Ikke siden Caligula, den berygtede romerske kejser, der ønskede at udnævne sin hest til konsul, har en (kommende) regent valgt at se stort på kompetencer i samme grad som Trump.
Ifølge medier som Forbes, The Guardian og TIME bør Robert F Kennedy Jr., som står til at blive sundhedsminister i Trumps regering, end ikke sættes i spidsen for uddeling af servietter til en forkølelsesramt børnefødselsdag.
Kennedy Jr. er nemlig kendt som både vaccinebenægter og konspirationsteoretiker. Forbes har ligefrem samlet en liste over de konspirationsteorier, som Kennedy har spredt. Her et eksempel:
“Mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs: Kennedy Jr. blamed school shootings on drugs like the antidepressant Prozac in a recent Twitter Spaces discussion, telling owner Elon Musk, “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events” (there’s no scientifically established correlation between psychiatric drugs and mass violence, according to experts cited by PolitiFact).”
TIME betegner Kennedy som “one of the world’s most influential spreaders of fear and distrust around vaccines.”
I Guardian fremhæver en børnelæge Kennedys spredning af misinformation om vaccinebrug på Samoa.
”Alastair McAlpine, a pediatric physician at British Columbia’s children’s hospital, wrote: “It is hard to overstate what a terrible decision this is. RFK Jr has no medical training. He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler. The last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs (Samoa), 83 children died of measles.”
“(…) Kennedy and his anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense to reportedly spread various falsehoods about vaccinations across the island, in turn resulting in a drastic decline in vaccination rates. A year later, a measles outbreak on the island caused by a sick traveler ended up infecting more than 57,000 people and killing 83, including children.”
Guadian slutter af i den mere kulørte ende af skalaen: “In addition to health-related conspiracies, Kennedy has admitted to decapitating a beached whale and collecting its head, and to dumping a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago because he did not have time to skin it and eat it later.
Kennedy has also said that he had a worm in his brain which “ate a portion of it and then died” and vowed “to eat five more brain worms and still beat” Trump and Joe Biden in a staged debate earlier this year.”
