Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the most famous vaccine skeptics in the U.S., tried to distance himself from his decades of anti-vaccine sentiment during his Jan. 29 hearing to be confirmed as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health.
“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety,” Kennedy said in his opening statement before the Senate Committee on Finance, prompting a protester to shout, “He lies!” Kennedy added that all of his children are vaccinated—a decision he has previously said he regrets—and said vaccines “play a critical role in health care.”
Some Republican senators accepted Kennedy’s pro-vaccine comments at the hearing. But many senators—including Oregon’s Ron Wyden, a Democrat—pressed Kennedy on discrepancies between his past public statements—in which he has repeatedly questioned the safety and necessity of vaccines and said they are linked to autism and chronic diseases—and his sanitized comments during the hearing. “Mr. Kennedy, all of these
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“…all of these…” what?
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RFK, Jr. is nuts.
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Robert F. Kennedy is a lying sack of pus.
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Mr. Kennedy is an obvious liar, as his own words and writings prove. He is not qualified to run a store front clinic, let alone one of the largest and most important public health agencies in the country.
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The president of the USA selects a crackpot sex predator to head the HHS!!!!! Hideous beyond words, it’s kakistocracy on steroids.
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Loved Bernie’s line: “Are you supportive of these onesies!” (In case you missed it Kennedy had a company that sold onesies with Anti-vax slogans on them.”
This is truly the tin-foil had admin.
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OK, long post here. I’m going to chime in as one who had a son who had a two rare diseases– one autoimmune (very rare, like 27 in 100k), one mental (more common, like 1 in 100). The two diseases exacerbated each other; he died in hospital at age 23. I had occasion to question the routine of infant vaccinations and how they might have affected him. He did indeed have the food allergies that RFK notes in the video. He also had, from very young, a touch (just a touch!) of autism [his main mental issue was bipolar I which manifested in teens]. It was more on the Asperger’s (low spectrum autism) side, evidenced in difficulty with meeting others’ eyes directly, high physical sensitivity to certain fabrics, tags on clothes etc—nothing that interfered with life much.
As to the food allergies: this seemed to work itself out on its own. He settled on a vegetarian diet by age 8, and in fact was most comfortable eating bread and cheese or some variation (e.g. mac & cheese, ravioli), supplemented with various green veggies. I learned during research on bipolar that the bread & cheese bit correlated to some typical metabolic details which I can no longer remember. BpI is an organic disease which connects with complex metabolic differences. I would have to seriously question whether infant vax routine had anything to do with that.
As for the touch of autism: he had a second cousin with profound autism. You have to look at family history for mental disease. He also had an uncle, + two 1st cousins once removed (1 on each side of the family) with bipolar I. And a great-grand aunt with schizophrenia [that came into play because his bipolar manias were complete breaks with reality, i.e., psychosis]. I imagine those factors were much more important than any vaccinations. FWIW, the autoimmune disease was also genetic: it’s a very rare variation of arthritis called reactive arthritis. My sister contracted it in her 30’s. On our mother’s side of the family there were 3 generations of related rare forms of arthritis.
The incidence of autoimmune disease has greatly increased in recent decades, as has the incidence of autism. The former is more intuitively related to vaccination routines since the ‘60s. It may be that we have traded diseases that kill kids for chronic diseases that plague adults lifelong. But there is much study required before we can conclude that. The latter may well connect to something entirely different. My research on mental disease, e.g., suggests that schizophrenia and bipolar I may progress to autism in succeeding generations, or at least that the 3 diseases share many genetic predispositions. Again, much more study (and advances in brain research) required to draw any conclusions.
None of this would make me question the delivery of vaccinations early in life for diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, measles and chickenpox, or meningitis later on.
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bethree5 and flos56: I always felt lucky that my son did okay with his vaccines; but I always wondered, especially about doing them all at once in a small and developing person who is also a complex “organism.” There is so much we do not know about interactions at every level for a person who is circa 1/4th the size of an adult, and that reality increases the earlier vaccinations occurred in their history over the past decades.
I also wondered about the “all at once” idea, whether it was more about the convenience of doctors/administrators than about what might be good or bad for children.
Then, as you suggest, there is the already-complexity of seemingly related (but no one knows) family histories and whether some have detrimental “triggers” that others do not, or are in degrees, and that are set-off when they wouldn’t manifest if no vaccine were administrated.
Then there is the fact of two different realities–one statistical, which is very clear (vaccines overwhelmingly work, even though mistakes are made at times) and the other reality that there may even be a “small group” or a few anomalies, but still quite real to THESE children and THESE parents.
I still think that scientists go with two kinds of subtle biases in their judgments about the relationship between vaccines and their potential unintended fallout. First, the fact is, again, there is so much that scientists do not know, and no way to test ahead of time, or keep records on people who may have high-level triggers as distinct from those who are likely to get along fine; or even more insidiously, who will be influenced, but the symptomology is slated to come much later. The second then is that scientists also know the above, but make very unscientific and even dogmatic sounding statements that do not account for the complexity, or the VERY scientific canon . . . the need to pay high regard to what they do not know, and say so . . . unfortunately to a “public” many of whom would “hear” such complexities as an oversimplified Yes or a No.
And third, and as you also suggest, even if scientists had the data to recognize and take account of “likely triggers,” how would we isolate those children away from public situations or keep them from starting new spread situations should they get, say, whooping cough, or even get polio themselves and spend the rest of their lives with just a different kind of horror?
Then there is the conflict between public interest as a general factor, and parents’ oh-so-right protectiveness for their individual children–who say fxxk the public. The problem with that, however, is that ultimately. we cannot have children and live in public situations as civilized or even tribal people, like a neighborhood, without some consideration for our being responsible to others and their children–which probably is part of your idea that, even with the risk factors which are always present anyway, you would do the vaccine regime anyway.
In any case, I felt a stab in my heart as I read your post. CBK
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Addendum to my earlier post:
Regardless, and considering the evidence, including Caroline Kennedy’s letter, I still think RFK, Jr. is a charlatan of the first order. CBK
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Thanks, CBK. Great analysis.
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I don’t know what triggers posts to go to moderation but that can be very frustrating, especially since sometimes my messages have never come out of moderation. I’ve got one in moderation now and it’s got info that’s important and relevant to the RFK Jr nomination, so I really hope it gets approved!
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ECE,
I don’t know why posts go into moderation. WordPress has its algorithms and I don’t know them.
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Diane: That disgusting man just turned that plane crash in the Potomac into a political stunt. I want to vomit. CBK
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So sorry for your loss. My son also has mental illness and I believe he is on the spectrum with the same symptoms as your son. Luckily no autoimmune disease, but I appreciate the anguish in your life.
I also agree that even if the vaccines were responsible for his conditions (which are probably genetic) I would still have given him the standard protocol.
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Thanks for that Flo.
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Another perfect candidate to destroy an agency and help run our government into the ground for Russia!
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Did everyone catch what Caroline Kennedy said about Bobby Jr yesterday? She described him as a predator and said he puts LIVE baby chicks & mice in his blender to feed his birds of prey! OMG, he should NEVER in charge of ANYONE’S health! (I think he should be in jail for cruelty to animals.) There’s more, too. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQ9MtzuYaA&pp=ygUQY2Fyb2xpbmUga2VubmVkeQ%3D%3D
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What might be other options to feed a bird of prey?
One can argue that it is more humane to put the prey in a blender for a quick death in a couple of seconds versus feeding it live to the bird which will tear it apart piece by piece prolonging the death process ten/hundredfold.
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How about setting them free, as I think wild birds should be, instead of keeping them as pets?
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I can understand that.
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Did everyone catch what Caroline Kennedy said about Bobby Jr yesterday? She described him as a predator and said he puts LIVE baby chicks & mice in his blender to feed his birds of prey! OMG, he should NEVER in charge of ANYONE’S health! (I think he should be in jail for cruelty to animals.) There’s more, too. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQ9MtzuYaA&pp=ygUQY2Fyb2xpbmUga2VubmVkeQ%3D%3D
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Obviously he has no problem with excessive tanning. Why is his face so brown? Is he going to a tanning bed or slathering on self-tanner? Maybe he should look into the health risks of tanning. At any rate, he looks un-natural like the god he worships.
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