- Critics lambaste nomination of RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary.
- Suspended Georgia doctor appears to be practicing medicine without a license in Texas.
- Canadian collective is fighting misinformation and promoting scientific understanding.
Critics lambaste nomination of RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary. Following the announcement that
President-elect Donald Trump had selected Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Inquiry (CFI) president and CEO Robyn Blumner released this statement:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is wholly unqualified and manifestly unfit to lead America’s top public health agency—or any public health department at any level of government, for that matter. To hand him control over vital agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health is a reckless decision that will almost certainly guarantee many Americans will get sick or die needlessly.
As an organization dedicated to promoting the lifesaving power of evidence-based science to improve and lengthen lives, the Center for Inquiry finds Kennedy’s nomination completely unacceptable. This may very well be the worst possible choice the incoming president could make for the vital job of protecting public health. The Senate should do its obvious constitutional duty and reject this nomination, and CFI will do everything we can to prevent his confirmation.
Immunologist and microbiologist Andrea Love, Ph.D., has summarized Kennedy’s record of “eroding science, public health and propagating harmful conspiracies.” [Love A. RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary will be catastrophic for science & public health. Immunologic, Nov 14, 2024] The record tells of Kennedy:
- spreading disinformation about vaccinations, including lies that contributed to a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa that sickened thousands and killed 82 people
- orchestrating lawsuits falsely alleging a link between the herbicide glyphosate and cancer
- lobbying against implementation of beneficial agricultural genetic engineering
- spreading lies about synthetic pesticides and organic farming
- making false claims about community water fluoridation
- promoting raw (unpasteurized) milk
- promoting various dubious medical treatments
On September 23, 2024, Kennedy was a featured speaker at the “American Health and Nutrition Roundtable,” an event hosted by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI). Dr. Love described the event as “a disgusting display of wellness snake oil peddling, anti-science disinformation, chemophobia, lies, and platforming of wholly unqualified individuals who should have no platform whatsoever, much less a televised presence at our Congress.” [Love A. The Congressional “American Health and Nutrition Roundtable” was an egregious display of anti-science disinformation. Immunologic, Sept 26, 2024]
Science communicator Jonathan Jarry of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society describes two of the speakers, Casey and Calley Means, as shepherds of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” movement. He described several speakers this way:
These outcasts don’t want to fix the system; they want to burn it all down and replace it with institutions made of unicorn horns. They have become consumed with mirages, obsessed with toxins and chemicals they cannot see but imagine are debasing our bodies and impairing our minds. We are witnessing the institutionalization of pseudoscience.
[Jarry J. Kennedy’s coalition of quacks wants to feed America a diet of lies. McGill Office for Science and Society, Nov 15, 2024]
In October 2023, an Associated Press investigative report spotlighted in Consumer Health Digest outlined Kennedy’s harmful anti-vaccine activities. A recent article notes: “Should Kennedy win Senate confirmation, his critics say a radical antiestablishment medical movement with roots in past centuries would take power, threatening the achievements of a science-based public health order painstakingly built since World War II.” [Allen A. Scientists fear what’s next for public health if RFK Jr. is allowed to ‘go wild’. KFF Health News, Nov 14, 2024]
The American Council on Science and Health has posted twelve questions that highlight Kennedy’s unsuitability for the HHS appointmenr.
Suspended Georgia doctor appears to be practicing medicine without a license in Texas. A “Channel 2 Action News” report by WSB-TV Atlanta found a doctor whose Georgia medical license was suspended in 2018 had recently been presenting herself as “Dr. Catherine Davis, M.D.” and giving patients injections at Eden Medical Spa in Austin, Texas. [Gray J. ‘Dancing doctor’ is still dancing, this time with needles. WSB-TV 2 Atlanta, Nov 7, 2024]
On June 7, 2018, the Georgia Composite Medical Board ordered a summary suspension of the license of Windell C. Davis-Boutte, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgery provider. On June 29, 2018, Davis-Boutte signed a public consent order for indefinite suspension that also barred her from using the titles “physician,” “doctor,” or “M.D.” The Board found her diagnosis, treatment, recordkeeping, and failure to obtain informed consent failed to meet minimal standards of acceptable medical practice for seven patients. One patient suffered brain injury and wound up in a long-term care and rehabilitation facility requiring a tracheotomy and percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy tube. Another patient had to be taken from Dr. Davis-Boutte’s private practice to a hospital emergency room due to respiratory distress and bleeding from liposuction incisions; the patient was found to have a collapsed lung and was suffering from anemia due to acute blood loss.
In 2018, Davis-Boutte’s website called her “Atlanta’s most experienced cosmetic surgeon,” even though she did not have hospital admitting privileges and her office was not a licensed surgery center. She refused to answer questions from investigators with Channel 2 Action News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about her five malpractice settlements, the four pending lawsuits against her, and her more than 20 marketing videos on YouTube. Some of the videos featured her dancing and singing around exposed, unmoving patients at her private practice. [Stickland J. Doctor who made music videos in operating room facing several malpractice lawsuits. WSB-TV 2 Atlanta, May 23, 2018]
Canadian collective is fighting misinformation and promoting scientific understanding. ScienceUpFirst is a national initiative started in 2020 that works with a collective of independent scientists, researchers, climate and health experts, and science communicators. It has grown into a funded initiative of the Canadian Association of Science Centres, working to fight misinformation and promote scientific understanding. Its content is verified by experts to ensure clarity and accessibility for all. The initiative is committed to:
- prioritizing accuracy
- always verifying the source
- delving beyond the headlines
- seeking out scientific consensus
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D. It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; other news items; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; research tips; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. The Digest’s primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. Items posted to this archive may be updated when relevant information becomes available. To subscribe, click here.
2001 || 2002 || 2003 || 2004 || 2005 || 2006 || 2007
2008 || 2009 || 2010 || 2011 || 2012 || 2013 || 2014
2015 || 2016 || 2017 || 2018 || 2019 || 2020 || 2021
2022 || 2023 || 2024 || 2025
To subscribe, click here.
