RKF Jr makes wild claim over teenage boys' testosterone in bizarre rant, calls it an 'existential problem'
US top health official Robert F Kennedy Jr is worried about testosterone levels in American teens. The health secretary expressed concern about declining testosterone levels among teenagers as he spoke to Fox News on Tuesday night about a newly announced initiative to phase out eight artificial food dyes. Testosterone levels have dropped 50 percent from historic levels, he said.
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RFK Jr's bizarre rant
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In a bizarre rant, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has declared new "existential problem": declining testosterone levels and sperm counts in teenage boys. During an appearance on Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime on Tuesday, RFK Jr baselessly claimed the testosterone levels in teenage boys have dropped significantly over the last several decades. He was at the program to discuss the government's plans to ban eight common artificial food dyes by the end of the year.Robert F. Kennedy Jr has made some outlandish claims since assuming office earlier this year, including claiming that autism can be cured and describing a recent outbreak of measles among unvaccinated people as "not unusual." Recently, he took up his latest health crusade, this time involving teenage boys' testosterone.'The food our kids are eating today is not really food,' RFK Jr told host Jesse Watters, adding that the science surrounding the petroleum-based synthetic dyes has been 'systematically suppressed.'The nation's top health official turned his attention to male fertility after touting his war on chronic disease and listing a raft of health issues faced by Americans.'We have fertility rates that are just spiraling. A teenager today, an American teenager, has less testosterone than a 68-year-old man,' RFK Jr, who revealed previously that he takes the hormone as part of his anti-aging protocol, said.'Sperm counts are down 50 percent and girls are hitting puberty six years early,' the health official added as the Fox News host cuts in, attempting to return to his previous claims.'Wait, an American teenager has less testosterone than a 60-year-old man?,' the Fox News host probed.'That's right,' RFK Jr doubled down. 'Testosterone levels have dropped 50 percent from historic levels. And, you know, that is a problem. It's an existential problem. That is only when we have obesity off the charts.'While the causes of this potential drop in testosterone levels have yet to be identified, it's been long understood that testosterone levels naturally decrease as a man ages. However, a study published in the Urology Times Journal found similar results, noting that testosterone levels have dropped among young adult males from 1996 to 2020.The study notes that a number of causes could be responsible for this drop, including obesity and a lack of physical activity.Despite these studies, RFK did not mention them during his interview with Watters, presenting them as if they were his opinion rather than an empirical fact. Kennedy has made a number of specious medical claims since taking office, despite holding no medical degree of any kind.Prior to his rise to health secretary, Kennedy joined anti-vaccine advocates in claiming childhood vaccines are responsible for autism, but studies by the CDC and others have ruled that out. A fraudulent single study that claimed a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was later retracted by the journal that published it.Kennedy recently announced a major study into the cause of autism and told an April 10 Cabinet meeting: 'By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures.' But last week, he softened that to having 'some of the answers by September.'Earlier this month, found himself embroiled in a fresh controversy after his remarks on 'autism'. Robert F Kennedy Jr claimed that autistic children will never pay taxes nor go on dates during a press conference on Wednesday, 16 April.RKF Jr spoke to reporters after the release of a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. Kennedy blamed environmental risk factors for the rise in disease and rejected the genetic research into autism. 'Genes don't cause epidemics,' he said. 'You need an environmental toxin," he added.During his speech on Wednesday, RFK Jr. said: "Autism destroys families and more importantly it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this. "These are kids who, many of them were fully functional, and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they're two years old."These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a date — many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children." Kennedy's statements were not only bizarre but were also widely seen as deeply insensitive, triggering huge backlash online.
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