I don’t care what an adult chooses to believe, they’re free to make their own poor decisions. But imposing those decisions on young children and exposing them to serious health risks is potentially child endangerment. If this situation doesn’t prompt a serious re-evaluation of RFK Jr's misguided beliefs about modern medicine and germ theory, I don’t know what will.
dc396 · 1h ago
It won't.
The combination of Dunning-Kruger, confirmation bias, and pay-per-click social media ensures people will believe whatever they want to believe.
croes · 47m ago
The bigger question is do germs believe in RFK Jr.
reverendsteveii · 1h ago
Breaking: Secretary of Health and Human Services Immerses Face In Shit
bediger4000 · 2h ago
This particular Ars article mentions a 2021 book by RFK Jr, where he comes out as a germ theory skeptic.
In a previous Ars article, https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/04/rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine..., we find that the 2021 book is titled "The Real Anthony Fauci". The advocacy of miasma theory appears in the chapter "The White Man's Burden". A book attempting to discredit germ theory basis of COVID by attacking the supposed leader of the pro-vaccine forces. This reminds me of creationists trying to discredit evolutionary science by attacking Charles Darwin personally, and maybe scientifically, which isn't too hard based on about 150 years of work revising and falsifying the original theories.
In any case, RFK Jr is probably doing this as a way to discredit any "bacterial" arguments for the basis of diseases. If he and his grandchildren can do it, they are healthy people, and the cautions about bacteria are irrelevant.
https://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/about/amebic-meningitis.html
The combination of Dunning-Kruger, confirmation bias, and pay-per-click social media ensures people will believe whatever they want to believe.
In a previous Ars article, https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/04/rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine..., we find that the 2021 book is titled "The Real Anthony Fauci". The advocacy of miasma theory appears in the chapter "The White Man's Burden". A book attempting to discredit germ theory basis of COVID by attacking the supposed leader of the pro-vaccine forces. This reminds me of creationists trying to discredit evolutionary science by attacking Charles Darwin personally, and maybe scientifically, which isn't too hard based on about 150 years of work revising and falsifying the original theories.
In any case, RFK Jr is probably doing this as a way to discredit any "bacterial" arguments for the basis of diseases. If he and his grandchildren can do it, they are healthy people, and the cautions about bacteria are irrelevant.