Most of my readers are probably aware of Robert F Kennedy Jr‘s attitudes to vaccinations and other crucial health issues See, for instance, here:
- The ‘moral and intellectual decay’ of COVID disinformants
- Chiropractors Aren’t The Solution To The Primary Care Shortage: the thorny issue of vaccination
- Donald Trump might try to “outlaw” some vaccinations in the US
- The ‘International Chiropractors Association’ Congratulated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on His Selection as ‘Secretary of Health and Human Services’
In my view, they render him a disastrous candidate for health secretary. In case you are concerned about this appointment, you might be able to prevent it; anyone can submit a comment here:
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building
________________________________
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) did submit a comment. Here are some of their argumentss:
Beyond the fact that he has no training in medicine or public health, Kennedy has long espoused dangerous views and spread misinformation about health issues. To protect the American public, the Senate Committee on Finance must reject his nomination.
Kennedy Is Opposed to Vaccinations
• Kennedy has made a career out of spreading misinformation about the supposed ill effects of vaccinations despite being wrong on the science: Vaccines are among the safest and most beneficial advances in modern medicine.
• His organization, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), has promoted the harmful belief that vaccinations cause childhood autism, again without evidence. CHD is one of the leading anti-vaccine organizations in the world.
• In Samoa, Kennedy contributed to a deadly measles outbreak in 2019 by sowing distrust in vaccinations. This cost more than eighty lives, mostly of children, until a door-to-door vaccination campaign proved to be ameliorative.
• Kennedy personally claimed to the prime minister of Samoa that an epidemic of measles was caused by mothers and children receiving the measles vaccine. This led to reduced vaccination uptake, with less than one-third of eligible one-year-olds in Samoa receiving the vaccine.
• As Dr. Paul Offit makes clear, Kennedy is not a vaccine “skeptic”; he is a vaccine “cynic” who ignores scientific evidence when it does not lead to his preferred outcome.
How Kennedy Could Abuse the Position
• As Secretary of HHS, Kennedy could use the “bully pulpit” to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. This will lead countless Americans to avoid vaccinations and become sick (and die) from preventable diseases. Already, vaccinations among kindergarten students have remained below the federal target of 95 percent for four straight years.
• Howard Lutnick, chair of Donald Trump’s transition team, admits that Kennedy wants scientific studies on vaccines conducted for one reason only: “He wants the data so he can say these things are unsafe.” In fact, vaccines are more thoroughly studied than most medications, and there is overwhelming data that approved vaccines are safe and effective.
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under Kennedy’s watch, could discourage pharmaceutical companies from pursuing vaccine research and development. The FDA determines the type of clinical trials required to test a vaccine and can slow the review of results, thus putting costly roadblocks in front of these companies.
• Kennedy would also have purview over the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research. He has promised to force the NIH to cease any studies into infectious diseases for eight years.
__________________
I know, chances that the disaster can be averted are not great – but the least we can do is try.
61 Responses to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Here is what you can do to prevent his appointment
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Note that Trump’s war on science and science-based medicine has already begun:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-attack-on-the-nih-has-begun/
Simply said: scientists connected to the NIH received orders to immediately drop anything and everything that they were doing. Those orders include a travel ban, a communications ban, and a prohibition for doing anything involving expenses.
Note that all this is taking place even before RFK Jr.’s appointment.
And oh, now the man has halted funding for all federal programs except Social Security and Medicaid – the latter exceptions probably because he would get lynched by an angry mob otherwise. But this will no doubt cause enough mayhem and chaos already.
Also note the fascist rhetoric: “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,”
And “those they serve” of course are the billionaires and tech barons who crawled up the man’s behind, and who were rewarded with the promise of hundreds of billions(!) of dollars of federal funding for their latest toy projects, NOT the rather dimwitted poor people who voted for him.
“[by their words shall ye know them]”:
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Anthony-Fauci-Democracy-Childrens-ebook/dp/B08XQYGC68
Anthony Fauci dare not sue because he knows he will lose.
@Old Bob
Holy cow, more than twenty-six thousand book ratings with a average 4.8 score.
His opinions are certainly far more popular than professor Ernst.
it all depends on who they are popular with: flies, for instance, like fecies better that champagne
Your analogy is on point, Professor
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@RG
It appears that selling lies is the way to fame and fortune these days. So maybe you should try a bit harder.
The power of basement dwellers should not be underestimated.
Just for fun I asked AI if it thought that the Amazon book rating that Old Bob referred to reflected the books true value:
I seem to recall that the “Old Bob” posted an AI-generated comment recently. Ipp was the first morsel of sensibility I have seen from that dim corner. I heartily encourage her (him?) to continue relying on AI if it wants to continue pretending to know somethi
@RG
There is a German saying: “Eßt Scheiße, zehn Millionen Fliegen können nicht irren.”
Literally: “Eat shit, ten million flies cannot be wrong.” 😉
The US needs adults in charge when it is experiencing its worst outbreak of TB in its history. Meanwhile we have a lunatic in the White House and a crank in charge of Health.
The Shape of Things to Come……
https://www.twinstates.news/health/kansas-reports-largest-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-u-s-history/article_c39879d4-1755-5dac-8063-7f9a9212e2f8.html#tncms-source=article-nav-next
This YouTube video is one of the most complete exposes of RFK Jr:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gUP_43J7wY
lol… all the Edzard worshipers coming to his rescue. So Edzard is more popular on his own blog than on Amazon, am I surprised ?
Mr Ernst would love to have such reviews… don’t gaslight me.
Only eight days into the Trump presidency … and we keep winning everyday !
JFKj will be the Director of HHS… and the snowflakes will melt.
If by “the snowflakes will melt”, you mean that many people will die, you are probably correct.
“Snowflake
Slang
Snowflake is a derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions. Wikipedia”
The state of physical (and mental) health in the USA can’t get much worse, JFKj will have an easy job making improvements… if they let him.
“The state of physical (and mental) health in the USA can’t get much worse”.
As far as mental health is concerned, you might have a point: only a mentally unhealthy people would have elected a felon like Trump.
“only a mentally unhealthy people would have elected a felon like Trump”
that is the opinion of one blogger
and we know that opinions are like arse-holes, everybody has one.
Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
[Arthur Schopenhauer]
@RG
I think that there are at least a hundred million people in the US(*) alone who think that Trump being elected president was an extremely bad idea. And this number will likely grow rapidly.
*: And the ‘U’ of US is rapidly diminishing, what with Trump actively demolishing everything that keeps the US and (more importantly) its people together. Both his actions and his rhetoric indicate that he is well under way to establish the very first dictatorial and perhaps even fascist rule of the US.
Step 1 in the fascist dictator’s playbook is to create a common enemy and/or scapegoat – and that step has been mostly completed by successfully demonizing migrants, democrats and generally anyone with more or less leftist tendencies. Step 2, currently under way, is to purge both the government and later also the media and other large organizations from anyone not loyal to the new dictator, in order to get absolute power as much as possible.
During this process, the ensuing chaos will make it easier to push through with all sorts of measures and actions that would never be accepted in a normal, functioning democracy.
The most worrying thing is that by now, even many republicans must realize that they made a huge mistake in creating this monster – yet still not one of them speaks out against what’s happening.
As far as the part of the electorate who voted for Trump: I don’t think that those people are mentally unhealthy. They’re merely a bit stupid, and fell for Trump’s endless stream of lies about how great he is and how he’s going to make their lives a lot better – and of course they were poisoned by Trump’s endlessly repeating how democrats are the worst scum on the planet, who were to be blamed for anything and everything that was wrong.
Behold the power of violent and hateful rhetoric, and of course the age-old principle of ‘divide and conquer’.
@Richard Rasker
another opinion from the blog message board
RG: why do you comment when you have nothing to say?
Empty vessels make the most noise.
Regarding RG, we should stick to the following smart advice in the future:
“Don’t feed the troll!”
Sounds like a pretty good description of you, RG.
So JFK’s plan is to introduce a single-payer, universal health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage, free at the point of service?
You are right – Trump and his billionaire backers won’t let him.
Byron Cohen. Adviser at White House Office of pandemic preparedness and responsibility:
[quote]
“There is a good chance this bureaucracy can crush him [RFK]”
[end of quote]
See here:
https://secure.anedot.com/okeefemediagroup/omg-deep-state-real-hf
@Troll Bob
Well, that would be a good result for the American people. Because then RFK Jr. would not cause any mischief. 😉
Oh, about your source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Keefe
The source is: Byron Cohen. Adviser at White House Office of pandemic preparedness and responsibility
Old Bob emitted “Adviser at [sic] White House Office of pandemic preparedness and responsibility [sic]”
“Byron Cohen was an Executive Branch Fellow serving as Advisor for Interagency Research and Development Oversight in the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), a role he left at the end of the Biden Administration.”
— Horizon Institute for Public Service
Correct.
So, you deliberately got it wrong.
Perhaps there is a plethora of other things about which you have been deliberately erroneous.
“Old Bob” is just the messenger of the above data, take it up with that, not on the messenger.
i see: ‘Old Bob’ is just the messenger — the messenger who has been neither sent nor requested by anyone.
🤣
@Old Bob
Yes, you are just the (very, very dumb) messenger, brainlessly parroting other people’s nonsense all the time. Not a single one of your hundreds of ‘messages’ turned out to be actually true, and to the best of my knowledge, none of those messages was even an original thought of yours.
Which should make more intelligent people wonder if perhaps they should consult other sources than the extreme right-wing and antivaxx sewage outlets that you appear to rely on.
This latest piece of crap just happens to be coming from O’Keefe, and fits in seamlessly with all the rest you came up with.
You guys are ignoring the bigger picture as expressed here by Senator Johnson’s 5 minutes at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS Hearing:
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/senator-johnsons-5-minutes-at-robert
@Old Bob
So I explain that you are just parroting an endless stream of lies and antivaxx crap.
And what do you do?
You just come up with more lies and antivaxx crap …
Nothing to see people, nothing new here, just move along, thank you very much.
Peace and Love!:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
‘Old Bob’ stated above on Thursday 30 January 2025 at 08:46 and again at 16:27
‘Old Bob’ conceded that he was wrong on Friday 31 January 2025 at 08:34. Followed by
@’Old Bob’, Only one of three people initiated that error. Was it:
● Byron Cohen (who you claimed on Thursday 30 January 2025 at 16:27 to be the source);
● James O’Keefe (to whom you linked);
● ‘Old Bob’ (who you claimed “is just the messenger of the above data”).
When errors are initiated then propagated, it is imperative to identify the initiator.
Old Bob is an ignorant, a liar and especially a coward who always tries to wriggle out of the morras when he’s found out.
Do you think it is more important to “identify the ‘initiator’ of the error” than the error itself: bureaucratic corruption which, according to Byron Cohen, is the systemic perversion of the will of an elected president i.e. the will of the People.
By attacking “Old Bob” or O’Keefe instead of the error, you leave yourself open to the attacking-the-messenger fallacy and *that* makes it seem that you have no answer to the charge of systematic bureaucratic corruption. In other words, that you support it!
@RPGNo1,
I don’t directly call him a spamming troll [1] because doing so could mislead some of the readers into thinking that I’m claiming he isn’t a malicious attention-seeking malfeasance-promoting spamming troll.
1.
https://edzardernst.com/2024/12/nhs-doctor-has-been-struck-off-for-his-promotion-of-conspiracy-theories-about-covid-vaccinations/#comment-154855
@Old Bob
Oh please cut it out.
The ‘Big Picture’ as you call it is very, very simple:
– COVID vaccines are very safe and reasonably effective. They don’t kill people, and they cause no significant harm, other than the usual vaccine side effects. The handful of antivaxx dimwits that you keep parroting are simply wrong, and should not be listened to. Most of them aren’t even close to being experts on the subject matter anyway – and the very few who are, are seriously misguided or politically motivated to keep spreading their nonsense.
– COVID vaccines have saved literally dozens of millions of lives worldwide, and at least one million American lives. Conversely, the lies from antivaxxers (and that includes you) that COVID vaccines are harmful and should be avoided have arguably killed several hundred thousand Americans. Their blood is on your hands too, as you too keep actively spreading those antivaxx lies.
Don’t blame OB. He is merely exercising his god given right to spread lies.
The big picture, as you say, is simple: Why does the most sophisticated country in the world have the worst health record?
Bernie Sanders and the like have no answer. They don’t want change. They want to maintain the status quo. The American people disagree, hence Trump, RFK Jr. and MAHA.
Tom Renz on the RFK Jr. hearings:
https://tomrenz.substack.com/p/rfk-hearings-why-are-politicians
Old Bob emitted “Why does the most sophisticated country in the world have the worst health record?”
Old Bob ignored Please remember: if you make a claim in a comment, support it with evidence..
Old Bob linked to Tom Renz who states:
“Your support keeps us fighting and also please keep yourself healthy and safe with the best supplements on the market by shopping at Global Healing”.
Global Healing was founded by Edward F. Group III — a chiropractor and a naturopathic practitioner — and the website makes a plethora of health claims. Not surprisingly, ‘Dr’ Group criticises “modern medicine”:
[my emphasis]
Lack of “root cause” you say?
Call and raise $1,953,613:
https://www.brokentruth.tv/p/bernie-moves-pharma-donations-goalposts
Old Bob emitted “Why does the most sophisticated country in the world have the worst health record?”
Old Bob ignored Please remember: if you make a claim in a comment, support it with evidence.
Deflection is not a substitute for evidence.
Your claims, as written, are nonsensical. Did you mean:
• the worst health of the country;
• the worst provisioning of medical care to its general public;
• the worst medical health of its general public;
• or something else?
Which country is “the most sophisticated country in the world”?
If you answer any/all of these questions then heed the red banner:
Please remember: if you make a claim in a comment, support it with evidence
@Old Bob
There are several reasons for this, an important one of which is a rather stupid philosophy where politicians and people conflate egotism and corporate greed with ‘freedom’. The US healthcare market is dominated by Big Money, which is a very bad thing, because people don’t have the freedom to choose to get ill or break a leg or something. Big Money abuses this situation by charging extortionate prices for treatments and medicines. As a result, a significant proportion of Americans simply can’t afford healthcare – and medical costs are also by far the leading cause of private bankruptcy in the US. A strictly government-controlled single-payer healthcare system would be much better for everyone, almost halving the cost while dramatically improving the nation’s health – but Big Money would then lose their cash cow, so they successfully lobby against this, invariably citing ‘freedom’. Of course single-payer systems also have certain drawbacks and problems, but they’re absolutely the best way to promote public health at the lowest cost.
Then there’s of course the obesity epidemic, which is the cause of a staggering amount of mostly chronic health problems.
And sure, vaccines also play a role in America’s public health problems – a positive one. Without vaccines, America’s dismal healthcare record would in fact be significantly worse still. Vaccines are an extremely cheap way to prevent a lot of rather expensive and often deadly health problems.
Without COVID vaccines, the COVID death toll in the US would have doubled or perhaps even tripled by most expert estimates.
FYI: there are several other countries where vaccine uptake is comparable to the US, most notably Western European countries such as Switzerland, Portugal and Scandinavian countries – and those countries are among the healthiest on the planet.
Then there is a whole slew of countries where vaccine uptake is low or almost absent, and people mostly still rely on ‘natural health’. Those countries are invariably NOT among the healthiest on the planet, quite the contrary.
“Sen. Cassidy Told RFK Jr. This Study Proves Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism — Here’s What’s Wrong With the Study”:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bill-cassidy-meta-analysis-vaccines-autism-rfk-jr-senate-hearing/
[quote]
Using standard criteria, the authors searched the open scientific literature and found 46 eligible studies for their meta-analysis. However, rather than consider the entirety of the 46 studies, the authors cherry-picked only 10 studies — all of which concluded there was no link between vaccines and autism.
…
[end of quote]
[quote]
However, when you look beyond the meta-analysis, the CDC’s own DeStefano et al. 2004 study showed that children receiving the MMR on time were 1.49 times more likely to get an autism diagnosis as compared to those who got their first MMR after their third birthday. When considering boys alone, DeStefano found that the risk increased to 1.67 times — and both results were statistically significant to a greater than 95% certainty.
The same data the CDC used in DeStefano et al. 2004 were reanalyzed and reported in a peer-reviewed study I authored and published in 2018 in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. African American males in the study were 3.86 times as likely to receive an autism diagnosis if they got the vaccine before age 36 months compared to after age 36 months. This result was highly statistically significant.
Finally, none of the studies considered in the Taylor et al. meta-analysis considered a completely unvaccinated control group. Without this type of comparison (vaccinated versus unvaccinated), it is impossible to determine if there is a vaccine-autism link.
[end of quote]
@Old Bob
I read your latest comment, and I thought about it really hard, and I must admit that I stand corrected: there IS a strong link between vaccines and mental health.
The totality of evidence – a lot of which was brainlessly parroted by you, for which I guess we owe you thanks – strongly suggest that vaccines are the cause of truly immense stupidity and dishonesty. You are of course one point in case – but even your stupidity and lies pale in comparison to the malicious crap spouted by RFK Jr. and his band of willfully ignorant antivaxx fools.
In hindsight, this was of course to be expected: RFK Jr. is not a scientist, and he is utterly clueless about medicine. He is however a lawyer (pronounced ‘liar’), and he rose to fame and fortune by selling lies. It’s just that his lies aren’t the usual courtroom lies (“… which, your honor, proves that my client is not guilty, notwithstanding his 23 prior convictions for identical felonies.”), but rather lies about vaccines, and even a whole book full of slanderous lies about an esteemed immunologist. Lies which include the long-debunked fraudulent lie originating from Andrew Wakefield that vaccines cause autism – the same dead horse of a lie that you now try to beat back to life again. Yes, the horse is alive – in a sense.
But no, vaccines are NOT associated with autism AT ALL.
The fact that a handful of dumb antivaxxers choose to ignore the huge amount of evidence to this extent does not change this. And of course the main burden of proof lies with the antivaxxers: THEY must show credible evidence that there IS a link. Naturally, they failed miserably at that – with the dumb and long-debunked ”CDC whistleblower” story (that you also refer to) as their best evidence:
The people making and promulgating this claim are truly imbeciles for not spotting the many fallacies:
– Why do we see this in just this one data set (note that this initially wasn’t even a study – and that Hooker’s subsequent reanalysis ‘paper’ was retracted for serious shortcomings)?
– Why do we only see this in just black boys, and not AT ALL in any other kids?
– Why do we only see this in just one district of just one city? Why don’t we see this same effect all over the US, or all over the world? If this were true, then e.g. Africa should be positively teeming with autistic children. It’s not.
– Why did Hooker’s ‘analysis’ not even mention the many confounding factors, let alone take these into account?
The answer to all these questions of course is that this whole ‘evidence’ is just fabricated by actively looking for patterns after the fact, a.k.a. ‘fishing trip’.
This has been explained and debunked so many times already that it is safe to say that only complete idiots still trot it out. Which of course is why it is regurgitated in the context of Donald Trump and RFK Jr., both of whom aren’t exactly known for their intelligence and willingness to listen to experts. As are you.
AKA data dredging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging
See also the various forms of HARKing that I summarized here:
https://edzardernst.com/2022/03/is-ginseng-a-promising-herbal-treatment-for-cfs-me-patients/#comment-138415
RFK Jr. Libel Case Against Daily Kos Writer Can Proceed, Judge Rules:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-libel-case-daily-kos-writer-david-vickrey/
[quote]
A Superior Court judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. against Daily Kos writer David Vickrey, accused of knowingly publishing lies about Kennedy and intending to harm his reputation.
[end of quote]
how can one harm the reputation of a disreputable man?
@Old Bob
Interesting, isn’t it? RFK Jr. has been spreading pernicious lies for decades, while successfully claiming that he is just using his freedom of expression. He even lied to congress during his Senate confirmation hearings last week – a crime that should have put him in jail.
But when a journalist reports about the partaking of RFK Jr. in an extreme right-wing racist rally, this ‘freedom of speech’ all of a sudden does not apply any more, and the journalist is sued.
So basically, Trump and his loyalists are not only above the law, they now control and even define their own ‘law’, simply by doing what they want with complete disregard for American law or the constitution, while at the same time suing people they don’t like – for no other reason than to shut them up.
What crime was that? You did not say.
Also see https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/James_O%27Keefe
“James O’Keefe is a professional liar, he just isn’t very good at it.”
Brian Dickerson, Detroit Free Press
Honi soit qui mal y pense
Sorry Old Troll, you lost me there. Again.
O’Keefe is notorious for creating deceptively edited or even outright scripted videos in which mostly left-wing people are falsely depicted as saying hugely controversial things or even committing crimes – while in fact it is O’Keefe himself who is lying, soliciting and even committing those crimes.
I have no idea what this latest excrement in your daily serving of crap is about – but since it has the name of O’Keefe attached to it, it is safe to assume that it is just another piece of slanderous extreme right-wing nonsense.
Pease and Love, man.