20 alleged RFK Jr. quotes we've investigated

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary in February 2025. Since then, Snopes has verified several authentic quotes attributed to him, ranging from Kennedy's unproven claim that children circumcised early "have double the rate of autism" to his false assertion that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella contains "a lot of aborted fetus debris." We also looked into quotes attributed to him before he took office, such as when he claimed in 2023 that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted" and the two occasions he suggested vaccines caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic Alongside his "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, Kennedy has repeatedly pushed anti-vaccine rhetoric and has promoted numerous autism-related rumors — though officially he has told people not to take his medical advice. We've also debunked several quotes falsely attributed to the HHS secretary, including him allegedly telling TV personality Oprah Winfrey she was "overeating" and that the early 2025 stock market crash could have been reversed if investors drank cod liver oil. Below are 20 quotes we've addressed that have been correctly or incorrectly attributed to Kennedy.