RFK JR., THE ATLANTIC, AND SCIENCE PART 2

HERE IN PART 2 WE CONTINUE TIDBITS BEGUN YESTERDAY gleaned from The Atlantic magazine’s Profile and Summary of “The Most Powerful Man in Science,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

RFK Jr. on Disagreeing with Others.  Bross and Jackson observe in their “Press Room” Summary, “Throughout their interviews, [Profile author] Scherer writes, he often found himself jousting with Kennedy about the details of one scientific debate or another. Scherer writes that Kennedy says he’s open to listening to other viewpoints, but, ‘when presented with data that contradict his arguments, Kennedy regularly claims bad faith on the part of his adversaries—­that they’re motivated by profit or professional advancement.’”

This, Bross and Jackson note, “despite the fact that most pediatricians and virologists and epidemiologists have devoted their lives to helping children and reducing suffering.”

Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Scherer observes, “When I asked him to square his nicotine habit and the time he spends tanning with the federal health advisories against both, he shifted in his chair. ‘I’m not telling people that they should do anything that I do,’ he said. ‘I just say “Get in shape.”’ ”

Medical people whom I respect recommend avoiding bronze visages. Image by Jacquelyn Martin/AP from NPR.

Is RFK Jr. To Be Pitied? “Every article about me,” RFK Jr. told Scherer, “is the same, which is never science-based; it’s never an argument; it’s always an ad hominem attack.” ‘He’s a conspiracy theorist, he’s anti-science, he’s a crazy person, he’s got a brain worm,’ or the bear story, or the whale story, or the dog story, any of these, and that’s what they focus on.”

Scherer writes, “Articles about some of these colorful episodes from his past, he believed, were efforts to distract from the substance of his arguments. ‘I challenge you to tell me one conspiracy that I’ve talked about that has not come true, he said.”

Matters to ponder: What about fluoridation and its conspiratorial history? What about the Wakefield Report’s autism? What about COVID vaccine “poisoning”? What about measles now recurring among the non-vaccinated?

On Countering Scientific Flaws. Bross and Jackson cite, “Senator Bill Cassidy, a gastro­enterologist who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary, said that he and the HHS secretary regularly share scientific articles and papers with each other. ‘I find that he often will send me the same article more than once,’ Cassidy told me. Yet whenever Cassidy points out ‘statistical flaws’ in the article, he said, Kennedy says he considers those ‘immaterial.’”

Hmm…. 

The Deep State vs a Brain Worm. Bross and Jackson cite, “ ‘The whole medical establishment has huge stakes and equities that I’m now threatening,” Kennedy told The Atlantic.” 

Perhaps. But RFK Jr. is also threatening the world’s health through his idiosyncratic ignorance of science. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025