Bart concludes that Sideshow Bob’s Bart-killing policy overwhelms positive aspects of his platform
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Remember all those op-eds from about eight months ago about how RFK Jr.’s public health agenda had some real good stuff in it about too many processed foods and artificial dyes and things, and that as long as he turned out to have been totally lying about the undisputed centerpiece of that agenda he might be someone who non-insane public health people could suppprt ™?
In case you’re wondering how that’s working out: (gift link)
Even before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office in February as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, some public health experts worried he might use his influence to carry out an anti-vaccine agenda he’d spent decades promoting.
In the worst-case scenario, they said, he might dismiss experts on whom the government relies to make sound decisions about immunizations and enact policies restricting access. He might cancel important research that would be needed in a future pandemic.
In less than six months, Mr. Kennedy has done all that and more.
The health secretary has expressed doubts about childhood vaccines, including those against polio and measles, that have been the mainstay of childhood immunizations for decades. He has described the Covid shot as “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Under his leadership, the Food and Drug Administration restricted access to the Covid vaccines for healthy pregnant women and children. And on Tuesday, he canceled nearly $500 million of grants and contracts for work on mRNA vaccines, the technology that helped turn the tide against the coronavirus.
Mr. Kennedy explained his decision in a video on social media, claiming falsely that mRNA vaccines offer no protection against respiratory viruses and can prolong pandemics.
Most scientists were aghast. His assault on mRNA vaccines, and in particular the Covid vaccines developed in the first Trump administration, may have even riled the president.
“Operation Warp Speed was, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” President Trump said at a news briefing on Wednesday in response to a question about mRNA vaccines.
He added that he had scheduled a meeting with Mr. Kennedy on Thursday to discuss the cancellations. . . .
“I see Secretary Kennedy as having several very positive potential influences,” said Adm. Brett Giroir, a former assistant secretary for health in the first Trump administration who was involved in the development of the Covid vaccines.
Admiral Giroir agrees with Mr. Kennedy that mandates for the Covid vaccine during the pandemic “went too far.”
“But I think most Republicans disagree with the large-scale undermining of vaccines and vaccine confidence, which is what is happening now,” Admiral Giroir added.
“The characterization that Covid vaccines are deadly is completely wrong, and I think just mimics and reiterates his historical bias and fringe science view of vaccines.”
In May, Mr. Kennedy revoked a nearly $600 million contract to develop an mRNA vaccine against bird flu, which many scientists fear will cause the next pandemic. His latest move, canceling work on mRNA vaccines being developed to prepare for future outbreaks, has led to widespread consternation.
“It should not be underestimated how much this will set things back,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
While the cuts do not affect his work, “I don’t want to have to worry about my kids getting H5N1 infection in the case of a pandemic,” he said, referring to the bird flu virus.
If Mr. Kennedy has safety concerns about mRNA, he added, federal health officials should work to resolve those problems before a pandemic hits.
Other countries, including China, Canada and South Korea, are embracing the technology. In Australia, Dr. Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne, is using government funds to explore whether mRNA can help rid the body of H.I.V.
The need to believe that these people aren’t exactly who they quite literally tell us they are over and over again is apparently overwhelming.