Rupert Murdoch's conservative New York Post took a swipe at President-elect Donald Trump's pick for the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday night, joking that Mar-a-Lago must be seeing an outbreak of brain-eating worms.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that in 2010, a worm got into his brain, “ate a portion of it and then died.” At the time, he said he was suffering from cognitive difficulties. Doctors found it was a parasitic infection: A pork tapeworm larva.
The New York Post on Thursday night ripped Trump's selection for HHS secretary, noting that the "overriding rule of medicine" is "First, do no harm" — and that appointing Kennedy to the role "breaks this rule."
The Post pointed to their sit-down interview last year in which he espoused a "head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines."
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"'Neocons' are responsible for America’s policy ills. 'Pesticides, cellphones, ultrasound' could be driving an upswing in Tourette syndrome and peanut allergies," the Post recalled he said, adding: "He told us with full conviction that all America’s chronic health problems began in one year in the 1980s when a dozen bad things happened."
While social media users might be "gullible" and "hungry" for conspiracy theories, the Post came away thinking "he's nuts on a lot of fronts." People could be harmed or die, the publication warned. Furthermore, it warned Kennedy could send the industry into a disastrous "tailspin."
"We fear the worm that he claims ate some of his brain some years ago is contagious and there’s been an outbreak at Mar-a-Lago," the Post concluded.
Kennedy has called vaccines into question, broadly questioning their safety and efficacy, including claiming, "There's no vaccine that is safe and effective" — and promoting the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism.