‘Complete poppycock’: RFK Jr’s offered up another outlandish science claim | indy100

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

We wish we didn’t have to write about penises and sperm, but US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has followed up his debunked comments about circumcision having links to autism (to reiterate, it doesn’t), by making claims about testosterone and sperm count levels in teenage boys.

Speaking in the White House on Thursday, as part of a press conference on fertility fronted by US president Donald Trump, the known vaccine critic said: “Today, the average teenager in this country has 50 per cent of the sperm count, 50 per cent of the testosterone, of a 65-year-old man.

“Our girls are hitting puberty six years earlier, and our parents are not having children.”

Thankfully, over on Twitter/X actual medical practitioners have pointed out just how nonsensical RFK Jr’s latest remarks are:

— (@)

Urologist Ashley Winter added the health secretary’s assertions are “complete poppycock”:

— (@)

Then there were those who questioned the “puzzling statement” made by Kennedy Jr that “parents aren’t having children”:

— (@)

Using the classic ‘Philosoraptor’ meme, one Twitter/X account asked: “If parents aren’t having children, then how did they become parents?”:

— (@)

And another social media user suggested girls hitting puberty should be given puberty blockers – the very same treatment and gender-affirming care President Trump attacked as ‘chemical mutilation’ in an executive order signed in January:

— (@)

RFK Jr’s comments on teenage sperm counts joins a long list of whacky claims from the health campaigner, including the aforementioned circumcision comments (despite a 2022 systematic review finding “limited or no short-term or long-term adverse psychological effects” associated with the procedure) and that taking Tylenol – also known as acetaminophen or paracetamol – in pregnancy can cause autism.

This is also unsubstantiated, with a study from US and Swedish researchers in April 2024 concluding that acetaminophen use during pregnancy “was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analyses”.

Why not read…

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings