It\u2019s difficult to understate the deleterious impact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had on America\u2019s public health policy. In a little over a year, the nephew of one of the most prodigious leaders in U.S. history transformed from an unserious third-party presidential candidate that not even his family supported, to the nation\u2019s buck-wild authority on disease management. He did so having never previously worked in medicine, public health, or the government, guided only by a pocketful of conspiracies that America\u2019s foremost health experts have thoroughly debunked.<\/p>\n
The consequences of Kennedy\u2019s appointment atop the Department of Health and Human Services have been tangible and severe: Historically eradicated diseases have reemerged, killing children<\/a>; Medicaid recipients have lost their health coverage; and Kennedy has slashed some 20,000 staffers in a massive restructuring<\/a> of the entire agency. His error-riddled, AI-generated plan<\/a> for America\u2014called \u201cMake America Healthy Again,\u201d or MAHA\u2014also pledged to strip fluoride<\/a> (a well-researched dental aid) from America\u2019s water supply, take aim at ultra-processed foods, and eliminate the prevalence of pesticides<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet prior to his shocking ascent to the highest echelons of government, Kennedy was little more than a joke for purveyors and participants in the national political arena, mocked as a brain worm\u2013addled nepo baby with no legitimate prospects in Washington.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s disturbing behavior fueled the doubt. Reports from the campaign trail revealed that the 71-year-old fondly maintained a \u201cfreezer full of\u201d roadkill and, in 2010, staged the slashed corpse of a bear cub<\/a> in Central Park as a practical joke. Other graver allegations against Kennedy surfaced, as well. In July 2024, a babysitter that Kennedy had employed to mind his children some two decades ago accused him of sexually abusing her. In response, Kennedy hit send on a late-night apology<\/a> text message, asking to see her face-to-face. (It was not received well.)<\/p>\n But all of Kennedy\u2019s past indiscretions apparently became bygones when, after his Democratic-turned-independent bid for the presidency failed, he turned to Donald Trump, groveling for a job.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s family was fully aware of the impending disaster. In a January letter to Congress<\/a>, Caroline Kennedy\u2014the only surviving child of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan\u2014argued that her cousin lacked any relevant or pertinent experience to run HHS, other than a predatory ambition for power. <\/p>\n She pointed to the work of one of his nonprofits in Samoa in 2019, in which Kennedy\u2019s influence in spreading misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines tanked the country\u2019s vaccination rate. In Kennedy\u2019s wake, thousands of Samoans were left susceptible to measles cases that resulted in dozens of deaths, the majority<\/a> of which were children under the age of five.<\/p>\n She also claimed that Kennedy didn\u2019t believe his own virulent views on vaccines, writing that he \u201cpreys on the desperation of parents of sick children\u2014vaccinating his own children while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n Her concern was well-directed. Kennedy has become the de facto leader of a growing movement of anti-vaxx parents who refuse to provide their children with the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories that, at one point, linked autism to the jab. <\/p>\n The researcher who sparked<\/a> that myth with a fraudulent paper lost his medical license and eventually rescinded his opinion. Since then, dozens of studies<\/a> have proven there\u2019s no correlation between autism and vaccines, including one study that surveyed more than 660,000 children over the course of 11 years.<\/p>\n A frequent target of Kennedy\u2019s vaccine fearmongering is the immunization for Covid-19, which was developed with mRNA technology. Just a few years ago, mRNA was viewed as a cutting-edge medical development, as the coronavirus response was the first mRNA vaccine to debut on the U.S. market, though the technology had actually been developed decades prior.<\/p>\n The difference between mRNA and traditional methods of developing vaccines boils down to less need for time and money. Traditional vaccines inject a weakened or dead version of a virus, triggering the body\u2019s immune response and the development of antibodies. Researching and developing these vaccines is a \u201clengthy and costly\u201d process that becomes further complicated when researchers have to respond to mutations in the virus, according to Penn Medicine<\/a>. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, mRNA technology employs a synthetic genetic code that instructs the body to produce proteins akin to the viral protein, training the body\u2019s immune system without ever actually exposing the individual to the disease. Once the response is initiated, the synthetic genetic sequence breaks down in the body, according to Medline Plus<\/a>. The result is a \u201cplug-and-play\u201d vaccine technology that offers rapid development times at a lower cost to traditional vaccines.<\/p>\n But Kennedy has been less than wowed by the initiative, which Trump approved during his first term. Instead, Kennedy has referred<\/a> to the 2020 outbreak as a \u201cplan-demic\u201d that he believes was \u201cplanned from the outset\u201d and \u201cpart of a sinister scheme.\u201d Kennedy also likened 2020 vaccination efforts to the Nazi testing on \u201cGypsies and Jews,\u201d claiming that the jab was \u201ca pharmaceutical-driven, biosecurity agenda that will enslave the entire human race and plunge us into a dystopian nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n His newfound power, however, has morphed Kennedy\u2019s controversial comments into destructive public health positions. In less than a year, the conspiracist replaced independent medical experts on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s vaccine advisory panel with vaccine skeptics. He ended vital vaccine recommendations, such as the immunization for Hepatitis B, for newborns. He cut $500 million from mRNA development funds. The \u201cabortion pill,\u201d which assists tens of millions of Americans in dire situations, has been placed under review<\/a>. <\/p>\n Overall, Kennedy has shifted the focus of America\u2019s premiere health agency away from evidence-backed science and thrust it into a new era dominated by fear, anxiety, and potential financial gain for himself and his accomplices. The more doubt and division that Kennedy sows, the more money he\u2019ll make. In the year leading up to his appointment, Kennedy disclosed<\/a> that he made roughly $10 million in 2024 from speaking fees and dividends from his vaccine lawsuits. <\/p>\n