Kennedy spoke at a conference of the American anti-vaccination organization Children’s Health Defense, which he led from 2015 to 2023. He said: “We are also studying chemtrails, the effects of aircraft emissions, and their possible impact on health”, and then promised the audience “transparency of science” on issues related to vaccines.
On the same day, the US Health Department separately requested opinions on the effects of electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation — from Wi‑Fi and mobile communications to 5G and 6G networks. The collection of comments from scientists, doctors, industry representatives, and ordinary citizens will last 30 days, starting on September 21, according to the department’s press release. In the request text, Kennedy wrote that wireless technologies have already become part of everyday life, and science must keep pace with their development.
At the same conference, he recalled the case against the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the materials of which, he said, included more than 10,000 scientific papers. In 2021, a court found the FCC’s decision to keep the 1996 radiofrequency radiation standards arbitrary and ordered the commission to review the data on health risks. Children’s Health Defense filed a new lawsuit, arguing that the FCC still had not complied with this order, while the commission itself says on its website that there are no scientific data conclusively linking wireless devices to cancer or other diseases.
Supporters of the theory call airplane contrails “chemtrails”, which form when hot exhaust gases come into contact with cold air at high altitude. They claim that aviation is spraying toxic substances instead of water vapor, but the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a clarification in 2016 stating that 76 of 77 scientists working in atmospheric research found no evidence of such operations. A 2016 survey of about a thousand adults showed that about 10% considered the theory completely true, and another 20–30% partially true; a more recent survey conducted in September 2024 and published in July 2025 in Communications Earth & Environment showed that 20% of respondents considered the version about a secret government program partially or completely true, and 20.6% considered the version about the deliberate spraying of chemicals to combat global warming true.
Kennedy’s remarks drew criticism: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly wrote on X that he could send the minister a textbook on how aircraft engines work, and former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry told CNN that he should be dealing with the real causes of chronic diseases. Against this backdrop, Reuters calls the measles outbreak in the US the largest in several decades: the country has recorded four deaths linked to the disease for the first time in many years, and the minister’s sister Kerry Kennedy told CNN that his rhetoric on vaccines contributed to vaccine refusal.
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