Y’all, lawdy, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s testimony before Congress just shows that he’s an anti-vaxxer under the skin and now “officially” in public. Grrrr. He’s not giving vaccine advice, thus implying that everyone and anyone can be a doctor by doing some simple research on the web. And he swings wildly back and forth from yes, I vaccinated my children to I wish I hadn’t vaccinated my children. Buh? If I hadn’t been vaccinated, I would run away far and fast once I turned 18 because that is BEYOND stupid.
I go and get the up-to-date flu shot, the up-to-date Covid shot, and the up-to-date pneumonia shot like clockwork as soon as they come out. I get anything else recommended for someone my age. I don’t particularly want to have experienced the latest greatest possible pandemic of measles. You have to have at least an idea that it would be WRETCHED. And then having children DIE and the parents saying that they still wouldn’t have given them the vaccine. Whaaaaaaat??!!!?? Soooo, let’s have some quotes from the article on MSNBC, shall we?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. escalated his anti-vaxxer agenda at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, peddling the line that “my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant” to the American public and claiming nobody should “take advice” from him on whether to get one — despite the fact that his role as HHS secretary entails just that, upholding standards for public health guidance.
Gee, ya think? So, instead, he’s doing harm, instead of good, as the LEADER of HHS. Who chose this clown? Wait, don’t answer that, I already know.
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., asked Kennedy whether, if he had a young child today, he would vaccinate the child for measles.
“For measles? Um, probably for measles,” Kennedy replied, with hesitation. Then he went on to say:
What I would say is that my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I have directed [the director of the National Institutes of Health] Jay Bhattacharya to do the science so that everyone can make that decision. I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me. If I answer that question directly, that will seem like I’m giving advice to other people, and I don’t wanna be doing that.”
Get outta here! Evasive? Oh yes, you are! And you are SUPPOSED to be giving advice. I wish there was a way of getting this jerk out of HHS and putting in someone who *knows* what the **** they are doing. But wait! There’s more!
Pocan then asked Kennedy whether he’d vaccinate a young child against chicken pox or polio, and in both instances Kennedy declined to answer one way or another, saying again that he didn’t want to “give advice.”
Kennedy’s position is a shocking dereliction of duty. He is one of the most influential public health officials in the federal government, and vaccinations are certainly under his purview. (Marissa Levine, a professor of public health practice at the University of South Florida, has likened Kennedy’s refusal to give advice on vaccines to a transportation secretary refusing “to answer a question about whether he would fly.”) And Kennedy must know that his refusal to “give advice” and affirm long-held childhood vaccination health guidance backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is itself a kind of directive to the public.
Coming from a champion of the anti-vaxxer movement, which has long pushed false claims about the effectiveness and dangers of vaccines, Kennedy’s comment insinuates that vaccines are risky enough that the federal government ought to stop recommending them. And his language suggesting that standard, demonstrably safe vaccines require new studies — such as his new initiative to study the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism — implicitly casts doubt on the vast bodies of evidence on how well they work and the systems of ongoing monitoring of vaccines that are already in place to guard against hazards.
I had a pretty good idea right from the get-go that he was a worthless piece of human flesh when he was speaking before the Senate for his appointment and his views and such. Yet he still got approved!!!! Oh, mercy. A potential pandemic due to anti-vaxxers, and he won’t even suggest getting a vaccine. Wonderful. *If* they kick him out and get someone good in, I’ll volunteer to literally kick him out the door. But like so much else these days, it’s all dreaming. It’s all dreams. To close:
Kennedy knows it’s his job to advise the public on vaccines. His refusal to offer any guidance on them reduces the credibility of the government as an authority on vaccines and encourages a mode of conspiracy-fueled health libertarianism at odds with the premise of public health thinking. Similarly to his advice for Americans to “do your own research” on vaccines, the effect is to sow mistrust in credentialed institutions and compel people to turn instead to self-declared experts on the internet and pray for the best.
Thanks for sticking with me!
*****And now, please read ******
Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month, and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula
If there were any true justice in the world, he and the members of the American Nazi Party would all be in the bellies of a school of hammerhead sharks headed south of Easter Island. (sorry Hunter S Thompson for the paraphrase).
Somehow, I don’t think Hunter would mind that in today’s world. That was quite a loss.
If people shouldn’t take your advice on issues relating to health and human services, then you shouldn’t be the head of a department of the same name.
The dude had a worm in his brain, eats roadkill, and swims in raw sewage.
What would you expect?
Derp, I forgot about the roadkill business. That is REPULSIVE. But geez, what is he doing as the head of HHS besides pushing his anti-vaxxer agenda? Nothing good, that’s for sure. And he’s already cut a massive number of jobs. He’s put them in the same boat as Social Security is. Sad. I can’t see any way to get him out, either.
Anyone who thinks vaccines are bad never had measles. My younger sisters were lucky enough to get the shot, however I suffered through measles and German measles. I can tell anyone who wants to listen that, after more than sixty years, I still remember how miserable I was. I also remember the sister of a classmate who ended up with brain damage and blindness after the encephalitis caused by measles. People who deny their kids the protection of vaccines are either stupid or evil – or both.
Both.
Agreed. See my reply to luckylizard, too.
Ouch! (But true, true, true) I never had measles and I’m VERY glad I didn’t! The only thing I remember is what I mentioned in the column. I think us kids were pretty damn lucky to have the parents we did. I agree with Scott – BOTH.