Back in January, during the second day of confirmation hearings for secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood by his comments that radiofrequency radiation causes cancer. “Wi-Fi radiation does things including causing cancer…. Electromagnetic radiation causes cancer. It changes DNA and there are scientific studies that link it to cancer – many of them.”
Here we had a candidate for the top health agency in the world circulating a claim that has been discredited by researchers, including those within the department he was being considered to head.
The National Cancer Institute has a website devoted to the question of radiofrequency energy from cell phones and the risk of brain tumors. The website summarizes the results of major studies addressing the issue. The question of cell phones and brain cancer first came to public attention in the early 1990s. In response to the widespread concern, scientific studies were carried out in many countries. The dramatic surge in usage provides the rare opportunity in science for a real life experiment. From 1990 to 2023 the number of cell phone subscriptions worldwide increased from zero to 9 billion. In this brief period of time humans went from no exposure to cell phones to nearly universal exposure to cell phones. Scientists refer to this as a “natural experiment” — humans were being exposed to this new type of energy, so we could take advantage of the change in exposure to see whether the rates of disease have changed over time in response.
The NCI website poses the question: “Has the incidence of brain and central nervous system cancers changed during the time cell phone use increased?” The answer:
“No. Investigators have studied whether the incidence of brain or other central nervous system cancers (that is, the number of new cases of these cancers diagnosed each year) has changed during the time that cell phone use increased dramatically. These studies found:
- stable incidence rates for adult gliomas in the United States (1), Nordic countries (2) and Australia (3) during the past several decades
- stable incidence rates for pediatric brain tumors in the United States during 1993–2013 (4)
- stable incidence rates for acoustic neuroma (5), which are nonmalignant tumors, and meningioma (6), which are usually nonmalignant, among US adults since 2009.”
Note the measured language describing the studies and their results — studies that cost tens of millions of dollars and years to carry out.
No one has found convincing evidence supporting a threat from the type of radiofrequency energy emitted by cell phones, which, unlike ionizing radiation, is too weak to break molecular bonds and initiate cancer. Yet this research does not allow absolute, definitive statements that “RF does not cause cancer.” This is because of the nature of science. This sober summation of the scientific evidence does not have the same impact in the public arena as easily recycled threats to our health.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the future head of HHS had consulted with the National Cancer Institute regarding the effects of cell phone use before repeating his claim that Wi-Fi and cell phones cause cancer?
Kennedy and vaccines
At least RFK Jr.’s peddling of a debunked conspiracy theory about Wi-Fi is not likely to directly harm anyone. But he is holding forth on a wide range of other issues which have a direct, and in many cases, an immediate impact on people’s welfare, citing “scientific studies” but invariably making glaringly pseudoscientific claims at odds with prevailing scientific opinion.
Kennedy has been spreading antivaccine propaganda for twenty years. At a recent senate committee hearing, Kennedy asserted that the “measles vaccine wanes very quickly, was never fully tested for safety,” and that there was “fetal debris” in the vaccine — claims which have no basis in fact. He has claimed that the polio vaccine “killed many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.” And he has argued without evidence that the Covid-19 vaccine was targeted to blacks and Caucasians, and called it the “deadliest vaccine ever made”.
While sowing distrust of vaccines, RFK Jr. has touted without evidence alternative treatments including vitamin A and the steroid budesonide for measles and the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as treatments for Covid. He has cited data from a flawed study to call for a review of the abortion drug mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA more than twenty years ago based on a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence showing that the drug was safe and effective. Most recently, his department stopped recommending that pregnant women, children and teenagers receive the Covid-19 vaccine even though vaccination in pregnancy greatly reduces the mother’s risk of severe illness and death and protects babies up to six months after birth.
Vaccine denialism
His involvement in health advocacy appears to have begun benignly in the mid-1980s, primarily carried out through his work with Riverkeeper, a grassroots environmental group focused on protecting the Hudson River and its tributaries polluted by mercury. He co-founded the Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999, expanding the Riverkeeper model globally. (He stepped down from Riverkeeper’s board around 2017, as his public stances increasingly diverged from mainstream environmental science.)
RFK, Jr.’s descent into pseudo science became apparent around 2005 when he wrote a joint investigative article titled “Deadly Immunity” published in Rolling Stone and Salon. The piece alleged that government agencies were engaged in a massive cover-up of data linking thimerosal, a compound containing mercury that has been used as a preservative in vaccines, to autism and other neurological disorders in children. This article marked the start of his high-profile anti-thimerosal campaign, which quickly expanded into broader anti-vaccine activism. Salon later retracted the article entirely due to factual inaccuracies, and Rolling Stone removed it from its website.
As is the case today on almost every health issue he has since addressed, Kennedy did not grasp the basic science. He repeatedly conflated ethylmercury with methylmercury, the far more toxic form found in contaminated fish, despite their clear biochemical differences—most notably that ethylmercury is rapidly eliminated from the body and does not accumulate. Because of public concern, thimerosal was removed from vaccines in the U.S. in 2001, and was never used in the MMR vaccine that was the focus of concerns about autism, but RFK Jr. has never accepted that there is no evidence of harm from the compound. The fact that autism advocacy groups emphatically reject RFK Jr.’s lies and distortions has not gotten enough publicity (e.g., the Autism Science Foundation, the Autism Society, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network).
Related on the SLP
Emboldened by the controversy generated by his article, Kennedy aligned himself with personal injury lawyers and activists targeting vaccine makers. While acceptance of childhood vaccines was high in the latter decades of the twentieth century, distrust of vaccines became widespread due to the 1998 publication of a fraudulent paper in a prestigious medical journal in the UK claiming that the MMR vaccine caused autism. This distrust became entrenched in low science-literacy groups, resulting in outbreaks of measles, which had been eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Although subsequent studies showed that there was no association, distrust of vaccines has continued to be amplified by the likes of RFK Jr., his fellow travelers in the “wellness community,” MAGA conservatives and more recently by the hugely popular podcaster Joe Rogin.
While still working as an environmental lawyer and activist, his livelihood became dependent on bringing tort suits against vaccine manufacturers. In 2007, he founded the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense. It soon became known for its campaigns against vaccines, flouridation in drinking water, and various other public health programs. There appears to be no vaccine whose safety CDH and RFK Jr. accept, including the polio vaccine and the smallpox vaccine. His attacks on vaccines have earned him a huge following on social media where he finds a sympathetic audience, one that is distrustful of the mainstream media and of government guidelines, especially regarding vaccines. Here he can count on his use (and misuse) of technical terms and citing of scientific papers to make it appear as if he has a deep knowledge about vaccines, knowing that he won’t be fact-checked. His social media following surged during the pandemic.
Autism misinformation
Now in office, to the puzzlement and dismay of scientists, in mid-April he announced another series of studies to address the association of the MMR vaccine and autism. One pet study will make use of a dataset that is likely to produce misleading results and is headed by a discredited researcher. His goal, he said, is“to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing” autism and promising “we’re going to get back to it [sic] with an answer for the American people very, very, quickly.” He has cited figures suggesting that the prevalence of the condition has increased many-fold over recent decades, even though most researchers attribute the increase mainly to a broadening of the criteria for a diagnosis of autism and increased awareness of the condition.
RFK Jr. vowed that his “teams of world-class scientists” will have answers by September. It is highly unusual in science to predict that a study would deliver the answer to such a complex question by a specific date. That’s not the way science works. Equally hard to believe is his claim that this research is going to identify environmental toxins that he claims are the major causes of autism.
You would never know from RFK Jr.’s many press conferences and statements at hearings since taking office that there is already serious research on autism going on sponsored by HHS. Two studies SEED and CHARGE are designed to address different aspects of the question of what causes autism. To date SEED has identified environmental exposures, such as air pollution, and pregnancy factors, such as maternal infections and lack of prenatal vitamin supplementation, as risk factors for autism. CHARGE has examined the interaction between specific genes and prenatal vitamin supplementation and exposure to pesticides and phthalates. Over a dozen papers already have been published from these two studies.
As is true for cell phone radiation, there is a scientific literature on autism You would think that a government official with a concern about vaccine safety and with a large following among parents concerned about autism would be eager to tell his followers about the findings of these serious studies, what they were designed to clarify, and what they have shown to date. However, it would be difficult for RFK Jr. to acknowledge the existence of this literature because he would have had trouble claiming as he has that “studies show” that vaccines are the leading cause of autism rather than a complex interplay of multiple genes and environmental exposures that still need to be worked out.
As a physician commented on X, “Imagine the hubris of thinking that you can simply shortcut all the science in the world and “discover” the cause of autism by will. Scientists have been working on the cause of autism for decades and the picture is MORE COMPLEX the more we study it.”
Gutting American science
RFK Jr.’s visceral hostility to science, demonstrated by both his unyielding defense of lies and his refusal to acknowledge the existence of established scientific literature is hard to reconcile with a recent Executive Order from Trump that enjoins scientists to study ‘gold standard science.’ That is, until you realize that his attack on prestigious medical journals, like The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, and their threat to launch government-sponsored journals is motivated by his pique at criticism of his pseudoscience.
There are valid criticisms of the dominant medical publishing model, but the answer is not to boycott the system but to reform it. JFK’s antics and addled pronouncements provide a distraction from the mass firings and cuts to agencies and programs at HHS and other agencies. HHS is losing about a quarter of its workforce (from 82,000 to 62,000 employees). Specific targets include: the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention (CDC), the Office of Smoking and Health (CDC), the Center for Tobacco Products (FDA), Medicaid (an estimated 13 million people could lose their benefits), the SNAP program (food stamps), and reproductive health, and vaccine preparedness. Research on cancer, diabetes, nutrition, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and gene-editing will all be seriously damaged by the $2.7 billion in cuts.
The unfolding tragedy is that Kennedy, with no pushback from Republicans in Congress, is gutting the infrastructure of science and biomedicine. Ironically, he is appealing to the segment of the population that is most wary of science and, yet, who stands to suffer the most in the ravaged landscape.
We are witnessing a full-scale assault on science and biomedical research which have made the United States a global leader. Far from “Making America Healthy Again,” over the next three-and-a-half years, we are likely to see a significant decline in our research productivity and progress against chronic diseases. As a result of this purge, the American primacy in science and medicine will be weakened, with consequences for the health of its people, for the economy, and for our security for decades to come.
Geoffrey C. Kabat is an epidemiologist and the author of Getting Risk Right: Understanding the Science of Elusive Health Risks and Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology.
