Pro-choice
Noah Berlatsky on the murderous ignorance and arrogance of Worst Kennedy:
It really should go without saying by now, but despite what RFK Jr. claims, vaccines are in fact one of the most transformative medical advances in human history.
The smallpox vaccine eradicated a 3,000 year old disease that killed 300 million people just in the two decades between 1900 and 1920. Before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, 400 to 500 Americans died of the disease every year, and some 48,000 a year were hospitalized. In the early 1900s, polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of people a year; a devastating 1952 outbreak in the US killed 3,000.
And then of course there’s covid. Researchers believe that in the first year after covid vaccines were introduced, they prevented 19.8 million deaths globally. They could have prevented even more with better vaccine coverage.
But apparently Bad Kennedy has a problem with that.
Most people are aware that measles and polio outbreaks are bad and recognize that vaccines have been a huge boon. That’s why vaccine deniers like Kennedy insist they are not vaccine deniers. Instead, he shuffles and equivocates.
“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” Kennedy said in a recent interview.
No, people ought not to have choice when it comes to spreading disease. People ought not to have choice to drive 100 miles an hour on city streets. People ought not to have choice to fire machine guns into crowds. People ought not to have choice to set fire to occupied buildings. “Choice” is not sacred.
Kennedy and his Children’s Health Defense organization have for years pushed completely debunked lies claiming that vaccines cause autism in children. Kennedy has also lied by claiming that a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal, which used to be used in some vaccines, causes adverse health effects. Kennedy insists the negative effects of vaccines have never been studied or fully revealed — which, again, is simply untrue. Vaccines are considered safe because studies have repeatedly found them to be very safe, not because officials are keeping the truth from the public.
As head of HHS, Kennedy would be in a unique position to spread vaccine misinformation and downplay the dangers of refusing vaccination, as he did with the Samoa outbreak. He could block the CDC from making vaccine recommendations, undermining school vaccine mandates that help keep vaccine rates up and prevent deadly outbreaks. He could slow vaccine production, creating shortages. He could prevent the approval of new vaccines — an especially dangerous prospect considering the ongoing threat of covid and the need for better protection. (Some 650 people a week are still dying of covid globally.)
Therefore, Trump chose him of all people to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Trump wants more of us to die of communicable diseases.
If you want to know what people hate a common weedkiller–glyphosate–look no further than RFK, Jerk.
No pesticides, no food.
Glyphosate is a weedkiller, not a pesticide.
Some pesticides are not good for humans.
Some pesticides are implicated in the collapse of bee colonies. No bees. No food.
That is not to say that Kennedy is right, but his simplistic “solutions” need to be rebutted with more than simplistic slogans.
Kennedy by himself may not be all that dangerous, but putting him in a leadership role in healthcare will embolden and empower other vaccine deniers, just as Trump emboldens and empowers racists and misogynists.
Vaccine denial in Australia has already reached epic proportions, and a once almost eradicated disease, Whooping cough, or pertussis, is making a strong comeback.
“Glyphosate is a weedkiller, not a pesticide”
– Rev David Brindley
Yup.!
Glyphosate was first introduced as the patented active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup in 1974.
I definitely remember lots of food being available before that.
And now he’s named Dr. Oz to run Medicare/Medicaid.
Thimerosol was removed from most vaccines; the only vaccine still containing it is one of the influenza vaccines. Incidents of autism did not decrease. Scientific experiment, good control group…nope, Kennedy, you have been debunked.
This is pedantic in the extreme and really not the point of the discussion but weed killers are a type of pesticide. The word pesticide is more broad than people assume.
Patrick, I accept your pedantry, but also note that whilst the correct scientific definition, in agriculture pesticide and weed killer have distinct meanings.
But back to the main point – all Trump wants to do is destroy anything that does not bear his name or image and replace it with things that do bear his name and image.
A lot of older Trump voters will be dismayed when they lose Medicare, and the Gen Zers who also flocked to Trump will be burying their children like our great grandparents buried theirs.
I was quite enthusiastic when I first heard of glyphosate, because it goes for an enzyme in the shikimate pathway, which animals don’t have. So what could go wrong? However, when I looked up its structure I found it much too simple to affect only one thing, and what it does other than kill plants is far from clear.
No, Roundup IS a pesticide. I’m a licensed applicator. We learn that “pesticide” is the blanket term for insecticides, weedkillers, miticides, etc. Glyphosate has been tested and retested and recertified many times. Its association with “MonsterSatan” is not even accurate anymore as its patent expired long ago.
“According to the law, a pesticide is any substance “intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest.” There are many different types of pesticides and each is meant to be effective against specific pests. The term “-cide” comes from the Latin word “to kill.”” Roundup is a pesticide AND an herbicide.
Again, no pesticides, no food.
A good resource is National Pesticide Information Center.
https://npic.orst.edu/ingred/glyphosate.html
The big controversy over glyphosate started because of “Roundup Ready” GMO crops, which were genetically modified so that Roundup could be applied post-emergence. It’s the association with genetic engineering that people objected to. My brother claims that it interferes with the shiklimate cycle of our gut bacteria, in addition to killing weeds and pretty much all plants. Wash your food, mkay? But I wonder how much trace amounts of glyphosate would remain on your food since glyphosate is applied to pre-emergent crops in most cases. Mike B, that link doesn’t explain the misleading meaning behind the WHO report that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen.
Thimerasol, which has been removed from most vaccines, was also at one time used as a preservative in saline solutions for soft contact lenses. It is produced from ethyl mercury, which is quickly removed from our body. Methyl mercury is the form that bioaccumulates and we ingest more of that from a filet o’ fish than from a vaccine.
As for Trumps’ appointments, the purpose is to weaken government in order to make corruption inevitable. Timoth Snyder’s Substack has a review (audio or text) on the role of the strongman in destroying government in order to strengthen their power. This was published just before the election.
https://substack.com/@snyder/note/p-151004251?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1hfti
“Mike B, that link doesn’t explain the misleading meaning behind the WHO report that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen.”
I see the NPIC bending over backwards to accommodate “the other side.” Multiple countries and agencies found cancer link “not likely.” One single organization finds “probably carcinogenic,” and fruitcakes like RFKJ seize on it.
Here’s the paragraph:
“Animal and human studies were evaluated by regulatory agencies in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the European Union, as well as the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues of the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO). These agencies looked at cancer rates in humans and studies where laboratory animals were fed high doses of glyphosate. Based on these studies, they determined that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic. However, a committee of scientists working for the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the WHO evaluated fewer studies and reported that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic.”
Trump’s latest pick is Linda McMahon (of World Wrestling Emporium, or Empire, or whatever) for Education. He’s creating the world’s first Eskimalisenocracy: government by middle finger (assuming Google didn’t let me down).
They need to expand the paragraph to explain that their “probably” category includes a whole bunch of items that are very distantly related to carcinogens. People who eat crispy bacon are more likely to be surprised at how carcinogenic it is, since it is also in the “probably” category. But they’ll happily chomp on that for breakfast on their way to protest against Roundup.
No mention of tuberculosis? In the early 20th century it was the leading cause of death across the whole population.
Good point.
Re: vaccine safety
https://thoughtscapism.com/2015/04/10/myth-no-studies-compare-the-health-of-unvaccinated-and-vaccinated-people/
Same author on safety of glyphosate
https://thoughtscapism.com/?s=glyphosate