On Wednesday, January 29th, at 10 am, RFK Jr. will be asked questions about heading the Department of Health and Human Services. Here are some suggestions.
Paul Offit
Jan 24
Mr. Kennedy, you have been nominated to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest department in the United States government. HHS has an annual budget of $1.85 trillion and supervises 80,000 employees. I have some concerns about your appointment.
Question #1: On July 14, 2023, during a press event at Tony's Di Napoli on East 63rd Street, you said, "There is an argument that [Covid-19] is ethnically targeted…The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese." You have also appeared before Jim Jordan's House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, where you reiterated this claim. Now that the virus has been circulating for almost five yearsand killed about 9 million people worldwidewe know that hospitalizations and deaths are determined by age, underlying health problems, and vaccination status, not racial or ethnic backgrounds.
Do you still believe that SARS-CoV-2 virus was weaponized in a laboratory to kill Caucasians and Blacks and spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese? And, if so, what is your evidence?
Question #2: In an interview last year with a conservative Canadian psychologist and public speaker, you linked chemicals in the water supply to transgender identity. "A lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys…is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria that we're seeing," You referred to an herbicide called atrazine which you said "induces complete feminization and chemical castration" in certain frogs. However, no evidence supports the claim that this chemical, which is used on farms to kill weeds, causes the same effects in people, much less gender dysphoria.
Do you think it is responsible to make claims about the cause or causes of gender identity when you have no evidence to support such claims?
Question #3: You claim that mass shootings are caused by the increased use of antidepressants. "There's no time in American history or human history that kids were going to schools and shooting their classmates. It started happening with the introduction of…Prozac and the other drugs." However, most school shooters have not received psychotropic medications before committing acts of violence. And, in a 2019 study titled "The Myth of School Shooters and Psychotropic Medications," researchers found "no direct or causal association" between mass shootings and anti-depressants.
Again, Mr. Kennedy, on what do you base your conclusions? Why do you continue to promote these false claims when scientific studies fail to support them?
Question #4: In your book, The Real Anthony Fauci, you claim that the meningitis and malaria vaccines in Africa killed children and sterilized women, all, presumably, because Bill Gates was trying to wipe out African nations in favor of European descendants. You have labeled researchers who assist in bringing vaccines to Africa as "American Mengeles." Your willingness to make such outrageous claims was bad enough when you were simply the head of the anti-vaccine group, Children's Health Defense, but it is even more irresponsible when you would be representing the United States government.
Do you still believe in these unfounded and frankly offensive notions? And, if you don't, why should we believe that as head of HHS you will do anything other than continue to promote these nonsensical, frightening ideas?
Paul Offit
Jan 24
Mr. Kennedy, you have been nominated to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest department in the United States government. HHS has an annual budget of $1.85 trillion and supervises 80,000 employees. I have some concerns about your appointment.
Question #1: On July 14, 2023, during a press event at Tony's Di Napoli on East 63rd Street, you said, "There is an argument that [Covid-19] is ethnically targeted…The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese." You have also appeared before Jim Jordan's House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, where you reiterated this claim. Now that the virus has been circulating for almost five yearsand killed about 9 million people worldwidewe know that hospitalizations and deaths are determined by age, underlying health problems, and vaccination status, not racial or ethnic backgrounds.
Do you still believe that SARS-CoV-2 virus was weaponized in a laboratory to kill Caucasians and Blacks and spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese? And, if so, what is your evidence?
Question #2: In an interview last year with a conservative Canadian psychologist and public speaker, you linked chemicals in the water supply to transgender identity. "A lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys…is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria that we're seeing," You referred to an herbicide called atrazine which you said "induces complete feminization and chemical castration" in certain frogs. However, no evidence supports the claim that this chemical, which is used on farms to kill weeds, causes the same effects in people, much less gender dysphoria.
Do you think it is responsible to make claims about the cause or causes of gender identity when you have no evidence to support such claims?
Question #3: You claim that mass shootings are caused by the increased use of antidepressants. "There's no time in American history or human history that kids were going to schools and shooting their classmates. It started happening with the introduction of…Prozac and the other drugs." However, most school shooters have not received psychotropic medications before committing acts of violence. And, in a 2019 study titled "The Myth of School Shooters and Psychotropic Medications," researchers found "no direct or causal association" between mass shootings and anti-depressants.
Again, Mr. Kennedy, on what do you base your conclusions? Why do you continue to promote these false claims when scientific studies fail to support them?
Question #4: In your book, The Real Anthony Fauci, you claim that the meningitis and malaria vaccines in Africa killed children and sterilized women, all, presumably, because Bill Gates was trying to wipe out African nations in favor of European descendants. You have labeled researchers who assist in bringing vaccines to Africa as "American Mengeles." Your willingness to make such outrageous claims was bad enough when you were simply the head of the anti-vaccine group, Children's Health Defense, but it is even more irresponsible when you would be representing the United States government.
Do you still believe in these unfounded and frankly offensive notions? And, if you don't, why should we believe that as head of HHS you will do anything other than continue to promote these nonsensical, frightening ideas?
