RFK. Jr’s controversial health stances, from vaccines to raw milk

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary has sent a ripple of panic through much of the public health world, given Kennedy’s history of false or misleading claims regarding vaccines, fluoride and other topics.

Health was a centerpiece of Kennedy’s presidential bid, which he suspended over the summer. At the time, his key issues included reducing pharmaceutical companies’ influence on government agencies, combating chronic health issues among children and improving food safety. In promoting those causes, he put forward a mixture of ideas — some supported by science, others that have been debunked several times over.

After endorsing Trump in August, Kennedy continued to promote a similar agenda dubbed “Make America Healthy Again.”

Trump said last month that if elected, he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health, food and medicine. Around the same time, Kennedy said that a future Trump administration would end the Food and Drug Administration’s “aggressive suppression” of vitamins, raw milk, stem cells and certain drugs. 

Kennedy’s team did not respond to a request for comment. Trump’s team did not comment on Kennedy’s past claims and instead referred NBC News to Trump’s statement announcing his pick.

If confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy would oversee 13 federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FDA, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Here is what Kennedy has said about 11 health issues.

Vaccines

Kennedy, the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine activist group, has repeatedly questioned the safety and effectiveness of routine vaccinations, such as those for hepatitis B and the flu. In particular, he has reiterated a thoroughly debunked theory that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism. The theory is tied to research from the ‘90s that was later discredited and retracted; its author, Andrew Wakefield lost his medical license. Many subsequent studies have found no link between the vaccine and autism.  

Kennedy has also referred to the Covid vaccine as “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” despite data showing it’s overwhelmingly safe.

He is against school vaccine mandates, but Kennedy told NBC News this month that he doesn’t want to get rid of vaccines altogether. “I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments,” he said.

Kennedy has expressed doubts about the existing scientific literature on approved vaccines, which shows them to be safe and effective. Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN that Kennedy wants to “take on the data and show that it’s not safe.”

Raw milk

Kennedy has said that he only drinks raw milk. Doing so puts people at risk of foodborne illness, since pasteurization kills off pathogens. As many as 30 states allow raw milk to be sold, but the FDA regulates its sale across state lines.

Raw milk poses a particular threat at the moment, given the widespread bird flu outbreak in dairy cows. The CDC has warned that it might be possible to contract bird flu from drinking raw milk.

Pesticides

Kennedy has called on the U.S. to revisit its standards for pesticides, pointing to a list of 72 approved pesticides that are banned or in the process of being phased out in the European Union. 

In particular, he has called attention to glyphosate — a weed killer that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has said is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The Environmental Protection Agency has not found evidence to support this link, but its methodology differed from the IARC’s. Some experts say more research is needed. Verdicts in lawsuits over the chemical’s alleged link to cancer have been mixed.

Kennedy has also suggested that the pesticide atrazine may be linked to gender dysphoria and changes in children’s sexual identity. As evidence, he has cited a study that found that some male frogs who were exposed to atrazine in a lab could produce viable eggs. There’s no evidence that atrazine could have the same effect in humans, let alone impact gender or sexuality.  

Fluoride

Kennedy wants to remove fluoride from drinking water, telling NBC News that “the faster it goes out, the better.” He recently claimed on X that fluoride is associated with arthritis, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.

But he CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and other health organizations have said that the levels of fluoride in drinking water are safe and help reduce cavities. According to the CDC, the only documented risks are cosmetic issues such as discolored tooth enamel or small holes in the teeth.

Stem cells

In a post on X last month, Kennedy referred to the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of stem cells. He hasn’t elaborated, but the comment might be a reference to some for-profit clinics offering stem cell treatments that haven’t been approved. 

The FDA has said that the field of stem cell therapy holds promise for treating illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s and diabetes. But it has called out certain clinics for making deceptive claims about unproven treatments, and in some cases it has taken action to stop clinics from administering them.

Heavy metals

Kennedy has decried the presence of heavy metals in food and falsely claimed that a mercury-based preservative no longer used in childhood vaccines was linked to autism. The CDC says there’s no evidence of that.

Kennedy claimed in 2012 that he suffered from mercury poisoning, perhaps from eating too much fish. After that health scare, he said, he underwent chelation therapy, which pulls heavy metals from the bloodstream. Last month, he suggested that the FDA has suppressed this form of therapy. The agency has approved chelation therapy for particular uses, like treating lead poisoning, but has warned about companies marketing unapproved, over-the-counter versions. 

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine 

During the pandemic, fringe groups touted two antiparasitic drugs as treatments for Covid: ivermectin, typically used for worm infections, and hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria and certain autoimmune conditions. The FDA briefly issued an emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid, but it revoked that authorization after data showed it to be uneffective.

Studies on ivermectin also showed it was not an effective Covid treatment. Neither drug is approved by the FDA for that purpose.

But Kennedy has cast doubt on those findings, claiming without evidence that the drugs were discredited because various groups stood to make money off Covid vaccines.

Covid and race

At an event last year, Kennedy promoted a racist and antisemitic theory that Covid “ethnically targeted” white and Black people but not Ashkenazi Jews or Chinese people. While Black, Hispanic and other minority groups were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, there is no evidence that race affects immunity to the coronavirus — rather, public health experts have found that socioeconomic factors made it harder for some groups to access vaccines and medical care.

Cellphone radiation

Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan last year that cellphone radiation can cause cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has said this type of radiation is possibly carcinogenic, but the FDA and the National Cancer Institute say there’s not enough evidence to support that.

HIV and AIDS

Kennedy has falsely suggested that AIDS was caused in part by “heavy recreational drug use in gay men and drug addicts.” Scientific research has established that the cause of AIDS is human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. 

Antidepressants 

Kennedy has amplified baseless claims suggesting a link between antidepressants like Prozac and school shootings. “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events,” he told billionaire Elon Musk last year. 

But research shows that most school shooters were not previously treated with psychotropic medications — and even when they were, there was no association between those drugs and the shootings.

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