Tag Archives: Jr.

I’ll Just Leave This Here…

Just in case you haven’t been following the chaos at Health and Human Services–or haven’t recognized the probable effects of placing a demented conspiracy theorist at its head– nine former CDC Directors published a joint op-ed in the New York Times, titled “We Ran The CDC: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health.”

An excerpt will convey their concerns, which are informed by that hated thing called expertise. (You know that in this administration, it’s disqualifying to actually know what you are talking about..)

Mr. Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replacedexperts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championedfederal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.

We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security. Residents of rural communities and people with disabilities will have even more limited access to health care. Families with low incomes who rely most heavily on community health clinics and support from state and local health departments will have fewer resources available to them. Children risk losing access to lifesaving vaccines because of the cost.

This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.

It is really difficult to get one’s head around the extent of the damage–not to mention havoc– being wrought daily by the proudly ignorant, intellectually-limited and thoroughly repulsive creature who inexplicably occupies the Oval Office. America’s stature in the world has cratered; domestically, we are slipping into fascism; economically we’re heading toward recession; and the cretins Trump has put in charge of our governing agencies are waging war against science, knowledge and expertise. (And history, culture, art and architecture, education…)

It’s not much comfort to recognize that the health of the racist, know-nothing MAGA base will decline with that of the rest of us.

I keep thinking about a meme making the rounds on social media: our best hope is that Trump is getting his medical advice from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

If the online speculation about his health caused by the sudden non-appearance of our publicity-hound President turns out to be accurate, perhaps there’s something to that…

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Standing Up For Science

In February of this year, a new organization was formed to combat the anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge MAGA administration: Stand Up for Science. 

The organization has three policy goals, the most important of which (in my view) is the first: ending censorship and political interference in the conduct of science. As the website reminds readers, science can only thrive when there is open inquiry and evidence-based decision-making. Stand Up for Science therefore demands an end to government censorship, including restrictions on the topics of scientific research that are eligible for federal funding, the restoration of public access to the scientific information that has been scrubbed from federal websites, and full public access to primary scientific sources.

In addition, Stand Up wants legal safeguards against political interference to preserve the integrity of federal research and communication and a commitment to freedom of scientific expression– protection of scientists’ rights to communicate their findings freely, without fear of retaliation or suppression.

The organization also wants to protect government funding for scientific research, and wants the government to continue prior efforts to ensure that citizens of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to become scientists.

The site describes several activities that citizens can take to display support for unbiased, rigorous scientific research. Most do not require a science background–just a belief in the importance of intellectual honesty. But perhaps the most significant effort currently being launched is Stand Up’s demand that Congress impeach and remove RFK, Jr. for lying to Congress under oath and for failing to uphold the mission of the department under his charge.

You can read the organization’s entire letter to Congress on its website. A couple of paragraphs will convey the tenor:

Since being sworn in as HHS Secretary, Kennedy has falsely claimed that the Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causes death, terminated $500 million in mRNA research contracts, canceled studies in vaccine hesitancy, dismissed all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and dictated changes to vaccine recommendations and timelines without scientific evidence. The list below—which we update daily—outlines key evidence supporting our charges.

During his brief tenure, Kennedy has continued a years long disinformation campaign promoting pseudo-science that has resulted in preventable deaths, the disruption of the world’s preeminent biomedical research ecosystem, violation of medical data privacy statutes and regulations, billions of dollars in economic losses, removal of public data, ethical and research misconduct in the production of government reports, the adoption of public health policies and guidelines that are in direct opposition of scientific evidence, and the unlawful termination of thousands of dedicated public servants.

I spend a lot of time on this platform advocating resistance. I realize that it isn’t always easy to find opportunities to participate in that resistance, but supporting groups like Stand Up for Science by adding one’s name to their declaration is clearly one such opportunity.

It’s probably too much to hope that the invertebrate Republicans currently dominating Congress will actually act in the people’s interest and rid our government of this massively unfit and dangerous conspiracy theorist, but the louder the calls for his removal and the wider the promulgation of information about why he poses such a threat to the well-being of all Americans can only help Democrats dislodge those poor excuses for legislators during the midterm elections.

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Who Will Die?

Among the travesties being committed by a lawless and determinedly stupid administration, its assault on science–and particularly medical science– is among the acts most likely to affect all Americans negatively. Ironically, the administration’s anti-science, anti-expertise tantrum has already proved to hit devoted MAGA Neanderthals the hardest.

While there have always been medical skeptics, this expanded retreat from sound medical advice began in earnest during the pandemic, when the “give me liberty” MAGA cult refused to wear masks, continued to sponsor and attend public gatherings, and–especially– refused to get vaccinated. They died of Covid in disproportionate numbers.

In the wake of the 2020 election, there was some speculation that–at least in some deep Red congressional districts–a fall-off in Republican votes was due to that disproportionate death rate. (I’ve been unable to find confirmatory data for that speculation, but the fact that unvaccinated folks were much more likely to suffer and die has been repeatedly documented.)

The designation of MAGA folks as a cult has become widespread, and the evidence for that continues to mount. During the pandemic, followers of their massively ignorant cult leader obediently ingested bleach and Ivermectin, a medication intended for horses; today, RNK, Jr.–he of the brain worm and an assortment of bizarre conspiracy theories–is busily substituting those theories for medical science. His cuts at HHS are already imperilling public health, and are likely to make it more difficult for sane Americans to receive the vaccines that protect us from a wide variety of diseases.

The dramatic politicization of health care is likely to affect us all, but–again, ironically–it is much more likely to affect the cult’s true believers. I recently came across an article describing how the choice of a doctor has become partisan. Research published in the British Journal of Political Science finds that Americans’ trust in their personal physicians—an area that the study notes “was once a rare nonpartisan sanctuary”—has become increasingly divided along political lines, with potentially serious implications for public health.

Here–in a nutshell–is what the study found.

Trust reversal: While Republicans were slightly more trusting of their doctors a decade ago, Democrats are now 12 percentage points more likely to express “a great deal” of trust in their physicians.

Political preferences matter: Both Republicans and Democrats strongly prefer doctors who share their political affiliation, sometimes placing as much importance on political alignment as on shared race or gender.

Health implications: With Trump voters over 50 being 11 percentage points less likely to closely follow their doctor’s advice, this partisan divide could affect health outcomes and potentially widen existing mortality gaps between Republican and Democratic counties.

It hasn’t always been this way.

In 2013, Republicans actually reported slightly higher trust in their personal doctors than Democrats. By 2022, the tables had turned dramatically, with Democrats approximately 12 percentage points more likely than Republicans to report “a great deal” of trust in their physicians.

The study noted that the General Social Survey–a research instrument that tracks American attitudes– found diminished “confidence in the scientific community, education, the press, and many other institutions had already polarized along partisan lines by 2010. Medicine, however, remained stubbornly nonpartisan until 2021.”

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust public health officials into the spotlight, where they quickly became lightning rods for partisan conflict. The study found strong evidence that as medical authorities like Dr. Anthony Fauci became political targets, the distrust spilled over into Americans’ relationships with their own personal doctors….

Between 2001 and 2019, researchers observed a growing gap in death rates between Republican and Democratic counties, with people in Democratic counties living longer. If partisan divides continue to influence healthcare decisions, this gap may widen further, creating a feedback loop where political identity affects health outcomes, which then reinforce political divisions.

As the linked article concludes, if this polarization continues or increases, and Americans increasingly make critical life choices based on political identity, those choices could mean the difference between early diagnosis and late-stage disease. That makes the stakes of this particular aspect of our deepening political divisions literally matters of life and death.

If the results of the stupidity were confined to those applauding it, that would be one thing. (Admittedly, still a bad thing, but–hey, I’m not a nice human–somewhat fitting.) But we’re all likely to inhabit a far less protective world. Cuts to the FDA alone will mean slower approval of new medications, fewer food safety inspections, and lapses in new medical products. Other cuts have decimated research into diseases like HIV, Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

The cult’s dominance threatens us all.

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Republican Lemmings

Lemmings are small rodents living in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in the Arctic. They are known for large migrations– but mostly for a myth of their mass suicides, as large numbers follow their leaders off cliffs.

Today’s GOP is filled with the human variety of lemmings. We saw them emerge during the pandemic, as anti-science hysteria led to the rejection of mask wearing and vaccination.  Even after the pandemic, vaccination rates have continued to fall–and that decline has followed a partisan pattern.

There are two ways people can avoid vaccination. Families can get a religious or medical exemption from state laws requiring childhood vaccinations in order to send their children to public school. Or adults can simply fail to take advantage of vaccine availability. In states that voted for Donald Trump, the number of children receiving exemptions has increased.  Adult noncompliance rose in both blue and red states, but more in red states. 

Although states, not the federal government, set vaccine mandates, the incoming administration could encourage anti-vaccine sentiment and undermine state programs. Trump’s nominee RFK, Jr. would absolutely do so. He dismisses out of hand any studies that refute his beliefs. As the linked article notes,

He claims that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism, despite more than a dozen studies performed in seven countries on three continents involving thousands of children showing that it doesn’t.

He has claimed that “there is no vaccine that is safe and effective.” (Childhood vaccines have prevented more than one million deaths and 32 million hospitalizations over the past three decades.) He has encouraged people not to vaccinate their babies: “I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby, I say to him, ‘Better not get him vaccinated.’”

When asked about the polio vaccine, Mr. Kennedy claimed that it caused an “explosion in soft tissue cancers” that killed “many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.” Setting aside the fact that an “explosion in soft tissue cancers” hasn’t occurred, studies comparing children who received early batches of polio vaccines with unvaccinated children found no differences in cancer incidence. By 1979, paralytic polio was eliminated from the United States. When Mr. Kennedy says he wants vaccines to be better studied, what he really seems to be saying is he wants studies that confirm his fixed, immutable, science-resistant beliefs. 

The author of the article, a doctor who previously served at the FDA, explained that the panel authorizing vaccines is composed of actual “skeptics,” who require significant evidence of efficacy before approving them.

Vaccine skepticism is baked into the systems with which health experts monitor vaccines after they’re authorized for use. We know that clinical trials are not enough; we need to constantly ask questions and examine new data. That’s why we have surveillance systems that can detect problems too rare to be picked up in clinical trials. 

That ongoing surveillance allowed the FDA to discover that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine caused dangerous clotting in about one in 250,000 people.

Detecting such risks allows us to weigh these rare harms against the enormous benefits of these vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy, on the other hand, has claimed that the Covid-19 vaccines, which have saved the lives of at least three million Americans, are “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Kennedy routinely misrepresents studies he cites and ignores data that doesn’t support his conclusions. And this is the person that Donald Trump has nominated to be Secretary of Health, presumably as a reward for Kennedy’s political support. 

In one sense, the nomination of JFK, Jr. is no different from Trump’s other choices, none of which have been even slightly based on the suitability of the nominee. Trump rather obviously sees these positions as rewards for loyalty–I rather doubt the notion of qualification has ever occurred to him. (After all, he himself is massively unqualified for the Presidency.–or for that matter, any responsible position.)

All of which brings us back to the issue of those Republican lemmings. At this point, it is more likely than not that this parade of clowns, misfits and ideologues will be confirmed by a Senate controlled by Republican invertebrates who value their own immediate political prospects far–far–above concerns for government competence and/or the common good. (And yes, Indiana’s Todd Young is one of them.)

 It isn’t very nice to point this out, but people who take Kennedy’s anti-vaccine delusions seriously are overwhelmingly MAGA crazies and Christian Nationalists, so–on the bright side– we might see a decline in the number who will survive to vote for GOP troglodytes. 

Meanwhile, sane Americans will watch as the lemmings go over the cliff. Unfortunately, they’ll take rational governance with them.

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Speaking Of Lunatics…

Third-party candidates in two-party America share several characteristics, one of which might be called a martyr complex. After all, application of elementary logic leads to the inevitable conclusion that–while such a candidate might manage to be a spoiler depriving one of the major party nominees of success–he or she has zero chance of actually winning.

That logic explains why so many of these “spoiler” candidates are–to put it mildly–less than rational. While some social activists probably run simply to make a point or to bring attention to a pet issue–Ralph Nader comes to mind–  others come to us straight from their private fantasy-lands.

This year, for example, Robert F. Kennedy’s quixotic candidacy comes directly from an alternate universe. If this sad, deluded man was not a member of a storied political family, he’d have been escorted off the public stage a long time ago. As an article in Mother Jones recently pointed out, his distance from reality isn’t limited to his anti-vaccine beliefs, and far too much of the media coverage of his campaign has served to normalize this very abnormal man.

He’s a conspiracy theorist who has made a lot of money pushing baseless or disproven notions about vaccines, Covid, and other hot-button subjects. At the start of his 2024 presidential bid, the media reported his history as a disinformationalist on multiple fronts. Yet now he’s largely covered as another character in the ongoing presidential horse race.

Most of the recent stories about him focus on his standing in the polls, what voters he’s attracting, and speculation regarding his potential impact on the outcome. In such pieces, his extreme conspiracism is often not conveyed fully and sometimes not even mentioned. A recent Washington Post story on Kennedy family members endorsing President Joe Biden noted in mild fashion that  RFK Jr. “has embraced controversial, unfounded claims on issues including vaccines and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” A Wall Street Journal article on chaos within his campaign merely said Kennedy “has promoted conspiracy theories—in particular on vaccines—and espouses political views from across the spectrum.” A New York Times piece referred to him as a “vaccine skeptic” who has promoted “vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories about the government.”

The article proceeded to focus on one of Kennedy’s many conspiracy theories–one that has received minimal coverage– noting that “He is much further around the bend than [the media] indicates. With his advancement of unhinged and outlandish conspiracy theories, RFK Jr. is in the league of Alex Jones.”

The author noted RFK, Jr.’s evidently fervent belief that a “global elite led by the CIA had been planning for years to use a pandemic to end democracy and impose totalitarian control on the entire world,”  a claim he has repeated at public events and on podcasts, and for which he has claimed to have proof. That “proof” revolves around something called “Event 201.” During one interview, Kennedy told listeners who might be skeptical of his description of that event to “do the research. The meeting is still on YouTube.”

As the Mother Jones article notes, the video of Event 201 does indeed remain on YouTube—”as does an entire website devoted to the exercise—and it in no way matches Kennedy’s description. Not even close.”

The remainder of the lengthy article takes each description of that event offered by JFK, Jr. and patiently and thoroughly debunks it.

Other claims made by Kennedy have been shown to be equally unfounded/unscientific/looney. He has asserted that chemicals present in water sources cause transgender identity, has repeatedly endorsed the idea that the increase in mass shootings is due to heightened use of antidepressants, and has accused the CIA of assassinating his uncle. Just last June, in an interview with the Washington Post, he reaffirmed his belief that Republicans had stolen the 2004 election, and that John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, had really won.

In his defense, it is likely that Kennedy (unlike con artists like Alex Jones) actually believes these things. That is sad. It is sadder still that many Americans tell pollsters they plan to vote for him, in most cases not because they agree with any of his bizarre assertions, but because they are unaware of how demented he really is. The only thing they know about him is his name, and that he is the nephew of the former President.

If MAGA’s devotion to Trump hadn’t already proved the extent of American political ignorance and hostility to reality, the fact that a meaningful percentage of voters claim to be supporting this very troubled man should conclusively prove the point.

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