Vaccines Are Not Public Health: An Open Message to RFK Jr

With the recent appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a historic opportunity emerges to redefine public health policy

In this open message, OMNS Editor-in-Chief Richard Z. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., urges Secretary Kennedy to move beyond the vaccine-centric paradigm and embrace a terrain-based approach rooted in immune resilience, nutritional sufficiency, detoxification, and metabolic health.

In integrative and orthomolecular medicine, the “terrain” refers to the body’s internal biochemical environment-its nutrient status, redox balance, metabolic function, and immune readiness.

Strengthening this terrain is the foundation of lasting, non-pharmaceutical health.

🔑 Key Points at a Glance

  • 🧠 The vaccine debate is a strategic trap, keeping reformers locked in a narrow, pharma-defined battlefield. As Sun Tzu warns:

    “To win without fighting is best. Avoid what is strong. Strike what is weak.”

  • 💉 Vaccine-centric policies are inherently reactive-they will always lag behind emerging pathogens.
  • 🌿 Terrain-based strategies, rooted in natural biochemistry, are proactive-offering universal, non-specific, immediate protection through optimized innate immunity.
  • 🩺 Nutritional sufficiency, detoxification, and metabolic health are the real foundations of immune resilience.
  • ⚠️ Vaccine safety advocacy alone is not enough-it keeps us stuck inside the pharmaceutical paradigm.
  • 🧰 Vaccines are one tool-not the entire toolbox of public health.
  • 🦠 COVID-19 revealed the failure of a reactive model, and the suppression of safe, effective orthomolecular therapies.
  • 📣 Call to Secretary Kennedy: Step off pharma’s battlefield. Lead the public to higher ground-resilient, terrain-based health.

A Pivotal Moment for Public Health

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) marks a rare and historic opportunity to reshape American and global public health. For decades, Kennedy has championed vaccine safety, exposed regulatory corruption, and advocated for medical freedom.

As a clinician and long-time advocate of orthomolecular and nutrition-based medicine, I applaud his courage. But now, standing at the helm of the system he once critiqued, the challenge-and opportunity-is far greater.

The focus must shift.

The vaccine safety debate is not enough. Vaccines were never the foundation of public health- and they should not become its future.

The Trap: Vaccine-Centric Thinking

The current model is narrow, reactive, and dependent on an endless pipeline of pathogen-specific products. It does not build health, nor does it address the root question:

Why are people so vulnerable to infections in the first place?

By staying within the “safe vaccine”framework, even reformers risk reinforcing the flawed idea that health comes from a syringe. That is not prevention. That is dependency.

“He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.” – Sun Tzu

It is time to fight where we are strongest-on the terrain of true, lasting health.

The Real Foundation of Immunity: The Terrain Approach

Immunity is not built in a lab-it is built from the inside out. In terrain-based medicine, the terrain refers to the body’s internal biochemical environment: its nutritional status, detoxification capacity, mitochondrial function, redox balance, and immune readiness.

When this terrain is strong, infections rarely take hold. When it is compromised, even minor pathogens can trigger severe disease.

Key components include:

  • Micronutrient sufficiency – Deficiencies in vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, selenium, and magnesium are widespread and directly impair immune defense (1-10).
  • Low-carb, anti-inflammatory diet – Ultra-processed, high-carbohydrate foods disrupt metabolic balance and promote inflammation. A nutrient-dense, low-carb diet helps restore insulin sensitivity and immune regulation (11-16).
  • Detoxification – Heavy metals, pesticides, and endocrine disruptors weaken mitochondrial and immune function. Supporting detoxification and reducing toxic burden is essential (17-20).
  • Lifestyle optimization – Sleep, stress management, circadian rhythm, and physical activity profoundly influence immunity (21).
  • Orthomolecular therapy – High-dose vitamin C and D, among others, have been used successfully to treat a wide range of infections, including viral pneumonia (5,22,23).

Vaccines as One Tool-Not the Whole Toolbox

Vaccines have a place-but they must never be the entire strategy. Their pathogen-specific, lag-time-dependent nature makes them fundamentally limited.

In contrast, terrain-based interventions, grounded in natural biochemistry, are universally protective, require no waiting, and carry minimal risk.

The real question should be:

Can the human body recover naturally if given proper support?

In most cases, the answer is yes.

The Failure of Reactionary Policy

Vaccines are inherently reactionary. Development, testing, and deployment all take time-often too much time. COVID-19 proved this.

“Speed is the essence of war.” – Sun Tzu

By the time vaccines were widely available, the virus had already mutated and spread. Meanwhile, those with strong innate immunity-particularly high vitamin D levels and metabolic health-fared far better (10,24).

Yet public health ignored terrain and censored clinicians using vitamin C, D, and zinc. The result? Preventable deaths.

COVID-19 Should Have Been a Wake-Up Call

From the earliest data, it was clear:

Metabolic dysfunction, low vitamin D, and chronic inflammation were key risk factors (8,9,25).

Yet governments pushed masks, lockdowns, and experimental vaccines-while suppressing orthomolecular medicine.

Many clinicians-and myself included-published early alerts calling for orthomolecular interventions, only to face censorship and intimidation despite evidence-based intentions (7,26,27).

These therapies were-and remain-safe, effective, and scalable. The failure to deploy them was not just oversight.

It was public health malpractice.

A Call to Secretary Kennedy and HHS

Mr. Kennedy, your appointment is not just symbolic-it’s strategic.

Don’t stop at safer vaccines. Build a stronger population.

Please consider these actions:

  1. Integrate nutritional and metabolic therapies into infectious disease policy.
  2. Launching national campaigns to correct widespread vitamin D and micronutrient deficiencies.
  3. Fund clinical trials comparing vaccine-based vs. terrain-based strategies.
  4. Educate the public in immune literacy, not pharmaceutical dependency.

Conclusion: Rebuilding Health from the Inside Out

Mr. Kennedy, you have the courage, the credibility, and now the office to lead a real revolution in public health.

  • Don’t just fix broken systems. Build a new one.
  • Don’t just make vaccines safer. Make people stronger.
  • Don’t just win debates. Win the future.

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” – Sun Tzu

This is not just a better strategy-

It is the future of health.

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Comments (4)

  • Avatar

    Tom

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    There is no such thing as public health. Neither the HHS nor anyone else can ensure the health of ANYONE let alone the entire public. My health is personal, not for subjected abuse by the HHS and the crony medical mafia.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    solarsmurph

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    Great article, but somewhat questionable title.
    I am personally accountable for my health, not ‘primary care doctors’, not so called ‘local health health ‘authorities’, not governments, certainly not so-called global ‘health authorities.
    Before 2019 I had concerns the direction western medical systems were moving. Since Covid, when it was advertised on TV and Main Stream Media, that you shouldn’t do what you can to support your immune system, and to wait for ‘vaccines’ to arrive, what rubbish and arrogance.
    Local doctors are trying their best, as most went to their health practices to help people (note I did not say ‘medical practice’ as that implies their dependence on ‘medicine’ rather than health, but in order to keep their ‘license to practice’ they have to bow the local medical mafia rules.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Aaron

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    rfk is not on the peoples side
    just another script reading puppet s in the show

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Saeed Qureshi

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    Vaccines Are Not Public Health: An Open Message to RFK Jr. — A Rebuttal

    The medical community has a new trick. After decades of virus-vaccine failure, fraud, and public harm, some doctors are now rebranding under terrain theory. Dr. Richard Z. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., is promoting it. The motive is obvious: the virus narrative has collapsed under its own lies, so they need a new story to keep the funding flowing.

    Now they pitch terrain theory as a “new” scientific model — and are already calling for funding to run clinical trials comparing vaccine-based vs. terrain-based strategies. This is audacious. After decades of massive funding, they’ve delivered nothing but damage. Before they get another cent, they must account for their record: not progress, but failure on a historic scale.

    The rot runs deeper: the abuse of the word science. MDs and biologists call themselves scientists without training, understanding, or expertise in the discipline. They’ve hijacked science’s credibility to prop up their work while dodging true scientific rigor.

    Under “orthomolecular medicine” — which they claim is molecular-science-based — they now seek another badge of legitimacy. But this is still chemistry, a field in which most medical professionals are unqualified. The same people who botched virology, misrepresented vaccines, and ignored basic chemical principles now want to lead a “new” approach. It’s the same fraud — just rebranded.

    Authorities like RFK Jr. must not let this become the next fad without first forcing them to admit the catastrophic collapse of the vaccine model — a collapse rooted in their lack of scientific expertise. Terrain theory, like germ theory, rests on assumptions, speculation, and unproven models. If it truly worked, it wouldn’t need funding drives; the results would sell themselves. Instead, they peddle it to the public and governments for more money, promising nothing new.

    As a scientist with decades in experimental science — real science grounded in chemistry — my message is simple: separate science from medicine. Medicine should stick to clinical observation, symptom management, and prescribing drugs based on independently verified tests. Scientific discovery belongs only where full experimental criteria are met.

    The medical profession must be stopped from masquerading as science. The damage is already immense. What’s needed now is not another shiny theory, but accountability — and the end of this long-running fraud.

    Reply

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