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The Truth about RFK Jr
- Thread starter angrysoba
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Stacyhs
Penultimate Amazing
There you go again, Chris. Using facts. Stop it. They upset MAGA cultists.
Archived NYT article.
Mentioned in this SBM article:
Recently about RFK Jr. and measles in the US measles epidemic thread: post 202 and several posts on p. 10 of the same thread.
Chris_Halkides
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"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disclosed receiving more than $250,000 in gifts from a prominent donor, including pricey flights to Fiji and Greece and access to a vacation home in Washington, D.C., according to The Wall Street Journal. The gifts came from Gavin de Becker, a security consultant who provided protective services to Kennedy and was a big donor to his 2024 presidential campaign, the Journalreported on Friday." link
Tero
Philosopher
Tero Gervais (@tero55gervais) on Threads
Translation: White House moves funds to prove that all diseases are caused by vaccination.
www.threads.com
Chris_Halkides
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The New York Times reported that "The White House has begun drafting a new executive order that could further cement President Trump’s ability to control billions of dollars in scientific grants and expand the administration’s pressure campaign against elite universities. Discussed at a highly contentious meeting at the White House on Friday, the order aims to create a new external committee with the power to veto awards in the National Institutes of Health’s vast research portfolio that do not conform to Mr. Trump’s political agenda, according to people with knowledge of the effort."
The NYT continued, "Friday’s meeting brought to a head months of conflict between two of the attendees: Mr. Vought of the O.M.B., who wants to impose greater political control over N.I.H. grant approvals, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, who is resisting those efforts, according to two people close to Dr. Bhattacharya. Their relationship has grown so contentious that Mr. Vought had refused to meet with Dr. Bhattacharya, the people said. During the session on Friday, Mr. Vought accused the N.I.H. director of funding projects that were in conflict with administration priorities."
The NYT continued, "Friday’s meeting brought to a head months of conflict between two of the attendees: Mr. Vought of the O.M.B., who wants to impose greater political control over N.I.H. grant approvals, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, who is resisting those efforts, according to two people close to Dr. Bhattacharya. Their relationship has grown so contentious that Mr. Vought had refused to meet with Dr. Bhattacharya, the people said. During the session on Friday, Mr. Vought accused the N.I.H. director of funding projects that were in conflict with administration priorities."
Chris_Halkides
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At Inside Medicine Jeremy Faust wrote, "Next, the CDC’s website mentions that it is working to “develop a standardized case definition for deaths due to measles.” This has been going on for some time, according to Daskalakis and other experts I spoke with. (It seems to have come out of the Texas outbreak, and it’s possible that Kennedy was looking for ways to unblame measles for the deaths that occurred there too.) With Kennedy at the helm, it’s likely that any “harmonized” definition of a measles death will be biased toward blaming any condition other than measles. For example, if a child died of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a neurologic complication of measles that is fatal years after the initial infection, whether measles or SSPE is listed as the underlying cause of death could be a judgment call. A report of a 7-year-old boy who died of SSPE after having been infected with measles before his first birthday is a recent example."
Chris_Halkides
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Chris_Halkides
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At Substack Angela Rasmussen wrote, "Yet Russell Vought doesn’t seem to think that federally funded research might benefit families other than his own, or he doesn’t care about any American children besides his own. Vought has spent most of the past two years attempting to destroy federal research funding in various ways, and in some cases with great success. He has shuttered numerous federal research programs. He has largely destroyed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a functional public health institution, although it is being rebuilt as a political organization. Now NIH is in his sights."
She continued, "NIH’s many inventions have returned $2.50 on every tax dollar invested in biomedical research. This is because American scientific research set the global standard for decades by only funding what was proven to be the most impactful work by scientific standards, not political ones."
She continued, "NIH’s many inventions have returned $2.50 on every tax dollar invested in biomedical research. This is because American scientific research set the global standard for decades by only funding what was proven to be the most impactful work by scientific standards, not political ones."
Chris_Halkides
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MedPage Today reported, "HHS moved $12 million from its Office of Minority Health to help cover the rising cost of security for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Wall Street Journal). A Washington meeting for Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement -- which features speakers from the Trump administration -- will be paid for by corporate sponsors such as Walmart and OpenAI. (Politico). The CDC hasn't initiated the process for states to order COVID shots through the Vaccines for Children program. (Wall Street Journal)."
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Chris_Halkides
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The New York Times reported, "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted $4 million in book advances and more than $270,000 in gifts over the past year from close allies who are working to advance his Make America Healthy Again agenda, according to his latest financial disclosure form...Cheryl Hines, Mr. Kennedy’s wife, accepted $210,000 in consulting fees from MAHA Action, a nonprofit advocacy group also led by Mr. Lyons...In an ethics filing before taking office, Mr. Kennedy pledged not to “engage in any writing, editing or promotional activities” associated with the books, but did not promise to forgo advances...Additionally, the consulting fees to Ms. Hines from a group aligned with Mr. Kennedy’s priorities “reeks of conflict of interest,” and could appear to be a bribe, said Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under President George W. Bush...Kathleen Clark, an expert in government ethics and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the gifts created a clear conflict for Mr. Kennedy, who oversees an agency reviewing at least one ketamine therapy for approval...The disclosure records said that Mr. Kennedy would also be paid $10,000 for a third book called “America’s Path Back to Moral Leadership” and that two of the three books were already written."
Chris_Halkides
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Dr. Bhattacharya's name is part of the HHS Hall of Heroes, which was unveiled on 17 September 2026. Other names include John Snow, Joseph Lister, and Rachel Carson, and there are eight individuals recognized. I did not see the names of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman.
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Gulliver Foyle
Penultimate Amazing
I'll post what I posted on the SMB article just now:
I'm slightly surprised Andrew Wakefield (or as he is known professionally "Andrew Wakefield") isn't on it.
All the best people ...
Dan Diamond on bsky, Sep 28, 2026
Russell Brand, who's awaiting trial in London next month on rape and sexual assault charges, will moderate a panel at DC's MAHA summit tomorrow on reforming a U.S. health agency
https://bsky.app/#
This is a DEI initiative, otherwise it would be all white people. Bhattacharya is a diversity hire.
Whilst normally Science based medicine is factually reliable in this instance it is not.
Whilst this is true, the important fact is that Snow removed the pump handle, so that no one could use the contaminated water source and stopped the out break. He was not just a theoretical epidemiologist but an activist.
More importantly he recognised the role of the then novel idea of microbiological infection (just described by Pasteur) and introduced antisepsis. Not merely instruments, but surgical hands and cleansing and dressing of wounds with carbolic acid. not merely a theoretical observation but acting on the new theory of infection to enable safer surgery.
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dudalb
Penultimate Amazing
The crackpottery never ends:
https://people.com/rfk-jr-launches-...ffects-of-phone-and-wifi-frequencies-12139757
More and more I think that basically, the whole ANit Vax anti Science based medicine is just another variation on Ludditism: the emotion rejection of modern science with it's complexity in hopes of a return to a simpler world. O course the people who advocat this could not stand a single day of the "Good Old Days".
https://people.com/rfk-jr-launches-...ffects-of-phone-and-wifi-frequencies-12139757
More and more I think that basically, the whole ANit Vax anti Science based medicine is just another variation on Ludditism: the emotion rejection of modern science with it's complexity in hopes of a return to a simpler world. O course the people who advocat this could not stand a single day of the "Good Old Days".
Trebuchet
Penultimate Amazing
Apparently Sec RFKjr is demanding schools prepare student lunches from scratch. No school in the country is able to do that.
Meanwhile, Trum would prefer to see black brown and poor kids starving.
It's a win-win!
Meanwhile, Trum would prefer to see black brown and poor kids starving.
It's a win-win!