▶ “Effectiveness of raw milk and stem cells, gun cancer blamed on antidepressants, water changes sexual identity”
▶ Unfounded prescriptions and conspiracy theories… Experts appalled by threat to public health
Health Secretary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. [로이터]
Robert Kennedy Jr., who has been spreading various conspiracy theories related to public health, was nominated as Secretary of Health and Welfare for Trump’s second term, and his problematic comments came to the fore once again.
The Washington Post (WP) published an article titled ‘Kennedy’s 10 Conspiracy Theories and False Claims,’ which introduced Kennedy Jr.’s conspiracy theory, which has shocked the medical community, and included experts’ opinions on its authenticity.
◇ “Vaccines cause autism”… Experts consider it to be intentional disinformation.
According to WP, after founding an anti-vaccine group, Kennedy Jr. has long argued that ‘autism comes from vaccines.’ They raised questions about the number of vaccinations for children, saying that thimerosal, a compound used as a preservative in vaccines, causes autism.
In 2015, he claimed that vaccination was like the ‘Holocaust’ (Nazi massacre of Jews). “If you get the vaccine, you get a fever of 103 degrees that night, you go to sleep, and three months later your brain disappears,” he said.
However, the Institute of Medicine concluded in a 2004 report that there was no link between autism and vaccines, and dozens of papers published in prestigious medical journals also concluded that the measles, rubella, and mumps (MMR) vaccine causes autism in children. He refuted the notion that this was not true.
In addition, many vaccine experts, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Academy of Pediatrics, refuted Kennedy Jr.’s claims.
However, trust in vaccines in the United States has fallen, so there are predictions that irreparable damage could be caused if Kennedy Jr. is appointed as Secretary of Health and Welfare.
Kennedy Jr., who has been anti-vaccination for 20 years, also defined the COVID-19 vaccine as ‘the most lethal vaccine ever created.’
He made this claim at a state House hearing in an effort for Louisiana to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for students in 2021, and said he would stick to that position in response to a related inquiry from WP last year.
At the time, Louisiana State Health Officer Joseph Kenter criticized the remarks as “intentional spread of health misinformation.”
◇ Promoting raw milk and stem cell treatments… Expert: “It’s dangerous and unproven.”
Kennedy Jr. also promoted treatments that are controversial or have been proven ineffective, such as raw milk and stem cells.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC strongly advise against eating raw milk, which can contain dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, and listeria. Raw milk from cows infected with H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza, may contain the H5N1 virus.
Stem cells are attracting attention as a future treatment, but there are not many proven treatments.
The medical community is concerned that Kennedy Jr. could align himself with hospitals promoting unlicensed stem cell treatments, thereby undermining FDA oversight and pressuring the agency to allow treatments that are not ready for clinical trials.
“The Department of Agriculture, the FDA have been taken over by the industry they are supposed to regulate, and they are all interested in subsidies and mass poisoning of the American people,” Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Fox News in August of this year.
Claims that government employees intentionally harm the public also caused controversy.
◇ “Chemicals in water change gender identity”… Expert dismisses old conspiracy theory
In an interview with Turkish media in January of this year, Kennedy Jr. also claimed that mass shootings committed by young people were triggered by antidepressants and video games.
Claims that antidepressants are linked to mass shootings have been made primarily by far-right figures, but experts emphasize that there is no reliable research linking the two.
Kennedy Jr. repeatedly argued that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) may not be caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
The discovery of the link between HIV and AIDS is a scientific achievement that led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 2008.
Kennedy Jr. also repeatedly claimed that chemicals in water were changing children’s gender identity. Unlike in the past, children these days experience a lot of sexual confusion, and this is said to be the effect of endocrine disruptors.
David Gorsky, a professor at Wayne State University, criticized the claim, saying, “It’s a very old conspiracy theory that relies on the fear that hormones will turn our children gay or transgender.”
◇ “Eradication of COVID-19 with animal repellent”… FDA has already concluded that it is ‘not effective’
Kennedy Jr. also made the absurd claim that there would have been fewer COVID-19 deaths if the animal anthelmintic ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, a similar drug to the malaria drug chloroquine, had been used.
The conclusion has already been made that the two drugs are not effective against COVID-19.
The FDA has not approved ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, and issued emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, but withdrew the authorization less than three months later, saying it was “unlikely to be effective.”
In a media interview in July of last year, Kennedy Jr. said, “COVID-19 was created to attack whites and blacks. The people with the strongest immunity are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” and said that COVID-19 spread by targeting racial groups, calling it racist. I heard the criticism.
He also developed an unfounded conspiracy theory that 5th generation mobile communication (5G) services are being used to “collect our data and control our behavior” and that it has detrimental effects on our health.
