A running list of RFK Jr.'s controversies

A look at the eyebrow-raising antics and scientifically dubious assertions of the federal government's number one science skeptic

Photo collage of RFK Jr.'s profile, cut in half to reveal a large pink worm between the two halves of the photo
Though Kennedy insists he is not anti-vaccine, his record suggests otherwise
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

Perhaps never in the history of the United States has there been a public figure more consequential to the physical well-being of the nation than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of the famed Kennedy political dynasty and current Health and Human Services secretary under President Donald Trump. Neither a physician nor a researcher himself, Kennedy has instead drawn upon a lifetime's worth of vaccine skepticism and rejection of established science to lead the Trump administration's ongoing disruption of America's medical and scientific research.

Now, under the banner of his derivative "Make America Healthy Again" movement, Kennedy has withdrawn the United States from crucial institutions like The World Health Organization and Gavi, a leading youth immunization project that Kennedy accused of having "ignored the science" on vaccinations. At the same time, Kennedy has significantly rearranged America's domestic health care structures; in June, he dismissed the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before handpicking the body's new membership. They subsequently chose not to endorse certain flu vaccinations that contain a chemical anti-vaccination groups have "falsely tied to autism," The Associated Press said.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.