'Donald Trump's bonkers health chief claims he can diagnose kids by looking at them'
In this week's round-up of the maddest news from our American cousins: RFK Jr's non-medically sound medical advice; a baptism of fire for a vegan firefighter, and the car thief who is suing for damages
Christopher Bucktin is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of experience. A former Press Gazette Reporter of the Year, he has held senior roles including Head of Content, before relocating to the United States in 2013 to become US Editor. With a track record for breaking agenda-setting exclusives, he has reported from the front lines of America’s biggest news stories, led investigations into the Trump administration and the Jeffrey Epstein case. He holds weekly columns in the Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Reach's regional titles.
There aren’t many things wilder than a cut rattlesnake, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving it a go.
Donald Trump’s bonkers Health and Human Services Secretary, who has precisely zero medical training, declared this week that he can tell when a child has “mitochondrial challenges” or “inflammation” just by looking at them.
Standing alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had just signed a Make America Healthy Again bill, Kennedy claimed: “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”
That’s right, forget doctors, tests or science.
According to RFK Jr., all it takes is a quick glance, like some sort of anti-vax Mystic Meg.
Critics say he’s basically playing Doctor Dolittle without a medical degree, except instead of talking to animals, he diagnoses kids with imaginary superpowers.
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Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey, the conservative “researcher” whose dodgy voter data once helped fuel Donald Trump’s fantasy of a stolen election, has landed a new gig: deputy assistant secretary for election integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.
It’s a bit like putting a flat-earther in charge of NASA.
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A rookie firefighter in Missouri had a sizzling start to her career - battling 40,000lb of burning ribeye.
Jenna Ulrich, the Doolittle department’s only vegan recruit, was sent straight to the hose line as a truck full of steaks went up in flames.
Her dad, also a firefighter, worked alongside her as she doused the beefy inferno.
“Nothing says ‘welcome to the fire service’ like making the vegan put out 40,000 pounds of flaming ribeye,” the department quipped.
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North of the border, a Winnipeg man who admits he tried to steal a car outside a grocery store is now suing staff, because they allegedly beat him senseless.
Michael Prince, 36, says Dino’s Food Mart workers dragged him out of the vehicle, then “punched, kicked and hammered” him, leaving him with skull fractures and permanent hearing and vision damage.
Prince, who’d already nicked a jacket with the car keys inside, claims the force used was way over the top and wants damages.
The store hasn’t commented, but locals are already calling it the most Canadian lawsuit ever: steal a car, get battered, then sue for your troubles.
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A Kentucky man has been arrested after allegedly sneaking into his brother’s house at 2am and stabbing him in the testicles with scissors.
Justin Dean now faces burglary, strangulation and assault charges after police say his sibling woke up to find him in the bedroom… before the bizarre below-the-belt attack began.
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Only in Los Angeles: an ambulance rushing a crash victim to hospital managed to get into a crash of its own this week.
And because chaos loves company, when a fire chief turned up to investigate, they promptly smashed into another vehicle at the very same intersection.
At this point, city crews might want to skip the hospital run and just build an A&E ward right on the corner.