Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Claims We’ll Lead Medical Discovery – and Cuts Research

Whopper of the Week: 

RFK JR. CLAIMS WE'LL LEAD MEDICAL DISCOVERY -- AND CUTS RESEARCH

SUMMARY

Secretary Kennedy has been a high ranking general in the Trump administration’s assault on science. But last week Kennedy claimed that the United States will “lead the next generation of medical discovery” with artificial intelligence (AI) and find the “root causes of chronic diseases.” He also wrote an op-ed for Fox News claiming “America should continue to lead the world in clinical research and medical innovation.” 

Politicians boasting about U.S. biomedical dominance is as American as apple pie. Secretary Kennedy's actions, however, do nothing but hurt scientific research. He has presided over drastic cuts to health agency budgets; shut down research over banned words; canceled grants to universities based on their state’s political majority; dismantled peer review and scientific advisory boards; censored speech and publications; and demonized both traditional medicine and pharmaceutical companies. It’s a whopper for Kennedy to claim his policies will help the U.S. lead future medical discoveries. Never has there been a Secretary of Health who knows and cares so little about science.
 

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

Kennedy has overseen the largest peacetime dismantling of America’s public research capacity in modern history.  The U.S. government funds research by giving out grants to scientists and institutions in specific subject areas, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the main funder of biomedical research. President Trump, with no known opposition from Kennedy, tried to slash the NIH’s budget by 40% to its “bare bones” in 2025 and then again by 12% in 2026, but was stopped by Congress.  

Nevertheless, the administration has succeeded in shrinking the NIH staff to its lowest level in two decades, a 20% cut through “Dept. of Goverment Efficiency” terminations or incentivized departures. It has cancelled or frozen over 5,564 research grants since 2024 (Figure below). In 2025 alone, extramural funding was cut by $4 billion or 16% compared to the previous year. The NIH has adopted grant mechanisms that purposely shrink the total number of scientists, especially early stage researchers, who receive federal support.  

We already see the results. United for Medical Research reports that “nineteen states and the District of Columbia saw at least a 10% decrease in the number of awards received in FY2025 compared to the previous year.” With less funding, foreign student enrollments dropped 17%, as they take their scientific talent elsewhere, threatening our scientific future.

Kennedy lets others in the administration (like Elon Musk from the defunct DOGE or Russell Vought from the Office of Management and Budget) dictate the priorities, funding cuts and personnel decisions of federal health agencies. 

Kennedy has focused instead on crippling independent scientific advisory boards. These expert groups, usually volunteers, help agencies make sound, science-informed funding and policy decisions. Transparent peer review is the cornerstone of modern, competitive science. Kennedy has weakened groups like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices by firing experts, replacing them with unqualified allies, rewriting their mission statements, and cancelling meetings. He does so to enact policies -- on vaccines, on peptides, on autism research funding --  that are not supported by scientific evidence. Similarly, Kennedy has allowed censorship of inconvenient peer reviewed scientific studies and discontinued or downsized databases on health and health risks (e.g. FoodNet no longer monitors cyclospora outbreaks). Like all authoritarians, Kennedy loathes independent expertise and prefers censorship.

He also has no understanding of the scientific process. He treats personal anecdotes as equal to scientific evidence. He accepts the findings of small studies if they support his beliefs (e.g., a study on leucovorin as a treatment for autism), but dismisses well-designed observational or clinical studies that do not (e.g., a study of acetaminophen that found no increased risk of autism). Kennedy constantly speaks about finding “root cause” of autism or “chronic disease,” willfully ignoring the vast amount of research that has already been conducted  and the totality of evidence indicating that these are complex diseases with multiple risk factors. Kennedy is in eternal search for the one perfect experiment that will reveal the truth, but science is rarely that simple or fast. 

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Kennedy is fully on board with the downsizing of American biomedical research –  which will soon cause the U.S. to abdicate its world leadership in the life sciences.  

Mary Woolley, the president and CEO of Research!America warned that “Americans today and tomorrow will be sicker, poorer, and die younger… American research has a proven track record of increasing survival, reducing the burden of illness, and creating jobs. Cutting research funding helps no one; instead, it hurts everyone.” 

Derek Lowe, at Science magazine, is pessimistic. He thinks the administration is pushing forward on multiple fronts to dismantle “large scientific funding agencies” and shifting grants “away from academia entirely and more to industry and entrepreneurs.” The new OMB rule slated to take effect on October 1, 2026 will allow the White House to exert more control over agency grants and sideline the scientific community. Last week, the White House published “Science, A New Golden Age” laying out plans to cut funding for university research and give more to private business. All of this will make U.S. science weaker and the American public less healthy. 

So why is Kennedy suddenly interested in research and innovation? He's simply co-signing Trump's plan to throttle the engine of American academic science, while trying to soften the blow with empty promises that that artificial intelligence will accelerate biomedical discovery. 
 

Contributions by: Benedicte Callan, Ph.D., Bruce Mirken, Aurora Horstkamp, M.D.