RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary will be catastrophic for science & public health.
If this man who has spent forty years eroding trust in science and public health is installed in this role, there may truly be no turning back.
I’m sorry, for all of us. Today is a dark day for the US, the rest of society, and our planet.
The above header was actually the working header for a piece I started writing last week, but couldn’t bring myself to finish. Even now, I know many of us are grieving, reeling, horrified, but maybe not shocked.
I’ve observed the lucrative podcast ecosystem erode science literacy, critical thinking, and acceptance of factual information. I’ve seen the enormous profit motives that come with having a megaphone to promote disinformation, health conspiracies, and outright lies. I’ve watched as people who pretend to be evidence-based concede ground to those that push dangerous falsehoods - and the mental gymnastics that come with it.
I’ve seen millionaires and billionaires claim they voted for Trump because they “care” about the cost of groceries - a dog whistle to rally people who are fiscally conservative - while omitting that Trump policies will benefit the wealthy. Those people are the same that control information channels: the podcasts, the social media platforms, legacy media, even academic institutes with financial ties to people like Peter Thiel. So when scientists and healthcare professionals who try to combat objective falsehoods say that the media is working against it - we really mean it.
The upcoming administration is diametrically opposed with the pursuit of science and public health. Indeed, in the last few weeks, Donald Trump has elevated RFK Jr., one of the most objectively dangerous people to science and health. Today, November 14, 2024, he nominated him for the next Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.
And if he is actually installed in that role, it will be catastrophic.
Let me be clear: RFK Jr. has spent 40 years eroding science, public health, and propagating harmful conspiracies.
RFK Jr. has made millions upon millions of dollars propagating - and in most instances, fabricating - much of the disinformation that is now amplified up by other anti-science activist groups and influencers.
That includes the $5.6 trillion dollar wellness industry that has boomed since the passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (more here).
Let’s do a quick lightning round about the things he has tangibly done and how they actually harm - not improve - human health.
I hope this will underscore how his claims of “Make America Healthy Again” are nothing but a rebrand of his long legacy of propagating dangerous lies for his own personal benefit. If he is given any sort of governmental authority, these lies will pervade even more than they already have.
RFK Jr started his anti-science career as a “environmental lawyer” in the 1980s.
He started working with Riverkeeper in 1984, formerly Hudson River Fisherman's Association (HRFA), an NGO that lobbied heavily against modern energy technologies like hydroelectric power and nuclear power, both viewed by scientific experts as being sustainable and environmentally-friendly methods of energy generation.
While there, he made a lot of money suing pretty much any company he deemed personally harmful.
Worse: it created public perception of him as a champion of the environment, when in reality, he does the opposite.
In 2000, he formed his own law firm, Kennedy and Madonna, which aimed to sue companies under the guise of pollution.
After this, his foray into anti-chemical rhetoric expanded, including into food, farming, and vaccines.
That same year, RFK Jr also adopted the fallacy that vaccines cause autism, coinciding with Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent MMR and autism “study” in 1998. His prominent public persona was the perfect vehicle to continue to profit off disinformation.
RFK Jr. fabricated and profited off anti-agricultural disinformation.
Did you know that RFK Jr. was actually the orchestrator behind many of the lawsuits alleging links between glyphosate and cancer?
That’s right. He was a primary driver into the widespread adoption of this belief, when there is actually no causal evidence to support any relationship between glyphosate and negative health outcomes, even with over 40 years of data?
Just to be clear: glyphosate is one of the safest herbicides that are used in order to ensure farmers can grow foods to feed the planet. Over 20 safety and expert scientific agencies globally have come to the same conclusion. (read more here, here, here, and here). In fact, glyphosate has replaced more harmful herbicides, reducing the risk to farmers and the environment.
Ironically, residential homeowners use glyphosate to indiscriminately kill weeds at far higher concentrations than farmers use to selectively control weeds. But that point wouldn’t play well with his audience.
But lawsuits are lucrative. RFK Jr. made millions of dollars in civil lawsuits creating emotional arguments that persuade people without evidence (no, jury trials are not scientific data). And RFK Jr. leveraged the fear about glyphosate into broader fear about GMOs.
RFK Jr. has undermined the implementation and adoption of GMO crops that can improve health outcomes.
RFK Jr. spreads falsehoods about the risks of genetic engineering technology. He has lobbied against implementation of GE technology, which would improve the sustainability of agriculture and reduce environmental impact of farming. GE crops are more studied than any other crop, yet continue to be plagued with disinformation because of people like him.
Over the last 20 years, GE crops have reduced pesticide use by 8.6%, decreased the environmental impact of pesticides by 17.3%, & increased crop yields by 22%. If you actually were concerned about pesticide use, wouldn’t you be all for this?
His anti-biotech rhetoric has blocked the implementation of life-saving crops like Golden Rice. Golden Rice was approved in the Philippines in 2021 and could save lives of children with vitamin A deficiency. But disinformation campaigns that have grown legs from his rhetoric have caused a judge to block this approval this year. This WILL cause tangible harms.
RFK Jr. propagates lies about conventional pesticides and promotes organic farming.
RFK Jr’s anti-pesticide messaging extends beyond glyphosate; he promotes falsehoods about the harms of [PESTICIDES], all based in “anti-chemical” messaging.
He advocates for blanket bans of chemicals he deems harmful without evidence while promoting organic farming. He demonizes synthetic pesticides, yet omits the fact organic farming methods that he promotes still uses plenty of pesticides, many of which are more ecologically damaging and harmful at lower exposures.
RFK Jr fails to understand that organic farming is more energy intensive, uses more land for the same yield, and, in a world where we exceed 8 billion people, is not a sustainable path to feed the planet.
His disinformation and activities undermine science-based regulations and hinders development and implementation of modern science tools that could improve sustainability and stability of our food supply.
He does not care about improving the health and safety of our foods. That has been proven by decades of his actions.
He leveraged his anti-science beliefs into the founding of Children’s Health Defense.
In 2016, around the time he was railing against modern science and technology as it pertained to agriculture, he founded Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which is viewed by scientific experts across all fields to be one of the most prominent and harmful disinformation organizations.
Because, why not? He is making millions every year filing frivolous lawsuits against other corporations, why not expand the reach and exploit people’s concern for their health and well-being?
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) spreads dangerous falsehoods that endanger children’s health.
CHD claims to be advocating for children’s health, yet does the opposite. The content CHD publishes is directly responsible for eroding trust in safety and benefit of vaccines and instilling fear about other topics such as fluoride, foods, over-the-counter medications, and more. Claims made by CHD and RFK Jr have been repeatedly disproven by the body of scientific evidence.
However, just like his current political tactics, he undermines actual scientific experts and regulatory agencies through fear-laden and emotionally charged articles, filled with clickbait and unfounded statements.
If you go to the CHD website, it is FILLED with the same fear-laden claims I am debunking all the time. Where do you think many of the people on social media get this misinformation from in the first place? Yep, Children’s Health Defense.
CHD makes millions of dollars every year and uses it to distribute anti-science disinformation and file unsubstantiated lawsuits related to vaccines, food, pesticides, and more. CHD is one of two organizations responsible for funding the majority of anti-vaccine ads on social media globally.
In 2021 alone, CHD brought in $16 million by exploiting the pandemic to spread COVID-19 disinformation. Exploiting a pandemic that caused millions upon millions of deaths.
And yes, anti-vaccine disinformation from RFK Jr. and CHD is a primary culprit for declining vaccination rates and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illness.
RFK Jr. is one of the biggest sources of anti-vaccine disinformation.
CHD and RFK Jr. are one of the biggest perpetrators of anti-vaccine ads around the world. They work with other prominent anti-vaccine activists to target public health initiatives, spread misinformation, and profit off of it. Disinformation from CHD is a primary culprit for declines in routine vaccination rates and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illness.
RFK Jr. accelerated the adoption of the myth that vaccines are linked to autism, particularly among his celebrity connections here in the US, starting as far back as 2000. He also claimed that thimerosal, an antimicrobial, was to blame for autism.
RFK Jr. exploited anti-vaccine and anti-biotech messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic. He made million spreading COVID-19 disinformation and was banned from social media due to the dangers of his lies. CHD brought in nearly $16 million in 2021 alone by exploiting the pandemic to spread COVID-19 disinformation.
RFK Jr is one of the Disinformation Dozen and a Pandemic Profiteer, individuals who, globally, who exploit anti-vaccine disinformation and make the most money off it.
RFK Jr. spread anti-vaccine lies that contributed to a 2019 measles outbreak that sickened thousands and killed 82 - mostly children.
In July 2018, two infants in Samoa died after measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations. This was a legitimate medical error: the vaccine doses were diluted with anesthetic instead of water.
Instead of focusing on that (and the healthcare professionals who made this error did experience consequences), RFK Jr. seized upon this tragedy to continue undermining vaccinations. He traveled to Samoa to meet other anti-vaccine activists, discourage vaccination among worried parents, and spread disinformation.
Between 2017 and 2018, MMR vaccine rates in Samoa dropped from 74% to 31%.
Measles virus is one of the most contagious virus, and in order to control spread, we need 95% of the population immune through vaccination (read more below). When that coverage drops, a single imported case can ignite an outbreak.
Measles: Is it Immune or Human Amnesia?
It is fitting that the first official piece here is about measles: a vaccine-preventable infectious disease. At this very moment in January 2024, SIXTY ONE years after the first measles vaccine was approved, we are still dealing with entirely avoidable outbreaks of this communicable illness.
That’s exactly what happened. An outbreak of measles started in October 2019 in Samoa and quickly spread due to the low herd immunity in the population. RFK wrote to the Samoan Prime Minister urging him to halt vaccine mandates and undermine the importance of MMR vaccines.
By the end of the outbreak in December 2019, when 94% of the population had been vaccinated:
3% of Samoa was infected
20% of infants under 1 year got measles
1 in 150 babies died
and 91.4% of deaths were in kids <15.
RFK Jr. makes false claims about critical public health interventions like fluoridation for dental health.
RFK Jr. also lies about other critically important public health interventions, like fluoride treatment for dental health. This goes along with his tactics of chemophobia. Just 12 days ago, he Tweeted this, all of which is a lie.
I’ve written extensively about fluoride, how it works, the levels used in water, and the levels you’d need to be exposed to in order to experience toxicity previously, so if you want the details, head here.
But in brief: 75+ years of data show fluoride (a natural mineral) prevents tooth decay. Community water is fluoridated at 0.7 milligrams (mg) per LITER (1,000,000 mg water). Conservatively, adverse skeletal effects due to excess fluoride exposure might occur above 4 mg per kg body weight per day.
Do a little math: adults would need to ingest 250 mg F per day, and kids would need to ingest between 40-100 mg F per day (depending on body weight). That means a 22 lb baby would need to drink 57 LITERS of water per day at 0.7 ppm to reach that conservative threshold.
Water itself would be toxic to that same baby after they drink 3.2 CUPS of it in one sitting. Unfortunately, this nuance is lost when people like RFK Jr. spread lies.
When policies are informed by this disinformation, it causes harm. In townships that have removed fluoride in water, they report 25-50% increases in dental caries rates. Why do they remove fluoride? Public outcry and falsehoods. Ironically, many people claim Europe doesn’t fluoridate their water. But many countries in Europe do. And those that don’t actually have fluoridated salt. Because actual scientific experts understand the importance of public health measures.
RFK Jr. consistently spreads health disinformation and makes millions off it.
Even his own family condemns his actions and behaviors. RFK Jr. propagates numerous other dangerous anti-science fallacies, bigoted beliefs, and conspiracy theories (and this isn’t even a comprehensive list):
He denies HIV causes AIDS but rather, a 'gay lifestyle' and using poppers (amyl nitrite) are the cause.
He denies germ theory of disease and insists infectious diseases aren't a threat to our health.
He claims vaccine research is to blame to the 1918 flu pandemic and for HIV.
He asserts the water supply is filled with chemicals that are turning kids trans.
He has spread the myth that 5G & Wi-Fi break down the blood-brain barrier to leak ‘toxins’ into the brain and cause cancer.
He states vaccines cause allergies & chronic illness, in addition to them causing autism and being dangerous.
He claimed Bill Gates was going to insert tracking chips in COVID-19 vaccines to link to your bank account.
He alleges a myriad of substances are 'toxic' and are causing chronic illnesses and cancer without evidence.
He argues mass shootings are linked to anti-depressants.
None of these are true.
The FDA isn’t waging war on public health, he is.
He recently tweeted a very ominous threat to scientists that work in government. Of course, it is filled with the wellness industry jargon to rally the biohacking bros.
Ironically, he includes 2 FDA-approved medications: ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine - which the FDA is suppressing? Ivermectin is an approved treatment for certain parasitic infections like Strongyloides, for head lice, mites, and a few other conditions. It just doesn’t do anything for COVID-19.
Similarly, hydroxychloroquine is FDA-approved for the treatment of malaria and for rheumatic disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.
No legitimate scientific or health professional is suppressing exercise, or sunshine with appropriate protection (read here for misinformation about UV radiation).
The other things he includes? Raw milk, peptides, chelating compounds, vitamins? This plays to the lucrative wellness industry. If things have evidence to support use, they can submit clinical trial data for FDA approval! Did you know that? The thing is, the vast majority of dietary supplements don’t have evidence - and it’s not for lack of trying. They’re not regulated by the FDA either - because politicians removed that oversight from them in 1994. FDA can’t suppress what they have no authority over.
RFK Jr. is doing what he always has done: propagate medical conspiracism to erode trust in actual facts and evidence-based medicine, while profiting from disinformation, elevating “colleagues” who sell unproven and harmful wellness products. All the while he causes immense harm to our environment, food stability, our health, and society.
And if the next Trump Administration continues on the path of gutting scientific and regulatory agencies, our food will become less safe, and certainly not healthier.
RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary is putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
If he in confirmed, he will be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is focused on protecting public health and providing human services. The HHS Secretary is integral in influencing and shaping health policy, managing public health crises, and administering Federal health and human services programs.
That means RFK Jr. will be in charge of:
Developing health policies for the country.
Supervising and defining regulatory and public health authority of the following Federal agencies:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Coordinating federal responses to public health emergencies: from infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and preparing for emerging health threats.
Administering health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and laws associated with health coverage nationally.
Develops and enforces laws that impact health regulations, consumer products, and public health standards.
Works to improve health equity especially among underserved and vulnerable populations.
Oversees and allocates budget and resources for all HHS-affiliated agencies, including research dollars.
Oh, and represents the US on global health issues while collaborating with global health organizations.
Use your imagination here, but if it isn’t clear, his actions in this role would be catastrophic in the near- and long-term. Not just for US science and health, but globally. Everything he has done in the last 40 years is antithetical to all that HHS stands for.
I cannot overstate this: RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary is a clear and present danger.
What can you do?
The Senate must confirm this nomination, so you must do everything in your power to prevent that from happening.
All they need is a simple majority though: 51-49. Right now (although a recount in PA is pending), the GOP holds the Senate 52-48. You must contact every Senator you can that seems the least bit rational and explain to them how dangerous this is for humanity - and the planet.
We cannot erase the outcome of this election, but we must continue to fight like hell for fact, for science, and for health.
RFK Jr. is not a friend to the environment, he does not care about your health or the health of your family, and he is not someone to be trusted.
He is one of the greatest dangers to public health and science and everyone must take action to ensure he can’t do more damage.
We all must join in the fight for science.
Thank you for supporting evidence-based science communication. With outbreaks of preventable diseases, refusal of evidence-based medical interventions, propagation of pseudoscience by prominent public “personalities”, it’s needed now more than ever.
Stay skeptical,
Andrea
“ImmunoLogic” is written by Dr. Andrea Love, PhD - immunologist and microbiologist. She works full-time in life sciences biotech and has had a lifelong passion for closing the science literacy gap and combating pseudoscience and health misinformation as far back as her childhood. This newsletter and her science communication on her social media pages are born from that passion. Follow on Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and Facebook, or support the newsletter by subscribing below:
I’m in disbelief we are at this point. I’m hopeful our leaders in the senate and all the brilliant minds of all the committees in place helping make sound health recommendations will stand strong on this and be a wall to stopping this pseudoscience from spreading. Going to write to my senators now!!
Silver lining department: because the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, RFK’s FDA will not get deference in the courts. Black cloud department: the court decisions regarding FDA policies may be heard by judges like the one who used out of date and flawed studies to try to ban Mifepristone.