RFK Jr, vaccines, and autism

Chris_Halkides

Penultimate Amazing
Chris_Halkides
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I could not find a thread on this subject. NBC wrote about remarks he made which have not previously been reported. In 2019 he said, "'The institution, CDC and the vaccine program, is more important than the children that it’s supposed to protect.' And 'It’s the same reason we had a pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church,' he continued." NBC also reported, "At a 2013 speech for AutismOne, self-described as the largest parent-run autism conference, Kennedy vilified a nebulous group, including vaccine scientists, involved in what he falsely claimed was a conspiracy to hide vaccines as the cause of autism." Kennedy also likened the CDC to the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. NBC also reported: "'But I would do a lot to see Paul Offit, all these ‘good people,’ behind bars.' Dr. Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine."

These comments are...very concerning.
 

‘We learned the hard way’: Samoa remembers a deadly measles outbreak and a visit from RFK Jr​

In the small island country of Samoa, lives have been forever altered by an outbreak of the disease in 2019 that caused at least 83 deaths and 1,867 hospitalisations, mostly of babies and young children. Thousands more fell sick. The preventable illness was able to spread through the small, closely knit population of about 200,000 due to record low vaccination rates – stemming from a medical vaccination error, the Samoan government’s public health mismanagement, and fuelled by anti-vaccination sentiment, including by Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US health department, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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www.theguardian.com

‘We learned the hard way’: Samoa remembers a deadly measles outbreak and a visit from RFK Jr

A few months before the outbreak in 2019, Kennedy travelled to Samoa and met with anti-vaccine figures, contributing to what health experts claim was a ‘significant disinformation campaign’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Wikipedia on Paul Offit: "Offit has published more than 130 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety..." The Centers for Disease Control on Rotavirus "Rotavirus vaccine is the best way to protect your child against rotavirus disease." The World Socialist Web Site on RFK and the Samoan measles outbreak: "Samoa’s low immunisation levels were exacerbated by a medical mishap in July 2018 that killed two babies, prompting widespread distrust in vaccinations. Two nurses were prosecuted and jailed for negligent manslaughter after mistakenly diluting the powdered vaccine with a dose of anaesthetic instead of water." The two deaths were a tragedy for the families, but obviously they were not the fault of the vaccines. The WSWS continued, "In this environment Kennedy turned up in Samoa, four months before the measles outbreak, agitating against vaccinations...While in Samoa, Kennedy met with Taylor Winterstein, a prominent Samoan-Australian “influencer.” On Instagram, Winterstein wrote: “I am deeply honoured to have been in the presence of a man I believe is, can and will change the course of history.” In a cynical pitch to the deeply religious Samoan community, she declared Kennedy’s visit was “divinely timed” and added hashtags used by anti-vaxxers." Changing the course of history prompts a question, namely "will it be for better or worse?"
 
No thread of this nature should ever leave out the fact, yes, FACT, that the Bastard Wakefield started this shameful nonsense in the first place, by faking his research linking vaccinations with autism, and then standing behind that fallacy for years and gaining die-hard followers the whole time.
RFK Jr. just picked up the slime covered ball and ran with it.
 
RFK Jr's long-standing anti-vax fuckwittery has been covered very well for a loooooong time on Respectful Insolence and Science-Based Medicine, to name but 2.

Yer man is a serious numpty, with a good side order of being an eejit.
 
Carrot Flower King, Perhaps I should have said that I did not find a thread here in the CT forum on the subject. Mike!, I agree but there is another branch to this story. In 2000 pathologist John O'Leary and coauthors claimed to find the measles virus in intestinal biopsies, and their claims, if true, would have supported a link between the measles virus and autism, according a genuine expert, Stephen Bustin. The story is complex, and I don't believe that I have plumbed its depths. Professor Bustin's article walks the reader through a number scientific shortcomings within O'Leary's work in the area of reverse transcriptase-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction. To all, one purpose of this thread is better to understand which of RFK, Jr.'s ideas are conspiracy theories and which (if any) are merely wrong.

Long time pharmaceutical blogger Derek Lowe wrote this past summer, "I have mentioned Kennedy here and there over the years, mainly during the time when I was writing about the controversy over thimerosal and autism. Many of the links in that 2005 post are (understandably) not in working order any more, but Wikipedia has a thorough overview. The claim was that this organomercurial, added to vaccines as a preservative, was the cause of autism in otherwise-healthy vaccinated children. Suffice it to say that this connection has been investigated thoroughly for many years now, and that no such connection has ever been shown to exist...Kennedy's views on science and medicine are not only wrong, they are actively harmful and destructive. He has used them to make a great deal of money, and he has lied about them to interviewers and reporters whenever he finds it convenient."

Derek Lowe returned to RFK, Jr. a couple of weeks ago, writing, "He is often described in the press as a "vaccine skeptic", but that's far too forgiving: he is outright anti-vaccination, and putting such a person in such a position of responsibility is going to get people killed." Now that I have read Derek Lowe's commentary, I wish that I had broadened the scope of this thread to include other CTs.
 
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Mike! said:
No thread of this nature should ever leave out the fact, yes, FACT, that the Bastard Wakefield started this shameful nonsense in the first place, by faking his research linking vaccinations with autism, and then standing behind that fallacy for years and gaining die-hard followers the whole time.
RFK Jr. just picked up the slime covered ball and ran with it.
Click to expand...
Andrew Wakefield, or to give him is proper medical title, Andrew Wakefield.
 
Chris_Halkides said:
Carrot Flower King, Perhaps I should have said that I did not find a thread here in the CT forum on the subject. Mike!, I agree but there is another branch to this story. In 2000 pathologist John O'Leary and coauthors claimed to find the measles virus in intestinal biopsies, and their claims, if true, would have supported a link between the measles virus and autism, according a genuine expert, Stephen Bustin. The story is complex, and I don't believe that I have plumbed its depths. Professor Bustin's article walks the reader through a number scientific shortcomings within O'Leary's work in the area of reverse transcriptase-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction. To all, one purpose of this thread is better to understand which of RFK, Jr.'s ideas are conspiracy theories and which (if any) are merely wrong.

Long time pharmaceutical blogger Derek Lowe wrote this past summer, "I have mentioned Kennedy here and there over the years, mainly during the time when I was writing about the controversy over thimerosal and autism. Many of the links in that 2005 post are (understandably) not in working order any more, but Wikipedia has a thorough overview. The claim was that this organomercurial, added to vaccines as a preservative, was the cause of autism in otherwise-healthy vaccinated children. Suffice it to say that this connection has been investigated thoroughly for many years now, and that no such connection has ever been shown to exist...Kennedy's views on science and medicine are not only wrong, they are actively harmful and destructive. He has used them to make a great deal of money, and he has lied about them to interviewers and reporters whenever he finds it convenient."

Derek Lowe returned to RFK, Jr. a couple of weeks ago, writing, "He is often described in the press as a "vaccine skeptic", but that's far too forgiving: he is outright anti-vaccination, and putting such a person in such a position of responsibility is going to get people killed." Now that I have read Derek Lowe's commentary, I wish that I had broadened the scope of this thread to include other CTs.
Click to expand...
There have been no organomercurial preservatives added to any vaccines since the 1980's. This is why vaccines must be stored properly and why they have a use-by date. Previously, it was only MMR vaccine with trace organomercurial compounds. No other vaccines had them.

This was also well before Wakefield's bodged-up lie of a study took place. He claimed there was mercury in the test MMR vaccines. There was not. But his lie got blown out of all proportion: ALL vaccines have COPIOUS amounts of DEADLY MERCURY! Enter RFK Jr...
 
arthwollipot said:
Andrew Wakefield, or to give him is proper medical title, Andrew Wakefield.
Click to expand...

This is the point where I feel obliged to point out that when Wakefield undertook his medical training, right up to becoming fully cooked as a consultant gastro-enterologist, he will have had utterly sod all training on autism. He may have done some paediatric placement, but he will not have worked in CAMHS or learning difficulties. And even then CAMHS was only just beginning to get on board with autism.

Chris H: fair point.
 
At The Atlantic Benjamin Mazer wrote, "A certain amount of sycophancy toward the more bizarre elements of the coalition is also common. [Professor Marty] Makary and [Professor Jay] Bhattacharya have both praised Kennedy in extravagant terms despite his repeated falsehoods: “He wrote a 500-page book on Dr. Fauci and the medical industrial complex. A hundred percent of it was true,” Makary said of a volume that devotes multiple chapters to casting doubt on HIV as the cause of AIDS. Earlier this month, Bhattacharya called Kennedy a “disruptor” whose views on vaccines and AIDS are merely “eccentric.” (Bhattacharya has also suggested that the vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert Malone would be an “amazing leader” for the country’s health agencies.)" Professor Makary may lead the FDA, and Professor Bhattacharya may lead the National Institutes of Health.
 
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IIUC they have been nominated for these two respective positions, so perhaps calling them the presumptive heads of the two organizations is a good way to put it. Here is an excerpt from an article from someone at McGill University on RFK, Jr: "It is clear to me, from watching Medical Racism and being familiar with Kennedy’s campaign against vaccines, that this is not about medical atrocities committed against Black people. This is propaganda. This is the stomach-churning exploitation of historical abuse and contemporary failings, peppered with falsehoods, to convince a marginalized audience already at increased risk for COVID-19 that safe and effective vaccines are poisonous."

The BBC wrote, "Dr David Elliman, a consultant in community child health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said RFK Jr has perpetuated myths around vaccination with 'an utter disregard for the evidence.'" The Autistic Self Advocacy Network wrote, "The anti-vaccine movement has led to a wave of fake “autism cures,” many of which have very real health risks. Kennedy recently promoted two of these fake cures when he accused the FDA of suppressing “hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds.” Hyperbaric therapy, a treatment for decompression sickness in divers, has been promoted as a fake autism cure in spite of a complete lack of evidence and associated health risks. Chelation, a treatment for heavy metal poisoning, is another fake cure, and its off-label use for autism has been associated with at least one death."

As I read more about Mr. Kennedy's views, I see additional causes for concern.
 
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RFK, Jr wrote on X, "FDA's war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags." Respectful Insolence wrote, "When I first wrote about RFK Jr.’s antivax conspiracy-fest of an article two decades ago, never in my worst nightmares did I envision that he might be on the cusp of being put in charge of the nation’s healthcare policy, regulatory, and research apparatus...He has been spreading antivaccine misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories for close to 20 years now, and, more recently, has increasingly entered the “wellness” grift side of things."
 
All that nonsense will end shortly after the next viral pandemic arrives in the USA, and it will be RFK Jr. packing his bags.

The US public has been through a pandemic in very recent memory. Whether any lessons are learned or not about snake-oil salesmen, useless folk-remedies, and vaccine-denial will be the question. Another question will be how many American children will need to die before these lessons are re-learned. Given COVID took 4.5 million US lives, the answer could be: quite a lot more than that...

Interestingly, if RFK Jr. is true to his own policies, he could be among the first to succumb to the next deadly disease that will inevitably hit the USA.
 
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