The ‘Stop RFK’ War Room: How "Protect Our Care" Is Fighting to "Protect The Status Quo"

A recent Politico article, "Health Groups Aim to Stop RFK Jr.", reveals an intense, coordinated effort to block Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Leading the charge is Protect Our Care (POC), a group that bills itself as a champion of healthcare access and equity. But this fight is no ordinary policy disagreement—POC has gone so far as to create a “Stop RFK War Room” to organize its offensive. And while their public focus remains RFK Jr.’s controversial vaccine stance, there’s much more simmering beneath the surface.

POC’s all-out campaign to derail Kennedy’s nomination suggests a deeper motive. Why would a group ostensibly dedicated to expanding healthcare access feel so threatened by his appointment? The answer lies in RFK Jr.’s mission to uproot systemic corruption and tackle the chronic disease epidemic—a direct challenge to the pharmaceutical-driven healthcare system that POC’s leadership and allies are deeply entangled with. This isn’t just about vaccines; it’s about protecting a status quo built on profit, influence, and an uneasy alliance between regulators and the industries they’re supposed to oversee. Let’s take a closer look at why POC has made stopping RFK Jr. their top priority.

RFK Jr.’s Real Threat: Disrupting a Sweet Setup

RFK Jr. has made a career out of poking bears, and the healthcare-industrial complex is his favorite one to jab. His focus? Tackling the country’s chronic disease epidemic, which he argues is fueled by over-reliance on pharmaceuticals, poor regulatory oversight, and corporate capture of agencies like the FDA and CDC. Sure, he’s controversial, but it’s not his vaccine opinions alone that have organizations like POC sweating—it’s his insistence that the healthcare system is riddled with corruption.

Imagine someone walking into a five-star restaurant and suggesting that maybe the menu shouldn’t be written by the head chef and the food supplier’s CEO. That’s RFK Jr. in the healthcare world. He’s threatening a lucrative arrangement that keeps dollars flowing between Big Pharma, government regulators, and advocacy groups like Protect Our Care.

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Protect Our Care: The “Good Guys” (With Great Connections)

POC brands itself as the scrappy advocate fighting for affordable healthcare for all. And while that sounds lovely on paper, a quick look at their leadership and advisory board reveals a slightly different story. Many of these individuals are deeply embedded in the same systems RFK Jr. wants to reform. Coincidence? Hardly.

A Roll Call of Interests

1. Kathleen Sebelius: Former HHS Secretary and current board member for several pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, including Exact Sciences and Myovant Sciences. Nothing says “unbiased” like collecting paychecks from the industry you used to regulate.

2. Chris Jennings: A health policy veteran who’s advised presidents and consulted for stakeholders entrenched in the healthcare status quo. If there’s a table where reform meets resistance, Jennings has probably set the placemats.

3. Kirk Adams: SEIU Healthcare bigwig with a history of championing ACA reforms that conveniently keep pharmaceutical dollars circulating.

4. Andy Slavitt: Former Medicare and Medicaid head who now chairs organizations like Town Hall Ventures, investing in—you guessed it—the healthcare sector.

The pattern is clear: these folks have one foot in advocacy and the other in the corridors of power where policy and profit mingle. RFK Jr.’s message of “cleaning house” at the FDA and CDC isn’t just theoretical to them—it’s personal.

The Vaccine Smokescreen

POC and its allies know a good diversion when they see one. Rather than addressing RFK Jr.’s broader critique of healthcare corruption, they zero in on his controversial vaccine stance. And hey, it’s effective! The media eagerly piles on, portraying him as an anti-science zealot. Meanwhile, his more substantive concerns—like why chronic diseases are skyrocketing or why the same people who regulate the pharmaceutical industry also take its money—barely make the headlines.

It’s a classic strategy: focus the spotlight on the part of the argument you can easily attack while the rest of the house burns unnoticed. POC and their partners get to keep the conversation safe and simple: “RFK Jr. bad; vaccines good.” The fact that his critique spans far beyond vaccines? Let’s just not talk about that.

The Money Machine: Why the Status Quo Must Be Defended

Let’s be honest—POC’s mission isn’t just about healthcare access; it’s about preserving the system that makes it all possible. Here’s why RFK Jr. poses such a threat to their game:

1. The Pharmaceutical Cash Cow

POC’s leadership has deep ties to policies like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which, while expanding access, also solidified the dominance of pharmaceutical-driven healthcare. Medications and treatments endorsed by Big Pharma are the system’s lifeblood. RFK Jr.’s advocacy for natural remedies and decentralized approaches could kneecap these revenue streams.

2. Regulatory Capture: Don’t Mess With a Good Thing

RFK Jr. challenges the symbiotic relationship between regulators and the industry. Organizations like POC rely on these partnerships to maintain their influence. If RFK Jr. succeeds in exposing or dismantling this arrangement, it’s not just Big Pharma that loses out—POC’s entire playbook could go up in smoke.

3. Reform Is Expensive (and Risky)

Real reform means shifting power dynamics, and that’s not something organizations like POC are willing to entertain. Why rock the boat when you can sail comfortably on the seas of predictable policy? RFK Jr.’s push for transparency and accountability threatens to shake their foundations—and nobody wants to lose their seat at the table.

4. The annual rate of death by FDA approved drugs.

The JAMA journal in the year 2000 published a report by Barbara Starfield of Johns Hopkins (Is US Health Really the Best in the World?) revealing the annual rate of death due to properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs to be at least 106,000 per annum. That makes pharmaceutical drugs the 3rd leading cause of death in America each year. This does not even include medical mistakes in hospitals. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/192908

Connecting the Dots: Protecting the Protectors

When you zoom out, the picture becomes clear. POC’s opposition to RFK Jr. isn’t really about vaccines—it’s about self-preservation. Their leadership’s connections to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries explain why his reformist agenda is so alarming. He represents a direct challenge to the systems and relationships they’ve spent years cultivating.

Consider this: If RFK Jr. were to shine a light on the conflicts of interest and questionable alliances that underpin U.S. healthcare, organizations like POC might find themselves in the spotlight too. And that’s the last thing they want.

The Media’s Role in the Show

Let’s not forget the media’s part in this drama. Conveniently aligned with POC’s messaging, hit pieces against RFK Jr. flood the news cycle. These stories rarely engage with his critiques of chronic disease or regulatory capture. Instead, they focus on his vaccine opinions, crafting a one-dimensional caricature that’s easier to dismiss. Expect many more attacks by the pharmaceutically dependent legacy media spotlighting any skeletons they can find in his closet to discredit him with the public. RFK Jr has already been forthcoming with past misdeeds in his younger years, many of which are already known from the attacks on his presidential campaign and subsequent alignment with the new non-partisan MAHA movement.

It’s a clever sleight of hand: while the public debates RFK Jr.’s vaccine stance (pro-informed consent), the real issues he raises—issues that challenge the very core of organizations like POC—slip quietly out the back door.

The Bigger Picture: Why It Matters

RFK Jr.’s battle isn’t just about his confirmation—it’s about exposing the tangled web of interests that keep American healthcare in a stranglehold. Organizations like POC, for all their lofty rhetoric, are deeply intertwined with the very systems he wants to reform. Their opposition isn’t about public health; it’s about protecting their turf.

So the next time you see a hit piece on RFK Jr., ask yourself: What’s the real motive here? Maybe it’s not just about vaccines. Maybe it’s about what happens when someone has the audacity to suggest that the healthcare emperor has no clothes.

And if that someone also happens to be charismatic, principled, persistent, and willing to take on the establishment? Well, then the emperor might just start to sweat.

Click here to Stand for Health Freedom and let your voice be heard in support of Bobby Kennedy’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services.