In a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) directly confronted anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his rejection of germ theory—the unquestionable scientific idea that specific pathogenic microbes cause specific diseases. After Kennedy defended his fringe view, Senator Bill Cassidy fact-checked and debunked Kennedy’s denialist arguments in real time.
The exchanges mark a rare instance in which Kennedy’s dismissal of germ theory has been raised in such a high-profile public setting, in this case, a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Kennedy, who has no background in science, medicine, or public health, is well known as an ardent anti-vaccine activist and peddler of conspiracy theories. But his startling rejection of a cornerstone theory in biomedical science has mostly been underreported.
As Ars Technica reported last year, Kennedy wrote about his germ theory denialism explicitly in his 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci. In it, Kennedy maligns germ theory as a tool of pharmaceutical companies, scientists, and doctors to promote the use of modern medicines. Instead of accepting germ theory, Kennedy promotes a concept akin to the discarded terrain theory, in which diseases stem not from germs, but from imbalances in the body’s inner “terrain.” Those imbalances are claimed to be caused by poor nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins and stressors. (In his book, Kennedy erroneously labels this as “miasma theory,” but that is a different theory that suggests diseases derive from breathing bad air, vapors, or mists from decaying or corrupting matter. The idea was supplanted by germ theory, while terrain theory was never widely accepted.)
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The Horseman known as Pestilence.
A kind of Terry Pratchett, Good Omens version, absolutely. “We don’t actually have to make new plagues, we just convince enough people that the natural plagues they’ve already got don’t exist, or the causes aren’t what they’ve been told, or that the treatments do greater harm than the disease. In fact, we don’t even have to deceive that many. A handful of posts to alternative medicine, conspiracy, and mom’s net forums, and human nature will do the rest.”
How is that even something I have to Read? Fuck these morons.
This guy is in charge of the CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL. Not only responsible for the health of the nearly 400M US Citizens, but really globally in many ways. And this failson thinks you can sweat away ebola with some fucking supplements… that he happens to peddle.
I’d like to challenge him to prove it. Ebola is a messy way to go so I wouldn’t want to be in the same room, but I guess that’s what cameras are for.
Honestly, I think other countries should just block US citizens from traveling until we at lest put the CDC back together. Just like, a minimum standard. Or maybe put US Citizens in quarantine for some period.
This is all an attempt by the rich to reduce numbers of poor people. They need more people dying, so they’re going to pull out all the safety features we’ve built into our society to prolong life.
Less “reduce the number,” and more “make the poor more tractable.” The rich still need human carpet to walk on, they just need it to be uneducated, fecund, and desperate to get under their feet.
Also divided. A divided proletariat (class of wage earners) can make less of a fist against the elite.
This contradicts their insistence that children should have children to stop population decline
Right-wing politics has always been an incoherent ragbag of momentarily convenient positions, insincerely held.
Is that why they’re trying to restrict birth control and sex education while saying people need to have more kids, so there will be fewer poor people?
They’re trying to increase the number of white babies born, and reduce the numbers of _everyone else. _
They need people to produce more babies to fuel the wars that they keep starting to keep the population in check.
Checkmate, liberal! /s
So he’ll eat a Listeria salad and an Ecoli burger, washed down with some Girardia river water and think it was his bodies imbalance that made him sick???
Yes. This guy literally eats roadkill. And brags about it.
Technically, if the roadkill is fresh, there’s nothing wrong with eating it.
If you were a hunter, I imagine (I’m not), they would watch the animal first to see if it was acting sick?
Even if you were the one that hit it, that’s a substantial increase in risk I think not having been able to observe it?
Wtf, no. Lots of animals can tolerate both bacteria and parasites that humans can’t. Just touching armadillos can give you leprosy. Even if you gut animals correctly, many (e.g. bears) have internal parasites that’ll kill you dead.
many (e.g. bears) have internal parasites that’ll kill you dead
Hence his infamous brainworm, though tragically he survived it.
Doctors I trust more than Doctor Oz, Doctor Phil, Pete Hegseth, or RFK Jr.
Doc Brown
Doc Gooden
Doc Holiday
Doc Hollywood
Doc Johnson
Doc McStuffins
Doctor John Becker
Doctor Bombay
Doctor Bronner
Doctor Claw
Doctor Demento
Doctor Detroit
Doctor Dirty
Doctor Dolittle
Doctor Doofenshmirtz aka Dr. D or just “Doof”
Doctor Doom
Doctor Drake Ramoray (“Days of Our Lives”)
Doctor Evil
Doctor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Doctor Feelgood
Doctor Frankenstein
Doctor Girlfriend
Doctor Hannibal Lecter
Doctor Horrible
Doctor Douglas “Doogie” Howser
Doctor Gregory House
Doctor Jekyll
Doctor Johnny Fever
Doctor Kevorkian
Doctor Kildare
Doctor Richard Kimble
Doctor Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy
Doctor Martens
Doctor Moreau
Doctor Nick
Doctor Otto Octavius
Doctor Pimple Popper
Doctor Scholl’s
Doctor Orin Scrivello
Doctor Seuss
Doctor Zachary Smith
Doctor Spaceman
Doctor Spock
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strangelove
Doctor Teeth
Doctor Theopolis
Doctor Watson
Doctor Marcus Welby
Doctor Who
Doctor Zaius
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zoidberg
Dr. Dre
Dr. Enuf
Dr. Hook
Dr. J (Julius Erving)
Dr. Octogonapus (DOCTOROCTAGONAPUSBLURRR)
Dr. Otto Octavius
Dr. Pepper
Dr. Donald D. Rose
Dr. Tedros
Dr. Tran
Rug Doctor
Spin Doctors
The Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)
Even Nurse Ratchet
I’m at the cafe and people are looking at me as I laugh out loud alone. Thank you.
I’ll be here all week, try the buffet.
they just want to know what’s funny.
I won’t tell anyone. They better login to Lemmy and find out.
LOL TWO downvotes. Must be Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil because Pete and RFK can’t read.
Can’t help but notice that you have Doc Oc in there twice but you don’t have Dr Ruth even once…
Once as Dr. and once as Doctor. I’ll have to figure out which one is most common.
Dr. Ruth! How could I have missed her??? THANKS!
I did get her better half, Doc Johnson, on the list.
Those imbalances are claimed to be caused by poor nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins and stressors.
So, like swimming in streams polluted with sewage?
like inhaling Trumps dookie stank
Lead
Or having brain worms?
Or getting whale carcass juice on you?
Or handling a dead bear?
Or cutting off a dead raccoon’s dick?
This guy is trying so hard to be patient zero in the next plague, and he’s not even trying to hide it.
Literal medieval doctor levels of medical understanding.
But he still gets to keep his job, because Congress won’t remove him
We truly live in the golden age of the moron.
Quite frustrating that the efforts of millions worldwide with cold evidence would be ignored and dismissed by one shortsighted charlatan. The world can only mock him for trying to screw his own citizens.
one shortsighted charlatan
Way more than just one
Oh no, facts.
Surely this will be the undoing of JFK Jr.
You mean environmental toxins like germs?
It’s absolutely true that we have too much focus on pharmaceutical solutions and not enough on general wellness and prevention. But wellness and prevention means exercise and vegetables, not protein bars and woo woo shit about balancing your internal landscape.
Fuck this grotesque man.
unquestionable
Can we not call it that? The beauty of science is that it can be questioned.
Eh, while it’s nice to say that science is all about method and nothing is above being questioned, at a certain point there’s so much evidence that it’s insane to argue against them. Like, I’m fine saying more than just germs cause disease or that not all germs cause disease, but saying there are no germs that cause disease when we the mountains of evidence we currently have is insane. It’s a lot like saying gravity doesn’t exist. Like you can argue that maybe gravity is a niche case or a product of a particular frame of reference, but things still fall down. We know that, it’s unquestionable.
Isn’t the definition of a germ a microbe that can cause disease? Like I don’t think you can, by definition, have a germ that doesn’t cause disease.
Maybe, Idk. I don’t worry too much about definitions as long as I can figure out what’s physically happening they don’t matter.
This is what happens when you accept something without question… You might happen to be right, but you don’t know why…
I can’t tell if this was a criticism of me or an agreement with me, lol. But, yeah, it’s a lot more important to know what’s physically going on and communicate on that level than to worry about subtle differences between definitions. What’s physically going on is the why.
The way MAGA questions it is far from beautiful my friend.
You are correct, but I’m willing to give some leeway for using “unquestionable” as shorthand for “backed by such a remarkable corpus of evidence that for any contradictory hypothesis to seriously call it into question would require a literally unimaginable scope of evidence”.
I think germ theory and gravity are about the only ones I can readily think of. Not relativity based gravity, just… Gravity.
Debunking doesn’t matter in the US in 2026. Bullets do.
