Addendum March 2025:
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Feb. 2025, a crucial question was whether we would get the RFK who appeared in the Senate confirmation hearings, or the conspiracy theorist who, as head of the Children’s Health Defense network spread false claims that vaccines were harmful, that antiretroviral treatments for HIV killed more people than they helped, and that fluoride in drinking water was poisoning our citizens. At his confirmation hearings, Kennedy appeared to agree that vaccines were effective against a host of childhood diseases, and that mass vaccination was the appropriate way to deal with outbreaks of diseases such as measles. In voting to confirm Robert Kennedy, Jr. as secretary of HHS, Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, said that RFK had agreed to meet regularly with Cassidy and consult with him on any actions that would be taken regarding a number of health issues, particularly vaccine policy.
RFK has now been HHS Secretary for about seven weeks, and it is already clear that his term leading that division will be a disaster for public health. He has postponed meetings of committees to discuss vaccine safety issues, there are indications that he will replace vaccine experts on select committees, and he is reportedly pulling the U.S. out of groups that provide vaccines to Third-World countries. His first big test was an outbreak of measles centered in West Texas, where vaccination rates are significantly below the 95% of the population needed to prevent the spread of such epidemics. RFK first said that the outbreak was “nothing unusual,” despite the fact that the U.S. had no deaths from measles for a decade prior to this outbreak that has currently killed two people. At present, the outbreak has caused two deaths, has spread into the adjoining states of New Mexico and Oklahoma, and may be spreading into Kansas, Ohio and Mexico. Over 99% of the measles cases were in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is uncertain.
In Kennedy’s first press conference to discuss the outbreak, he never mentioned vaccination as the method to stop the disease from spreading through the population. Later, he grudgingly admitted that vaccination was a possible step, but he also pushed remedies such as cod liver oil and corticosteroids as potential treatments for the disease. Neither of these products has ever been shown to prevent measles cases. Cod liver oil is a source of vitamin-A that may be of use in developing countries where much of the population has serious vitamin-A deficiency, but seems to be of little value in the U.S. In fact, children in West Texas who have received large doses of vitamin A at Kennedy’s suggestion are now developing toxicity that can lead to liver disease. At the same time, Kennedy stressed that vaccination should be a personal choice. At the present time, the outbreak continues to spread, and many people in the affected area seem to be relying on alternative treatments rather than mass vaccination.
So RFK, Jr. is flunking his first big test, with a spreading measles outbreak that could have been completely prevented if nearly all children had received the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines. Another of Kennedy’s dubious initiatives was the announcement of a new NIH study of whether vaccines are associated with autism. This was a head-scratcher, as scores of studies conducted around the world, covering more than a million children, have conclusively shown that there is no correlation between vaccines and autism. Kennedy has pushed the notion that minute quantities of thimerosal, an ethylmercury product that has been added to multi-use vials of vaccines to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi, is a cause of autism. Thimerosal has never been used in the MMR vaccine, and since 2001 it has been removed from nearly all vaccine products. Robust clinical studies show no relationship between thimerosal and autism; however, RFK and his associates at Children’s Health Defense continue to claim a connection.
Thus, a new study of a potential vaccine-autism link was completely unnecessary. But in a shocking development, HHS has appointed David Geier to conduct this study. Geier’s role ensures that this study will be a complete disaster. David Geier is one of the worst choices on this planet to head a study on vaccines and autism. Below is a photo of David Geier (R) and his father Dr. Mark Geier. You can find a more detailed review of the Geiers in our blog post on Vaccinations.
Dr. Mark Geier (L) and his son David Geier.
For decades now, the Geiers have claimed a link between childhood vaccines and autism. Dr. Mark Geier passed away in March 2025. The father-and-son team claimed that there is a relation between mercury exposure during infancy and the onset of a number of neurodevelopmental disorders, including those on the autism spectrum. They further claim that there is a link between vaccines that contain thimerosal and autism spectrum disorders. After the Geiers published papers that made these claims, the studies were reviewed by professional panels. In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that the Geier studies contained “numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies and misstatements.” In 2004, the Institute of Medicine reviewed vaccine safety and criticized publications by the Geiers as seriously flawed, uninterpretable, and filled with unscientific terms. In 2007 the journal Autoimmunity Reviews retracted a paper by the Geiers. They found that the Institutional Review Board (IRB) that was required for studies on children included Mark Geier himself, his wife and son, a business partner and a lawyer involved in vaccine litigation. The Maryland State Board of Physicians deemed the review board a “sham IRB” that failed to meet either state or federal requirements.
Because of his unprofessional research methods and his treatments for autism, Dr. Mark Geier’s medical license was suspended or revoked in every state in which he was licensed. In their investigations of vaccine safety, the Geiers also had serious undisclosed conflicts of interest, as they operated clinics where autistic children were treated with the drug Lupron. This drug is approved only for cases of precocious puberty, and Lupron produces what is called chemical castration. The Geiers administered Lupron together with chelation therapy, a process to remove heavy metals from the body. Scientists say that chelation therapy should be used only in cases of heavy metal poisoning. They conclude that the procedures used by the Geiers are not based on any solid evidence, and that they are both dangerous and expensive forms of treatment.
When the Geiers treated autistic children, they began with a series of lab tests that cost $12,000. If any testosterone level was deemed abnormal, they advised the use of Lupron at a level 10 times higher than used to treat precocious puberty. This ‘therapy’ cost $5,000 a month, and the Geiers claimed that some children required continuing this treatment through adulthood. In 2011, Mark Geier’s license to practice medicine in Virginia was suspended and later revoked, on the grounds that he “endangers autistic children and exploits their parents by administering to the children a treatment protocol that has a known substantial risk of serious harm and which is neither consistent with evidence-based medicine nor generally accepted in the relevant scientific community.” Dr. Geier’s license was then revoked in the states of Washington, California, Maryland, Missouri, Illinois and Hawaii.
Dr. Mark Geier was unable to continue to practice as a physician after his license was revoked. But what about his son David Geier? David was a co-author on their papers claiming a link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism. He was also a co-principal in the businesses run by the Geiers, where they endangered patients by providing unproven and dangerous techniques on autistic children. Finally, in 2011 David Geier was charged by the Maryland State Board of Physicians with practicing medicine without a license (David has only a BA degree in biology), and he was fined $10,000 in 2012.
We can’t imagine that a man who has no medical license, who has a history of making false claims about vaccines that resulted in papers being retracted, and who has a serious conflict of interest by promoting dangerous and unapproved drugs for ‘treating’ autism, can be appointed to head an NIH study looking into the possibility of a link between vaccines and autism. Jessica Steier, head of the Science Literacy Lab, stated that Geier’s appointment “Is a worst-case scenario for public health” as the Geiers “had demonstrated patterns of an anti-vaccine agenda. It’s a slap in the face to the decades of actual credible research we have.” And Professor Jeffrey Morris, Director of the Division of Biostatistics at the Perelman School of Medicine critiqued the Geiers’ research studies: “The methodology used in the studies was completely invalid, and the studies fatally flawed.”
Can we expect anything different from David Geier this time around? Alison Singer, president of the non-profit Autism Science Foundation, said that the aim of the Trump Administration (and also of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of HHS) “Is to prove that vaccines cause autism, even though they don’t.” David Geier’s appointment as head of this study on vaccines and autism represents a catastrophe for American health.
The report of David Geier leading the vaccine-autism study was followed by a statement from the top vaccine official at the FDA, Dr. Peter Marks. Under pressure from RFK, Marks resigned on Mar. 28. Marks, who was the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, did not pull punches when issuing this statement upon announcing his resignation. “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies. This man doesn’t care about the truth. He cares what is making him followers.” This debacle has been made possible by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who claims that he will “Make America Healthy Again.” In fact, he is replacing evidence-based medical science with quacks and false remedies. We urge the American public to ignore Kennedy’s advice on any subject relating to health.
December 10, 2024
Donald Trump’s initial nominees for cabinet positions in his second administration are in many cases purposely transgressive and woefully unqualified for their designated management positions. Among these, one of the most objectionable to scientists is the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
I: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Career
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the son of former U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia and a Master of Laws degree from Pace University. RFK Jr. was the founder of the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace, and he served as the co-director of that clinic and its supervising attorney for 30 years. However, after talking with a woman who believed that her son’s autism was caused by vaccines, he became an anti-vaccination advocate. By the way, RFK Jr. denies that he is an anti-vaxxer; however, we will show that his criticisms of vaccines have become more strident over time, and that his words and actions are consistent with those of an anti-vaxxer. He is indeed seen by anti-vaxxers as a leading light of their “movement.”
Figure I.1: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In 2011, Kennedy founded an organization that has become the Children’s Health Defense group. They crusade against a number of chemicals and radiation that they claim are causing an epidemic of disease among Americans and particularly American youth. In this post, we will argue that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s beliefs on topics such as vaccines, HIV-AIDS and other health issues are in serious contradiction to the consensus of the medical community and scientific researchers and to decades of experience with observed health outcomes. In April 2023 Kennedy announced that he would run for U.S. President as an independent. However, after meeting with Donald Trump in August 2024, Kennedy announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy for president and was endorsing Donald Trump. In November 2024, following his re-election as U.S. President, Donald Trump announced that he was nominating RFK Jr. to be the Secretary for Health and Human Services.
In this post, we will review Kennedy’s espousal of several conspiracy theories. These show that he routinely accepts far-fetched claims and that he refuses to change his allegations when they are shown to be false. In Section II we review Kennedy’s claims about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. In Section III we discuss his HIV-AIDS denial. In Section IV we briefly summarize a number of the many conspiracy theories that Kennedy has voiced. In conclusion, we find that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does not understand how science works, and he champions a number of highly dubious claims about science and health. If he were to be named Secretary of Health and Human Services, not only would he not be “Making America Healthy Again,” as he claims, but his policies would constitute a real threat to American health and health policy. If the U.S. were to experience another transmissible disease pandemic while RFK Jr. headed HHS, he would most likely amplify the dangers to Americans’ survival. This would be particularly dangerous since he would be serving in the Cabinet of a President who has also shown a disturbing tendency to promote anti-scientific views.
II: Kennedy and Vaccines:
In our blog post on Vaccinations, we point out the many medical success stories of vaccines. Vaccines have saved the lives of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of people around the world. On the basis of the number of lives saved, one could make the argument that vaccination is the most effective medical procedure ever developed. There have been some striking successes of vaccination. Perhaps the most dramatic is the global elimination of smallpox. This is estimated to have saved some 350 million lives in the 20th century alone. Currently, scientists are extremely close to eliminating polio around the globe. Figure II.1 shows that in 2023, only 12 cases of wild polio were reported in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2024, Nigeria and South Sudan were added to this list. Active polio eradication campaigns in Pakistan and Nigeria may eliminate endemic polio from these countries, although the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan and war in South Sudan make it problematic that polio eradication in those two countries can be achieved in the near future.
Figure II.1: Wild cases of polio in the world in 2023. In that year, a total of 12 wild cases of polio were recorded in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After 2000, measles cases in the U.S. were declared to be eliminated. Sporadic outbreaks of measles in America have continued to the present, where the outbreaks were determined to have been imported by foreign travelers. However, measles is extremely contagious. Figure II.2 shows the number of measles cases in the U.S. over time from 1944 to 2007. After the measles vaccine was licensed in 1964, American cases of measles immediately declined. Following a measles outbreak in 1989, a second dose of measles vaccine was recommended, after which the number of measles cases again declined.
Figure II.2: The number of measles cases in the U.S., in thousands, over time from 1944 – 2007. The inset shows the cases from the 1980s onward with an expanded scale. It was declared that from the year 2000, endemic cases of measles in the U.S. had been eliminated.
There is a simple relationship between the average number of people who are infected by a sick individual, and the fraction of the population that need to be inoculated against a disease. In a population with no immune individuals, an infected person will on average infect R0 other people; this number, called the basic reproduction rate, depends on how contagious the infectious agent is and the density of the population. The disease will then spread through the community. However, when the fraction of people with immunity (either through having had the disease, or by being vaccinated against the disease) reaches the value F in Eq. (1), the disease will not spread but will die out.
F = 1 – 1/ R0 (1)
Equation (1) gives the fraction F of the population that needs to achieve immunity in order to reach the ‘community immunity’ level (earlier termed the ‘herd immunity’ level). The value of R0 varies greatly according to the disease. This is shown in Fig. II.3, which plots the basic reproduction rate R0 vs. the community immunity threshold (the quantity F in Eq. (1), expressed in percent). Note that for an extremely contagious disease such as measles, over 90% of the population need to be vaccinated in order that epidemics do not spread through the population but die out. Note that measles is not only extremely contagious but very harmful. One of every 1,000 children who contract measles will suffer a serious injury or death; and measles deaths occur most probably for children under 4 years of age, including children who are too young to be vaccinated.
Figure II.3: The basic reproduction rate R0 from Eq. (1) vs. the herd immunity threshold F expressed in percent, for several different viral diseases, including a number of influenza and coronavirus pandemics, Ebola, Zika, smallpox, polio and measles.
The vast majority of physicians who have studied contagious diseases consider vaccination the safest and most effective way to avoid the occurrence of epidemics of these diseases. However, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history denying the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. In July 2005, he published an article in Rolling Stone magazine called Deadly Immunity (see Fig. II.4). That article was also posted on the Salon Website. Kennedy’s article described the 2000 Simpsonwood Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conference that was attended by many of the country’s experts in vaccines. Kennedy claimed that this was a secret gathering of scientists, the U.S. government, and Big Pharma to hide from the public the deadly dangers associated with vaccines. In particular, Kennedy claimed that the participants knew that the ethylmercury compound thimerosal posed a deadly danger to vaccinated youth, and that the government “colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public.”
Figure II.4: Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s 2005 article Deadly Immunity in Rolling Stone magazine. This article was also posted on the Salon Website, but was retracted in 2011 because of its many false and misleading statements.
Virtually all of Kennedy’s arguments in this article were false or misleading. RFK Jr.’s allegations were reviewed and thoroughly debunked by Seth Mnookin in his book The Panic Virus. We mention just a few of these false allegations, which are discussed in more detail in our blog post on Kennedy as a conspiracy theorist. First, although RFK claimed that the 2000 conference was a clandestine event whereparticipants were sworn to “complete secrecy,” in fact a complete transcript of the proceedings was published. Kennedy further argued that this meeting was part of a conspiracy to cover up a link between vaccination and autism. Kennedy alleges a direct link between the mercury compound thimerosal (an organomercury compound that was a well-established antifungal and antiseptic agent) and autism. But vaccine manufacturers removed thimerosal from nearly all vaccines in 1999. Since then, extensive studies have shown that rates of autism continued to rise, even after thimerosal was removed from vaccines.
The claim of a link between vaccines and autism originated in a 1998 article in The Lancet written by Andrew Wakefield and twelve co-authors. That paper alleged that a link had been detected between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and the onset of behavioral symptoms. But scientists have extensively reviewed Wakefield’s claims. Many studies, now involving millions of children, show no connection between vaccines and autism. This is one of the most carefully studied (and refuted) hypotheses in modern medicine. An investigation by BBC journalist Brian Deer found that Wakefield’s paper was not only wrong but actually fraudulent. Wakefield’s Lancet paper was retracted in 2010. In 2010, the U.K. General Medical Council recommended that Wakefield be struck off the medical register. After his British medical license was cancelled, Andrew Wakefield moved to the U.S. and has collaborated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others on anti-vaxxer films. In 2016 Wakefield directed an anti-vaccination film Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe. In 2019 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. produced the sequel Vaxxed 2: The People’s Truth. Joe Leydon of Variety described Vaxxed as a “slickly produced but scientifically dubious hodgepodge of free-floating paranoia.”
Here, we will remark on two statements routinely made by Kennedy. First, he states that if anyone points our errors in his claims, he will retract them. Second, he repeatedly claims that he is not an anti-vaxxer, but he simply wants to insure that vaccines are administered safely. Both of these statements are false. Many critics have pointed out mis-statements in Kennedy’s work (we noted Seth Mnookin’s book The Panic Virus, which demolished RFK’s claims in the article Deadly Immunity), but there are numerous other instances where Kennedy continues to make claims that have been completely discredited. In 2023 Kennedy advocated that noted vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit should be “jailed and the key thrown away” because of Offit’s role in developing and testing vaccines. This is clearly a statement made by an anti-vaxxer.
In January 2011, Salon retracted Kennedy’s Deadly Immunity because of its many false claims. In 2023, Salon editor Joan Walsh wrote that publishing this article was the worst mistake of her career. Kennedy continues to make false claims, even after his statements have been demonstrated to be false. He seems incapable of absorbing criticism of his assertions, or of learning from his mistakes. He does not understand how science works to validate hypotheses that are correct and to invalidate false assertions. Furthermore, he does not seem to be capable of interpreting data. For example, Kennedy insists that vaccines cause autism. He maintains this stance despite the fact that scores of controlled epidemiological studies have proved beyond a doubt that there is no correlation between vaccines and autism (see here and here). Furthermore, his unhinged claim that “The Pfizer COVID-19 shot kills more people than it saves” shows that he is incapable of making even a rudimentary statistical analysis. The claim is so egregiously wrong that we awarded RFK Jr. one of our initial Pseudoscience Awards.
Several members of RFK Jr.’s own family have voiced their concerns about his public statements regarding vaccination. In 2019 two of Kennedy’s siblings, former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II and former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, joined with Kennedy’s niece Maeve Kennedy McKean, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiatives, to jointly author an op-ed in Politico stating “We are proud of the history of our family as advocates of public health and promoters of immunization campaigns to bring life-saving vaccines to the poorest and most remote corners of America and the world, where children are the least likely to receive their full course of vaccinations … On this issue, Bobby is an outlier in the Kennedy family.” And in 2020, his niece Dr. Kerry Kennedy Meltzer published an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Vaccines Are Safe, No Matter What Robert Kennedy Jr. Says;” the article was subtitled “As a doctor, and as a member of the Kennedy family, I feel I must use whatever small platform I have to state a few things unequivocally. I love my uncle Bobby. I admire him for many reasons, chief among them his decades-long fight for a cleaner environment. But when it comes to vaccines, he is wrong.”
If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named Secretary of Health and Human Services, he will use his office to urge people to avoid vaccinating their children. He may also place restrictions on research on new vaccines. As a result, the U.S. will soon see completely preventable epidemics of childhood diseases such as measles and chickenpox. This is not just speculation, because this has already occurred in other countries. In 2017, two nurses in Samoa mistakenly mixed MMR vaccines with a muscle relaxant instead of water; this mistake caused the deaths of two children. Anti-vaxxers in Samoa claimed that this incident showed the dangers of vaccines. By 2019, vaccination rates in Samoa dropped from 74% to around 33%. At that point, a measles epidemic infected 5,700 people and caused 87 deaths, the majority of which were children four years and younger. During the Samoan epidemic, Kennedy and local anti-vaxxer Taylor Winterstein sent a letter to the Samoan prime minister. They suggested that the measles vaccine may have “failed to produce antibodies” in vaccinated mothers; they further speculated that the vaccine may have provoked “the evolution of more virulent measles strains.” In other words, they blamed the measles vaccines for causing the deaths in Samoa!
It is easy to see that Kennedy’s hypothesis that vaccines were the culprit in the Samoan measles outbreak was nonsense. In 2019, a measles outbreak also occurred in Tonga, a country where 99% of the population was vaccinated. The Tongan outbreak affected 612 people and there were no deaths. The vaccine used in Tonga was the same as was used in Samoa, but because of the high rates of vaccination in Tonga (that country had achieved community immunity because of the high vaccination rate) there were far fewer cases of measles and no deaths: this seems a slam-dunk example of the positive effect of large-scale vaccination of the public, and especially for children.
III: Kennedy and HIV-AIDS Denial:
In his 2022 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, RFK Jr. spends nearly half that book discussing HIV and AIDS, in whose treatment Fauci played an important role. In June, 1981 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found a number of cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or PCP, in five young gay men in Los Angeles. All these men also presented with other rare infections, indicating a breakdown of their immune system. At the same time, doctors in New York and Los Angeles reported seeing a cluster of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a rare and unusually aggressive form of cancer. Most of these men developed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and most men who acquired AIDS subsequently died of related health issues. In 1983 researchers at France’s Institut Pasteur reported discovery of a retrovirus now called human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.
A great deal of research was devoted to the question of whether HIV causes AIDS. There were a number of advances and setbacks. Initially, there was considerable controversy over whether HIV caused AIDS. All of this is re-hashed by Kennedy in great detail. However, Kennedy does not acknowledge that these issues, like so many important questions in science, have been resolved as more and more data were accumulated and our understanding of autoimmune diseases deepened. Kennedy dredges up dozens of hypotheses and treatment options that have by now been discredited.
We now know that AIDS is the most advanced stage of infection by HIV. The pathogen HIV has been isolated; when it is transmitted to an uninfected host, the host develops AIDS. Another of the many proofs that HIV causes AIDS is the supply of blood used for transfusions. In the early days, people with HIV donated blood, contaminating the nation’s blood supply with HIV. Many people who received blood transfusions ended up with AIDS; one of the most prominent individuals who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion was tennis star Arthur Ashe. Now, however, scientists are able to detect HIV in blood donations. Screening for HIV-1 in the blood supply began in 1985 and for HIV-2 in 1992. Now, the American blood supply is free of HIV. Whereas previously many people developed AIDS after receiving blood transfusions, nowadays essentially none of these people develop AIDS, because HIV causes AIDS.
Over time, scientists have developed effective anti-retroviral therapies for treating HIV. The first medication was Zidovudine or azidothymidine (AZT). AZT works by inhibiting the enzyme reverse transcriptase that HIV uses to make DNA; thus it decreases replication of the HIV virus. Anti-retroviral therapy does not cure HIV, and the regimen of drugs has to be taken for life. However, people living with HIV can dramatically decrease the ability of HIV to reproduce. When the levels of HIV are no longer measurable, these individuals can resume normal lives and will not transmit the virus to others. Nowadays AZT is used as part of a suite of antiretroviral medications that are taken once daily. This is known as Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy or HAART. Figure III.1 shows the dramatic decrease in AIDS deaths, beginning with the rollout of HAART in 1995. Beginning in 1995 we also see a rapid increase in the number of people living with HIV.
Figure III.1: The number of annual deaths in the U.S. from AIDS (blue, left-hand scale) vs. the number of Americans living with HIV (red, right-hand scale). With the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1995, the number of people living with HIV soared while AIDS deaths dramatically decreased.
Figure III.2 shows the number of global AIDS-related deaths each year (left-hand scale), and the number of people receiving HIV treatment (right-hand scale). The light gray shading shows the uncertainty bounds on the number of AIDS-related deaths. The number of global AIDS deaths has steadily declined while the number of people taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased. Today, over 30 million people worldwide are taking ART.
Figure III.2: Deaths from AIDS per year (solid curve, left-hand scale; light gray shading shows uncertainty bounds on this number), and the total number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy or ART (bar graphs, right-hand scale). The number of AIDS deaths has steadily declined, while the number of people receiving ART has climbed.
Today, antiretroviral drugs can be given to people without HIV, before they might be exposed to this virus. When taken by people with a high risk of contracting HIV, this therapy is called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP; when given to people after they have been exposed to HIV it is called post-exposure prophylaxis or PEP. The UNAIDS group states that “The global roll-out of HIV treatment has saved millions of lives: an estimated 16.5 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted since 2001. In 2020, there were 680 000 deaths from AIDS-related causes, a decline of 58% from 2001 to 2020. At least 40 countries are on track to achieve a 90% reduction in AIDS-related mortality by 2030.”
So how does Robert F. Kennedy Jr. respond to the great advances in identifying HIV and developing therapies that prevent HIV from developing into AIDS, and even preventing at-risk populations from contracting HIV? First, he does not even acknowledge that HIV causes AIDS. He presents numerous arguments denying the HIV-AIDS connection that have long since been debunked. In Kennedy’s mind, HIV-AIDS deniers such as Berkeley oncologist Peter Duesberg and AIDS-denying journalist Celia Farber are presented as courageous citizens who stand up to the medical consensus. And AZT and retroviral regimens are described as toxic chemicals that injure more people than they help. In fact, one of the chapters in The Real Anthony Fauci is titled, “Is AZT Mass Murder?” RFK Jr. apparently feels much more connection to like-minded conspiracy theorists than to the heroic scientists whose work he simply does not comprehend.
If RFK Jr. is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he might well lobby for anti-retroviral HIV therapies either to be halted or strongly limited. This could result in thousands of unnecessary deaths for people who are currently living safely with HIV. We have already seen the deadly results of HIV-AIDS denial. In the late 1990s, South African President Thabo Mbeki named Peter Duesberg and other deniers to an advisory panel. Beginning in 2000, South Africa denied antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients. Like RFK Jr., Mbeki called the antiretroviral drugs “poisons;” his health minister pushed herbal remedies for AIDS such as garlic, beetroot and lemon juice. South Africa shunned antiretroviral drugs in favor of vitamins and “alternative” therapies such as “massage therapy, music therapy, yoga, spiritual care, homeopathy, Indian ayurvedic medicine, and light therapy.” Mbeki’s policies have been blamed for the unnecessary deaths of between 343,000 and 365,000 South Africans. Within eighteen years after diagnosis with HIV, without antiretroviral therapy 86% of infected individuals developed AIDS. With RFK Jr. as HHS secretary, we could see thousands of completely unnecessary deaths from AIDS.
IV: Other Conspiracy Theories Espoused by RFK Jr:
In prior sections we have discussed at some length Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s espousal of ideas that contradict our knowledge of the efficacy of vaccines and HIV-AIDS treatments. He has advanced a number of dubious or demonstrably false positions regarding these public-health initiatives. However, in addition to his anti-scientific positions on these issues, RFK Jr. also subscribes to a number of other conspiracy theories. His positions on these issues cast further doubt on his ability to separate truth from fiction. In this section we list some of the other conspiracy theories that Kennedy has advanced. These are discussed at further length in our blog post on Kennedy as a conspiracy theorist.
- Kennedy has claimed that gender dysphoria among American youth is a result of exposure to chemicals, notably the chemical atrazine which is widely used as a weed-killer and applied on farms. Kennedy claims that when frogs are exposed to atrazine it “induces complete feminization and chemical castration.” But there is no evidence that exposure to atrazine causes similar symptoms in humans, nor is there evidence showing that exposure to atrazine induces gender dysphoria (we discuss gender dysphoria and its potential biological causes in our blog post on sex and gender).
- Kennedy claims that young men who carried out school shootings were taking antidepressants that were a causal factor in those shootings. However, there is no evidence that most of these active shooters were taking antidepressants; and in the few cases where they were taking antidepressants, “no direct or causal association” has been found between the antidepressants and the mass shootings.
- He has asserted that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately engineered and released by the Chinese government. He has suggested that the virus was an “ethnic bioweapon…targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” and that the design of the virus purposely spared “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” Although there is some debate over whether the COVID pandemic arose from wild animals sold in a market in Wuhan, or whether it was an accidental release from a Wuhan virological research institute, there is no serious evidence that the virus was deliberately engineered or that certain ethnic groups were spared its devastation. Figure IV.1 shows the virological research complex in Wuhan.
Figure IV.1: Part of a biomedical lab complex at Wuhan, China. While some believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus was accidentally leaked from this lab, others maintain that the virus originated at a market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold. Robert Kennedy, however, maintains that the virus was deliberately engineered as a bioweapon and released by the Chinese.
- Kennedy claims that in Africa, several prominent political leaders who opposed vaccination of their people had died, nearly all of them at the same time. He stated that “The epidemic of untimely deaths among high-profile African heads of state and key government ministers and physicians who opposed Bill Gates/COVAX policies provoked a wave of conspiracy theories suggesting that these men were murdered to silence dissent.” When called out for making such outrageous statements, Kennedy responds that he is not advocating this position but merely reporting it.
- In a panel discussion regarding the Depo-Provera contraceptive in Africa, Kennedy stated that “Critics credibly suggest that these vaccines may have been secretly laced with a formula the Rockefeller Foundation developed to sterilize women against their will.”
- In addition to the other conspiracy theories endorsed by Kennedy, he also claims that the 5G electromagnetic radiation associated with high-speed wireless transmission presents a threat to the health of people exposed to the radiation. He has claimed that the 5G service is being used to “harvest our data and control our behavior. Digital currency that will allow them to punish us from a distance and cut off our food supply.”
- He has also recently claimed that as HHS Secretary, he would strive to remove fluoride from our nation’s water supply. Low levels of fluoride have been added to the water in most U.S. communities for decades. Fluoride undoubtedly reduces cavities, and the American Dental Association estimates that it saves about $6.8 billion per year in dental expenses. Dr. Paul Offit, one of the country’s greatest experts on vaccines, said that “Fluoride has been well tested. It clearly and definitively decreases cavities, and is not associated with any clear evidence of the chronic diseases mentioned in [Kennedy’s] tweet.” There is some research that claims fluoride is associated with decreases in the IQ of children, but at much higher levels than are currently allowed in the U.S.
V: Summary
In this post we have cited only some of the many conspiracy theories that are espoused by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition to the theories we have reviewed, he has also endorsed various political conspiracy theories. He has alleged that his uncle President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency. He also claims that John Kerry won the 2004 Presidential election, but that Republicans fraudulently suppressed 350,000 of Kerry’s votes in the state of Ohio.
When we review the positions taken by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we see that he seems unable to separate truth from fiction. He is incapable of differentiating reliable scientific studies from unreliable ones. He repeats assertions and hypotheses that have long been debunked, and he is willing to accept any “research” that agrees with his predetermined conclusions. Although he claims that he will retract any of his claims that are proven wrong, his critics have repeatedly pointed out the errors in his assertions, and he continues to spread these statements. Our position is bolstered by an open letter of Dec. 9, 2024, signed by 77 American Nobel Laureates. The letter claimed that Kennedy lacked the scientific credentials to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The letter warned that “Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences.” It continued that “The leader of DHHS should continue to nurture and improve — not to threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees.”
It would be folly to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This position needs someone who appreciates the role of science in separating what is valid and reproducible from what is inaccurate or fraudulent. Kennedy completely fails this qualification. He does not understand the scientific method, and he continues to promulgate falsehoods about science and scientists. A few of his ideas regarding the scientific bureaucracy are worth considering, but they are buried in a massive heap of dubious and false claims. Kennedy places his trust in “maverick” doctors and scientists who push fringe theories about medicine and health, and he rejects the consensus on these issues by the medical community. He endorses far-fetched claims regarding medicines and public health, and (as can be seen from the above list of theories that he advances) he disregards voluminous evidence that contradicts his theories.
Here is what RFK said about his interactions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were he to be confirmed as HHS Secretary. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” including its “aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.” As one can see, this grab-bag of Kennedy’s pet peeves includes raw milk, which we know to pose serious dangers to consumers, and ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine which have been shown to be of no benefit in treating COVID-19, though both are readily available.
Some people argue that Kennedy should be confirmed as HHS Secretary, and that the medical community could then have a “dialogue” with RFK Jr. This is an extremely bad suggestion. If Kennedy were confirmed he would likely bring in as advisors disgraced researchers such as Andrew Wakefield, conspiracy theorists like Del Bigtree and Pierre Kory, and charlatans such as Judy Mikovits and Shari Tenpenny. It is not possible to have a dialogue with someone whose opinions are firmly fixed and not grounded in reality. Conspiracy theorists such as RFK Jr. identify anyone who points out the errors and absurdities of their claims as simply part of the conspiracy they’ve been warning about. This is unfortunately the case with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Some voters who supported his Presidential campaign and support his candidacy for HHS Secretary have said they want to see some shakeup in health administration because Americans’ health is not good; for example, obesity and diabetes are too prevalent. Kennedy would not fix those problems, which are often diet-related, but would make Americans’ overall health much worse. It would be far better to appoint someone more knowledgeable about public health, vaccines and HIV-AIDS, and better able to understand and assess science, to this position.
Source Material:
Wikipedia Robert F. Kennedy Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Jr.
Wikipedia Children’s Health Defense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Health_Defense
Debunking Denial, Vaccinations https://debunkingdenial.com/portfolio/vaccinations/
CDC, Measles Cases and Outbreaks https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html
Smithsonian Magazine, Measles Outbreaks Are on the Rise in the U.S. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/measles-outbreaks-are-on-the-rise-in-the-us-16064713/
Wikipedia, Herd Immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity
Wikipedia, Deadly Immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity
Seth Mnookin, The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, Simon & Schuster 2012 https://www.amazon.com/Panic-Virus-Behind-Vaccine-Autism-Controversy/dp/1439158657
Debunking Denial, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: Conspiracy Theorist https://debunkingdenial.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theorist/
A.J. Wakefield et al., Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children, The Lancet 351, 637 (1998) [Retracted] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673697110960/fulltext
The Mayo Clinic, Link Between Autism and Vaccination Debunked https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/autism-vaccine-link-debunked
Brian Deer, How the Case Against the MMR Vaccine Was Fixed, BMJ 342, 5347 (2011) https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347
CDC, Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccine Safety https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/vaccines/mmr.html
CDC, Vaccines and Autism https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/vaccines/mmr.html
Debunking Denial The Pseudys – Initial Pseudoscience Awards https://debunkingdenial.com/the-pseudys-initial-pseudoscience-awards/
Politico May 8, 2019 RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798/
Kerry Kennedy Meltzer, Vaccines Are Safe, No Matter What Robert Kennedy Jr. Says, New York Times Dec. 30, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/opinion/covid-vaccine-bobby-kennedy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Brian Deer, I’ll Never Forget What Kennedy Did During Samoa’s Measles Outbreak, New York Times, Nov. 25, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/opinion/rfk-jr-vaccines-samoa-measles.html
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, Skyhorse Publishing 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Real-Anthony-Fauci-Democracy-Childrens/dp/1510766804
HIV.gov A Timeline of HIV and AIDS https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline
Allyson J. Bennett, et al., What is Failure? Shelved Cancer Treatment Becomes First Effective HIV-AIDS Treatment, Speaking of Research April 28, 2022 https://speakingofresearch.com/2022/04/28/what-is-failure-shelved-cancer-treatment-becomes-first-effective-aids-hiv-treatment/
UNAIDS Numbers of AIDS-Related Deaths and People Receiving HIV Treatment, Global, 2000 – 2020 https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2021/september/20210906_global-roll-out-hiv-treatment
Pan American Health Organization, Antiretroviral Therapy https://www.paho.org/en/topics/antiretroviral-therapy
Wikipedia Peter Duesberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Duesberg#References
Wikipedia Celia Farber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Farber
Wikipedia, HIV/AIDS Denialism in South Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism_in_South_Africa#Origin
Debunking Denial Sex, Gender, Genome and Hormones https://debunkingdenial.com/sex-gender-genome-and-hormones-part-i/
Jon Levine, RFK Jr. Says COVID May Have Been ‘Ethnically Targeted’ to Spare Jews, New York Post July 15, 2023 https://nypost.com/2023/07/15/rfk-jr-says-covid-was-ethnically-targeted-to-spare-jews/
Jon Keller, Are RFK Jr. and His Conspiracy Theories Just Republican Trolling?, CBS News Boston, July 18 2023 https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/keller-large-robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theories/
Geoff Bromfiel and Selena Simmons-Duffin, No More Fluoride in the Water? RFK Jr. Wants That and Trump Says it ‘Sounds OK’. NPR Nov. 4 2024 https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/04/nx-s1-5178706/fluoride-drinking-water-rfk-jr-trump-conspiracy
Teddy Rosenbluth, Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination, New York Times Dec. 9, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/health/kennedy-hhs-nobel-laureates.html
FDA.gov The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/dangers-raw-milk-unpasteurized-milk-can-pose-serious-health-risk
SEDHEC.gov The Dangers of Using Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin For Preventing or Treating COVID-19 https://scdhec.gov/covid19/dangers-using-hydroxychloroquine-ivermectin-preventing-or-treating-covid-19
Wikipedia Andrew Wakefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
Wikipedia Del Bigtree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Bigtree
Wikipedia Pierre Kory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Kory
Wikipedia Judy Mikovits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Mikovits
Wikipedia Shari Tenpenny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherri_Tenpenny
Debunking Denial 