Relating to vaccines, nearly nothing that comes out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mouth is true.
The person in control of the nation’s well being and nicely being is impervious to science, experience and data. His model of vanity is not only harmful, it’s deadly. Undermining belief in vaccines, he can have the blood of kids around the globe on his palms.
Scratch that.
He already does, as he presides over the second largest measles outbreak on this nation for the reason that illness was declared “eradicated” 1 / 4 century in the past.
“Vaccines have turn out to be a divisive subject in American politics,” Kennedy wrote the opposite day in a Wall Avenue Journal essay, “however there may be one factor all events can agree on: The U.S. faces a disaster of public belief.”
The shortage of self-awareness could be humorous if it weren’t so tragic.
Over the previous 20 years or so, Kennedy has executed greater than nearly every other American to destroy the general public’s belief in vaccines and science. And now he’s bemoaning the very factor he has helped trigger.
Earlier this month, Kennedy fired the 17 medical and public well being consultants of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — certified medical doctors and public well being consultants — and changed them with a gaggle of (principally) anti-vaxxers to be able to pursue his relentless, ascientific campaign.
On Thursday, at its first assembly, his newly reconstituted council voted to ban the preservative thimerosal from the few remaining vaccines that include it, regardless of many research exhibiting that thimerosal is protected. On that time, even the Meals and Drug Administration web site is blunt: “A strong physique of peer-reviewed scientific research performed within the U.S. and different nations assist the security of thimerosal-containing vaccines.”
“If you happen to searched the world large, you could possibly not discover a much less appropriate individual to be main healthcare efforts in the US or the world,” psychiatrist Allen Frances advised NPR on Thursday. Frances, who chaired the duty pressure that modified how the Diagnostic and Statistical Guide of Psychological Issues, or DSM, defines autism, printed an essay within the New York Instances on Monday explaining why the incidence of autism has elevated however is neither an epidemic nor associated to vaccines.
“The speedy rise in autism circumstances is just not due to vaccines or environmental toxins,” Frances wrote, “however is quite the results of adjustments in the way in which that autism is outlined and assessed — adjustments that I helped put into place.”
However Kennedy is just not one to let the information stand in the way in which of his cockamamie theories. Producers way back eliminated thimerosal from childhood vaccines due to unfounded fears it contained mercury that would accumulate within the mind and unfounded fears a couple of relationship between mercury and autism.
That didn’t cease certainly one of Kennedy’s new council members, Lyn Redwood, who as soon as led Kids’s Well being Protection, the anti-vaccine group based by Kennedy, from declaring a victory for youngsters.
“Eradicating a identified neurotoxin from being injected into our most susceptible inhabitants is an effective place to start out with making America wholesome once more,” Redwood advised the committee.
Autism charges, by the way in which, have continued to climb regardless of the thimerosal ban. However worry not, gullible People, Kennedy has promised to pinpoint a trigger for the complicated situation by September!
Like his boss, Kennedy simply makes stuff up.
On Wednesday, he halted a $1-billion American dedication to Gavi, a corporation that gives vaccines to tens of millions of kids around the globe, wrongly accusing the group of failing to research opposed reactions to the diptheria vaccine.
“That is completely disastrous for youngsters around the globe and for public well being,” Atul Gawande, a surgeon who labored within the Biden administration, advised the New York Instances.
Unilaterally, and opposite to the proof, Kennedy determined to desert the CDC suggestion that wholesome pregnant girls obtain COVID vaccines. However an unvaccinated pregnant lady’s COVID an infection can result in critical well being issues for her new child. Actually, a examine final yr discovered that infants born to such moms had “unusually excessive charges” of respiratory misery at or simply after start. Based on the CDC, almost 90% of infants who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 had unvaccinated moms. Additionally, vaccinated mothers can cross protecting antibodies to their fetuses, who will be unable to get a COVID shot till they’re 6 months previous.
What else? Oh sure: Kennedy as soon as advised podcaster Joe Rogan that the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic was “vaccine-induced flu” although no flu vaccine existed on the time.
He additionally advised Rogan {that a} 2003 examine by doctor scientist Michael Pichichero, an skilled on the usage of thimerosal in vaccines, concerned feeding infants 6 months previous and youthful mercury-contaminated tuna sandwiches, and that 64 days later, the mercury was nonetheless of their system. “Who would do this?” Kennedy demanded.
Effectively, nobody.
Within the examine, 40 infants have been injected with vaccines containing thimerosal, whereas a management group of 21 infants acquired pictures that didn’t include the preservative. None was fed tuna. Ethylmercury, the type of mercury in thimerosal, the researchers concluded, “appears to be eradicated from blood quickly through the stools.” (BTW, the mercury present in fish is methylmercury, a unique chemical, which might harm the mind and nervous system. In a 2012 deposition for his divorce, which was revealed final yr, Kennedy stated he suffered reminiscence loss and mind fog from mercury poisoning brought on by consuming an excessive amount of tuna fish. He additionally revealed he has a useless worm in his mind.)
Kennedy’s tuna sandwich anecdote on Rogan’s podcast was “a ChatGPT-level of hallucination,” stated Morgan McSweeney, a.okay.a. “Dr. Noc,” a scientist with a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences, specializing in immunology and antibodies. McSweeney debunks the idiotic medical claims of non-scientists like Kennedy in his in style social media movies.
Talking of AI hallucinations, on Tuesday, at a congressional committee listening to, Kennedy was questioned about inaccuracies, misinformation and made up analysis and citations for nonexistent research in the primary report from his Make America Wholesome Once more Fee.
The report centered on how American youngsters are being harmed by their poor diets, publicity to environmental toxins and, predictably, over-vaccination. It was instantly savaged by consultants. “This isn’t an evidence-based report, and for all sensible functions, it needs to be junked at this level,” Georges C. Benjamin, govt director of the American Public Well being Assn. advised the Washington Publish.
If Kennedy was honest about bettering the well being of American youngsters he would deal with combating actual scourges like gun violence, drug overdoses, despair, poverty and lack of entry to preventive healthcare. He could be combating the proposed cuts to Medicaid tooth and nail.
Do you suppose he even is aware of that over the previous 50 years, the lives of an estimated 154 million youngsters have been saved by vaccines?
Or that he cares?
