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.
National Guard troops have been activated during past elections to assist with cybersecurity, processing votes and potential protests. But social media posts have made the unsupported claim that former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for the National Guard “at every voting station and ballot counting facility” on Election Day.
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.
SAG PAC Inc. is a super PAC with Republican connections that promotes independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s “progressive” record.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has given children’s health and the “chronic disease epidemic” a prominent role in his campaign. Diagnoses of a variety of chronic conditions in children have increased in recent decades, but likely not to the extent that Kennedy claims or for the reasons he gives.
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 photo of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely shows him holding the carcass of a goat, lamb or other ruminant animal in Patagonia. Social media posts, citing a Vanity Fair article, make the unsupported claim the photo shows a dog carcass in South Korea. The magazine deleted remarks by a veterinarian who said it was a dog.
Excluded from the CNN presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. livestreamed a parallel debate on social media, answering the same questions put to the major party candidates.