His sometimes eccentric scientific claims, from vaccines to AIDS
My previous article was titled If You Sanewashed RFK Jr., Or If You Sanewashed Doctors Who Did, You Own the Next 4 Years. Let me explain a bit more about the “own” part. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I can speculate on what is likely to happen over the next 4 years. As you know, RFK Jr. was nominated to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Washington Post recently reported that Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH Critic, Emerges as a Top Candidate to Lead the Agency.
Dr. Bhattacharya meanwhile is writing articles titled RFK Jr Will Disrupt the US Medical Establishment. He said:
Left-leaning outlets, such as the Atlantic, Washington Post, PolitiFact, and Forbes — as well as the predominantly Left-leaning medical establishment — were quick to lambast the choice, using selective quotations and a narrow focus to smear Kennedy. But establishment mandarins who focus on his sometimes eccentric scientific claims, from vaccines to AIDS, overlook the single most important factor in his success: the anti-science, authoritarian policies of the Covid years. As a result, they miss what matters most in the Kennedy phenomenon: his broadly appealing, and thoroughly centrist, reform agenda.
RFK Jr.’s views are not “eccentric” and he is not” thoroughly centrist.” Dr. Bhattacharya was tricking his readers. He didn’t tell them that RFK Jr. is now promoting the movie Vaxxed III: Authorized to Kill.
Dr. Bhattacharya doesn’t want to associate himself with that part of RFK Jr, but it’s too late. Dr. Bhattacharya told the world that the man behind this anti-vaxx propanda is a quirky but normal and trustworthy guy. Dr. Bhattacharya is therefore tightly linked to Vaxxed III: Authorized to Kill to it whether he wants to be or not. If he wants to prove me wrong he can loudly denounce it. We all know that won’t happen.
Credentialed doctors who normalized anti-vaccine cranks and dunked on pediatricians sent a dangerous message, and it will have real-world consequences. It happened in Samoa, it happened in Europe, and it’s happening here. According to the recent article Worst U.S. Whooping Cough Outbreak in a Decade Has Infected Thousands:
Whooping cough is spreading nationwide at the highest levels since 2014. There have been more than 16,000 cases this year — more than four times as many compared to the same time last year — and two confirmed deaths. And experts are concerned that the outbreak could worsen in the fall and winter months…
“There still is a lot of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaxers out there that will not vaccinate their kids,” said Dr. Tina Tan, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Northwestern University and the president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The article quoted Dr. Eric Chow, the chief of epidemiology and immunization at the Seattle and King County public as saying:
Sometimes you require a kind of sit-down conversation with the patient who may be a little bit more hesitant or may have encountered misinformation so it just requires a longer time to build trust and rapport.
Whooping cough is a horrible disease, and the CDC currently has valuable information about it. In contrast, RFK Jr. spread anti-vaccine misinformation about it. Measles is also a horrible disease. lt also surging, the CDC currently has valuable information about it, and RFK Jr. spread anti-vaccine misinformation about it. This is a precarious moment.
RFK Jr. will disrupt the U.S. medical establishment
Perhaps a miracle will save us, because Dr. Bhattacharya was right about one thing- RFK Jr. will disrupt the U.S. medical establishment. Do you think he’ll let the CDC suggest the MMR in the middle of a measles outbreak? Do you think he’ll suggest the HPV vaccine? Would he work to contain a bird flu outbreak? Is he concerned about the recent article Kindergartener Vaccination Rates Slide Further As Exemptions Continue To Rise In The U.S.? The answers are obvious. RFK Jr. will do everything he can to undermine vaccines, and when that happens, children will get sick and suffer. All the doctors who sanewashed RFK Jr.’s disinformation brought us to this moment. They own this already.
However, this is all just getting started. Dr. Bhattacharya, spent the past 4 years portraying himself as a total outsider. Although he advised presidents and governors, he felt he had the right to complain about “the American medical and public health establishments“, as if he were completely separate from that. But if Dr. Bhattacharya becomes head of the NIH, he’ll be the pinnacle of the medical establishment. Outbreaks of once-controlled diseases will all be happening under his watch, and he’ll be held responsible. Doctors who actually treat sick children will be tagging him and sharing sad stories all over social media. Meanwhile, his boss, the man watching his every move, will be the guy behind Vaxxed III: Authorized to Kill.
Good luck with all that.