccine safety task force. Expand litigation: sue for broken Senate promises, for Samoa’s preventable deaths, for dismantling child welfare infrastructure.

Economic pressure: Boycott Mercury Public Affairs clients until Wiles resigns. Demand universities divest from pharmaceutical companies funding anti-vaccine groups. Cut revenue streams feeding the MAHA machine.

Information warfare: Document and publicize every Kennedy lie, every broken promise, every child harmed. Samoa’s health officials called him a liar. Amplify their voices. Name names. Show receipts.

State-level resistance: 420+ anti-science bills introduced in statehouses—mobilize to defeat every single one. Strengthen vaccine requirements. Fund public health at state level when federal funding disappears.

Protect the vulnerable: One in 150 Samoan babies died. American children are next. Ensure universal vaccine access, combat disinformation in communities, rebuild trust through transparency and evidence.

Ko Ivor Jones te Māori Green Lantern. The Ring has traced the networks. The taiaha has sliced through lies. The evidence is irrefutable: MAHA serves corporate power, not whānau wellbeing.

Mary Talley Bowden was half-right: calling dissenters “chaos agents” echoes authoritarian tactics. But the true chaos agents are Kennedy, Wiles, and their profiteering network—sowing vaccine hesitancy, dismantling public health infrastructure, enriching themselves while children die.

Kia kaha. Ka tū. The mahi continues.