In an interview on January 6, 2026, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) made several false or misleading claims, including that “even small exposures to fluoride reduce IQ by a point, a point-and-a-half, and the larger exposures by much more.” RFK also said that “electromagnetic radiation is a major health concern” that causes “cancer, tumor growth… it opens your blood-brain barrier, DNA damage, many, many other bad effects” and declared that “if you are in good health,… You are unlikely to die from or get seriously ill from infectious diseases.”
RFK also said of vaccines, “[w]e know that they can cause chronic disease,” citing as evidence the inserts that manufacturers are required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include with vaccines, which list “over a thousand side effects,… like diabetes, neurological disease, ADD [attention deficit disorder], ADHD [attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder], speech delay, ticks, Tourette’s syndrome, and autoimmune diseases and fertility issues that are now chronic in our children.”
Public health experts, including those at HHS sub-agencies, refute these claims. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention itself continues to promote “the safety and benefits of community water fluoridation as an effective, cost-efficient method for preventing tooth decay and improving overall oral health,” and several large studies have found that typical fluoride levels do not affect childhood IQ but instead offer numerous positive benefits. The World Health Organization, the National Cancer Institute, and the FDA have found no link between 5G towers and negative health impacts.
In a statement, Protect Our Care, a nonprofit focused on health care equity and affordability, said that “[t]here’s never been a more prolific vaccine opponent at the highest levels of government than RFK Jr., who is clearly immune to all peer-reviewed data and science proving the safety and efficacy of vaccines.”