RFK Jr. Will Let Us All Die Just to
Make a Buck
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is forcing his
MAHA agenda on all of us—and it’s already getting ugly.
Illustration by
Lauren Kolesinskas
It’s
difficult to understate the deleterious impact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has
had on America’s public health policy. In a little over a year, the nephew of
one of the most prodigious leaders in U.S. history transformed from an
unserious third-party presidential candidate that not even his family
supported, to the nation’s buck-wild authority on disease management. He
did so having never previously worked in medicine, public health, or the
government, guided only by a pocketful of conspiracies that America’s foremost
health experts have thoroughly debunked.
The
consequences of Kennedy’s appointment atop the Department of Health and Human
Services have been tangible and severe: Historically eradicated diseases have
reemerged, killing children; Medicaid
recipients have lost their health coverage; and Kennedy has slashed some 20,000 staffers in a massive
restructuring of the entire agency. His
error-riddled, AI-generated plan for
America—called “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA—also pledged to strip fluoride (a
well-researched dental aid) from America’s water supply, take aim at
ultra-processed foods, and eliminate the prevalence of pesticides.
Yet
prior to his shocking ascent to the highest echelons of government, Kennedy was
little more than a joke for purveyors and participants in the national
political arena, mocked as a brain worm–addled nepo baby with no legitimate
prospects in Washington.
Kennedy’s
disturbing behavior fueled the doubt. Reports from the campaign trail revealed
that the 71-year-old fondly maintained a “freezer full of” roadkill and, in
2010, staged the slashed corpse of a bear
cub in Central Park as a practical joke. Other graver
allegations against Kennedy surfaced, as well. In July 2024, a babysitter that
Kennedy had employed to mind his children some two decades ago accused him of
sexually abusing her. In response, Kennedy hit send on a late-night apology text
message, asking to see her face-to-face. (It was not received well.)
But
all of Kennedy’s past indiscretions apparently became bygones when, after his
Democratic-turned-independent bid for the presidency failed, he turned to
Donald Trump, groveling for a job.
Kennedy’s
family was fully aware of the impending disaster. In a January letter to Congress,
Caroline Kennedy—the only surviving child of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis, and the former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan—argued
that her cousin lacked any relevant or pertinent experience to run HHS, other
than a predatory ambition for power.
She
pointed to the work of one of his nonprofits in Samoa in 2019, in which
Kennedy’s influence in spreading misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines
tanked the country’s vaccination rate. In Kennedy’s wake, thousands of Samoans
were left susceptible to measles cases that resulted in dozens of deaths,
the majority of which
were children under the age of five.
She
also claimed that Kennedy didn’t believe his own virulent views on vaccines,
writing that he “preys on the desperation of parents of sick
children—vaccinating his own children while building a following by
hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
Her
concern was well-directed. Kennedy has become the de facto leader of a
growing movement of anti-vax parents who refuse to provide their children with
the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in
fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories that, at one point, linked
autism to the jab.
The
researcher who sparked that myth
with a fraudulent paper lost his medical license and eventually rescinded his
opinion. Since then, dozens of studies have
proven there’s no correlation between autism and vaccines, including one study
that surveyed more than 660,000 children over the course of 11 years.
A
frequent target of Kennedy’s vaccine fearmongering is the immunization for
Covid-19, which was developed with mRNA technology. Just a few years ago, mRNA
was viewed as a cutting-edge medical development, as the coronavirus response
was the first mRNA vaccine to debut on the U.S. market, though the technology
had actually been developed decades prior.
The
difference between mRNA and traditional methods of developing vaccines boils
down to less need for time and money. Traditional vaccines inject a weakened or
dead version of a virus, triggering the body’s immune response and the
development of antibodies. Researching and developing these vaccines is a
“lengthy and costly” process that becomes further complicated when researchers
have to respond to mutations in the virus, according to Penn Medicine.
Meanwhile,
mRNA technology employs a synthetic genetic code that instructs the body to
produce proteins akin to the viral protein, training the body’s immune system
without ever actually exposing the individual to the disease. Once the response
is initiated, the synthetic genetic sequence breaks down in the body, according
to Medline Plus. The result
is a “plug-and-play” vaccine technology that offers rapid development times at
a lower cost to traditional vaccines.
But
Kennedy has been less than wowed by the initiative, which Trump approved during
his first term. Instead, Kennedy has referred to the 2020
outbreak as a “plan-demic” that he believes was “planned from the outset” and
“part of a sinister scheme.” Kennedy also likened 2020 vaccination efforts to
the Nazi testing on “Gypsies and Jews,” claiming that the jab was “a
pharmaceutical-driven, biosecurity agenda that will enslave the entire human
race and plunge us into a dystopian nightmare.”
His
newfound power, however, has morphed Kennedy’s controversial comments into
destructive public health positions. In less than a year, the conspiracist
replaced independent medical experts on the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel with vaccine skeptics. He ended vital
vaccine recommendations, such as the immunization for Hepatitis B, for
newborns. He cut $500 million from mRNA development funds. The “abortion pill,”
which assists tens of millions of Americans in dire situations, has been
placed under review.
Overall,
Kennedy has shifted the focus of America’s premiere health agency away from
evidence-backed science and thrust it into a new era dominated by fear,
anxiety, and potential financial gain for himself and his accomplices. The
more doubt and division that Kennedy sows, the more money he’ll make. In the
year leading up to his appointment, Kennedy disclosed that he
made roughly $10 million in 2024 from speaking fees and dividends from his
vaccine lawsuits.
When
it came time to sit in front of the Senate for his confirmation hearings in
January, Kennedy refused to pledge that he wouldn’t keep the
business going, skirting efforts by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to
get him to swear that he would not take financial stakes in vaccine- and
medication-related lawsuits during his time as health secretary.
“No
one should be fooled here,” Warren said at the time. “As secretary of HHS,
Robert Kennedy will have the power to undercut vaccines and vaccine
manufacturing across our country.... The bottom line is the same: Kennedy
can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it.
Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.”
