RFK Jr. Made Bad News Outside The Hearing Room, Too: Public Health Watch Newsletter

Trump health secretary RFK Jr.’s combative, lie-packed performances this week before three Congressional committees made plenty of news. Like when he denied ever saying Black children on ADHD medication should be “re-parented” despite saying it on camera just 2 years ago. But the consequences of his anti-science actions and rhetoric made news outside the halls of Congress, too:

Utah Suffering From RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Propaganda: At his hearing today, prolific anti-vax misinformer RFK Jr. laughably claimed the alarming spread of measles on his watch at HHS has “nothing to do with me”. Bold of him to say with over 4,000 confirmed cases – a 25 year high — since his nomination and as he’s carried on an aggressive misinformation campaign against vaccine safety, including the MMR vaccine, that effectively throttled vaccination rates. Meanwhile, the NYT reports Utah has become the “new center of U.S. measles cases” as “nearly 600 people have been sickened across the state” amid “an increase in vaccine exemptions.” And in California, state officials are dealing with the “highest number of annual measles cases in seven years.”

RFK Jr.’s Anti-Science Agenda Becomes Republican Political Liability: A new national poll out this week found RFK Jr. is a political liability for the GOP, with voters turning against him and candidates aligned with his agenda, as they learn more about his record. The poll found one in three voters outright oppose the MAHA agenda and most voters overwhelmingly prefer candidates with backgrounds in science or medicine by a margin of nearly 6-to-1 over those aligned with MAHA.

Major Study Debunks Trump-RFK Jr. Tylenol-Autism Myth: A 25 yearlong study of 1.5 million kids in Denmark released this week found zero link between mothers taking Tylenol during pregnancy and children developing autism – a conspiracy theory that was promoted over and again by Donald Trump and RFK Jr. Of course, when confronted with this overwhelmingly, peer-reviewed data, today Kennedy emptily dismissed it as “garbage” without a shred of evidence of his own. Classic RFK Jr.: recklessly scare people with unfounded claims and then take no responsibility when they crumble under basic scrutiny.

Yet Another Debunked RFK Jr. Conspiracy Theory: Another long-term study published this week completely debunked Kennedy’s whopper that fluoride in drinking water makes people “stupider.” It’s as if he actively wants to make the American dental crisis worse.

Self-Congratulation Over Non-Existent Accomplishments: Politico reports RFK Jr. is preparing another road show to boast his ‘success’ on artificial food dyes despite the fact most companies that sell such products are making no commitment to get rid of synthetic colors after “the administration has put no law or regulatory heft behind their effort.”

Kennedy’s New Food Pyramid = $1,000 Added to Family Grocery Bills: RFK Jr. had very few actual accomplishments to tout during his hearings this week, leaving the Health Secretary to hold up the revamped food pyramid as reason to praise him. Except, he neglected to mention the new market analysis released this week finding Kennedy’s revised food pyramid is unrealistic for many families by raising annual grocery bills by nearly one-third, or $1,012 more annually.

Hold Onto Your Dogs Tight Around RFK Jr…: The Health Secretary’s taxpayer-funded vanity podcast is off to a disturbing start, with Kennedy nodding approvingly as his guest wonders aloud: “So why are we not using dog meat?”

…Or Any Pet, Really: Following a skin-crawling revelation in the new biography RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise that Kennedy “once pulled over to the side of the road to cut off the genitals of a dead racoon,” Vanity Fair looked back on his many bizarre “run-ins with roadkill.” When asked about this strange pattern of behavior, Kennedy responded with a menacing grin, “ha ha ha”.

In The News

RFK’s Disastrous Tenure At HHS