RFK Jr. Is Treating the American People Like Adults

After two days of confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is likely to be the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services—but there’s no reason to clutch your canola oil just yet. 

Senators threw buzzwords like “conspiracy theories” and “anti-vaccine” at Kennedy in Wednesday’s Senate hearing. Rhode Island’s Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse told Kennedy, “You frighten people.” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon called Kennedy’s books on vaccines “junk science.” 

Kennedy made it very clear: He is not coming for our food or vaccines. 

“I don’t want to take food away from anybody. If you like a McDonald’s cheeseburger and Diet Coke–which my boss loves–you should be able to get them. If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that,” Kennedy said in his hearing. “But you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.”

This is not a controversial take. Regardless of personal health opinions, the triple vaccinated and the raw milk–drinkers alike have the right to question the foods and medicines they consume and make their own informed choices accordingly. 

Kennedy has somewhat walked back his claims on vaccines, despite having previously written books about their potential harmful effects and spoken out against them in podcasts. He asserted throughout the hearing that he is not anti-vaccine and that vaccines “play a critical role in healthcare.” 

“I support the measles vaccine, I support the polio vaccine, I will do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those,” Kennedy said in response to Senator Wyden’s accusations that Kennedy is anti-vaccine. 

Thanks to vaccines, Americans aren’t dying from preventable diseases. But now they’re just dying slower deaths. One in five American adults is obese, and over half of all Americans have one or more chronic diseases, many of which are preventable through a healthy diet and regular exercise. As Kennedy noted in the hearing, 40 percent of American children—what should be the healthiest population—are afflicted with chronic illnesses. Around one in 10 Americans struggles with infertility. We can no longer deny that Americans have become a very sick people. 

We cannot underestimate the role food has to play in our rising health problems. Seed oils—about which Kennedy has been outspoken—make up 8–10 percent of the American’s daily diet (given an average 2,000 calorie diet that would be around 160-200 calories, equal to 1–2 tablespoons of oil consumed every day). These inflammatory oils found in most restaurants and many processed foods are linked to colorectal cancers, which are on the rise among young adults. Food dyes and preservatives banned in Europe are also known to be dangerous when consumed in high enough quantities. We ought to be concerned. 

With all this mounting scientific evidence supporting some of Kennedy’s claims, it’s time the American public at last joins him and all the others questioning the FDA’s assurances that our food and medicine are “safe.” 

As prominent as Kennedy has been in the health and wellness world, it does not start or end with him. It didn’t take Kennedy to wake people up to the dangers of our food and medicine. We already knew processed foods were harmful; hence diet trends like the Mediterranean, raw vegan, and carnivore diets. Patients and even medical providers were already questioning the necessity of administering nearly two dozen shots in a child’s first year of life. The “crunchy” influencers of social media were already dispersing research and healthier recipes to concerned housewives. This ball has been rolling for quite some time. 

Despite what left-leaning media outlets warn, RFK Jr. is not about to eradicate Western medicine and ultra-processed foods. But people will be more informed of their effects. Households will switch to cooking with butter and healthier oils. Parents will research the medicines and foods they give their children. Everyone will have access to their favorite vaccines, and Doritos will stay on grocery store shelves.

Even if we re a physically sick nation, it’ll have to be of our own free choice—not because we blindly trusted doctors and the FDA. At the very least, people will have access to enough information to think for themselves. And that’s perhaps the greatest feat Kennedy could achieve for the American people.