How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Could Expose to the Next Bird Flu Pandemic
Donald Trump once called RFK Jr. the “dumbest member” of the Kennedy dynasty, but that didn't stop Trump from nominating him as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
If confirmed as Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS), RFK Jr. would have disastrous effects on U.S. public health, including leaving America vulnerable to another pandemic just as bad as COVID-19. To be specific, RFK Jr. is a huge proponent of raw milk, which opens up America to the uniquely dangerous threat of a bird flu pandemic. According to FDA testing, 14% of raw milk samples from four dairy-producing states contained the H1N5 bird flu, but the bird flu was completely absent if the samples were pasteurized.
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, RFK Jr. was identified by online researchers as a member of The Disinformation Dozen, a group of 12 people responsible for 73% of all vaccine disinformation on Facebook. RFK Jr. was no slacker in this rogue's gallery, but rather ranked #2 on the list. RFK not only spread misinformation that discouraged pregnant women from vaccinating, but also pushed a conspiracy theory that blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for the death of baseball great Hank Aaron. (In reality, Hank Aaron died of natural causes, most likely attributable to hypertension, prostate disease, and the weakening effects of osteoarthritis.)
Another conspiracy theory that RFK Jr. supports is the "plandemic" theory, which argues that COVID-19 was not natural, but the result of a deliberate government plan to impose "social controls" and "totalitarian rule." The theory was popularized on Facebook and Twitter in 2020 by a series of conspiracy-laden "documentaries", but now RFK Jr. has publicly admitted to funding the misleading films. Aside from RFK's general opposition to vaccines, his promotion of "plandemic" conspiracy theories may have the spillover effect of discouraging paranoid Americans from seeking preventative medical treatment, which could in turn lead to under-resourced medical systems getting overwhelmed by sick pandemic victims coming to the hospital too late.
We also have strong evidence that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would damage herd immunity in a future pandemic, based on how he handled a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa, an epidemic that left 83 dead, mostly children. When interviewed for Shot in the Arm, a 2023 documentary about vaccine misinformation, RFK outright lied about how "I had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa." On the contrary, RFK went to Samoa to embrace an Australian anti-vaccine influencer on Instagram, as well as writing a letter to the Samoan prime minister that falsely cast suspicions on the measles vaccine as the source of the measles outbreak. In addition, RFK praised the country's leading anti-vaccine advocate as a "medical freedom hero". A major cause of the measles outbreak was a decrease in vaccination rates from 74% in 2017 to 37% in 2018, but RFK Jr. had no problem with this. On the basis of this incident alone, RFK Jr. cannot be trusted to promote the herd immunity necessary to fight off the America's next major pandemic.
Other bad omens about America's lack of preparedness for a new pandemic include declines in routine vaccinations after the COVID-19 pandemic, which RFK's anti-vaccine advocacy would be likely to make worse. As late as 2021, Trump publicly praised the COVID-19 vaccine, partially because he had his ego invested in Operation Warp Speed, which facilitated the development of COVID-19 vaccines by major pharmaceutical companies. In 2024, by contrast, Donald Trump had to worry about a third-party presidential campaign by RFK, Jr., and he opportunistically pivoted to a more vaccine-skeptical stance in order induce RFK to drop out of the race.
According to the Pew Charitable Trust, favorable views of the United States by America's European allies plummeted between 2019 and 2020, mostly due to America and Donald Trump's perceived mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis. There was a median level of 54% support for the United States among European allies in 2019, but this support had dropped to 34% by 2020. If Donald Trump's mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic was sufficient to cause a 20 percentage point drop in support when he was still nominally pro-vaccine, a more anti-vaccine stance encouraged by RFK Jr. will likely exacerbate anti-American attitudes even more if our country is blamed for making the next worldwide pandemic even worse.