The Science of Stupidity: Robert F. Kennedy’s take on Vaccines
Article by Simar Jolly
While there is not much to commend the Trump Administration on, something that must be recognized is their consistency in one thing: giving bad medical advice.
In 2009, President Trump strongly opposed flu vaccines during the swine flu outbreak. During this time, he also perpetuated the disproven notion that vaccines are correlated with autism. In 2014, Trump debated the Center for Disease Control on Ebola and how it spread (spoiler alert: he was scientifically wrong). Most memorably, the Trump Administration claimed that somehow sunlight would be able to kill coronavirus inside the body.
Keeping it consistent, Trump’s pick for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, has also made some pretty wild, vague, and, for the most part, completely false claims about medicine. In this article, we will be addressing some of these claims and checking the validity of these.
Vaccines are empirically necessary and beneficial in preventing the spread of viral outbreaks. While anti-vaxxers offer a host of fragile arguments against this modern technology, doctors and medical providers remain steadfast in their support of these life-saving shots. The CDC website affirms the importance of vaccinations.
Beginning last month, the nation saw the outbreak of measles—a disease that was once a major concern but has now been curbed thanks to the prevalence of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. In mid-March, we saw the tragic death of Kayley. It was unprecedented and made history as the first measles-related child death in 20 years. Kayley was unvaccinated. A few weeks later, measles claimed the lives of another young girl. 8-year-old Daisy was also unvaccinated. The parents of these two children ardently defended their decision, explaining that a vaccine was far more harmful than the life-threatening illness.
Robert F. Kennedy immediately took to X and urged that people get the MMR vaccine as an effective measure. This was a rather out-of-character response. A while later, Kennedy suggested vitamin A as a treatment for measles. The World Health Organization explains that while vitamin A is used when treating malnourished measles, a high dose of it can be deadly and should not be recommended by a nonphysician. Interestingly, this situation has been extensively covered by the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an anti-vaxx non-profit organization that Kennedy chaired up until 2023. The CHD upholds its anti-vaccination rhetoric and continues to associate itself with Kennedy.
The CHD has long promoted that a major reason not to get vaccinated is because of the alleged correlation between autism and vaccines. Time and time and time again, this has been disproven. Through decades of research, it is been established that the cause for autism does not lie in vaccines. Both Trump and Kennedy have pushed this discredited, baseless theory onto the American Public since the early days of their career. The leading theory behind what causes autism involves genetics, pointing to autism as a predisposed condition rather than one that is “acquired” through one’s environment.
It is clear, however, that this rhetoric has gone too far. Regardless of whether or not Kennedy will openly admit his views, his actions spell out otherwise. Last week, Kennedy boldly promised that the HHS would be able to find the reason for Autism by September. While this may not seem malicious, and maybe even a noble goal, its execution is extremely concerning.
Kennedy has not conferred with the leading Autism organization or researchers on this matter, but has rather turned to David Geier, a man who has a track record of trying to pin autism on vaccines. Aside from the fact that Geier is biased and can skew the results to fit a narrative he believes is right, he is not even qualified. Geier has been delicensed and was found practicing medicine without a license.
Furthermore, Kennedy has gone as far as to make disparaging remarks about people with Autism publicly. “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go on a date, many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s views on vaccines are not just misinformed and without scientific evidence, but they are dangerous when exposed to the American public.