Hegseth is simply not qualified to administer the largest bureaucracy in the
Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian propogandist and likely a Russian asset. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is simply a nutjob. The only way Trump could have had worst cabinet picks is if he included Tucker Carlson, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Alex Jones. Wait, Trump still might find a place for them.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr is a special kind of nutjob. He has been spreading misinformation for more than twenty years. I guess I am kind of surprised that Trump picked Kennedy. For one thing, Kennedy is a nutjob of the left. Of course, Trump is not a conservative. There is nothing conservative about trade wars, ballooning the deficit, abrogating America's leadership role in the world and appeasing dictators, and disdain for the rule of law and constitutional governance. These days however the fringe of the left and the right are not that different. Nevertheless, Trump came to power riding the conservative brand. I would have thought that to put a left-wing activist in his cabinet would be going too far for Trump's supporters, but it is not. Trump and Kennedy did have in common a distrust of vaccines and advocacy of weird, unorthodox treatments for those infected by Covid. I guess that sealed the deal.
I am not certain that Trump is really that committed to getting Kennedy in his cabinet. Maybe Kennedy is just a bargaining chip. Maybe Trump will withdraw the Kennedy nomination and then Trump's critics can feel like they accomplished something, and they will let the rest slide through.
Kennedy presents a special threat to the nation's health. We need someone in that position who people take seriously, someone who will rally people to get vaccinated or follow CDC guidelines when a health crisis emerges, not someone who is going to discourage and likely put incentives in place to discourage vaccines. We need a serious person in that position. We need someone with gravitas and who is respected in the public health field. With Kennedy we have someone that only conspiracy theorist trust. I fear a return of deadly diseases that have mostly been eradicated.
Since his appointment, I have had people who appear to be rational people try to make excuses for Kennedy and to normalize him. It is really hard to do. They will say he is not opposed to vaccines; he just wants to make them safe and offer other rationalizations as to why Kennedy's appointment is not that alarming.
I know that many Trump supporters will favor the Kennedy nomination not in spite of him being a nutjob and conspiracy theorist, but because of it. Many have lost faith in institutions and think than any establishment point of view or consensus is suspect. They no longer have faith in the media, academia, science, the government, the military, the intelligence community, and the non-profit sector. They are tired of "elites" telling them what they should think. They don't trust the people with credentials and experience. They reject "the establishment." There has been a democratization of who the influencers are. The only elites many trust are the mavericks casting doubts on norms and challenging consensus.
I am posting below some links and excerpts from articles that explain who Robert Kennedy Jr. is and what he has done and what he advocates and why his reputation is well deserved. I know some will take some statement Kenedy made recently that sound reasonable and moderate and giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, they will conclude Kenedy is not that weird. There is a reason Kennedy's reputation is well deserved. Some of these articles are kind of lengthy. Not everything can be explained in 280 characters.
I know the true Trumpinistas will never entertain any criticism of Trump. The leader can do no wrong. For one thing, they will dismiss these articles because of the source. If it appears in the New York Times or The Atlantic it is immediately dismissed. If it is not reported by Fox News are a very limited number of other outlets, then it is not to be considered. Trumpinistas do not want any contrary information. Their mind is made up and they do not want to be confused with facts. Their response will be "bullshit" and "fake news." Nevertheless, responsible people need to push back when people try to normalize people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr.’s Conspiracy Theories: Here’s What Trump’s Pick For Health Secretary Has Promoted
by Sara Dorn, Forbes, Nov 15, 2024- ...
... RFK Jr. Said Covid-19 Targets ‘Caucasians And Black People’
Kennedy Jr. was caught on camera in July of 2023 telling fellow diners that “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” according to a video made public in the New York Post, which also shows him saying the U.S. “put hundreds of millions of dollars into ethnically targeted microbes” and labs in Ukraine collected Russian and Chinese DNA “so we can target people by race.”
... He Claims The Fda “suppresses” Advancements In Health
... He Says That Wireless Technology Can Cause Cancer And Other Conspiracies
... He Says Fluoride Causes Diseases
... He Says Mass Shootings Are Linked to Prescription Drugs
... He Believes The 2004 Presidential Election Was Stolen From John Kerry (read more)
How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Could Destroy One of Civilization’s Best Achievements
by Zeynep Tufekci, The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2024- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he will head up a panel on vaccine safety for Donald Trump.
The president-elect’s transition team spokeswoman later walked that back, saying that he is “exploring the possibility” of forming a panel on autism, but “no decisions have been made.”
Let’s hope Trump drops any idea of a vaccine panel headed by Kennedy. For more than a decade, Kennedy has promoted anti-vaccine propaganda completely unconnected to reality. If Kennedy’s panel leads to even a small decline in vaccine rates across the country, it will result in the waste of untold amounts of money and, in all likelihood, the preventable deaths of infants too young to be vaccinated.
That wasted money will largely affect public health departments, whose budgets are already strained. A 2010 study in Pediatrics calculated the public sector expenses of containing a measles outbreak in which 11 children were infected at $124,517, an average of more than $10,000 per infection. That’s not to say that families won’t be affected as well: During that outbreak, 48 children too young to be vaccinated had to be quarantined at an average cost of $775 per family; medical costs for one infant who was infected were close to $15,000.
But those costs pale into comparison to the loss that will be felt by families who lose children to vaccine-preventable diseases, which typically strike when children are infected while still too young to be vaccinated.
Take pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough. There have been several dramatic spikes in pertussis infections in the past decade, and in 2012 there were 48,277 reported cases in the US—the most since 1955. More than 87 percent of all of the country’s pertussis deaths from 2000 to 2014 were in infants younger than 3 months, which meant they wereRobert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he will head up a panel on vaccine safety for Donald Trump.
... Let’s hope Trump drops any idea of a vaccine panel headed by Kennedy. For more than a decade, Kennedy has promoted anti-vaccine propaganda completely unconnected to reality. If Kennedy’s panel leads to even a small decline in vaccine rates across the country, it will result in the waste of untold amounts of money and, in all likelihood, the preventable deaths of infants too young to be vaccinated.
That wasted money will largely affect public health departments, whose budgets are already strained. A 2010 study in Pediatrics calculated the public sector expenses of containing a measles outbreak in which 11 children were infected at $124,517, an average of more than $10,000 per infection. That’s not to say that families won’t be affected as well: During that outbreak, 48 children too young to be vaccinated had to be quarantined at an average cost of $775 per family; medical costs for one infant who was infected were close to $15,000.
But those costs pale into comparison to the loss that will be felt by families who lose children to vaccine-preventable diseases, which typically strike when children are infected while still too young to be vaccinated.
Take pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough. There have been several dramatic spikes in pertussis infections in the past decade, and in 2012 there were 48,277 reported cases in the US—the most since 1955. More than 87 percent of all of the country’s pertussis deaths from 2000 to 2014 were in infants younger than 3 months, which meant they were too young to have gotten their first pertussis shot. too young to have gotten their first pertussis shot.
... Kennedy made his name in the anti-vaccine movement in 2005, when he published a story alleging a massive conspiracy regarding thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that had been removed from all childhood vaccines except for some variations of the flu vaccine in 2001. In his piece, Kennedy completely ignored an Institute of Medicine immunization safety review on thimerosal published the previous year; he’s also ignored the nine studies funded or conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that have taken place since 2003. (read it all)
FactChecking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
By Jessica McDonald, FactCheck.Org, Updated on August 23, 2024 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no stranger to FactCheck.org. He is a prominent anti-vaccine advocate who has been on our radar for years, primarily as the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that spreads anti-vaccine misinformation.
We’ve written numerous stories about his claims and those made in posts appearing on his nonprofit’s website. In 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate named Kennedy and CHD one of the “Disinformation Dozen,” or top 12 spreaders of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines online.
.... Kennedy, who is also an environmental activist and lawyer, has been opposed to vaccines since at least 2005, when he published an error-laden story in Rolling Stone and Salon that pushed the false notion that certain vaccine ingredients cause autism. The publications later retracted or withdrew the story.
... Kennedy also played a part in one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory. In 2018, two infants in American Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine with expired muscle relaxant rather than water. The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program, and anti-vaccine advocates — including Kennedy and his nonprofit — flooded the area with misinformation. The vaccination rate dropped to a dangerously low level. The next year, when a traveler brought measles to the islands, the disease tore through the population, sickening more than 5,700 people and killing 83, most of them young children.
Kennedy also promotes conspiracy theories. He believes the CIA was behind the killing of his uncle, and likely his father. He’s alleged that the 2004 presidential election was stolen (it wasn’t). He’s written a book claiming that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was part of “a historic coup d’état against Western democracy.” And he has repeatedly questioned whether HIV is the true or only cause of AIDS (it unequivocally is).
.... He misrepresents major conclusions from papers and gets other details wrong. He conveniently ignores the scientific literature — often vast, and of higher quality — that runs counter to his beliefs. He misleads on vaccine law and misunderstands key governmental programs, consistently viewing them through a lens of conspiracy and corruption.
... One of Kennedy’s most common and pernicious false claims is that vaccines are not tested for safety in clinical trials. .. “Vaccines are the only medical product that is not safety-tested prior to licensure,” Kennedy said in a July 15 “Fox & Friends” interview.
“We should have the same kind of testing — placebo-controlled trials — that we have for every other medication,” he also said to Fox News’ Jesse Watters on July 10. “Vaccines are exempt from pre-licensing placebo-controlled trials.”
“None of the vaccines are ever subjected to true placebo-controlled trials,” Kennedy said in a June 15 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “It’s the only medical product that is exempt from that prior to licensure.”
Kennedy’s line is a falsehood he’s been using since at least 2017, when he said much the same in a Q&A interview with STAT.
All vaccines undergo safety testing prior to authorization or approval. To claim that vaccines are not tested for safety is overtly false.
In multiple interviews, Kennedy misleads about the hepatitis B vaccine, falsely suggesting that the reason the vaccine is given to newborns is to boost profits for vaccine makers. (read much more)
Top Stories
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment