RFK Jr. details medical abnormality that he says was a parasitic worm in his brain

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday detailed the medical abnormality he experienced in 2010 that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died, marking his first public explanation of the incident.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday detailed the medical abnormality he experienced in 2010 that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died, marking his first public explanation of the incident. Kennedy said he recalls experiencing “brain fog” and “having trouble with word retrieval and short-term memory,” during that period in a podcast interview on “Pushing the Limits with Brian Shapiro.” He was initially told by doctors that he had a tumor in his brain, and was planning to have it removed before he met with another doctor who looked at images of his brain and said it didn’t look like a tumor, Kennedy said. After the doctor measured the abnormality and determined that it hadn’t grown, Kennedy continued, “they said that this is almost certainly a parasite that got into your brain … it’s a parasite that’s very common in India where I had done a lot of environmental work.” According to the New York Times, which first reported the incident on Wednesday, Kennedy had said during a 2012 deposition, which concerned a divorce from his second wife, that a doctor had told him his health issues could be “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” In a statement to CNN Wednesday, Stefanie Spear, a spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign, said he had “traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia” as part of his work as an environmental advocate and said he contracted a parasite in one of those trips.