RFK Jr. Pushes Myth that Prescription Drugs are a Top Cause of Death
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is falsely claiming that pharmaceutical drugs are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. — disregarding data from the CDC
What happened: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is falsely claiming that pharmaceutical drugs are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. — disregarding data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that he oversees.
A closer look: Kennedy and other proponents of the claim cited as evidence a 2014 article in the journal Polish Archives of Internal Medicine written by Dr. Peter Gotzsche, a Danish physician who co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization of researchers and health care professionals that summarizes scientific studies to produce reports called Cochrane Reviews.
However, Gotzche was expelled from Cochrane in 2018 for what the organization called “an ongoing, consistent pattern of disruptive and inappropriate behaviours” that “resulted in multiple complaints to the charity [Cochrane] and damaged its credibility within the research community.”
During Kennedy’s Jan. 30, 2025, Senate confirmation hearing, he said, “There’s a recent study by Peter Gotzsche, who is one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration, that showed that prescription drugs are now the third-leading cause of death in our country, after cardiac arrest and cancer.”
In a May 8, 2025, interview on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” he doubled down, declaring, “We are the sickest country in the world and pharmaceutical products are the number three cause of death after cancer and heart attacks.”
Kennedy’s remarks then circulated widely on social media platforms including X and Facebook.
For example, a May 8 post by the anonymous X account @AutismCapital, which has 857,000 followers, included a video clip of Kennedy’s remarks on Fox, generating 457,000 views and 11,000 likes in four days.
Actually: There is no evidence that pharmaceutical drugs are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S.
Mortality statistics from the CDC indicate that between 2018 and 2023 — the most recent data available — the third most common cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer, was accidents, including car crashes, falls, and accidental poisonings.
Pharmaceutical drugs are not listed among the top 15 causes of death.
Gotzsche’s 2014 article did indeed state, “Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States and Europe.” However, the article did not provide any data to support this assertion, and CDC mortality statistics from 2014 listed chronic lower respiratory disease as the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., not prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs were not listed in the top causes of deaths in the 2014 report.