RFK Jr.: not enough kids are dying of preventable diseases
By 
And he was nominated and confirmed specifically to take care of this problem:
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. handpicked slate of vaccine advisers voted to no longer recommend a combined shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for children under age 4.
The move came as some states, insurers, public health leaders and a U.S. senator called into question whether Americans should rely on the committee’s decisions.
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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a key panel under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voted 8-3, with one abstention, to no longer recommend MMRV, a combined shot immunizing against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, also known as chickenpox, for children under 4. Parents would instead be recommended to get their young children one vaccine for varicella and a second known as the MMR vaccine that inoculates against the other three diseases, under the committee’s new guidance.
Merck makes the combined MMRV shot, the stand-alone varicella shot and a version of the MMR shot.
The committee also weighed whether to recommend that newborns whose mothers have tested negative for the hepatitis B virus not receive a vaccine against the infection until at least 1-month old, but pushed a vote on the question to Friday. CDC staff scientists gave a presentation that concluded the hepatitis B birth dose is safe.
“The conclusion that we know that it is safe is perhaps premature,” said ACIP committee member Vicky Pebsworth, who is the research director at a nonprofit that publishes information questioning vaccines.
Some committee members said there was no evidence to support the move. “We’re going beyond data, and we’re turning into a discussion of speculation,” Dr. Joseph Hibbeln said.
In somewhat related news, as countless real journalists lose their jobs if you have the right connections gross violations of journalistic ethics are no bar to upward advancement:
at the zenith of RFK Jr. breaking medicine, science and trust forever, Olivia Nuzzi is named West Coast Editor of Vanity Fair.
[image or embed]— Meredith Shiner (@meredithshiner.com) Sep 18, 2025 at 12:23 PM
It’s a club and you ain’t in it, as they say.