Opinion.
As American Republicans begin confirmation of their key departments including a known anti-vaxxer for Secretary of Health–Robert F Kennedy Jr., and as the White House strips massive funding for key health research and innovation programs (like cancer), it’s seems the current mayhem is not merely a part from the right-wing political playbook, but also a revelation on how way right-wing populists treat evidence and science.
Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/far-right-mps-fake-news-misinformation-left-study
“Higher levels of [populist radical-right] attitudes, trust in non-traditional media, reliance on social media for political information, & lower levels of education predicted a higher online exposure to disinformation.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736585325000127
This includes incredulous and harmful ‘health’ ideas that in fact are harmful including the ‘raw’ craze white conservatives are embracing randing from ‘raw water‘, to ‘raw milk‘.
This follows simple health care messaging that the human body doesn’t get ‘stronger’ with infection, rather it gets weaker, and any infection has a negative impact on the individual immune system. Although convincing individuals of widespread misinformation in highly political environments is difficult.
The cycle for conservatives susceptible to conspiracy theory is to mistrust traditional health officials in favor of conspiracy theories, accept the relentless messaging through propaganda, and repeat the process all over again for a new pariah. The cycle recycles every year with a new ‘problem’.
As public health and public health messaging continues to erode with right-wing politicians at the decision making table, it seems that even harmful ideologies touted as science, that harm conservatives themselves, won’t be enough to change the rhetoric on anti-science minds running the country. We’ll need something more, and another pandemic won’t do it.