'Why we should be worried by Robert F Kennedy Jr's ascent to power'
In November, Trump declared prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr his nominee to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services and Instagram turned into my personal hell. Reason being, I watched a post from the latter, in which the former environmental lawyer celebrates his ascent to mainstream power, shared extensively by people working in the wellness world. ‘We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to put an end to the chronic disease epidemic,’ it reads.
Kennedy’s catechism is to ‘Make America Healthy Again’, or ‘MAHA’, a modified version of MAGA, the mantle he took up after dropping his independent bid to win the latest US election to endorse the president-elect. (Until 2023, Kennedy was a Democrat; during his independent presidential bid, he often sharply criticised his new boss.)
Conspiracy and credibility collide
This move was, perhaps, the zenith of an on-going phenomenon: beliefs coded ‘crunchy’ and often historically aligned with the left – things like stating that big food companies which aggressively advertise foods with little nutritional value should be penalised and that access to fresh produce shouldn’t just be for the rich – bleeding into the trippy world of the alt-right.
Partly, it makes sense. Anyone can intuit that things are bad, right now, with regards to the western world’s collective health. It what makes these tidy dictums about the root causes of all this sickness alluring. And much of what Kennedy Jr has to say I can bop my head along to. Industrialised food systems are helping to bring ill health on people; chronic diseases linked to such products have radically risen, this is bad and should be taken very seriously.
Listen to Kennedy Jr speak, though, and you’ll soon feel yourself falling through the looking glass and into a surreal world of fantastical alternative facts. He’s reiterated the long debunked claim that childhood vaccines are linked to autism; he's said that antidepressants are connected to mass shootings ('Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events in our country,' was a memorable comment served in a June 2023 Twitter Spaces conversation hosted by Elon Musk). An out and proud raw milk drinker – milk that hasn’t been pasteurised, a process that kills harmful bacteria – he's consistently undermined the health risks associated with doing so. (When asked to respond to his previous false claims by the Washington Post, Kennedy’s spokesperson directed the publication to this statement.)
Doctors warn of dangers ahead
This slippery blend of sense and nonsense makes him dangerous as a public figure with a platform. Set, as he is, to take up a powerful government health position at a superpower this month – if confirmed, Kennedy Jr will preside over the Food and Drug Administration, which clears medical products, including drugs for us; the National Institutes of Health, a leading research centre and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US' national public health agency – and his seeming disregard for scientific evidence becomes even more sinister.
This isn't some cute eccentric guy who loves sprinkling seeds on his organic granola and brewing his own kombucha. To reiterate: it's a man who has insinuated that Prozac has something to do with mass shootings.
Such is the concern over his incoming appointment that over 15,000 doctors in the US have signed a letter urging senators to vote against confirming Kennedy Jr into the role, when Trump is inaugurated. 'This appointment is a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death,' the letter reads.
So much needs to shift. Our water supply has literally gone to shit. If you live with a chronic female health condition, like I do, you've likely languished on NHS waiting lists for months, leading to humming frustration with a health system that dismisses your symptoms. We’re overstimulated (screens; stress) and undernourished (by food, yes, but a lack of healthy social relationships, too.) And while the UK doesn’t have its own RFK-style figure now, it’s entirely logical that watching a politician in a country we share a language with speak on solutions to the issues plaguing the western world can feel energising.
But Kennedy isn’t a messianic bringer of truth and clarity. He’s a false prophet exploiting very real fears to try and dust credibility over ideas ranging from misguided and weird to far out dangerous. We’ve got to get wise to it.
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