A disproven medical theory could be guiding RFK Jr.'s health policy

Some health experts believe the controversial claims made by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be due to an obsolete medical theory. Known as miasma theory, this belief system goes back centuries but has long been superseded by the basic theory of germs. However, some on the fringes of the medical community still promote it, which could be driving some of RFK Jr.'s more contentious HHS decisions.

What is miasma theory?

It is the disproven belief that diseases are "caused by inhaling air that was infected through exposure to corrupting matter," according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It was believed this "bad air" could have been infected by "rotting corpses, the exhalations of other people already infected, sewage or even rotting vegetation."

Miasma theory was one of the "first ideas that civilization hatched to try to explain why people get sick," said NPR. It goes back to Hippocrates, who "wrote in a book called 'Epidemics' that epidemics came from some type of pollution — some pollution of the atmosphere," said Dr. Howard Markel, an emeritus professor of medical history at the University of Michigan, to NPR.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Germ theory was discovered in the last few centuries, though, revealing that it "wasn't some mysterious stench in the air from rotting garbage that spread diseases," said NPR. Instead, "bacteria and viruses and other microscopic materials were actually what caused illness," said Melanie Kiechle, a historian at Virginia Tech, to the outlet. Miasma theory is "debunked, essentially."

Why is RFK Jr. a believer?

Kennedy "doesn't believe in a foundational scientific principle: germ theory," said Ars Technica. He wrote a section promoting miasma theory in his 2021 book, "The Real Anthony Fauci," which criticized the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the section, Kennedy "promotes the 'miasma theory' but gets the definition completely wrong."

Kennedy's book states that miasma theory "emphasizes preventing disease by fortifying the immune system through nutrition and by reducing exposures to environmental toxins and stresses," according to Ars Technica. In Kennedy's view, abandoning miasma theory led to a "pharmaceutical paradigm that emphasized targeting particular germs with specific drugs rather than fortifying the immune system."

One of the main criticisms of Kennedy's approach is that miasma theory, as "historians of medicine and science understand it, is not what [he] is saying it is," said Nancy Tomes, a historian of germ theory at Stony Brook University, to NPR. This could lead to policy decisions coming as a result of miasma theory, which experts question. For Kennedy, vaccines are a "modern-day miasma," Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said to NPR.

Kennedy's "unscientific belief that germs don't actually cause disease will likely have far worse consequences," said Jalopnik. This is a "threat to modern medicine and health in this country, as well as across the world." And many doctors believe this is all part of an effort to promote an anti-vax agenda. Kennedy is "trying to give this false veneer of intellectualism by saying, 'Oh, the miasma theory,'" said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security, to NPR. This is "obfuscation to support his idea that vaccines are not valuable."