With shocking and unjustifiable recklessness, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a man who still has not even been picked to head any official position in the incoming Trump administration, never mind confirmed by the Senate, says that he will fire 600 scientists at the National Institute of Health, one of the world’s most elite medical research institutions. Even the desire to do such a thing should make the entire country breathless. And yet, we are to take this as a normal political transition from one administration to the next. It is almost certain that very few signed up for this.
The terminations would shake up both government-conducted research as well as that done in research facilities across the country. Wiki describes the NIH as:
The National Institutes of Health is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH conducts its own scientific research through the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.
So the NIH conducts its own cutting-edge research in medical science but, perhaps even more importantly, funds research grants at medical schools throughout the country. You need scientists to study grant applications from fellow scientists. Any interruption in this system would nearly cripple a massive chunk in modern medical research across the globe.
And yet that’s exactly what RFK Jr. says he wants to do, even though he can’t name a job to which he’s been nominated. But Kennedy promises to fire 600 scientists on day one. As reported by Mother Jones:
Kennedy made other eyebrow-raising claims during the interview, for instance claiming that “pilot studies” showed that anorexia could be cured with a “keto diets and other kind of diets.” He also returned to his hobby horse, claiming links between vaccines and a spread in autism. “I never saw anybody who was autistic when I was a kid,” Kennedy claimed. “Never.” Experts believe that autism was underdiagnosed until recent decades; the earliest prevalence weren’t conducted until the 1960s and ‘70s.
This is a combination of classic elitism and baseless conspiracy theory. IF one wants to change how medical research is funded – that’s one thing. But to envision the blanket termination of 600 scientists all because this lawyer – RFK Jr. has no medical training whatsoever – believes he knows better is tough to envision. How can a responsible person believe that such overwhelming and overnight change could somehow benefit the country?
It is not about being “enti-vax” or emphasizing a more natural and holistic approach. If that is what one wants, then propose to look into shifting research after reviewing what is already being done. Perhaps a lot of current studies actually support Kennedy’s beliefs. Don’t assume to know that firing 600 scientists – many of whom might well be on the verge of publishing current research or completing major studies – will be helpful. Kennedy proposes action that would lose all that experience and institutional memory. It is more like a personal grudge.
A well-read high school student would know that such a move would be irretrievably reckless, setting the country back decades. And, obviously – it’s not just this country that would suffer. Diseases born elsewhere can get out of control and come back here. Stamping out disease across the globe inevitably ends up promoting a healthier American population. Keeping the globe stable also encourages American investment in other counties. From a purely business perspective such change is just… Hard to believe.
We still don’t know just how much President-elect Trump actually wants to do. It is not like he has a vested interest in upsetting too many voters right out of the gate. Most voted for him in the belief that the economy and immigration might be better – not this. It would create a massive backlash and be considered a wholly unnecessary unforced error.
If Kennedy Jr. wants to reinvigorate research in other areas or promote alternative options to public health, there is nothing stopping him from doing so. It can be done without such huge interruptions to the world’s most elite medical research institution. It also defunds projects at major university medical centers across the country – also bad for the economy.
It is hard to believe that the new administration wants to politicize so many areas that don’t touch on politics. Politicizing medicine and basic news coverage (It is all balanced out in the end) are just two examples among many others. This just leaves one shaking a head, hoping that someone somewhere in the transition team pulls back and says, “Come on. This is absurd and will do nothing but hurt.”
Ideally, anyway.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
I’d warn magats that they’ve voted in a kakistocratic idiocracy.
But they can’t understand big words like that.
How about rule led by idiots wrecking everything they don’t understand, unaware of bad side effects, that wreck things more than they knew it could.
Honestly, I don’t think they would understand nor consider that truth. But you should certainly try.
Autism was under diagnosed when he was growing up. So were brain eating worms I guess. Let’s hope and pray we don’t have another Covid like (or worse) pandemic. And also that china and other countries don’t use this moron’s statements to spread a new type of pandemic. God help us. I might go back to church if I can find a “real” Christian church. I’m going to need faith. Or to start drinking or smoking pot again. It’s been Years! I will need something to help me through the next thousand years of magat rule.
If tyrant is surrounded by yes men, and the press is terrified of his enemies list, who can stop him? Not the senate, house, nor courts! I’m waiting for the rest of the world to refuse to let flights originating in the us to land or let Americans onto their soil.
RFK Jr grew up in the same time period did. A time period in which people with more pronounced mental illness and developmental disabilities were institutionalized. Just because RFK Jr didn’t see people with autism didn’t mean they didn’t exist because many were removed from soceity and hidden away. His uncle Jack passed one of two acts, The Community Mental Health Act, to move away from mental health institutions and treat people in Community settings. This was personal for him because his sister Rosemary had been lobotomized in such an institute. Fast forward to today where it is estimated that up to one half of homeless individuals may be suffering from some type of mental illness and the jail and prison system is acting as the defacto institute to house inmates with mental illness.
Measles, polio, smallpox and brain worms for everyone!