The Claim:
In an interview with Theo Von, HHS Secretary RFK JR. hints that vaccines cause serious harm, even joking about Kid Rock’s brother losing his leg. He also claims that science and medical journals are corrupt and that his favorite scientists were censored during COVID, which can make people stop trusting doctors and public health advice.
The Facts:
RFK Jr. makes several claims. He talks about government censorship and corruption in science journals.
One of his claims is about corruption in medical journals. He says drug companies can publish a preprint and use it to promote their products. A preprint is a research paper that has not yet been reviewed by other scientists or officially published.
Sometimes, a drug company may share a preprint in its marketing to make it seem more official. But the journal is not responsible if a company uses a preprint in a misleading way. The problem would be with the company, not the journal.
RFK Jr. also says that people who now lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), such as Jay Bhattacharya, Marty Makary, and Dr. Oz, were censored during COVID-19. Bhattacharya claimed that the government worked with social media companies to silence his views. However, the U.S. Supreme Court later said there was no proof that the government forced social media companies to remove content.
In addition, Kid Rock’s brother did not lose his leg because of a vaccine. He lost his leg in a childhood accident.