If Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had been born with a special title, he’d in all probability be peddling miracle mushroom most cancers cures on YouTube proper now.
As a substitute, our French fry-slinging presidential hopeful Donald Trump has, in keeping with Kennedy, “promised” to provide him “management” of all of Washington’s public well being companies, “which, you understand, is vital to creating America wholesome.”
Kennedy has wiggled his method into the hearts of MAGA by (rightly) opposing the general public well being institution’s abuses throughout COVID — and, after all, by endorsing Trump.
And there’s nothing inherently flawed with Kennedy’s acknowledged objective of encouraging Individuals to be wholesome “once more.”
Although, if he had his method, we’re all going to finish up consuming tofurkey with spelt stuffing whereas praying for the solar to shine so our photo voltaic panels will kick in.
The larger drawback is that he’s confirmed a scaremongering authoritarian and harmful Luddite whose concepts would make life significantly worse for everybody.
The opposite day, Trump-Vance transition crew co-chair Howard Lutnick defined that Kennedy doesn’t need the Well being and Human Companies secretary’s job, he merely needs entry to federal information — allegedly hidden from the general public — to show vaccines are harmful so we are able to take them “proper off, off of the market.’”
Granted, I’m not a scientist, however I believe assuming what the info will inform you isn’t the way it’s purported to be accomplished.
However Kennedy doesn’t need Individuals to have vaccine decisions; he needs to disclaim them the precise to make use of them.
And after spending a complete “2½ hours” with the person, Lutnick had embraced all his anti-vax nuttery, spreading the pernicious declare that vaccinations are linked to autism, for which there’s zero scientific proof.
As proof, Lutnick made the preposterous declare that we “know so many extra folks” with autism today as in comparison with when he was younger.
Now, I’m a bit youthful than Lutnick, however we grew up in the identical space.
Certainly, he can recall youngsters being known as “sluggish” or “bizarre” or “off,” or far uglier issues, however by no means “autistic” or “neurodivergent.”
It’s extremely possible that the spike in autism instances is an epidemic of discovery.
There’s elevated public consciousness of how autism presents itself and what it’s: lecturers, dad and mom, caretakers, pals all look out for it; medical doctors have higher methods of diagnosing it.
Thousands and thousands of people that would possibly by no means have even identified they have been autistic have been recognized as being on the spectrum.
Basing coverage on the childhood recollections of a billionaire doesn’t appear very sciency, both.
Then once more, even when there have been extra instances of autism, there’s nonetheless no proof vaccines are the trigger.
Lutnick has embraced a false-cause fallacy.
We do lots of issues we do at this time that we didn’t do within the Sixties.
Why not blame autism on mobile phone use?
After all, even when Kennedy was right, banning vaccines to curb autism would entail a disastrous tradeoff.
The yr Lutnick was born, the US child-mortality fee was 31 per thousand; now it’s 7.
A number of years earlier than Lutnick was born, america noticed 21,000 instances of paralytic polio.
There are none now.
Youngsters have been spared all kinds of horrifying illnesses like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and so forth.
The upside of vaccinations has been a large boon for humankind.
And make no mistake, Kennedy isn’t only a skeptic of the COVID jab.
In 2023, he stated there’s “no vaccine that’s protected and efficient.”
He claimed that vaccines had sparked an “autism epidemic,” which he abhorrently in comparison with a “holocaust.”
The person who needs to get fluoride out of water (suggesting it makes youngsters homosexual) and put a cease to the crime of “chem trails” as soon as stated that COVID had been genetically engineered as an “ethnically focused” bioweapon that spared Ashkenazi Jews.
When “I see someone on a mountaineering path carrying slightly child . . . I say to him, higher not get them vaccinated,” Kennedy defined just lately.
Any rational particular person would ignore the raving of some rando on the mountaineering path happening in regards to the evils of vaccines.
Not, apparently, the Trump marketing campaign.
David Harsanyi is a senior author on the Washington Examiner.