Robert F Kennedy was a controversial person even before he took office as health minister. He has previously spread incorrect conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism, that AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus, and that the coronavirus does not affect Jews and Chinese. He has toned down the worst conspiracy theories, but they still shine through even in his role as minister:
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In April, the minister said in a TV program that the vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella contains "a lot of debris from aborted fetuses and DNA particles". Incorrect and dangerously misleading, was the verdict from the former chief physician in New York, Tyler Evans, in an interview with The Independent.
It is true that the cell line used to create parts of the vaccine has its origin in a cell from an aborted Swedish fetus in the 1960s, according to BBC. But there is no tissue from the fetus in the vaccine itself.
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During a
with the Senate in early September, Robert Kennedy did not want to confirm that one million Americans died from COVID-19 during the pandemic. He said instead that neither he - nor anyone else for that matter - could know the number, and blamed data chaos during the time. But the American infectious disease control institute CDC's data are clear: 1.2 million Americans have so far died from COVID..
During the same hearing, the minister suggested that it is not possible to say if any lives have been saved by COVID vaccines. But research has shown that mortality during the first year with vaccines decreased by 63 percent, which means 19.8-31.4 million lives saved globally.
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In April, Kennedy held a press conference due to a report showing that autism among eight-year-olds is increasing. Kennedy said there that "most cases are now severe". But according to Politifact, it is rather the opposite. In a study of parents with children with autism, only 10 percent described it as severe. Another CDC study described just over a quarter of eight-year-olds with autism as having a profound variant, including children with severe difficulties.
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Kennedy has previously expressed on, among other things, X that the pharmaceutical regulatory authority FDA stops much that benefits public health, including unpasteurized milk. In May, he drank "raw milk" in front of the camera because, according to him, it has health benefits.
It is true that both FDA and the infectious disease control authority CDC warn that there are great risks associated with drinking unpasteurized milk. It poses a significant risk of disease-causing intestinal bacteria such as E. coli.
