Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), America’s anti-vaxer in-chief, famously claimed his brain has been eaten by a worm. While this assumption is as ridiculous as the man himself, the actions and delusions of RFK Jr. seem almost to confirm that something fundamental must be wrong with his intellectual abilities.
Recently he said that he will be working to get cell phones out of schools. “Cell phones produce electric magnetic radiation, which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids when it’s around them all day … It’s also been shown to cause cellular damage and even cancer … Cell phone use and social media use on the cell phone has been directly connected with depression, poor performance in schools, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse … The states that are doing this have found that it is a much healthier environment when kids are not using cell phones in schools.”
There are two seperate issues here:
- Limiting children’s use of cell phones might be – for several (not health-related) reasons – a reasonable idea.
- The assumption that cell phones cause the type of damage that RFK Jr. claimed is nonsense.
There is plenty of evidence on the subject, some more reliable that others. The most reliable data do not support what RFK Jr. claims. Here are a few systematic reviews on the subject:
A recent systematic review included 63 aetiological articles, published between 1994 and 2022, with participants from 22 countries, reporting on 119 different E-O pairs. RF-EMF exposure from mobile phones (ever or regular use vs no or non-regular use) was not associated with an increased risk of glioma [meta-estimate of the relative risk (mRR) = 1.01, 95 % CI = 0.89-1.13), meningioma (mRR = 0.92, 95 % CI = 0.82-1.02), acoustic neuroma (mRR = 1.03, 95 % CI = 0.85-1.24), pituitary tumours (mRR = 0.81, 95 % CI = 0.61-1.06), salivary gland tumours (mRR = 0.91, 95 % CI = 0.78-1.06), or paediatric (children, adolescents and young adults) brain tumours (mRR = 1.06, 95 % CI = 0.74-1.51), with variable degree of across-study heterogeneity (I2 = 0 %-62 %). There was no observable increase in mRRs for the most investigated neoplasms (glioma, meningioma, and acoustic neuroma) with increasing time since start (TSS) use of mobile phones, cumulative call time (CCT), or cumulative number of calls (CNC). Cordless phone use was not significantly associated with risks of glioma [mRR = 1.04, 95 % CI = 0.74-1.46; I2 = 74 %) meningioma, (mRR = 0.91, 95 % CI = 0.70-1.18; I2 = 59 %), or acoustic neuroma (mRR = 1.16; 95 % CI = 0.83-1.61; I2 = 63 %). Exposure from fixed-site transmitters (broadcasting antennas or base stations) was not associated with childhood leukaemia or paediatric brain tumour risks, independently of the level of the modelled RF exposure. Glioma risk was not significantly increased following occupational RF exposure (ever vs never), and no differences were detected between increasing categories of modelled cumulative exposure levels.
Another recent systematic review included 5 studies that reported analyses of data from 4 cohorts with 4639 participants consisting of 2808 adults and 1831 children across three countries (Australia, Singapore and Switzerland) conducted between 2006 and 2017. The main source of RF-EMF exposure was mobile (cell) phone use measured as calls per week or minutes per day. For mobile phone use in children, two studies (615 participants) that compared an increase in mobile phone use to a decrease or no change were included in meta-analyses. Learning and memory. There was little effect on accuracy (mean difference, MD -0.03; 95% CI -0.07 to 0.02) or response time (MD -0.01; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.02) on the one-back memory task; and accuracy (MD -0.02; 95%CI -0.04 to 0.00) or response time (MD -0.01; 95%CI -0.04 to 0.03) on the one card learning task (low certainty evidence for all outcomes). Executive function. There was little to no effect on the Stroop test for the time ratio ((B-A)/A) response (MD 0.02; 95% CI -0.01 to 0.04, very low certainty) or the time ratio ((D-C)/C) response (MD 0.00; 95% CI -0.06 to 0.05, very low certainty), with both tests measuring susceptibility to interference effects. Complex attention. There was little to no effect on detection task accuracy (MD 0.02; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.08), or response time (MD 0.02;95% CI 0.01 to 0.03), and little to no effect on identification task accuracy (MD 0.00; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.05) or response time (MD 0.00;95% CI -0.01 to 0.02) (low certainty evidence for all outcomes). No other cognitive domains were investigated in children. A single study among elderly people provided very low certainty evidence that more frequent mobile phone use may have little to no effect on the odds of a decline in global cognitive function (odds ratio, OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.42 to 1.58, 649 participants) or a decline in executive function (OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.37 to 3.05, 146 participants), and may lead to a small, probably unimportant, reduction in the odds of a decline in complex attention (OR 0.67;95%CI 0.27 to 1.68, 159 participants) and a decline in learning and memory (OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.29 to 1.99, 159 participants). An exposure-response relationship was not identified for any of the cognitive outcomes.
A 2022 systematic review concluded that the body of evidence allows no final conclusion on the question whether exposure to RF EMF from mobile communication devices poses a particular risk to children and adolescents.
That RFK Jr. sprouts BS almost every time he opens his mouth should be an embarrassment to all US citizens. For the rest of the world, it is more than that. In fact, it is fast becomming a serious concern: sooner or later, his insane delusions will affect public health on a global scale!
20 Responses to RFK Jr. continues to sprout utter nonsense
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You are a good example of why non-citizens should not vote, mind your own business.
if someone of global influence claims without good evidence that cell-phones damage the CNS, it is my business!
Funny, I can counter you with the same sentence. Nobody really wants to listen to the bullshit you keep dropping here. 😉
The powers of RFKj are limited to the USA. Elections have consequences… get over it.
the power of a health claim, once it appears on social media is not limited to the US.
If RFK Jr. influences the US health authorities and institutes in the interests of Trump and his goons or rather his own anti-scientific/anti-evidence agenda, then this will certainly have an impact on the rest of the world. After all, 5 of the world’s 10 largest drug manufacturers and 5 of the 10 largest medical engineering companies are based in the USA.
They do have consequences for everyone including you. But I bet you haven’t thought that far.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2025/03/22/bird-flu-us-health-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr-dismays-scientists-by-suggesting-to-let-the-virus-run_6739411_114.html
Just because one voted for Trump doesn’t mean one is immune from negative consequences of their vote: https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-federal-workers-regret-voting-080501428.html
@RG
Tell that to the dozens of Samoan kids that he killed.
… especially when a lot of misguided and outright dumb people elect a narcissistic tyrant into office.
And those consequences that you keep mentioning reach well beyond the borders of what used to be the USA, but is now better called Trumpistan.
RFKj had no position to dictate to Samoa what to do. Whatever decisions that were made by the Samoan authorities is on them… nobody else.
are you competing for the stupidest comment of the year?
@RG
Indeed, he had no business telling the Samoan people anything about measles and vaccines, having no authority and no knowledge about the subject matter.
But he still did, telling lies about how the MMR vaccine might be harmful. And alas, Samoans listened to him, ultimately leading to the death of 80 children.
This is why it is vitally important to warn people that they should never trust an ignoranus like Kennedy (or like you, for that matter). And that is what we are doing here.
Richard Rasker
The vaccination rates in Samoa were already dropping due to nurses made serious errors (and were jailed for five years) that led to two children’s deaths. So, there were already people on the island lobbying for the abstinence of the jabs before Kennedy ever arrived. Kenndy was pushing for testing and an investigation in addition to abstinence. And rightly so
Talker, I’m getting paid a bundle… try it, you’ll like it.
The patient was already ill, so killing her was not that bad as it seems?
@RG
A bundle of what? Ivermectin? HCQ? Vitamin A pills? Or the latest antivaxxer fad? 😂😂😂
I do other people’s bidding if I get paid in bundles of benjis 🤑 🤑 🤑
Jokes aside, we all know you give it away for free. You are too stupid to realize that you are unwittingly acting as a mouthpiece for RFK Jr.
Not at all. The blame for the vaccination hesitancy was due to the errors of the nurses that killed a couple kids.
@RG
Yes, an error was made that led to the death of two children – an error that clearly had nothing to do with the safety of vaccines in general.
This vile turd Kennedy however used these tragic deaths as a great opportunity to push his antivaxx lies, causing the deaths of 80 more children. He never apologized for his role in this massacre, and even lied about it under oath during his congressional confirmation hearing.
Yet here you are, defending Kennedy, and apparently even celebrating what he and the rest of this, for want of a better word, ‘administration’ are doing to both Americans and the rest of the world(*).
So for the sake of decency, I shall assume that you are just a troll, trying to yank our chain by saying extremely stupid things. Because if you truly mean what you are saying, that would make you an utterly despicable human being.
*: I think that the term ‘fascism’ is now fully justified, after they picked up a couple of hundred people and sent them to a concentration camp in El Salvador, without anything even resembling due process or even the basic principle of habeas corpus. And they even try to intimidate judges who criticize these clearly illegal actions.
“I shall assume that you are just a troll, trying to yank our chain”
[my emphasis]
Exactly !!
@RG
How much are you getting paid to do RFK Jr’s bidding? I would like to make some money doing the same. Let me know if there are any openings, OK?
Are you making a differentiation between media and social media ?