• Posted May 14, 2025

RFK Jr. Criticized for Swimming With Grandkids in Bacteria-Filled Creek

WEDNESDAY, May 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is under fire after posting photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in a long-polluted creek. 

The water at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., is under an official health advisory because of high levels of bacteria, NBC News reported. 

In a photo Kennedy shared on X Sunday, he is fully submerged.

The National Park Service has warned the public to avoid contact with water.

“Stay out of the water to protect streambanks, plants and animals and keep you and your family (including pets!) safe from illness,” its advisory states. “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.”

On X, Kennedy said he had enjoyed “a swim with my grandchildren” during a family hike.

Due to contamination, swimming in Rock Creek, the Potomac River and nearby waters has been banned since 1971, NBC News said.

A 2022 report from the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority showed "chronic elevated levels" of E.coli in Rock Creek. Sewage and stormwater has also added dangerous bacteria to the waters.

HHS has not responded to requests for comment, according to NBC News.

This is just the latest in a series of episodes that have called Kennedy's judgment into question.

The National Marine Fisheries Institute opened an investigation last year, according to the Associated Press, after learning that Kennedy allegedly cut the head off a dead whale and took it home 20 years ago. Kennedy himself made the disclosure at a Trump campaign event last year. 

He also said that he once picked up an injured bear cub in New York City with plans to skin it and later left it in Central Park, NBC News said.

Last year, Kennedy also shared that he had recovered from neurocysticercosis, a brain infection caused by tapeworm larvae from pork. The illness can lead to seizures, headaches, memory loss and more.

More information

There's more about the preventable brain infection, neurocysticercosis, at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: NBC News, May 12, 2025; Associated Press, Sept. 19, 2024