Quack secretary
Very bad news.
Senate confirms RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary
The Senate voted on Thursday to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health and Human Services secretary, a victory for President Donald Trump after Kennedy faced intense scrutiny over his controversial views on vaccines and public health policy.
“Controversial” is a weasel word. They’re way more than controversial; they’re wack, they’re wrong, they’re harmful. First do no harm, unless it’s a Kennedy doing it.
He’s anti-vax and he lies about it.
During confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, Kennedy denied being anti-vaccine, telling senators instead that he is “pro-safety.” He went on to say, “I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care.”
At one point, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, asked Kennedy if he agrees that the evidence shows vaccines do not cause autism, citing dozens of studies. Kennedy began to say, “If you show me those studies, I will absolutely –,” at which point Sanders jumped in to say, “That is a very troubling response because the studies are there. Your job is to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job.”
It’s not the first time Kennedy has said he’s not “anti-vaccine,” but as a CNN fact check from 2023 noted, despite those claims, Kennedy has been one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists and has for years used false and misleading claims to undermine public confidence in vaccines that are indeed safe.
Which is a strikingly wicked thing to do.
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed” …
And once again, McConnell was the only Republican Senator to vote against him. McConnell had polio when he was a child, so he knows something about it. It’s just too bad that he hadn’t grown his spine a little over four years ago.
It’s a goddam shame McConnell was the architect of the GOP trashing the norms of government. That’s not the origin of this mess, but it was a big inflection point.
If he’s so confident in his view, why lie about it? Why not argue the case? The fact he has protected his position from scrutiny and exposure shows that he either has doubts about it, or that he can’t back it up. Given these priors, he should be a big fan of trans ideology. After all, “Vaccines are bad” sounds as sensible as “Men can be women.”
Not sure that he actually believes vaccines are bad or if it’s just a convenient vehicle for his lawsuits. Kinda immaterial at this point.
“I’m not against vaccines” from an anti-vaxxer is the equivalent of “nobody is denying that sex is real” from a genderist. At the time they say it they appear to be imagining the most extreme position possible — which they don’t technically hold — so with clear conscience they place themselves in their idea of the moderate middle. But it’s really safe to ignore both reassurances. They all say that. It either doesn’t mean what they think it means, or they’ll spin on a dime next time you see them and deny the underlying biology of both vaccines and sex.