Did flu shots make RFK Jr. forget he’s married?
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Death pimp Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has a plan to boost the rates of avoidable illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths caused by the flu: Blame flu vaccines for what is probably a genetic condition.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes his spasmodic dysphonia could be due to taking flu shots, he told USA Today.
In an interview with the outlet, Kennedy said he took annual flu shots until the mid-1990s, then stopped in 2005 “when I began looking at the side effects.”
“I was preparing litigation against some of the flu shots several years ago and one of the entries that was listed on a lot of them was spasmodic dysphonia, which is an injury I have to my voice. That’s why my voice is so screwed up,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy goes through the standard “There’s no data that proves I’m wrong to my satisfaction, therefore I must not be wrong,” contortions favored by creeps who want their bullshit to sound intellectual. However:
A MedPage Today analysis of the package inserts for the most popular flu vaccines showed that none of them listed spasmodic dysphonia — or laryngeal dystonia, an alternative name for the condition — as a side effect. The vaccines included Fluzone, Flublok, Fluad, Fluarix, and Flucelvax.
Only one flu shot, FluLaval, listed “dysphonia” as a potential respiratory symptom, but this shot was approved in 2006, after Kennedy said he stopped taking flu shots.
In addition, just because a condition is mentioned in the packaging doesn’t mean it is a side effect.
Paul Offit, MD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who co-invented a rotavirus vaccine, said package inserts typically mention any side effect that came up in a clinical trial, even if it was later shown not to be tied to the vaccine.
“Package inserts … are written by lawyers at companies in collaboration with lawyers at the FDA, and they fall under the general rubric of ‘failure to warn,'” Offit said. “They want to make sure that anything that was reported in the vaccinated group gets reported as a possible cause, even if it occurs at the same level in the placebo group.”
Thus, the fact that spasmodic dysphonia wasn’t listed as a potential side effect means it probably didn’t come up in any of the trials.
Offit was on the FDA’s advisory committee for vaccines and related biological products until Junior decided the HHS employs far too many experts who care about public health and not enough reckless assholes who care about foisting their weird beliefs on the public.
Another actual health care expert spells it out the problem with Junior’s desire for more data.
Greg Poland, MD, president of the Atria Academy of Science and Medicine in New York City who has studied vaccine side effects, said there’s “no known linkage of cause and effect” between flu shots and spasmodic dysphonia, and no research has demonstrated anything to this effect.
“This is why as scientists we are suspicious of the idea that temporality is causality,” Poland said. “If this were a real side effect of flu vaccines, we would have many, many reports after the billions of doses that have been given. Given that, how would you ‘gather the data’ he would like to gather?”
According to Offit, his condition is probably a family affair. I assume Junior knows that.
Offit added that spasmodic dysphonia is known to have a genetic component, and Kennedy’s sister Kerry also has vocal symptoms consistent with the condition.
We’re coming up on the 6-year anniversary of the first declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (Jan. 31, 2020). Trump went out of his way to turn the crisis into an even bigger clusterfuck than it had to be. But every time Kennedy opens his mouth I realize it could have been so much worse.
By the way, if you’re worried the CDC’s information about immunizations has been tainted by the mind of a vain failson, some good sources include HealthyChildren.org, the public-facing branch of the American Academy of Pediatricians and FamilyDoctor.org, the same for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
