Fact Checking RFK Jr on All In Podcast | I break it down
What this video covers
In May 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — then a Democratic presidential candidate — appeared on the All In podcast, and Dr. Vinay Prasad responded with a point-by-point fact check, later expanded into his Free Press essay “What RFK Jr. Gets Right—and What He Gets Wrong” (June 21, 2023). The video is a striking artifact in retrospect: Prasad, who would go on to serve as FDA vaccine chief under HHS Secretary Kennedy, here plays the independent analyst grading the future secretary’s claims.
Prasad’s verdict is genuinely mixed, which is what makes the video notable. On the “gets right” side, he says Kennedy was “absolutely correct” that COVID lockdowns were a colossal failure and an abandonment of the poor; correct about many problems with the COVID vaccine program; right that the vaccines lowered death rates in older, un-immune people while pushing them on the already-infected was, in Prasad’s word, “insane”; right that repeat mRNA shots for young men at high myocarditis risk, plus college mandates, resulted in net harm; and right about what Prasad characterizes as Tony Fauci’s deceptions. Prasad adds his own color to the lockdown argument: the beneficiaries, he says, were major technology companies like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube, which captured the attention of homebound users and were happy to censor lockdown critics — while mom-and-pop stores and restaurant owners were hurt and bailout money went to the rich. He calls school closure “the most devastating and bone-headed policy decision” in two decades of domestic policy, “the dumbest decision.”
On the “gets wrong” side, Prasad is blunt: Kennedy was, in his words, “completely wrong” about ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. His argument is that the burden is on proponents to demonstrate benefit in randomized trials, and those products never met that burden — and that dismissing unfavorable RCTs over dosing quibbles is not how evidence works. In the video he points to two large pooled meta-analyses of the randomized trials on those drugs, describing both as “stone cold negative” point estimates, and says he applies the identical standard to masks. He also rebuts Kennedy’s argument that the rise in chronic disease since 1989 implicates vaccines by noting, as he puts it, that “the Berlin Wall also fell right around that time” — correlation without causal analysis. He draws a parallel between ivermectin supporters and mask zealots: both, he argues, fault the randomized trials while the burden of proof sits with them.
The fact check itself drew pushback: commentators including Jimmy Dore and Kurt Metzger, in conversation with Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya, criticized Prasad’s segment as a disappointing attack from one COVID skeptic against another. For this site’s purposes, the video is a primary document of the for/against complexity: the man who later ran Kennedy’s vaccine division publicly grading Kennedy’s claims — praising much, rejecting some — two years before joining his administration.
Key points
- Prasad fact-checks RFK Jr.’s May 2023 All In podcast appearance claim by claim, later expanded into his June 2023 Free Press essay “What RFK Jr. Gets Right—and What He Gets Wrong.”
- Where he says Kennedy was right: lockdowns were “a colossal failure and abandonment of the poor”; many criticisms of the COVID vaccine program were valid; vaccines lowered death rates in older, un-immune people.
- Prasad agrees with Kennedy that pushing COVID vaccines on people who already had COVID “was insane,” and that repeat mRNA shots for young men at myocarditis risk plus college mandates resulted in net harm.
- He credits Kennedy for speaking openly on these topics and says he was correct about what Prasad calls Tony Fauci’s deceptions.
- Where he says Kennedy was wrong: ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — Prasad argues the burden is on proponents to show benefit in randomized trials and “they have never met that burden.”
- He points to two large pooled meta-analyses of the randomized trials on those drugs as “stone cold negative” point estimates, saying he applies the identical evidentiary standard to masks.
- He rebuts Kennedy’s claim that rising chronic disease since 1989 implicates vaccines by noting, as he puts it, that “the Berlin Wall also fell right around that time.”
- Prasad adds that lockdown beneficiaries were major technology companies (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube) capturing homebound attention, while mom-and-pop businesses were hurt — and calls school closure “the most devastating and bone-headed policy decision” in two decades of domestic policy.
- He draws a rhetorical parallel between ivermectin supporters and mask-mandate supporters, arguing both dismiss unfavorable RCTs while the burden of proof rests with them.
- The fact check drew criticism from commentators like Jimmy Dore and Kurt Metzger, who discussed it with Jay Bhattacharya and faulted Prasad for attacking a fellow COVID-policy skeptic.
- Chronology note: this video predates Prasad’s FDA service under Secretary Kennedy; it documents his independent-analyst posture before joining the administration — relevant context for readers assessing his later role.