RFK Jr likened CDC to a ‘Nazi death camp’ and vaccinating children to ‘sex abuse in the Catholic church’

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr compared medical institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a “Nazi death camp” in resurfaced footage from autism conferences for parents. Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services also compared vaccinating children to “sex abuse in the Catholic church” during remarks at the events. The comments resurfaced in footage, first reported by NBC News, of RFK Jr speaking at a series of conferences put on by the group AutismOne, which has adopted the slogan “Make our Children Healthy Again.” At one of the conferences in 2013, RFK Jr was asked by a member of the audience: “Why hasn’t the CDC acknowledged autism?” RFK Jr said it was not for him to say “why someone else is doing something” before launching into a conspiracy theory about “secret” vaccine letters and how institutions like the CDC “go to the extremes.” “To me, this is like the Nazi death camps,” he said. “What happened to these kids, one in 31 boys in this country, is you know, their minds are being robbed.” open image in gallery Robert F Kennedy Jr made the remarks at a series of autism conferences for parents His views on the CDC hadn’t changed by 2019, when he spoke at the conference again and likened the federal agency’s vaccine division to “fascism.” “The word ‘fascism’ in Italian means a bundle of sticks, and what it means is the bundle is more important than the sticks,” RFK Jr said.