Parasitic sea vampire bites RFK Jr in health chief's bizarre new stunt
On a tour of the Nez Perce salmon hatchery in Idaho on Thursday, RFK Jr let a parasitic sea vampire, also known as a lamprey, bite his arm until the creature left a 'hickey' behind.
The head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted about the blood-letting adventure on X, writing 'Lampreys hickeys at the Nez Perce salmon hatchery' while showing off pictures of the experience.
Lampreys are jawless fish that look like eels but are a completely different species.
They have a round, sucker-like mouth full of sharp teeth that they use to latch onto other fish and suck their blood for nourishment.
Not content with just one hickey, however, RFK Jr held the roughly two-foot-long lampreys as they sucked blood from both his arms, his wrists, and another person nearby.
There is no medical or scientific reason for letting a lamprey bite him, leaving many to question the bizarre stunt.
The animal's bites can cause injury, infections, or even significant blood loss with prolonged contact. They aren't used in any therapeutic treatments.
One of the fish parasitic lampreys feed on in the wild are salmon, and Indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest consider the vampire-like fish a food substitute when salmon supplies run low.
RFK's visit to the hatchery aimed at promoting the health and well-being of tribal communities by discussing the importance of traditional foods, like salmon and lampreys.
The health secretary shared the images on his X account, where users many of his supporters applauded the move.
'Bro you wild. I like it though, keep it up,' one X user commented.
Others welcomed RFK JR to Idaho, with one saying: 'Hey you are in my hood! Idaho is beautiful right?!'
However, this is just one of several odd run-ins the HHS secretary has had with nature, and with parasites specifically.
In 2012, it was revealed that RFK Jr had a worm in his brain that ate a portion of it before dying.
The incident reportedly took place two years early, leading to brain fog and issues with short-term memory.
RFK Jr let the creatures bite him on both arms and wrists and also let one bite another person standing nearby
RFK Jr held multiple 2-foot-long lampreys during his Thursday visit to Idaho, where he promoted the health and well-being of tribal communities
RFK Jr said during a 2012 court deposition while he was divorcing his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, that doctors initially thought he had a brain tumor.
However, RFK Jr went for a second opinion before surgery and a doctor revealed that the supposed tumor had not grown and was likely a parasite.
'They said that this is almost certainly a parasite that got into your brain… it's a parasite that's very common in India where I had done a lot of environmental work,' RFK Jr said, according to CNN.
The new health secretary was also at the center of controversy right before the 2024 election, after he confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park.
On August 4, 2024, RFK Jr posted a video on X that in 2014, he dumped the baby bear in the park after another car had hit the animal in the woods north of the city.
The 71-year-old said he retrieved the cub from the roadside and had intended on skinning and eating the meat, but abandoned the plan due to travel plans with friends.
Unfortunately for RFK Jr, he noted that his drunk friends talked him into staging an accident in the famous park, making it look as if the bear had died in the middle of Manhattan after being struck by a bicycle.
The incident led a giant mystery that baffled local authorities after the bear's body was discovered by a dog walker in October 2014.
RFK Jr did not suffer any penalties for illegally dumping the bear as the statute of limitations for that violation in New York had expired.
Still, it led some to question the future member of the Trump Administration's fitness to serve, with critics calling the bear incident evidence of reckless behavior.
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