Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said assessing health guidance is similar to researching baby strollers as a new mom, urging Americans to “be skeptical of authority” while serving in a top Cabinet position.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Kennedy if he stood by his earlier comment that people should not be taking medical advice from him, even though his job involves communicating health guidance and recommendations based on his department’s expertise.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Kennedy said. “I’m somebody who is not a physician… and they should also be skeptical about any medical advice. They need to do their own research.”
Kennedy added that when “you’re a mom, you do your own research on your baby carriage, on your baby bottles, on your baby formula,” suggesting a similar approach should be taken when assessing medical advice.
When Collins pointed out that most mothers do not have medical degrees and would rather rely on their physicians, Kennedy claimed that health experts in a democracy “are subject to all kinds of biases.”
“One of the responsibilities of living in a democracy is to do your own research and to make up your own mind,” he added.
Kennedy also recalled a piece of advice from his father, suggesting it was relevant to their discussion.
“I would say, be skeptical of authority. My father told me that when I was a young kid, people in authority lie,” Kennedy said, baselessly claiming that “critical thinking was shut down” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, was nominated to serve in one of the country’s top jobs by President Donald Trump, raising eyebrows during a House subcommittee hearing last week with his answer to a question about whether he would vaccinate his children against measles if they were still young.
“I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice from me,” he said.
“I think if I answer that question directly that it will seem like I’m giving advice to other people, and I don’t want to be doing that,” he continued.
Kennedy, though, has not held back from lending credence to debunked conspiracy theories, including falsely suggesting that vaccines are linked to autism.
While his Making America Healthy Again report, released on Thursday, did not touch on that specific claim, it still hinted that the growth of the immunization schedule for children may be detrimental to them, even though childhood vaccination saves millions of lives every year.
“Vaccines benefit children by protecting them from infectious diseases. But as with any medicine, vaccines can have side effects that must be balanced against their benefits,” the report reads. “Parents should be fully informed of the benefits and risks of vaccines.”
