--- title: "Befuddled RFK Jr. Says There Were No Chronic Diseases Back When He Was Young" description: "RFK Jr. claimed at his congressional confirmation hearing that he was \"raised at a time when there was no chronic disease epidemic.\" Sure." date: "2025-01-29" modified: "2025-01-29" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/befuddled-rfk-jr-chronic-disease" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "health" - "rfk jr" - "trump administration" - "vaccines" --- # Befuddled RFK Jr. Says There Were No Chronic Diseases Back When He Was Young ![RFK Jr. claimed at his congressional confirmation hearing that he was "raised at a time when there was no chronic disease epidemic." Sure.]() *\Image: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* The Trump Administration's pick to run America's incredibly consequential Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Jennedy Jr., declared during his contentious first confirmation hearing today that he was "raised at a time when there was no chronic disease epidemic." It's a claim as sweeping as it is idiotic. Kennedy is 71 years old, born in the year 1954, when the world was awash — as it's always been — in chronic diseases ranging from diabetes to arthritis to asthma, and far beyond (his uncle, former US president John F. Kennedy, suffered from a [range of chronic conditions]() including [Addison's disease]().) The powerful Kennedy scion repeated versions of this claim throughout his failed presidential campaign; indeed, it's central to the "Make America Healthy Again" movement that Kennedy, a notorious conspiracy theorist whose various crusades against vaccines and modern healthcare systems has made him [tens of millions of dollars](), has become the leading figure of. "Today, Americans' overall health is in a grievous condition," Kennedy added during today's hearing, adding later that "it's the human tragedy that moves us to care." To be clear, chronic disease *is* a major problem, and one that tons of American adults and children are suffering from. This a reality that actual medical and policy experts in the US are keenly aware of — and one that's [wildly complex](). Processed foods, a key target of Kennedy's ire, are [indeed bad for human health](), and millions of Americans live in nutrition-poor food deserts; our deeply broken, impossible-to-navigate healthcare system regularly bankrupts people; toxic forever chemicals are in [human lungs]() and [newborn babies](); industrialized farming is associated with elevated cancer risk for farm workers and consumers, [according to the National Institutes of Health](). In sum: pretty bad, especially considering that the US is the richest nation in the history of the world. "The United States is the only industrialized country where we've been having rising mortality among working-age adults, and it really starts at age 15," James Perrin, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and former director of pediatrics at Mass General Hospital for Children, [told ]()*[The New York Times]()* late last year. "That's really scary, and it partly reflects that fact that we're producing lots of relatively unhealthy young Americans." That said, however, Kennedy frequently [overstates and exaggerates figures]() around chronic disease in young people in particular. And again, for a 71-year-old man to declare that day-to-day American health was overall *better* when he was a kid is absurd. Before Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law in 1965, Americans, especially those in low-income families and areas, had extremely limited access to health care at all; as such, information about whatever chronic diseases they might have had just wouldn't have even been available. The first half of the 20th century also saw a heavy focus on containing and eradicating infectious diseases, like polio and measles, as opposed to chronic illness. And though public awareness about chronic disease gained ground in the latter half of the century — largely [due to breakthroughs]() in the fight against infectious illness — we also developed significant advancements in [diagnostic technology](), tools, and guidelines, which have in turn allowed scientists to [better track and diagnose]() chronic conditions (which impacts the kind of data we've been able to collect about them.) And by the way, if we're discussing the health landscape of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, we're talking about a moment in history before reckonings with various notorious toxins like lead and asbestos — the former wasn't banned until 1978, and the latter in 1989 — and when we were still subjecting American servicemembers to the horrors of chemical agents like Agent Orange and napalm*.* From smartphones to the staggering ubiquity of microplastics to a wealth inequality that limits access to quality healthcare and nutritious food, there's plenty that ails us in the modern world. But it's easy for Kennedy to say there wasn't an "epidemic" in chronic conditions during his youth, when both information and awareness were limited — not to mention when his family's immense wealth could buy any health care they needed. Coming from an [unqualified, pseudoscience-hawking, brain-wormed conspiracy theorist]() who consistently spouts [corrosive nonsense]() about the *very advancements that allowed the medical industry to focus on chronic conditions*, it's especially rich. "Anyone could stand up and say, 'We have a lot of chronic diseases. We need to look at it,'" the endocrinologist Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School who researches chronic illnesses like obesity and diabetes, [told *NPR* this week](). "The idea that he represents some new insight into the importance of that area and how we should be thinking about it is ludicrous." **More on RFK Jr.:** [*RFK Jr. Says He’ll Send People Taking Adderall to Labor Camps*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()