RFK Jr Issues Ultimatum to Medical Journals: 'Change Dramatically' or Fed Scientists Will Publish Elsewhere

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened leading medical journals during a podcast appearance Tuesday, warning that government scientists could be barred from publishing in what he called "corrupt" publications.

During an appearance on the "Ultimate Human" podcast, Kennedy targeted the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and The Lancet, accusing them of publishing studies aligned with pharmaceutical industry interests.

"Unless those journals change dramatically, we are going to stop NIH scientists from publishing in them and we're going to create our own journals in-house," Kennedy said, referencing the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy's remarks follow the release of a White House-backed report he led, warning that pharmaceutical overreach, overprescribed medications, and institutional fear may be contributing to rising rates of chronic illness in children. The report claims industry influence has discouraged open scientific inquiry into underlying health issues.

Kennedy went on to claim that even the editors of the publications agreed with him.

He accused NEJM editor-in-chief Marcia Angell of saying, in Kennedy's words, "'We are no longer a science journal, we are a vessel for pharmaceutical propaganda.'" In 2009, Angell actually said: "It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published."

The former presidential candidate also took liberty paraphrasing a 2015 quote from Lancet editor, Richard Horton. "'We are not longer science journals, we are about promoting pharmaceutical products and that is what we do,'" Kennedy claimed Horton said.

"Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue," Horton said, acknowledging that published research is, "Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest."

The journals cited by Kennedy have not yet offered a response to his comments.

Meanwhile, NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary have launched their own alternative journal, The Journal of the Academy of Public Health.