It’s difficult to understate the deleterious impact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had on America’s public health policy. In a little over a year, the nephew of one of the most prodigious leaders in U.S. history transformed from an unserious third-party presidential candidate that not even his family supported, to the nation’s buck-wild authority on disease management. He did so having never previously worked in medicine, public health, or the government, guided only by a pocketful of conspiracies that America’s foremost health experts have thoroughly debunked.

The consequences of Kennedy’s appointment atop the Department of Health and Human Services have been tangible and severe: Historically eradicated diseases have reemerged, killing children; Medicaid recipients have lost their health coverage; and Kennedy has slashed some 20,000 staffers in a massive restructuring of the entire agency. His error-riddled, AI-generated plan for America—called “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA—also pledged to strip fluoride (a well-researched dental aid) from America’s water supply, take aim at ultra-processed foods, and eliminate the prevalence of pesticides.

Yet prior to his shocking ascent to the highest echelons of government, Kennedy was little more than a joke for purveyors and participants in the national political arena, mocked as a brain worm–addled nepo baby with no legitimate prospects in Washington.

Kennedy’s disturbing behavior fueled the doubt. Reports from the campaign trail revealed that the 71-year-old fondly maintained a “freezer full of” roadkill and, in 2010, staged the slashed corpse of a bear cub in Central Park as a practical joke.........

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