RFK Jr. Doesn't Care About Your Health
And neither does that wellness influencer selling you expensive supplements
It seems that all anyone has to say these days is that they care about improving the health and “wellness” of others and people assume they have good, sincere intentions. Even worse, people struggling, who are desperate for answers, end up putting their faith in these people. It has pained me to see comments on social media from parents of children with chronic diseases say they're hopeful about RFK Jr. because he claims his goal is to tackle the “chronic disease epidemic.” RFK Jr.’s suggestions about vaccines, fluoride, and raw milk will not improve anyone's health. The vaccines we get protect against infectious diseases, and infectious diseases increase your odds of ending up with a chronic disease (like Long COVID, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or Poliomyelitis). Fluoride reduces the amount of tooth decay we have. Raw milk, which RFK Jr. promotes and vows to “end the suppression of,” causes outbreaks of diseases that can be fatal. Those are just a few of his most dangerous lies about health, but certainly not the only ones.
A lot of RFK Jr's focus on chronic disease revolves around diet. He envisions becoming a health guru-hero who saves the health of Americans by going against “Big Pharma” and the food industry. The thing about diet, whether you're chronically ill or “healthy,” is that there isn't the one-size-fits-all that the wellness industry wants you to believe there is. For example, I can't have gluten because I have Celiac Disease, but I'm not going to try to preach that every American should stop eating gluten because that isn't true and telling people to restrict their diet when it isn't necessary can lead to damaging beliefs about food, disordered eating, and malnourishment. A lot of claims people make about how people should eat in order to be “healthy” or “prevent and/or reverse disease” are based in pseudoscience that unfortunately goes viral online.
Like many others, I have certainly fallen prey to some of these beliefs about diet and wellness. I think what actually helped me maintain some degree of skepticism about the wellness industry and “wellness culture” is that I have had chronic illnesses since I was a kid. I have been aware of the fact that people, no matter how “well-intentioned” they may be, love to give chronically ill people lots of ableist unsolicited advice about what they think we should be trying in order to “heal” or “cure” ourselves. I have seen many memes and jokes posted by chronically ill people about the unsolicited advice we've received. We’ve all heard “Have you tried yoga, or kale, or cutting out this food group, or this new fad diet, or whatever expensive supplement is trendy at the moment?” And where do they get these ideas? Wellness Culture. The beliefs about diet are especially ableist. They often revolve around the idea that we are chronically ill because we were eating the “wrong” foods before, placing the blame on us. They say if we eat the “right” foods and take the right supplements, we can be well again, even though that is simply not how most chronic illnesses work. Never mind the fact that not everyone has access to the “right” foods or expensive supplements they're recommending. Followers of neoliberal wellness culture believe that you're responsible for your health and wellness, and it is a moral failing if you don't do everything possible to become healthy.
What they believe are the “right” foods is often based around how “clean” and “natural” that food is. They will speak as if any chemical in food means it isn't good for you, even though all food is made up of chemicals and “natural” doesn't mean “healthier.” If you look through content about wellness, you will be bombarded with fear mongering about chemicals. The idea of certain foods being “clean” (pure) and others being “poison” creates a moral judgment not only of that food and who created it but also of the kinds of people who willingly eat those foods. Even if these judgments may not be strongly held by every single person who talks about “wellness,” it is certainly something I see a lot in content about wellness.
The beliefs about “diet” and “chronic disease” involve ableism, misinformation about chronic illnesses, and false promises of a “cure” for chronic illness. You can't claim that all chronic illnesses are caused by the “poison” in the food we eat when there are many different kinds of chronic illnesses with many different causes. A person born with a chronic illness didn't get it from the food they ate, a person with Long COVID or another post-viral illness didn't get it because of the food they ate, and a person with autoimmune disease or arthritis or diabetes didn't even necessarily get their condition(s) because of any specific food they ate. Anyone who claims otherwise is selling you misinformation. There isn't an accurate generalization you can make about chronic illnesses or our supposed “chronic disease epidemic” and diet. I also have so many issues with those who sell vulnerable people the idea that a specific dietary change or supplement or alternative treatment is sure to cure them. This includes those who sell supplements or work as “alternative wellness practitioners,” those with social media platforms that position themselves as “experts,” as well as those who offer unsolicited advice (heavy emphasis on unsolicited). It does not necessarily include disabled people giving others with chronic illness information on what works for them personally, because we often have an understanding that no treatment works for all of us, however disabled people can be guilty of giving ableist advice or falling for misinformation as well. But most of my rage is towards anyone who exploits the suffering of chronically ill people for their own financial gain, making promises about “cures” and blaming them if they fail (such as “you must just not be following this diet correctly”). And, of course, much of my rage is towards politicians who promise Americans “health” yet have ideas that will not only fail to “cure” chronic illnesses, but will actually lead to more illness and more death.
I want to address some more of the ways RFK Jr. is dangerous for chronically ill people and disabled people in general. The generalizations he and his followers make about American diets and health often end up demonizing the food that some chronically ill people need. I have heard him talk about Americans having too much salt, and while this may be an issue for certain people, other people with illnesses such as one that I have, a type of Dysautonomia known as POTS, actually need more salt in order to improve our symptoms. Sugar may be bad for people with Diabetes, but those with hypoglycemia need it. Because people with chronic illnesses have diverse dietary needs, demonizing one food group or ingredient while promoting others as inherently essential for all of us to “heal” is extremely harmful for us.
I also worry about the rhetoric he and his followers use about prescription drugs. The pharmaceutical industry has many, many issues - few people would deny that. But talk about Americans being “too dependent” on the prescription drugs that unfortunately, some of us need to rely on in order to alleviate symptoms is especially dangerous. Many people in “wellness” spaces aren't just against “Big Pharma” - they are also against prescription drugs in general and more than happy to preach to us about why we should stop taking them. This becomes a judgment of those of us who need them, as if we are “lining the pockets of Big Pharma” by taking the prescriptions we need, and depriving our bodies of “natural healing,” the only true form of “healing” according to these people. Because of RFK Jr.’s rhetoric, I would classify him more as “anti-pharma” than “anti-Big Pharma,” and of course I am worried about a secretary of Health and Human Services holding his views about medications. There are so many chronic illnesses that need more funding for research on treatments (including pharmaceutical ones), especially chronic illnesses like Long COVID and ME/CFS. If our HHS secretary is laser-focused on our food and vaccines being the cause of chronic illnesses, how does anyone expect me to have faith that they will want research done on pharmaceutical treatments for the chronic illnesses that so many of us are struggling with daily?
RFK Jr.’s views on vaccines are a direct threat to people with chronic illnesses and people without them. They are especially a threat to children whose parents may fall for his anti-vaccine rhetoric as he is given even more of a platform to put it out into the mainstream. Unlike adults whose parents may be falling for that same rhetoric, children are much more at the mercy of their parents when it comes to their healthcare. Before vaccines, children used to die of communicable diseases at much higher rates than they do today. If less people get vaccinated due to RFK Jr’s rhetoric, immunocompromised people who can't get certain vaccines are less safe from those communicable diseases which will be circulating at higher rates. Vaccinated or not, we will all be less safe if rates in vaccination decrease because vaccines need a certain percentage of vaccination in the general population in order to protect us. And another important reason RFK Jr.’s plans won't “Make America Healthy Again” is that communicable diseases increase our risk of chronic illnesses and weaken our immune systems. This is a lesson that more people should have learned in the last few years, but as we can see from the lack of attention the media, politicians, and the general public has paid to Long COVID, this isn't the case. RFK Jr. has been so influential in the anti-vaccine movement that he has been declared a part of the “disinformation dozen,” a group of public figures responsible for spreading a large amount of anti-vaccine content, by The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). I am not just worried about RFK Jr’s rhetoric about vaccines, but any policies he creates involving them. But even if he was somehow not able to change anything about our vaccines, a larger platform for his anti-vaccine propaganda is dangerous enough. The Measles deaths his organization’s propaganda caused in American Samoa is proof of this.
Autism has unfortunately been at the center of vaccine discourse since the 90’s. This started with a man named Andrew Wakefield, who was the head of a study on the link between autism and MMR vaccines. Despite the fact that the study had been retracted by The Lancet due to elements they say were falsified, and that no credible study has been able to prove a link between autism and vaccines, the myth that Andrew Wakefield popularized lives on. At the root of it is an ableist assumption: the worst thing a parent can have is a child with autism. A child in a casket who died a preventable death is better than a child who stims or has meltdowns. If you see the problem with this, and you want to be an ally to disabled people, in addition to informing others that the “autism-vaccine connection” is just a myth, please also remind them that an autistic or otherwise disabled child is not the worst thing in the world. Remind them that the parents of any disabled children are lucky to have them, and that our ableist society is the only reason they are thought of as tragedies and burdens.
Finally, I believe that the whole way this supposed “chronic disease epidemic” is being framed is ableist at its core. It is not an attempt to raise awareness about the myriad of issues those of us with chronic illnesses face in order to find solutions to those issues. It is a way RFK Jr. has found to sensationalize this topic and spread fear about vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and the food Americans are eating. The many Americans living with chronic illnesses are left out of the “Make America Healthy Again” conversation entirely because he sees us as nothing more than a tool for him to finally prove he was right all along about these “societal ills.” He has, after all, left out what I would actually call the epidemic of Long COVID almost entirely - and if he does bring it up, he will find a way to blame vaccines and American diets more than anything else. Sensationalist, dehumanizing, compassionless coverage about a general “chronic disease epidemic” treats chronic illness as something to be pitied, and combined with anti-vaccine rhetoric, as a “fate worse than death.”
He won't make America healthy. His particular brand of ableism will only do the opposite. I need us to stop believing that everyone who claims to care about the health of others actually means it. I need us to keep in mind that snake oil is everywhere, on our social media feeds and in the words of politicians.
Sources
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/where-trump-hhs-pick-rfk-jr-stands-on-vaccines-abortion-and-lgbtq-issues
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rfk-vaccines-fluoride-autism-milk-covid
https://time.com/5175704/andrew-wakefield-vaccine-autism/