In Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first interview as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, he made multiple incorrect or misleading statements, including about seed oils, an abortion drug and the notion that the U.S. has the “sickest population in the world.”
In his second day of confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, refused to say that vaccines do not cause autism — despite a large body of evidence showing there is no link. He also pointed to a flawed paper to suggest that there is credible evidence to claim vaccines cause the disorder.
Our annual roundup of the worst falsehoods of the year.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s suggestion that vaccines might cause autism because “there’s not been a direct study on each individual vaccine” misunderstands what’s known about autism, the extensive research on the subject and how science works.
In one of his most controversial Cabinet picks, President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Here, we summarize our past work fact-checking Kennedy’s claims about health and science.
In the waning days of his campaign, former President Donald Trump has further embraced some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s incorrect or controversial views on health, including vaccines and fluoride.
Responding to rising mpox cases in Africa, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on Aug. 14. Social media posts subsequently repeated a plethora of false or baseless claims, including that COVID-19 vaccines cause the viral disease or that the current outbreak is part of a global conspiracy.
The circulation of H5N1 bird flu in animals and limited infections in humans have motivated flu preparedness activities, such as stockpiling vaccines. Social media posts have baselessly implied that these efforts are evidence that a new laboratory-derived version of the virus is going to cause a pandemic — or even that there is a conspiracy to release bird flu from a lab.
In a leaked phone call with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former President Donald Trump incorrectly suggested that childhood vaccine doses are too large and can provoke sudden, radical changes in babies. There’s no evidence that the current vaccination schedule is harmful to kids.
A recent video promoting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promises to “start with some irrefutable facts.” The over 30-minute video, narrated by actor Woody Harrelson, begins with some biographical truths about the candidate, but veers into promoting various debunked or unsupported narratives about vaccines.