Robert F. Kennedy Jr. submerges in creek with high bacteria levels, including E. coli
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared photos of himself submerged in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek with his grandchildren, despite longstanding warnings that high bacterial levels make the Potomac River tributary unsafe.
“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,” RFK Jr. wrote alongside four photos from the outing posted to X on Sunday.
The photos show the 71-year-old member of President Donald Trump’s administration both sitting in the water and completely submerging in the shallow creek.
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. pic.twitter.com/TXowaSMTFY
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 11, 2025
Longstanding warnings from the National Park Service (NPS), however, say to stay out of the water because of high bacteria levels.
“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,” the federal agency warns on a webpage for the park.
Staying out of the water also helps to protect the natural landscape from erosion and negative impacts to wildlife as well, according to the NPS.
Washington, D.C., has banned swimming in waterways for over 50 years because of the widespread contamination.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Rock Creek has been found to have “fecal contamination” from sewage and high levels of bacteria, including E. coli.
Despite the federal warnings and signs in the area detailing the risks, people have been known to still swim or wade in the water.
ABC News has reached out to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a comment.
(NEW YORK) — Cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, a descendent of the Omicron variant, are on the rise in some parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Currently, there are not enough cases in the United States to register in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID variant tracker.
Symptoms appear to be similar to other variants of COVID-19 and the public health risk remains low, WHO information shows.
The earliest sample of the NB.1.8.1 variant was collected on Jan. 22 and it was designated a variant under monitoring — which may require prioritized attention and monitoring — on May 23 by the WHO.
Since the omicron variant was detected in 2021, new cases of COVID have been dominated by hundreds of its descendent subvariants, though none have led to the rise in cases once seen during the peak of the pandemic.
As of May 18, there were 518 NB.1.8.1 cases detected from 22 countries, according to WHO. While still only comprising 10.7% of the global cases at the end of April, this is a significant rise from 2.5% four weeks prior.
“Remember, we’ve seen summer surges. One thing that COVID has done is it’s been able to surge in the summer, and it’s been able to surge in the winter, and that’s very different than respiratory viruses we’ve dealt with in the past. But we still don’t know if this is going to be the virus that leads to a summer surge, it’s just too early to know,” Dr. Todd Ellerin, chief of infectious diseases at South Shore Health, told ABC News.
While there are increases in reported cases and hospitalizations in some of the countries with the highest proportion of NB.1.8.1 circulating, there are no reports to suggest that disease severity is higher in this latest variant than other circulating variants of the virus.
“With each new variant, what we’ve seen is severity doesn’t really change so far, we’re not seeing it have more severe complications,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor. “What we know is that when a virus is more transmissible, it will ultimately infect more people and when you infect more people … you’ll have more cases of severe illness, hospitalization, and unfortunately death. “
Data from China and elsewhere doesn’t seem to show anything unique about the variant other than increased transmissibility, Brownstein added.
Some of the variant’s mutations found on the surface proteins of the virus could increase its transmissibility and potentially make it somewhat harder to treat compared to current variants in wide circulation, according to the WHO.
Approved COVID-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective against this variant, according to the WHO.
“This is the natural path we’ve seen with every variant, and so the guidance doesn’t really change at the end of the day,” Brownstein said. “It’s making sure people are up to date with their vaccines and boosters … and then of course, those that are immunocompromised or in high-risk groups may want to layer in other types of interventions like masking or being careful about large group settings where there could be increased risk of transmission.”
Niki Iranpour, MD, is an internal medicine resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(WASHINGTON) — On the heels of a new report showing that rates of autism diagnoses have again increased, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was determined to find the “environmental exposures” behind the rise and directed the National Institute of Health to launch new studies into “everything” — from mold to obesity — that could potentially be a factor.
Kennedy, who prioritizes autism as one of the chronic illnesses he’s determined to tackle in his aim to “Make America Healthy Again,” ardently pushed back against the explanation that a broadening definition of autism spectrum disorder is a meaningful contributor to more autism diagnoses.
Kennedy said he wanted to “move away” from the idea that “the autism prevalence increases — the relentless increases — are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria.”
“This epidemic denial has become a feature in the mainstream media, and it’s based on an industry canard. And obviously there are people who don’t want us to look at environmental exposures,” Kennedy said, speaking at a press conference at the department headquarters on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The report Kennedy mentioned — published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — estimated that autism prevalence has increased to 1 in 31 children, which Kennedy called “shocking.”
In 2020, the same report found a prevalence of 1 in 36, and over two decades ago in 2000, the rate was 1 in 150.
Experts in the field agree that the rates of diagnoses are increasing and that environmental factors could be at play — but also say most of the increase can be attributed to the expanding definition of autism, which broadened dramatically in recent decades to include subtler features of the illness, including new descriptors as recently as 2013.
“It’s a fair question” to ask why autism prevalence has increased, Dr. Catherine Lord, a psychologist and autism researcher at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, told ABC News, but she said that it’s also important to acknowledge how much has changed.
“There’s been a huge shift in terms of awareness of autism, particularly awareness of autism without severe intellectual disability, that really changed even since I entered this field,” said Lord.
Studies also suggest that autism risk is heavily rooted in genetics, by as much as 80%.
Dr. Walter Zahorodny, a clinical psychologist and professor who studies autism at Rutgers University, joined Kennedy at Tuesday’s press conference to emphasize that there has been a “true increase” in cases, something he said he has seen throughout his career in New Jersey — though he acknowledged, unlike Kennedy, a wider variety of possibilities, from environmental exposures to other “risk factors.”
“It is a true increase. There is better awareness of autism, but better awareness of autism cannot be driving disability like autism to increase by 300% in 20 years,” Zahorodny said, referring to studies from New Jersey and the CDC report.
Zahorodny said finding the cause was crucial and lamented a lack of progress to “address this question seriously” over his career.
“I would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that autism, whether we call it an epidemic, tsunami or a surge of autism, is a real thing that we don’t understand, and it must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors,” he said.
Kennedy on Tuesday acknowledged that the increase in autism diagnoses could be in part caused by increased awareness, but said that still left a large portion of the jump in diagnoses unaccounted for.
He called it “indefensible” to accept awareness as the main reason, describing high stakes of ruined families and “individual tragedy.”
“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,” Kennedy said. “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.”
“We have to recognize we are doing this to our children, and we need to put an end to it,” he added.
Not every case is as severe as Kennedy described, however; many people diagnosed with autism live highly functional adult lives. The recent CDC report found fewer than 40% of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were classified as having an intellectual disability, meaning an IQ of less than 70.
Dr. Barry Prizant, an adjunct professor in the department of communicative disorders at the University of Rhode Island and director of the private practice Childhood Communication Services, told ABC News that Kennedy’s comments misrepresent what autism is like for families.
“I am not dismissing the challenges. There are considerable challenges, and a lot of those are barriers to services,” he said. “We’ve been doing a parent retreat weekend for 27 years, where we spend a weekend with 60 parents and family members, and we’re not meeting with family members and parents who say, ‘Autism is just a tragedy and it’s hell in our lives.’ They talk about the positives and the negatives, the joys as well as the challenges.”
Autism Speaks also released a statement on Wednesday, calling Kennedy comments “extremely disappointing and damaging.”
“Autism is not a preventable condition,” the nonprofit autism organization said. “The suggestion that it is—especially when linked to environmental toxins without scientific evidence—contributes to decades-old misinformation and distracts from the real needs of autistic people and their families.”
Kennedy said the NIH, led by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a former professor at Stanford University, will soon announce a series of new studies aimed at identifying precisely which environmental toxins are to blame. Kennedy cited mold, food, pesticides, medicines, ultrasounds, and the age and health of parents as possible culprits.
Kennedy qualified that the study would provide “some of the answers” by September, which is a variation — welcomed by experts — from his claim to President Donald Trump last week that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic.”
However, he also claimed on Tuesday: “We know it’s an environmental exposure.”
Asked by ABC News if he would commit to following the science revealed by the studies, regardless of his current expectations on what’s causing the rise in diagnosis, the secretary said yes.
“We’re going to follow the science no matter what it says,” he said.
Medical experts have been studying the potential causes of autism for decades. Research to date suggests that autism is driven by genetics, and the risk may increase when paired with certain outside factors, such as having children at an older age or exposure to pollutants.
“It’s not simple,” Lord said. “If you look at high-quality publications, the findings are small and, in terms of causes other than the genetics, have been quite hard to replicate. Not meaning they’re wrong, but just that we haven’t quite figured out what they should be.”
HHS or NIH have not provided details about how the new studies will be conducted within the given timeframe, but Kennedy pledged transparency, saying the studies would be conducted in the traditional way of funding to academic institutions through the NIH.
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will move to phase out the remaining eight artificial food dyes from America’s food supply within two years, his department announced Monday, a significant escalation in his fight to rid the country’s food of additives that studies suggest could be harmful.
Kennedy and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary will offer details on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday’s announcement will target artificial dyes that are used in cereal, ice cream, snacks, yogurts and more.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration in January started the process to ban one artificial dye, Red No. 3, which will need to be removed from food by January 2027 and from medications by 2028 because it was shown to cause cancer in rats.
Kennedy will now seek to remove the eight other petroleum-based dyes approved by the FDA.
The secretary is expected on Tuesday to announce the approval of additional natural dyes, a person familiar with the plans told ABC News.
It is not yet clear what enforcement mechanism Kennedy will seek to implement the new changes.
The two-year timeline Kennedy is expected to announce comes after he told food industry leaders at a meeting last month that he wanted their companies to remove artificial dyes from their products by the end of his four-year term, according to a memo describing the meeting, which was obtained by ABC News.
Kennedy’s announcement Tuesday would speed up that process — and alert companies that Kennedy intends to make good on his warning quickly.
From candy to breakfast cereal to medication, synthetic food dyes are in a wide range of products that Americans consume. Studies suggest their vibrant color makes food more appealing and could even increase appetite.
The health effects of the dyes are not fully understood, but many other countries have either banned the additives outright or required food packaging warning labels about the health risks.
All dyes have the potential to spark allergic reactions for a small minority. Several dyes have been linked to hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children or have been shown to cause cancer in mice or rats — but none have shown to cause cancer in humans.
Already, red and blue states alike have taken matters into their own hands in removing artificial food dyes from certain foods. Both West Virginia and California have passed laws to ban a handful of food dyes from school lunches, with plans to extend the ban to a broader, statewide level too.
In West Virginia, the ban on artificial dyes in school lunch will go into effect in August, making it the first state in the country to implement such restraints. In California, it will take effect in 2028.
Twenty-six other states, from Iowa to Washington and from to Texas to Vermont, are considering similar legislation around banning food dyes or other chemical additives in foods, according to a list compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that focuses on chemicals and toxins.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment within California’s Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 concluded a two-year study into seven synthetic food dyes that found associations with certain neurobehavioral outcomes in some children.
Researchers also found that the FDA’s current level of “acceptable daily intake” levels for the dyes may be too high to protect children from the potential behavioral impact, the report said.
