When you are an elected official, every movement you make is going to be scrutinized carefully. This is even true when you’re just trying to enjoy yourself on vacation.
When the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr., was recently enjoying a day out in the great outdoors, he took some pictures to share. The photo was of himself swimming in a creek, but that particular creek was contaminated with bacteria and sewage.
After taking the photo and enjoying his little swim, Kennedy posted the photos on X. He then used the caption: “Mother’s Day hike in Dumbarton Oaks Park with Amaryllis, Bobby, Kick, and Jackson, and a swim with my grandchildren, Bobcat and Cassius in Rock Creek.”
In the photos, RFK Junior is taking the plunge and going fully uder the water. It was taking place in the creek in Washington DC, which is known to be contaminated.
You would’ve thought he would’ve known, considering his position with the Health and Human Services. The national Park has warned visitors not to swim or wade in the water because of high levels of bacteria.
The warning reads: “Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health. Please protect yourself and your pooches by staying on trails and out of the creek. All District waterways are subject to a swim ban – this means wading, too!”
According to a report from 2021 in Vanity Fair, they found ‘high E coli values, indicating sewage pollution.’
RFK Jr’s department also oversees the CDC, which also has a warning on its website about E. coli. It says that the bacteria can ‘make people sick with diarrhea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, sepsis, and other illnesses’. It also warns that it can be transmitted to humans through ‘contaminated food or water’.
This is coming on the heels of a claim by RFK Jr. recently that a worm was in his skull and ate part of his brain. He spoke about the incident in 2012 publicly for the first time during a deposition about his divorce from Mary Richardson Kennedy.
He claims that in 2010, he experienced severe mental fogginess and memory loss and was receiving help from neurologists. They were the ones familiar with the case of his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died in 2009 from brain cancer.
When a scan of RFK Jr’s brain was reviewed by a New York doctor, he said that the issue could be caused by a ‘worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.’ It was also reported that RFK Jr. was suffering from mercury poisoning, which could cause neurological issues. After the pictures appeared on X, the Internet was quick to troll him.