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RFK Jr has been silent as the Trump administration dismantles the federal loan programs which, for decades, ensured Americans could pursue careers in health. A better Secretary of Health would have fought to ensure the country has a vibrant and well-trained health care workforce.

Decades of research show no link between modern migration and the spread of infectious disease to host populations, but that didn't stop RFK Jr from blaming immigrants for communicable diseases in his testimony to Congress. His falsehoods increase stigma, discrimination and healthcare barriers faced by immigrants and refugees.

RFK Jr. is unhappy that one in six American adults takes an antidepressant and believes that the U.S. faces a dependency crisis, driven by overmedicalization. The idea that reducing the use of drugs will solve our social, institutional and neuropsychiatric problems is a whopper.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over a decade. But in a series of congressional hearings last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. misleadingly claimed that “there are no cuts to Medicaid” as a result of that 2025 law.

Defense Secretary Hegseth announced the flu vaccine will no longer be required for U.S. service members. RFK Jr. defended the decision, down playing the vaccine's effectiveness and claiming soldiers should have some medical "freedom." It is worrisome that the Secretaries of Defense and Health are willing to compromise both service members' health and U.S. military readiness.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kennedy often calls out moms as his biggest supporters. His message to women sounds like praise and empowerment, but he's actually shifting the burden of evaluating scientific studies onto moms. That’s unfair and dangerous.

Senators Sanders and Cassidy objected when Secretary Kennedy claimed, in a Senate committee meeting, that "if you want to talk about why disease mortality disappeared in the 20th Century it was not vaccines." RFK Jr. distorts the historical medical record to support his ideology. The decline in infant and childhood mortality in the 20th Century was not due to vaccines alone, but new vaccines dramatically reduced death and disease due to infectious disease and saved millions of lives.

In April 2025, Kennedy promised to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply in order to restore “gold-standard science” and “earn back the public’s trust.” Since then he has made little headway and has walked back tough talk about bans on dyes in favor of voluntary commitments from the food industry while deregulating food labeling to broaden the products that can claim to contain “no artificial colors.” Faced with industry opposition, Kennedy is proving weak.

RFK Jr is hyping peptides and promising changes to FDA rules that would make some unapproved peptides legally available from compounding pharmacies, despite concerns about their safety. His claims that the FDA “illegally” changed regulations for compounding pharmacies are not true. Kennedy is pushing the FDA to adopt an evidence free and potentially dangerous peptide policy.

For National Public Health Week, we look at Secretary Kennedy’s claims to be “restoring trust” in public health. Unfortunately, he is doing the opposite and weakening America’s scientific, medical, and public health systems. Under his watch, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has terminated at least 75 scientific advisory committees and elevated the voices of unqualified, conspiratorial, and conflicted individuals. Kennedy is destroying technical knowledge and expertise at HHS and using "public trust" as his excuse for doing so.

When Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to encourage the domestic production of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, Kennedy’s MAHA supporters were angry. Kennedy has waffled in his messaging about glyphosates and whether they should be regulated. Glyphosates are a rare example where the Trump administration has blocked Kennedy from pursuing MAHA goals.

Since taking office, RFK Jr. has promoted a half dozen projects that were meant to “find the root sources” of chronic disease in health databases. So far the studies have come up empty. The latest failed project tried to link Long COVID to COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is finding out the hard way that Gold Standard Science is not as easy as making stuff up and posting it on social media.