I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at this — NPR has always been a news source for comfortable liberals who want soft voices and current events delivered gently, without any trace of alarm. They’ve got tote bags to give away and coffee table books to sell! They’ve responded to the incoming wave of ignorance with a puff-piece about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that doesn’t use the word “unqualified” even once.
Trump has threatened to appoint RFK Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He doesn’t have any expertise in public health, medicine, or science, but he has a slogan, “Make America Healthy Again,” and that’s good enough.
Another word NPR doesn’t use is “conspiracy theorist.” They acknowledge that he has a few wacky ideas, but hey, he wants to stop the chronic disease epidemic in the USA, isn’t that a good thing?
Kennedy’s baseless claims have included that Wi-Fi causes cancer and “leaky brain”; that school shootings are attributable to antidepressants; that chemicals in water can lead to children becoming transgender; and that AIDS may not be caused by HIV. He’s also long said that vaccines cause autism and fail to protect people from diseases.
NPR never questions whether Kennedy’s policies would actually work, or for that matter, what his policies are. We’ve got a real health problem — obesity, diabetes, narcotics, etc. — but they don’t address his solutions, if any. What he has done is tap into MAGA paranoia.
He knit together an unlikely coalition — some from the left and some MAGA supporters — eager to take on the establishment.
“Bobby Kennedy and Trump have bonded over tying the core of MAGA — which is a distrust of institutions and getting corruption out of institutions — to our health care industries,” says Calley Means, an adviser to Kennedy and the Trump transition team, who spoke with NPR before Kennedy’s nomination.
What corruption? Be specific. The corruption I see is that there are an awful lot of quacks getting rich writing pop-sci diet books, and pharma MBAs leading their companies to immense profits at the cost of every day Americans’ health. You’re not going to fix that by hounding doctors and scientists and imposing bogus health treatments on the public.
By the way, Calley Means is a Harvard MBA with connections to the Heritage Foundation but no medical background who wrote pop-sci book about nutrition. I imagine that RFK Jr has the “wrote a book about dieting” demographic solidly locked up.
Means — himself a former lobbyist for the food and drug industry — has emerged as one of the leading voices in the MAHA orbit. He and his sister, Dr. Casey Means, catapulted into the political sphere after publishing a bestseller on metabolic health. Both have business ventures in the health and wellness industry.
But have no fear! Means and RFK Jr have a simple plan to fix everything.
Means says a key to their plan is eliminating conflicts of interest.
See above reference to Means’ own interests.
When the article does cite critics of RFK Jr, it’s always with qualifications and padding, and never goes into much depth.
“There are some things that RFK Jr. gets right,” says former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. “We do have a chronic disease crisis in this country, but we need to avoid simplistic solutions and stick with the science.”
Great — we have a “chronic disease crisis,” but what’s the solution? It never says. Is it “drink raw milk” (Kennedy has endorsed that)? Is it “end all vaccinations” (he thinks they cause autism, and change children’s gender identity)? Is it “tear down cell phone towers” (he thinks 5G is used for mind control)? Is it “take anti-depressants off the market” (he claims they cause mass shootings)? Is it “replace COVID vaccines with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine” (he thinks those are effective)? Or maybe it would help to insert more racism in science policy.
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he continued, adding, “We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact.”
Reading NPR’s article, you might come away with the impression that Kennedy is a grounded, qualified person trying to fix a real problem in how we let pharmaceutical companies run rampant — which I think is a genuine issue that resonates with the public — but it completely neglects to point out that Kennedy is an unhinged conspiracy theorist who will make everything worse. But that’s NPR for you.
If you’d like a more accurate perspective on the consequences of Kennedy running the bioscientific and medical establishment, read Science magazine.
Public health researchers are alarmed, especially given Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines. “I can’t imagine anyone who would be more damaging to vaccines and the use of vaccines than RFK,” University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told CNN.
Numerous critics of Kennedy have weighed in with concerns. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine expert Paul Offit told CNN Kennedy is a “science denialist.” Even Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during Trump’s presidency, said at a meeting this week that if Kennedy discourages people from getting vaccines, “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health,” economy, and security.
“We’re all in a state of panic,” this person added. “The damage that he can do is enormous. I don’t know anybody who isn’t worried about this.”
But then, Science isn’t in the business of spooning comforting pablum into the mouths of the well-off.
I’m waiting to see what the first epidemic Trump and RFK jr. will enable. We already have an outbreak of whooping cough in the USA again. It’s already killed people. This has been happening often in the last few decades.
It should take a few years for the new epidemics to get going.
Measles cases have been rising for a few years in the USA.
Avian bird flu cases in animals and humans are rising.
Mpox is still around at low levels.
Covid-19 virus is endemic and often circulates at high levels.
Then there is the X factor.
We could have an outbreak of a new or old infectious disease that we never thought of or never even saw before.
The entire guidelines to be for any government program except defense will be to severely limit the costs to the government so as to make more funds available for endless tax cuts to the wealthy. If people die because of the lack of effective vaccines or other medical treatments that might cost money, too bad. Perhaps they should have selected their parents with a little more caution.
And if you die make sure to include the wealthy in your will, it makes it so much easier on them.
Would be nice if that kook actually took on”Big Pharma”. If Dumpf and his fellow fascists would quickly hurt the profits of other billionairs, it might lead to pushback he can’t easily ignore.
“We do have a chronic disease crisis in this country, but we need to avoid simplistic solutions and stick with the science.”
Yeah, we’re gonna describe a problem in the vaguest, most simplistic and over-generalized way possible, but we don’t want simplistic solutions, nosireebob!
We could have an outbreak of a new or old infectious disease that we never thought of or never even saw before.
Have no fear, there’s nothing new or old that our new leaders won’t be ready to blame the Chinese for! And maybe Fauci!
The next step for the Anti-Vaxxers is to be Anit-antibiotic. Eventually the only way to treat a disease is with prayer. It works on bullets.
Dr. Wilson highlights RFK Jr clown car batshit here including the BS claim connection of poppers to AIDS:
Deeper dive on RFK Jr and HIV/AIDS denial:
How can anyone trot out the canard of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) with a straight face in light of the multiple threats represented by Trump’s appointments, including to public health in the case of RFK Jr? If he messes with vaccine availability people will die. Children will die from preventable disease after spreading it to immune compromised adults.
My limited understanding is that though I boosted with MMR in 2019, a good part of my protection from measles still relies upon herd immunity which reduces my exposure from others. Vaccination isn’t 100%. There needs to be widespread buy-in or even those who are vaccinated may still contract the disease though with milder consequences. Social responsibility has gone out the window.
Well, “anti-antibiotic” will solve the problem of supergerms, wouldn’t it?
sigh…not much of a comfort, that.
We are seeing the ever more massive manifestation of an anti-intellectual movement of drooling rtwingnut xtian terrorist imbeciles trying to push us all into the New Dark Ages.
Next they will probably say that the thesaurus was the biggest dinosaur. But, only if you accept that it lived 5,000 years ago, was the product of intelligent design and was hunted by men.
For years we have referred to NPR as standing for Nothing Pertinent Reported. It is part of PBS, the Perpetually Begging Stations.
— Sarcasm, the breakfast food of champions
This is true.
It will be mostly children.
The Trump voters don’t care.
The Trump response to the Covid-19 virus pandemic was so inept that it lead to the unnecessary deaths of something like 400,000 people. Many of them were Covid-19 virus deniers and antivaxxers.
He still got reelected and the election wasn’t even that close.
Red states always have shorter average life spans than Blue states.
NOT a fan of JFK Jr. at all, but:
Kennedy’s baseless claims have included that ……… that chemicals in water can lead to children becoming transgender
With an increasing body of evidence that plastics disrupt hormonal systems, including sexual physiology, I find myself wondering whether the increasing heavy load of plastics we all ingest may in some people (every person’s physiology is different with some more susceptible to certain chemicals than others, ie. side effects from medications) may contribute to the increased number of people with gender dysmorphia? I will not be shocked to see some research on this published in the future.
Endocrine disrupters are a thing, but unlikely to account for the trans phenomenon. Don’t confuse trans with intersex.
There’s no evidence there are more trans people, simply evidence that more people identify as such. 40 years ago a trans person had very few examples of people who were publicly trans to compare themselves with, and the reasons why people felt the need to transition weren’t really discussed.
And don’t forget quite a few people these days say NPR stands for Nice Polite Republicans.