7 Noteworthy Falsehoods Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has Promoted
Mr. Kennedy, the proposed nominee for health secretary, has for decades promoted baseless conspiracy theories.
He has promoted a conspiracy theory that coronavirus vaccines were developed to control people via microchips. He has endorsed the false notion that antidepressants are linked to school shootings. And he has pushed the decades-old idea that the C.I.A. killed his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, leading vaccine skeptic and purveyor of conspiracy theories, is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead his health department.
If he becomes health secretary, Mr. Kennedy would oversee the agencies responsible for funding medical research, setting health guidelines and approving medications. Yet for decades, he has used conspiracy theories to undermine public health guidance and sow doubts about the scientific process.
Here are seven of the many baseless claims Mr. Kennedy has pushed.
He has falsely linked vaccines to various medical conditions.
Mr. Kennedy has promoted many false or unproven claims that center on public health and the pharmaceutical industry — most notably, the scientifically discredited belief that childhood vaccines cause autism.
That notion has been rejected by more than a dozen peer-reviewed scientific studies across multiple countries. The National Academy of Medicine reviewed eight vaccines for children and adults and found that with rare exceptions, the vaccines are very safe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Seen by many as the face of the vaccine resistance movement, Mr. Kennedy has asserted that he is “not anti-vaccine” and seeks to make vaccines more safe. But he has advertised misleading information about vaccine ingredients and circulated retracted studies linking vaccines to various medical conditions.
