RFK Jr. Promised Not to Target Vaccines: He Lied
What a shock. Who could have seen it coming?
Measles is on the rise.
Alberta is in the midst of one of its worst outbreaks in modern history, with over a thousand cases recorded since March and experts hitting the news to concur that the disease is now a wildfire out of control.
Measles is a life-threatening illness that is fully capable of killing the children and immuno-compromised people that it infects.
Thankfully, we have a highly effective vaccine that can prevent it from spreading and kill it quickly before it does too much damage.
Unfortunately, the anti-vax movement has done its grisly work, too.
Kids are dying due to an easily preventable disease.
When RFK Jr. was placed in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, I had grave concerns. He has a well-known record of vaccine skepticism and alternative health advice, particularly when it comes to eugenics and addiction treatment and recovery.
To assuage everyone’s fears — I was nowhere near the only person voicing my worry — he insisted that he would not target vaccination and would leave existing guidelines in place for safety and disease prevention.
It is now very clear that he was lying through his teeth.
I’ve got plenty of things to say about RFK Jr., very few of them polite.
I’ve written about his vaccine skepticism, I’ve written about his plans to set up camps for disabled and addicted people for ‘treatment’ and I’ve written about his blatant eugenics and ableist comments about autistic people — such as yours truly.
To put it mildly, I do not like the man.
And there are no breaks on the worm-addled crazy train, either.
Recently, RFK Jr. has suggested that all Americans should wear trackable health wearables that experts caution could lead to data breaches for users. He has also purged the entire CDC vaccine panel and rebuilt it with his own chosen replacements.
Actual experts have expressed serious concerns, saying that they see no evidence that any of the new panelists have been vetted, and are not known names in the industry — suggesting that they may not have the credentials or expertise needed to serve in these roles.
The implication is clear; RFK Jr. is not selecting experts to contradict his skepticism around vaccines, but building himself a panel that will validate his fears and assist in dismantling the regulations for public safety that exist.
He’s even gone so far as to remove federal funding from Gavi, an international organization that helps provide vaccinations to impoverished communities worldwide, pushing an anti-vax narrative to the global community.
Side note; as an autistic woman, can we cut this shit out? First of all, they don’t cause autism. Secondly, saying that you won’t vaccinate your kids because you’re scared they’ll be autistic means you’d rather your children be dead than be like me.
Grow up.
All in all, RFK Jr.’s claim that he would leave vaccine guidance alone and that he was not anti-vax has been proven false.
He lied to get his position, just like some members of the Supreme Court lied when they said Roe vs Wade was settled law, got confirmed to the post, and then promptly voted to overturn it.
It’s a dirty trick and a betrayal of the American people.
It also poses a threat to global health. Not just because he’s cutting funding to Gavi, but also because the threat of contagions does not respect the borders on a map.
As we found out the hard way in 2019, pathogens are not easily contained within the boundaries of one nation.
We live in an interconnected world full of planes and automobiles and ships.
It’s a miraculous time, when someone can visit China, Japan, Africa and the United States in the span of a single week just by hopping airports.
This is an unprecedented degree of travel at speeds our ancestors couldn’t imagine. It boggles the mind when you stop to think about it.
Now imagine if the person doing all of that travel were an asymptomatic carrier for a serious illness. Well, like I said, we don’t need to imagine — that’s how COVID-19 turned into a global Pandemic and stole years out of all of our lives.
Stole lives outright, in many cases. Rest in peace.
Global vaccination is important, not just for local populations but for all of us. The more people around the world are protected and safe, the less likely those serious diseases are to spread.
There are parts of the world where Polio still poses an active threat, and cases of it have been brought back to North America before. But since we’re heavily vaccinated, it doesn’t tend to spread here.
Now imagine if RFK Jr. got his way, and that ceased to be the case.
As I said in the opening of this article, Alberta is in the middle of a massive Measles outbreak. Tuberculosis is spreading through the Southern U.S. even now, and COVID-19 has not gone anywhere, despite what people might think.
Hell, my partner’s coworker just tested positive for it and has to quarantine. It’s still a threat.
And just as pathogens spread across the globe due to frequent and speedy travel, so too does information. The online world makes it possible for RFK Jr.’s anti-vax rhetoric to hit social media and sprint, infecting minds with fear and misinformation.
A social media post from somebody who is ‘just asking questions’ can get shared millions of times, sparking terror and confusion in countries far beyond where it originated.
Then the Overton Window shifts, vaccine skepticism becomes mainstream, and vaccination rates go down.
Yeah, I mentioned the Overton Window — take a shot.
This is dangerous, and we should all be concerned.
Thanks to RFK Jr. and his panel of morons, the U.S. is staring down the barrel of yet another health catastrophe.
His ‘MAHA movement’ — Make America Healthy Again — is a pack of pseudoscientific bullshit. Sure, eat more vegetables and less processed food, get more exercise and drink more water — that’s all great advice!
But regarding your medical needs, don’t listen to them. Get your information from real, practicing doctors with strong credentials in the medical fields.
Don’t take the word of some internet health guru who tries to grift you into taking unknown substances with no real research behind them. And please, for the love of all the gods known and unknown, don’t ask strangers on Facebook or Twitter to field your vaccine questions.
Ask doctors. Ask real, qualified, recognized doctors who actually went to school for this shit and know what the hell they’re talking about.
If you’ve been taken in by this crap, then I beg you to stop, step back, and talk to a professional. Ask your questions and ask them to help you assess the real risks to you and your child — not the bullshit made up ones off of social media.
I promise you, however scared you might be, that the danger posed by Measles and other serious diseases are generally a whole lot more severe and life-threatening than those posed by a vaccine.
Don’t ‘do your own research.’ Ask the experts who already have.
Solidarity wins.
Well said! Bonus brownie points for name-calling. lol What's scariest for me is that he actually believes he's right and that he's doing everyone a favour.