RFK Jr. to Theo Von: “I Used to Snort Coke Off of Toilet Seats. I’m Not Scared of a Germ.”

RFK Jr. went on Theo Von’s podcast and said, “I’m not scared of a germ. I used to snort coke off of toilet seats.”

It’s a memorable line, but it actually touches on something interesting about humanity’s relationship with germs. There was a time when doctors didn’t wash their hands between patients. Women were dying in maternity wards from infections carried straight from the autopsy room. Ignaz Semmelweis proposed handwashing in the 1840s and was essentially laughed out of the medical establishment. People died preventable deaths for decades because the medical community refused to accept that germs were real. Germ theory wasn’t widely accepted until long after the damage was done.

From there, the pendulum swung. Over about 150 years we went from complete ignorance of germs to a culture where antibacterial soap is in every bathroom and people think twice about a doorknob. Our culture is Purell and Lysol everywhere.

But are germs really THAT bad? The reality is that for people with healthy immune systems, most everyday bacteria just aren’t that dangerous. The body encounters millions of microbes daily and handles them without you ever noticing. Think about how people actually live. Eating something that fell on the table. Sharing a drink. Using a restroom that’s seen better days. Touching everything at a bar and then eating fries with their hands. Doing [????] in a dingy bathroom. Most of the time, nothing happens. The immune system was built for this.

One thing to note about context is Kennedy was talking about his addiction recovery. He’s been sober for 43 years and was explaining why he refused to stop attending daily recovery meetings. For him, untreated addiction was a far greater threat to his life than any germ, so he kept showing up even in the height of the pandemic.