RFK Jr’s many controversies: From dumping a bear in Central Park to a worm eating his brain

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s legacy is ridden with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, brain worms and bizarre bear-cub deaths, Gustaf Kilander and Katie Hawkinson report

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and former independent presidential candidate, has been tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services under Donald Trump’s government.

Kennedy ran an independent presidential campaign alongside running mate Nicole Shanahan, attempting to rival both Trump and Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. In August, Kennedy suspended his independent campaign for president and backed the now-president-elect.

The 70-year-old has spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, admitted to bizarrely dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park and allegedly engaged in an online relationship with a political reporter despite being married, among other incidents.

Now, he’s Trump’s pick to lead the nation in a mission to “make America healthy.”

Here’s a breakdown of Kennedy’s most notable controversies as he gears up to potentially serve in Trump’s cabinet:

Vaccine conspiracy theories

Kennedy’s organization, Children’s Health Defense, has advocated against vaccinations, and spread the baseless claim that vaccines cause autism. In his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy also falsely claimed that Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 70-year-old is also a staunch opponent of the COVID-19 vaccine and has spread misinformation about its safety and efficacy. Spreading this misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating his Instagram account in 2021.

Kennedy spread a baseless, racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory about the COVID-19 virus last year, claiming the virus targets “Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and [Chinese people]” are the most immune.

“The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League at the time.

Donald Trump said he is nominating Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (AFP via Getty Images)

At a rally against COVID-19 mandates in January 2022, Kennedy also compared US vaccine policies to the actions of an authoritarian state, suggesting that Anne Frank was in a better situation while hiding from the Nazis.

“Even in Hitler Germany, you could, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” Kennedy said at the Lincoln Memorial at the time.

Despite all this, Kennedy has said he’s fully vaccinated apart from COVID-19, adding that his children are also fully vaccinated.

“I’ve always said I’m not anti-vaccine,” he said in an interview with TV personality Dr. Phil. “I’m never going to take anybody’s vaccine. If vaccines are working for you, God bless you. I believe in choice and liberty, that government shouldn’t be ordering people to take a product, particularly one that is protected from liability.”

Dead bear cub in Central Park

Kennedy bizarrely confessed in August to dumping a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago.

In a three-minute clip he posted to X, Kennedy told actor Roseanne Barr he had set out from New York City in October 2014 to spend a weekend falconing with friends in upstate New York. On his way, Kennedy saw a motorist ahead of him hit the bear with her car. The cub was killed instantly, he says.

Kennedy said he then pulled over and retrieved the dead animal before loading it into his own vehicle. He explained he was going to skin the bear and put the meat in his fridge. Under state law, Kennedy was legally able to pick up the creature, although he would have needed to notify the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to obtain the necessary tag.

Kennedy then said he went to dinner with friends before realizing he didn’t have a plan for the bear carcass. The 70-year-old said it was at this moment that he landed on the idea of leaving the bear cub’s body in Central Park next to an old bicycle he had in his vehicle as part of a ploy to make the cub’s death look like an accident involving a cyclist.

Alleged romance with political reporter

In early October, New York Magazine announced that star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, 31, had been placed on leave after disclosing a personal relationship with “a former subject” relevant to the election.

The “subject” was later revealed to be Kennedy, who is married to actor and former Curb your enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi released a statement denying the relationship with Kennedy was physical.

Kennedy bragged to his friends about receiving intimate photos of Nuzzi, The Daily Beast reported. These boasts ultimately made their way back to her boss, New York Magazine editor David Haskell, which led to Nuzzi being placed on leave, according to the Beast.

A spokesperson for Kennedy previously told The New York Times that the 70-year-old had met Nuzzi “once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.” Nuzzi has since parted ways with New York Magazine.

Olivia Nuzzi denied having a physical relationship with RFK Jr. (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Measles outbreak leaves 83 dead in Samoa

In 2019, a measles outbreak in Samoa caused the deaths of 83 people – most of whom were children. Kennedy visited the island nation a few months before the outbreak.

“I’m aware there was a measles outbreak … I had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa,” he said in the 2023 documentary Shot in the Arm. “I never told anybody not to vaccinate. I didn’t go there with any reason to do with that.”

But Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense organization had helped to spread misinformation which reportedly increased the number of people choosing not to vaccinate just before the deadly outbreak, according to Mother Jones. 

During his trip, he also publicly backed anti-vax figures in Samoa, and in 2021 had called one of the vaccination opponents a “hero.”

RFKJr. attends The Nautica-Riverkeeper Challenge benefit April 4, 2001 at Pier 60 in New York City. He has rejected claims he’s against vaccines (Getty Images)

Brain worm and heroin

In court testimony, Kennedy revealed he had a tape worm from food he ate in South Asia, claiming it ate part of his brain which led to long-lasting “brain fog.”

The Kennedy family has cited his 14-year-long use of heroin from the age of 15, Vanity Fair noted. One relative shared a National Institutes of Health report stating that sustained heroin use may change the physiology of the brain and create “long-term imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems that are not easily reversed.”

Kennedy has used his addiction as part of his campaign message, saying that he’s the man to fix Americans’ problems with drugs.

RFK Jr. addresses delegates during the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Six years later, a tapeworm would enter his brain in South Asia (Getty Images)

‘I’m not a church boy’: Ex-nanny alleges sexual assault

Kennedy succinctly summarised the many stories from his past when he responded to allegations that he sexually assaulted a nanny at his home in 1998.

“Listen, I have said this from the beginning. I am not a church boy. I am not running like that,” he said on the Breaking Points podcast. “I had a very, very rambunctious youth. I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”

The candidate made the comments after former babysitter Eliza Cooney claimed that he assaulted her, according to Vanity Fair.

Cooney, now 48, was 23 when she was hired by Kennedy and his then-wife as a live-in nanny at their home in Mount Kisco, New York. She told the magazine that she kept the alleged assault a secret until the start of the MeToo movement in 2017 when she told her mother about her time with the Kennedys.

After Kennedy announced his campaign, Cooney also told a couple of friends and an attorney.

She claimed that Kennedy touched her leg during a business meeting and that he went into her room shirtless and asked her to rub lotion on his back. Cooney also said that Kennedy once came up behind her, blocked her inside the room, and put his hands on her hips before sliding them up.

“The article is a lot of garbage,” Kennedy said on the podcast before accusing the magazine of “recycling 30-year-old stories.”

When asked if he was rejecting Cooney’s claims, he said: “I’m not going to comment on it.”