From the anti-vaccine movement and COVID denialism to the promotion of raw pet food, the wellness-industrial complex has repeatedly shown that its primary concern is profit -- not health. The result is suffering and death of animals and humans that could have been prevented.
In recent years, the $6.3 trillion global "wellness" industry has marketed itself as a viable, liberating alternative to conventional medicine -- promising empowerment, "natural" health, and personal control. It taps into public distrust of government institutions, the pharmaceutical industry, and mainstream medical science. But behind its polished branding and the flood of influencer endorsements lies a darker reality: This movement is no longer just peddling ineffective supplements and worthless diagnostics; it is actively undermining science-based health policy -- and putting human and even animal lives at risk.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the burgeoning crisis of H5N1 bird flu, a virus with real pandemic potential. While public health experts advocate containment, science-based regulation, and disease monitoring, wellness entrepreneurs and conspiracy theorists are advocating the opposite: less oversight and testing, more "natural" approaches, and policies that actively ignore or deny the threat.
A Dangerous Marriage: Wellness Culture and Political Power
The wellness industry's pitch is simple: Mainstream medicine has failed, and "natural" alternatives are safer, more effective, and more empowering. Its influencers vilify institutions like the CDC, FDA, and USDA, while simultaneously selling unregulated supplements, fake miracle cures, and pseudoscientific therapies. The goal isn't truth -- it's profit.
With figures like HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. -- who has built a career on vaccine disinformation -- assuming powerful roles in the federal health apparatus, we now face a dangerous marriage of fringe health ideologies and institutional power. One of Kennedy's most radical, but little-noticed, moves to date has been the near-elimination of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) -- a key agency responsible for monitoring pet food safety, zoonotic disease, and veterinary pharmaceuticals. This decision comes amid a global H5N1 outbreak that has already repeatedly crossed species boundaries and killed domestic animals.
Although the CVM is not widely known by the public, it is important -- providing, among other things, a frontline defense against viruses like H5N1 jumping from animals to humans. In addition to regulating veterinary drugs, it ensures that all pet food is:
Its gutting signals a retreat from science-based public health measures and a shift toward ideologically driven deregulation.
H5N1: Not Just a Bird Problem
H5N1, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, has long been a scourge among birds. But in the past two years, it has spilled into many species of mammals, including seals, foxes, cows, and most alarmingly, household pets. Last year, several indoor cats in California died after eating H5N1-contaminated raw pet food, and many more barn cats perished after drinking milk from infected cows. The mortality rate for infected cats can be as high as 50%.
And yet, the raw pet food industry -- which is expected to double in market value by 2030 -- continues to promote unpasteurized, uncooked products as "natural," "ancestral," and "biologically appropriate." These claims are contradicted by evidence from veterinary science and epidemiology. Raw meat and unpasteurized milk are not only nutritionally no better (and sometimes worse) than their processed counterparts, but they can also harbor deadly pathogens, including H5N1 and various pathogenic bacteria.
Wellness influencers push treatments like high-pressure processing (HPP) or freezing as "safe" and effective alternatives to cooking. But neither method inactivates viruses like H5N1, while pasteurization and thorough cooking do. By refusing to acknowledge this, the raw pet food movement is not just misinformed -- it is helping to sustain and spread a virus that could, with just a few new mutations, precipitate a human pandemic.
Pets, People, and Pathogens
The health of humans and animals are deeply intertwined. Influenza viruses, including H5N1, have genomes consisting of eight segments of RNA that can "reassort" -- swap genetic material when two different strains (a human flu virus and a bird or pig virus, for example) infect the same host simultaneously. The virus that caused the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic, also known as swine flu, arose that way. It contained a new combination of swine, avian, and human influenza virus genes and spread rapidly across the world, causing widespread illness, death, and disruption.
Infection in pets doesn't threaten only them -- it may also constitute a public health hazard. Animals shedding virus into their environments can infect humans, particularly in households with close contact. And the more hosts the virus finds, the more chances it has to mutate, evolve, and become subject to Darwinian "survival of the fittest."
But rather than treating the outbreak of H5N1 as an urgent scientific and veterinary crisis, wellness influencers are flooding the internet with dangerous disinformation - claiming that raw diets prevent disease, "natural immunity" can defeat H5N1, and vaccinations and public health controls are part of a sinister agenda.
The wellness industry profits by manufacturing distrust -- of scientists, doctors, and regulatory bodies. It stokes fears about "toxins," "Big Pharma," and "Big Food" that profits from "unnatural" foods. Then it offers costly "natural" alternatives -- raw pet food, homeopathic remedies, and immunity boosters -- that provide no real protection.
The data are clear:
What is less clear to consumers, unfortunately, is that many of these claims are not just insupportable -- they are actively harmful. And with growing political influence, the wellness industry now has a chance to shape policy in ways that could strip away the few protections still in place.
What Real Reform Would Look Like
It is tempting to dismiss the wellness movement as harmless lifestyle branding, but the spread of anti-scientific misinformation and conspiracy theories and the dismantling of science-based public health infrastructure represent a serious threat.
We do need health reform in the U.S. -- but it must be guided by data and rigorous scientific standards, not paranoia, propaganda, and profit. Here is what real reform could look like:
The Bottom Line
We've seen this story before: Distrust in science, fueled by charismatic figures and capitalized on by opportunistic industries, can lead to preventable suffering and death. From the anti-vaccine movement (e.g., measles vaccine) to COVID denialism, the wellness-industrial complex has repeatedly shown that its primary concern is profit -- not health.
Now, with political allies in power and oversight agencies in disarray, the danger is greater than ever. H5N1 is not just a veterinary problem or a niche debate about pet food; it's a flashing red warning light for how wellness misinformation can erode public health from the inside out. We cannot afford to ignore it.
Science, evidence, and regulation aren't optional -- they're the foundations of safety. And the longer we allow pseudoscience to guide our policies and weaken our regulatory agencies, the closer we come to the next preventable crisis.
Henry I. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Glenn Swogger Distinguished Fellow at the American Council on Science and Health. He was the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. Follow Henry on X @henryimiller