n February 2025, Robert F Kennedy Jr began his tenure as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with an unusual message for the federal department responsible for protecting public health.

America's greatest challenge, he said, was not just chronic disease but a "spiritual malaise", a kind of soul-sickness derived from America's moral decline.

"Spiritual and physical maladies thrive on one another," Kennedy told HHS employees in his first address. The solution, he said, "must begin with a spiritual question", of personal responsibility and inward vigilance against the dark forces that would keep Americans "sedated" and "compliant".

Weeks later, the White House moved to cut 20,500 jobs across the very agency tasked with protecting public health.

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