RFK Jr.’s claims. highly controversial and scientifically inaccurate, from autism to raw milk.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is ringing bells and drawing sharp criticism from Democrats who call him everything from “dangerous, inappropriate, and unreasonable” to “f. *****you are crazy.”

Critics say the 70-year-old environmental lawyer and former president, accused of making numerous false and misleading claims about health and science, should be removed from the top health post. That’s because the HHS secretary oversees many of the agencies that regulate much of what he has been yelling or talking about, including vaccines, prescription drugs, the health care system, and our nation’s food.

RFK Jr. he also does not have a doctorate, breaking with the longstanding tradition of the health secretary position. The appointment is just the latest in a long line of Trump controversies for his incoming administration.

URFK Jr., the son of former US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a member of the prominent Kennedy family, ran against Trump as an independent in the 2024 presidential election, eventually endorsing Trump after dropping out of the race. . The entire Kennedy family, longtime Democrats, were quick to criticize RFK Jr.’s cooperation. and Trump, called it “betrayal” and distanced themselves from the views of both politicians in public.

Here’s a look at some of RFK Jr.’s controversial claims. other important health issues:

COVID 19

Kennedy lied that some racial groups are immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. “Covid-19 is affecting certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said. “Covid-19 is meant to attack Caucasians and black people. The people most affected are the Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese.”

Virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewan dismissed the claim, saying that “the succession of Jews or Chinese is not a matter of biochemistry, but of racism and anti-Semitism,” as reported The New York Times.

These words have also been criticized by activist groups. The American Jewish Committee told CNN that “RFK Jr.’s statement that COVID was created to protect the Jewish and Chinese people is deeply offensive and dangerous,” while the Anti-Defamation League told the Anti-Defamation League that Kennedy’s claim “is like -sinophobic and antisemitic views about COVID-19 that we have seen in the past three years.”

Vaccines and autism

Kennedy, an anti-vax activist, has called the COVID-19 vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Health officials have denied that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective and has saved millions of lives.

RFK Jr. also asserted that childhood vaccines, including the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, are linked to the development of autism in children. “I believe autism comes from vaccines,” Kennedy told Fox News.

RFK Jr. blamed the preservative thimerosal, which was removed from the MMR vaccine in 2001, but is still used in other flu vaccines, according to the report. The Washington Post. In 2018, he helped launch the anti-vaccination group Children’s Health Defense, which criticizes the number of children being vaccinated today. (Kennedy argued that it is not a vaccine, “the safety of a vaccine.”)

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education and an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CNN that Kennedy is “a denier of science who makes misleading or false statements about the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.” “

A 2004 report from the Institute of Medicine concluded that there is no link between autism and the vaccine, and several studies in peer-reviewed journals also refuted the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism.

Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that the MMR vaccine is not responsible for the recent increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism. The MMR vaccine is given around the typical age of onset of autism, so some parents mistakenly link the two events, The Washington Post noted.

Vaccines have eradicated many deadly diseases throughout history, including the deadly smallpox.

Raw milk and unprocessed foods

RFK Jr. he said he would remove processed foods from school lunches “immediately,” but nutritionists who remember how Trump fought stricter school lunch standards in his first term, and how Republicans tried to undermine former first lady Michelle Obama’s lunch agenda, are skeptical. that he will be supported within the administration.

But when RFK Jr. became more controversial not for his plan to reduce unhealthy school meals or remove food dyes, but for his threats to nutritionists and other employees of the Food and Drug Administration and his promotion of unregulated and unsafe food. alternatives such as unprocessed milk, which can cause death if contaminated.

Drinking raw milk has always been somewhat dangerous because it has not been pasteurized, a process that kills harmful bacteria, and consuming it has been linked to outbreaks of bacteria such as E. coli, can cause kidney failure and death.

In a post on X, RFK Jr. he made it clear that he would limit or stop the FDA from regulating raw milk, vitamins, psychedelics, and much more. He also peddled extreme conspiracy theories accusing the US government of “mass poisoning” the American people.

“The FDA’s war on public health is almost over,” wrote RFK Jr. a few days before the presidential election. This includes its strong emphasis on psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapy, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean eating, sunlight, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that improves human health and cannot be patented. by Pharma.”

The current FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said Tuesday that “not having professionals, I think historically, in every community, has been the death knell for that community,” and he noted. The New York Times that while the current HHS rarely interferes in scientific decisions at the FDA, “it is perfectly legal for the president or secretary of HHS to take over the role of the entire FDA.”