The Truth about RFK Jr

In February Johns Hopkins stated, "To illustrate this point, Daniels and DeWeese noted that among other ongoing research, NIH funding currently supports approximately 600 ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins, including trials in cancer, pediatrics and children's health, heart and vascular studies, and the aging brain, among many others. "The NIH funding cut endangers these trials and many more like them into the future," they wrote. "And these trial participants are our patients. The care, treatments, and medical breakthroughs provided to them and their families are not 'overhead'—they offer meaningful hope and scientific expertise, often when it's needed most. They are the lifeblood of the advanced care that draws patients from across the country and around the world to Johns Hopkins."" IIRC Elon Musk pushed the idea of capping indirect costs at 15%. With Musk gone, should this cap be reconsidered?
 
The Guardian reported, "The scientist responsible for overseeing the CDC team that collects data on Covid and RSV hospitalizations resigned on Monday. Dr Fiona Havers told colleagues in an email that she no longer had confidence the data would be used “objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions”, according to Reuters...A Health and Human Services spokesperson told Reuters that the agency is committed to “gold standard science” and that the vaccine policy will be based on objective data, transparent analysis and evidence."

CBS News reported, ""Of all the work we have accomplished, I am most proud of how COVID-NET and RSV-NET hospitalization data, presented at nearly every public ACIP meeting since 2020, have been critical drivers of COVID-19 and RSV vaccine policy in recent years," Havers wrote in her email."
 
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Chris_Halkides said:
Jeremy Faust wrote, "The CDC’s newly installed panel of voting members for its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will vote on “Thimerosal containing influenza vaccine recommendations.” The eight-member panel (hand-picked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he sacked the seventeen incumbent experts with minimal explanation) includes individuals who have been paid experts in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and spread lies about vaccine safety. The agenda item was posted on the CDC’s website this morning...To be clear, removing the compound will do nothing to improve vaccine safety, but it certainly will undermine confidence in other existing vaccines. While there are many alternatives for influenza vaccines that do not contain thimerosal, elevating this debunked myth to national policy lends credence to misinformation, and sets the stage for other actions that may undermine vaccine confidence in the United States." Among other things, it is unclear how newly appointed members can come up to speed on this and other questions.

CNBC wrote, "Thimerosal has been widely used for decades as a preservative to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in several medicines and vaccines with multiple doses. But its use in approved vaccines has dropped sharply as manufacturers have shifted to single-dose packaging for their shots, which don’t require preservatives."
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We had this problem in WA State when some poorly informed idiots lobbied the government to ban thimerosal in flu vaccine given to pregnant women. The problem was they passed this bill after clinics had ordered their vaccines for the season. All the single dose vaccines were ordered and no clinics could order more until next season. One orders vaccine early in the year. We all ordered multi-dose vials because the cost was a fraction of single dose vaccine, If very many pregnant women were in one's practice those clinics had no vaccine for pregnant women.

Keep in mind there wasn't a scintilla of evidence the thimerosal caused any harm and pregnancy puts the woman at increased risk of severe disease if one contracts influenza while pregnant.

There should be a law against legislators practicing medicine without a license.
 
Chris_Halkides said:
At MedPageToday MD Robert T. Schooley wrote, ...

He continued, "In his WSJ announcement, he also writes that
ACIP had never recommended against a vaccine and that it "failed to scrutinize vaccine products given to babies and pregnant women." Neither of these statements is true. In subsequent communications, he promised to be "tweeting" about "historical corruption at ACIP." Is "trial by tweet" the new norm for how people who volunteer to provide their expertise to our government should be treated?"

According to Dr. Schooley having terms of members staggered increases efficiency, presumably because new members can be brought up to speed regarding standard operating procedures.
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Yes they have. Roto virus vaccine and live polio vaccine in the US were advised against using.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
We had this problem in WA State when some poorly informed idiots lobbied the government to ban thimerosal in flu vaccine given to pregnant women. The problem was they passed this bill after clinics had ordered their vaccines for the season. All the single dose vaccines were ordered and no clinics could order more until next season. One orders vaccine early in the year. We all ordered multi-dose vials because the cost was a fraction of single dose vaccine, If very many pregnant women were in one's practice those clinics had no vaccine for pregnant women.

Keep in mind there wasn't a scintilla of evidence the thimerosal caused any harm and pregnancy puts the woman at increased risk of severe disease if one contracts influenza while pregnant.

There should be a law against legislators practicing medicine without a license.
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The problem extends outside of the US. Within the US, health care providers can easily afford single use vials that don't need thimerosal as a preservative. This is not true in the developing world, where costs of vaccination are a significant issue, especially since cuts in USAID. If the US bans thimerosal then anti-vax people will claim that the racist West are providing dangerous second class vaccines to the poor of the world.
 
At MedPageToday Dr. Susan Mayne discussed the section on nutrition within the MAHA report on children. She wrote, "As for other additives, some studies suggest a potential association between consumption of synthetic food dyes and adverse neurobehavioral effects, such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and restlessness in sensitive children. The data are inconsistent, and observational research is challenged by the co-occurrence of synthetic dyes and added sugars. Yet, FDA recently requested voluntary removal of certified food dyes from the U.S. food supply. As for other additives, there is considerable interest in various categories such as emulsifiers, but data, especially human data, are lacking and more research is needed."

Previously Dr. Jonathan Howard discussed the fact that before Dr. Vinay Prasad joined the FDA he had said words to the effect that you should always perform randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). He then quoted Dr. Prasad "On other issues, we’ve talked about the importance of randomized-controlled trials, and sometimes people say to me “how come you don’t need randomized-controlled trials to take out the petroleum dyes”. And I say, this is just a simple teaching point, the evidence to take a medical product that’s supposed to make you better than to mitigate a potentially harmful substance."

Dr. Howard continued, "Many people have noticed Dr. Prasad’s drastic medical reversal, now that he and other WWTI doctors have power, and it’s their job to generate gold-standard evidence for the American public. It turns out, these doctors are only capable of making YouTube videos “calling for” others to do RCTs. They are not capable of doing any RCTs themselves. However, Dr. Prasad’s statements are more than just rank hypocrisy. By repeatedly undermining RCTs- and that’s exactly what he is doing- he is creating a permission structure for the current medical establishment to do whatever they want. They can make drastic changes based on “common sense,” as Dr. Prasad recently put it. While Dr. Prasad demanded the highest standards from his predecessors, he believes the current medical establishment can embrace Feelings-Based Medicine and restrict vaccines on this basis alone. Which RCT shows that it’s wise to limit the COVID vaccine in pregnancy?"
EDT
Dr. Gorski wrote, "I’ve long viewed Dr. Prasad’s “RCTs or STFU” as methodolatry and EBM fundamentalism. That being said, it is amazing to see how fast Dr. Prasad has pivoted from “RCTs or STFU”—or, as I’ve sometimes characterized it, “RCTs über alles“—to Katzian fluidity with respect to medical evidence."
 
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Chris_Halkides said:
...snip....
EDT
Dr. Gorski wrote, "I’ve long viewed Dr. Prasad’s “RCTs or STFU” as methodolatry and EBM fundamentalism. That being said, it is amazing to see how fast Dr. Prasad has pivoted from “RCTs or STFU”—or, as I’ve sometimes characterized it, “RCTs über alles“—to Katzian fluidity with respect to medical evidence."
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Really what it should be is that the food manufacturers should have to do research to show their new additive doesn't do harm, not have them introduce additives that we haven't eaten before and then we must prove they are harmful to have them removed.
 
From an announcement in May: “Today we take a major step to Make America Healthy Again,” said HHS Secretary Kennedy. "For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks. We’re removing these dyes and approving safe, natural alternatives—to protect families and support healthier choices.” From the same link: "Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Chapter VII, section 721), color additives are subject to FDA approval to determine whether they are safe before they may be used in food. The FDA determines whether an additive is safe to use by considering the projected human dietary exposure to the color additive, the additive’s toxicological data, and other relevant information, such as published literature. Once the FDA approves a color additive petition, any manufacturer can use the coloring for the approved uses."

My initial impression is that this is an appeal to nature fallacy. There are plenty of biologically synthesized compounds that are toxic. Calling a dye petroleum-based might mislead the unwary. Petroleum is a starting point for many compounds, including many medicinal drugs. I would consult the article by Dr. Susan Mayne linked above to begin an exploration of this topic.
 
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Planigale said:
The problem extends outside of the US. Within the US, health care providers can easily afford single use vials that don't need thimerosal as a preservative. This is not true in the developing world, where costs of vaccination are a significant issue, especially since cuts in USAID. If the US bans thimerosal then anti-vax people will claim that the racist West are providing dangerous second class vaccines to the poor of the world.
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Not sure why you quoted my post. I was only referring to stupid legislators that created an unnecessary vaccine shortage for a very vulnerable population for a single flu season. I wasn't talking about the cost of single dose vials except to say that is why we had routinely purchased multi-dose vials
 
David Gorski wrote, "Moreover, ACIP recommendations determine which vaccines are purchased and distributed by the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. VFC is a federally funded program that provides vaccines to the states to be given free to children whose families might not otherwise be able to afford them. This includes children covered by Medicaid, as well as underinsured children, who can receive vaccines at Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, or deputized local health departments. Under VFC, the CDC purchases vaccines at a discounted price and then distributes them to state, local, and territorial immunization programs. Overall, the program has been a huge success and helped to insure that even disadvantaged children can receive vaccines recommended by the CDC, which is one reason why, when I discussed strategies that RFK Jr. would likely use to undermine the vaccination program in the US, I specifically mentioned VFC and that he might find ways to defund or otherwise weaken or eliminate it."

Dr. Gorski continued, "You might ask: Why would this matter if they keep the thimerosal-free versions? I think there are two problems here. First, discussing thimerosal in this way, even though in practice it’s only found in multidose vials of flu vaccine for adults, is a way for ACIP to spread more fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines in general and flu vaccines in particular. From a more practical standpoint, however, eliminating thimerosal-containing flu vaccines would leave only single-dose versions of the vaccine, which are more expensive. Who will be harmed? Obviously, disadvantaged people and people in low resource parts of the country, for whom flu vaccines might become less available..."
 
Earlier this year at SBM Dr. Steven Novella discussed the appeal to nature fallacy, a fallacy that I mentioned in passing in comment #1914 earlier today. He wrote, "Rhetorically, the appeal to nature fallacy has also risen to a full-blown conspiracy theory in some forms. The narrative here is that nature has already provided everything we need to be perfectly healthy, but evil industry (Big Pharma, mainstream medicine, whatever) and their regulatory puppets have tried to deprive the public of the benefits of nature so they can sell more artificial treatments and products. The irony here is that it is the wellness/self-help/snake oil industry that is distorting reality for their own financial bottom line. One of their main champions, RFK Jr, is about to take charge of American healthcare."
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Not sure why you quoted my post. I was only referring to stupid legislators that created an unnecessary vaccine shortage for a very vulnerable population for a single flu season. I wasn't talking about the cost of single dose vials except to say that is why we had routinely purchased multi-dose vials
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Not to be critical. But you raised the issue that multi-dose vials are cheaper per dose but contain thiomerosal. I was just following on that although the US could afford to ban multi dose vials and thus thimerosal, but this could be interpreted as poorer countries being given a vaccine that wasn't good enough for Americans. Particularly at the time that the US has reduced foreign aid and thus funding for vaccines.
 
Chris_Halkides said:
Earlier this year at SBM Dr. Steven Novella discussed the appeal to nature fallacy, a fallacy that I mentioned in passing in comment #1914 earlier today. He wrote, "Rhetorically, the appeal to nature fallacy has also risen to a full-blown conspiracy theory in some forms. The narrative here is that nature has already provided everything we need to be perfectly healthy, but evil industry (Big Pharma, mainstream medicine, whatever) and their regulatory puppets have tried to deprive the public of the benefits of nature so they can sell more artificial treatments and products. The irony here is that it is the wellness/self-help/snake oil industry that is distorting reality for their own financial bottom line. One of their main champions, RFK Jr, is about to take charge of American healthcare."
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If only oil was as natural as crystals.
 
Chris_Halkides said:
From an announcement in May: “Today we take a major step to Make America Healthy Again,” said HHS Secretary Kennedy. "For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks. We’re removing these dyes and approving safe, natural alternatives—to protect families and support healthier choices.” From the same link: "Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Chapter VII, section 721), color additives are subject to FDA approval to determine whether they are safe before they may be used in food. The FDA determines whether an additive is safe to use by considering the projected human dietary exposure to the color additive, the additive’s toxicological data, and other relevant information, such as published literature. Once the FDA approves a color additive petition, any manufacturer can use the coloring for the approved uses."

My initial impression is that this is an appeal to nature fallacy. There are plenty of biologically synthesized compounds that are toxic. Calling a dye petroleum-based might mislead the unwary. Petroleum is a starting point for many compounds, including many medicinal drugs. I would consult the article by Dr. Susan Mayne linked above to begin an exploration of this topic.
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Does he believe in abiotic petroleum or something? The vast majority of petroleum is dead plants, the rest animals; hence fossil fuels.
 
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