Robert F Kennedy Jr. is now one of the world’s most influential figures in health.
The outspoken anti-vaxxer and nephew of JFK has been handpicked by Donald Trump to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services.
It comes despite a series of bizarre health claims made by Kennedy over the years, including that a worm ‘ate’ part of his brain, chemicals in water are making children question their gender identity and vaccines cause autism.
Experts fear his appointment, and the potential polices that could be implemented, could have consequences far beyond American shores, for instance with regards to vaccination rates.
Here, MailOnline details the outrageous health theories peddled by the 70-year-old ahead of his predicted takeover of America’s core healthcare agencies.
Kennedy has taken a keen interest in the safety of drinking water over years, recently labelling for fluoride, a mineral that helps prevent tooth decay, as ‘neurotoxic’ and calling for it to be removed from US supplies.
The mineral is added to UK tap water in small amounts in order to improve the oral health of the nation.
Kennedy’s most bizarre claims have centred on atrazine — a herbicide that is a known endocrine disruptor, a substance that can interfere with hormones.
Kennedy has expressed interest in studies that show these chemicals can cause frogs to change sex.
He has drawn from this evidence to propose a link between endochrine disruptors in our environment, and the rise in children questioning their gender identity.
On a podcast Kennedy said: ‘Our children now, you know, we’re seeing these impacts that people suspect are very different than in ages past about sexual identification among children and sexual confusion, gender confusion.’
Robert F Kennedy Jr. is now one of the most influential figures in health being handpicked by Donald Trump to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services
‘I think a lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys, it’s probably under-appreciated on that how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of the sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing.’
‘I mean, they’re swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today, and many of those are endocrine disruptors. There’s atrazine throughout our water supply.’
The idea that chemicals in water could influence gender and sexuality has been spread by conspiracy theorist for years.
It was most famously touted by conservative radio host Alex Jones who said such substances were ‘turning the friggin frogs gay’.
Experts have repeatedly dismissed claims between endocrine disruptors and gender and sexuality.
One of the most eye-catching and recent health claims spread by Kennedy is that a parasitic worm ‘ate’ part of his brain.
The wild declaration was uncovered in his divorce proceeding documents, following his split with Mary Richardson in 2012.
The documents noted that, in 2010, Kennedy’s medics were worried about a dark spot that showed up on a brain scan — and suspected it may be a tumour.
The revelations were part of a 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings from Mary Richardson (left) where Kennedy claimed his earning power diminished due to cognitive struggles
Kennedy complained of suffering brain fog and memory loss at the time. But further scans found the spots were the result of a parasitic infection.
The New York Times, which uncovered the documents, said Kennedy wrote his mental issues ‘were caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died’.
It is unclear how Kennedy was infected with the worm in the first place, though he suspects he contracted it while travelling in South Asia.
Medics have previously voiced suspicions that he was likely infected with a tapeworm that can be found in pigs.
But Kennedy’s claims the worm ‘ate’ part of his brain aren’t likely to be correct as the parasite does not consume human tissue, experts say.
Its eggs, however, can develop into cysts that damage brain tissue, causing potentially fatal seizures.
One of Kennedy’s long-running health claims is that vaccines aren’t safe, previously stating no jab is ‘effective’ and suggested childhood vaccines could be driving rising autism rates.
Kennedy is the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, left, and the son of former US attorney general and senator from New York Robert Kennedy, second from left
He also wrongly claimed Covid vaccines have killed more people than all jabs ‘over the past 30 years’ in what experts called an inaccurate representation of data.
Kennedy has also previously floated the idea that schools with vaccine requirements for attendance in the US should be defunded.
One of the more shocking incidents involving vaccines and Kennedy was a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
He is widely credited for firming up anti-vax sentiment in the country through thoroughly debunked and discredited links between the jab and autism
A study found an anti-vax charity Kennedy headed at time called World Mercury Project, and now called Children’s Health Defense, helped fund a large amount of anti-vax ads to Facebook users in the Pacific nation, according to the Washington Post.
Over 80 people died in the Samoan measles outbreak, most of them children.
Kennedy has backed away from his hardline stance on vaccines this week, telling NBC News in the US: ‘If vaccines are working for somebody, I am not going to take them away.
However, he has left the door open to relaxing policies on making some vaccines non-compulsory.
Kennedy has repeatedly posted videos and photos of himself shirtless and working out on social media
‘People ought to have a choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information, so I’m going to make sure that safety studies and efficacy studies are out there and people can make individual assumptions whether that product is going to be good for them.’
Kennedy has also repeatedly, and wrongly, suggested that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.
In another dubious health claim, he linked wifi to cancer in a discussion with podcast host Joe Rogan.
Kennedy also previously told Elon Musk, the owner of the social media website X, that antidepressants could be responsible for school shootings in the US — a claim with no evidence.
‘I also am going to look very closely at the role of psychiatric drugs in these events,’ he said on an interview held on Musk’s platform.
‘Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events in our country.’
Kennedy like many anti-vaxxers enjoyed more publicity during the Covid pandemic.
He made many controversial statements at the time, including that wearing a face mask was akin to being a slave.
But the most shocking comment were bizarre statements that Covid was a bioweapon ‘ethnically targeted’ and that ‘the people who are most immune’ are those of a Jewish or Chinese background.
The remarks were widely condemned but Kennedy claimed he never suggested Covid was targeted to ‘spare’ Jewish people, but was instead pointing out government were developing ethnically targeted bioweapons.
There is no evidence such weapons exist or that Covid was one of them, though some experts do suspect the virus may have leaked from a lab before spreading around the world.
British experts and medics have reacted with alarm to the potential consequences Kennedy’s appointment could bring.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford said: ‘There is a real concern that his appointment could provide a new platform which he might use to pursue the same anti-science positions on life-saving public health interventions that he has advanced previously, and that he could continue to promote and misrepresent evidence to support spurious claims on vaccines.
‘If this makes families hesitate to immunise against the deadly diseases that threaten children, the consequence will be fatal for some.’
Dr David Elliman, a paediatrician, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children added: ‘He has perpetuated myths, including that of a link between MMR vaccine and autism, with an utter disregard for the evidence.
‘It he is appointed and continues in the same mode, I fear not just for the vaccination programme in USA, but similar programmes around the world.’
