- Robert F Kennedy is president elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary
- RFK has a history of controversial statements and actions
- Trump has said RFK will help to “make America healthy again”
Robert F Kennedy has been nominated by president-elect Donald Trump to be health secretary in his new administration. But RFK is no stranger to controversy with his health views.
No stranger to controversy
The 70-year-old is the son of Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968. He had earlier run as an independent candidate in the US election, but then pulled out of the race and endorsed Trump.
Some of his health policies include removing processed food from school lunches and tackling America’s substance abuse crisis and removing fluoride from drinking water. He also wants to reverse the “chronic disease epidemic” in the US and get rid of the influence of ‘big Pharma’.
But RFK has caused controversy with his views on certain health matters in recent years, which is why certain democrats and some health experts and bodies have expressed concern over his potential appointment. Here are five times he has caused controversy.
Vaccines and autism
RFK and the Children’s Health Defense, which he chairs, have claimed that vaccines cause autism. He focused on vaccines that contain thimerosal, an anti-microbial falsely linked to causing autism. This was never used in certain vaccines, including the MMR or polio vaccines and has not been used in any childhood vaccines since 2001. He has also appeared with disgraced UK doctor Andrew Wakefield, who also claimed a link between vaccines and autism. There is no proven link between vaccines and autism. Kennedy has claimed that governments and the media are conspiring to cover this up.
Gender dysphoria
In June 2023, Kennedy claimed that some issues in children – including gender dysphoria – could be linked to atrazine contamination of water supplies. His reasoning for this claim was a 2010 study that said acute atrazine exposure causes feminisation in frogs. However, this was denounced by several publications and YouTube removed the interview from its platform citing its vaccine misinformation policy. Since this, Kennedy’s spokesperson rowed back on the claim, saying RFK merely thought there should be further research into it.
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy promoted various conspiracy theories, including suggesting Bill Gates would cut access to money for people who didn’t get the vaccine. He also promoted the conspiracy theory about Bill Gates and 5G phone technology. In 2021 his Instagram account was blocked because of his repeated sharking of claims about COVID that had already been debunked.
Food allergies
Kennedy has been linked to claims that the increase in food allergies in children is down to certain vaccines. His son has anaphylactic peanut allergies, but again no link between vaccines and the increase in food allergies has been proven.
Brain worm
Back in 2010, RFK started to experience short- and long-term memory loss, as well as mental fog. Two years later, in a divorce court deposition, he laid the blame for these issues on “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” He also claimed mercury poisoning from eating large quantities of tuna.
However, this claim has never been properly verified as his medical records have not been released.
Animal controversies
RFK is no stranger to controversies in other areas of life. For instance, in August, RFK admitted he was behind a bizarre case involving a dead bear cub that mystified New Yorkers in 2014.
He also once decapitated a whale with a chainsaw, according to his daughter. He then drove for five hours with it in his car.
