In his own words: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on science, evidence-based medicine and health

The attitude of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFKJr.) on science and evidence-based medicine has long been a source for concern, particularly if we consider his total lack of expertise combined with his immense power to influence public health of the US and beyond. Here are several key quotes and recurring themes that define his perspective:

• “The CDC is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry. The agency’s advisory committee is essentially a front for the vaccine manufacturers.”
• “Tony Fauci’s career has been a long-running effort to prioritize the interests of Big Pharma over public health.”
• “The FDA, the NIH, the CDC—all these agencies have become the sock puppets of the industries they are supposed to regulate.”
• “The scientists who are supposed to be the guardians of our children’s health are instead taking money from the companies that are poisoning them.”
• “We are living in an era where ‘evidence-based medicine’ has been replaced by ‘reimbursement-based medicine.’ The data is cooked to favour the product.”
• “I am not anti-vaccine. I am pro-science and pro-safety. I want the same kind of rigorous, double-blind, placebo-controlled testing for vaccines that we require for every other medication.”
• “When people say ‘follow the science,’ they usually mean ‘follow the decree of the person in power.’ Science is a process of constant questioning, not a set of holy commandments.”
• “Consensus is the enemy of science. Science is about dissent; it’s about looking at the outliers and the data that doesn’t fit the narrative.”
• “The minute you say ‘the science is settled,’ you are no longer talking about science; you are talking about religion and totalitarianism.”
• “Public health policy is no longer based on the best available evidence; it’s based on the best available lobbyists.”
• “I don’t necessarily believe all the scientists, because I can read science myself. That’s what I do for a living. I read science critically.”
• “I spent 40 years cross-examining experts… I know how to tell when someone is lying to me about the data.”
• “I am pro-science. I’ve spent my life fighting for science-based policies. What I am against is ‘captured’ science that serves a corporate bottom line.”
• “I advise parents: do your own research… don’t take my word for it, and don’t take the government’s word for it.”
• “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me… I think what we’re going to try to do is to lay out the pros and cons… with replicable studies.”
• “People should be skeptical of any medical advice. They need to look at the primary sources, not the summaries provided by the pharmaceutical industry.”
• “Trusting the experts is not a feature of democracy and it’s not a feature of science. It’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism.”
• “We train physicians to wield the latest surgical tools, but not to guide patients on how to stay out of the operating room in the first place.”
• “The science [on nutrition] is indisputable, and the void [in medical training] is clear… future physicians must graduate prepared to prevent disease.”
• “I’m not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.”
• “One of the worst parts of addiction was my total incapacity to keep contracts with myself. I didn’t want to be someone who woke up every morning thinking about drugs.”
• “All of us have kind of a God-sized hole in us that we’re trying to fill. And addicts… try to fill that hole inside of you with things that change the way you feel about yourself.”
• “You can’t live off the laurels of the spiritual awakening. You have to renew it every day. You have to wake up every day and say ‘reporting for duty sir,’ and give up control every day.”
• “I had a dark spot on my brain scans… doctors concluded I had a tumor. I was scheduled for an operation by the same surgeon who operated on my uncle.”
• “The abnormality was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”
• “I probably got it in South Asia… I was traveling in a lot of places where you can get those kinds of parasites.”
• “I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”
• “It didn’t require treatment. The worm died on its own, and the symptoms cleared up over time.”
• “I recovered from the memory loss and mental fogginess… I have no aftereffects from the parasite.”
• “Questioning my health is a hilarious suggestion, given the competition.”

RFKJr., as U.S. HHS Secretary since early 2025, was tasked by Trump with restoring trust in healthcare agencies. However, polls show trust has further eroded under his leadership, with KFF data indicating widespread disapproval – nearly 60% of adults – and drops in confidence for CDC, FDA, and vaccine info sources. His tenure involved firing CDC vaccine advisors, slashing HHS staff by 25%, revising childhood vaccine schedules (e.g., dropping hep B at birth), and canceling research grants, sparking measles outbreaks and expert backlash. Public health leaders cite these as science-defying moves worsening distrust across parties. Only 37% trust RFK Jr. as a health info source (KFF Jan 2026). Major health organizations, like the WHO and the American Academy of Pediatrics, point to decades of peer-reviewed, large-scale epidemiological studies that contradict the plethora of demonstrably wrong assertions of RFKJr.

One could almost pity RFKJr. for his naive stupidity – I say ‘almost’ because his stance is not just pitiful and embarrassing, it is evidently dangerous. If a chap having a beer in your local pub came out with such nonsense, you would laugh; if RFKJr. does it and then – horror of horrors – tries to act on it, it gets frightfully dangerous for us all.

Conclusion:

Even Trump cannot be as mean as to allow RFKJr. continue the destruction of public health!

He must be replaced before it is too late!