Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr.’s War on Public Health Is Framed as “Restoring Trust”

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

RFK JR.'s WAR ON PUBLIC HEALTH IS FRAMED AS "RESTORING TRUST"

IN SUMMARY

It’s National Public Health Week, so we thought we would take a 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. In a January 2026 interview, Kennedy responded to a question about vaccines by saying, “This idea that you should trust the experts, a good mother doesn’t do that.” It is important to understand the pros and cons of health interventions, but Kennedy’s dislike of experts is less about empowerment and more about disinformation. 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. A federal judge described Kennedy’s replacement of the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as “an abandonment of ... technical knowledge and expertise” that “can only be countenanced if one completely abandons the idea of objective fact.”

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

Kennedy is actively working to undermine the very concept of public health expertise, sidelining independent panels that HHS relies on to guide scientific agendas, regulations, and policies. He is also cutting investments in science and public health in ways that will reverberate for years. The HHS and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are distorting the health science evidence base, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are slashing research funding, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is rolling back regulations on clean air, clean water, mercury, lead and glyphosate, and millions of people losing access to health insurance.

By some metrics, trust in public health is now at its lowest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; it is also increasingly politically polarized (see the Figure below from KFF).

The Share of Americans Who Trust the CDC for Vaccine Information

As part of his broader effort to dismantle the institutions that underpin public health, Kennedy often attacks the reputation of prominent experts, claiming they are “not trustworthy” or have “conflicts of interest”. He promotes an alternative universe of grifters and conspiracy theorists, from Del Bigtree to Casey Means, and installs partisans with no relevant scientific experience to key roles at HHS. In classic autocratic style, he is saying “trust my experts, not those experts.”

What we should trust is not any one individual, but the scientific process, and the systems that lead to deliberative, broad-based, networked and transparent recommendations. Expertise in any field is earned through study and experience and validated through honest, balanced and rigorous review. Not everyone with academic credentials is an expert; a degree awarded decades ago does not guarantee current knowledge; and a degree in economics does not ensure proficiency in public health, or vice versa. Similarly, not all experts are academics: some activists and advocates are very well informed about current scientific advances, fluent in research methods, and know about the real-world, lived experiences of patients. And of course, not all experts are right all the time. This is why we have systems, institutions, and methods to guide science policy. As historian Naomi Oreskes puts it, “science is a collective endeavor.”

In contrast, using search engines, literature reviews or chatbots to “do your own research” and basing opinions on "anecdata" or social media posts does not typically lead to expertise. Despite Kennedy's claims, there is no way that even the smartest parent can genuinely do their own research on the risks and benefits of everything from car seats, to food additives, to screen time, to vaccines.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Kennedy is gutting public health institutions, biomedical research and government health insurance systems. He claims that he has a mandate to do so because Americans don't trust health experts. “A cynic might say that RFK Jr. and his team want Americans to believe no one and trust nothing,” notes Defend Public Health’s Bruce Mirkin, “and the result is that people will continue to be confused and some will die needlessly from preventable causes.”

Lack of trust is the excuse Kennedy uses to halt critical health research. “I was expecting an attack on climate science,” said Kate Marvel, an astrophysicist who recently retired from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). “But actually, who they went after first was pediatric cancer research, Parkinson’s research, and childhood vaccines. What I was completely unprepared for was an attack on science, because it is a means of finding out and telling the truth.” Kennedy is the architect of the largest public health setbacks in in American history.

There is, however, a silver lining. Americans are beginning to recognize that politicians who urge them to distrust “the experts” may not be worthy of trust themselves. A majority of Americans still trust their primary care providers, and professional health organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics. They even trust career scientists more than the current leaders of Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NIH and FDA (see the Figure from the Annenberg Public Policy Center). These experts are already working together, outside formal government channels, to rebuild America's trust in public health.