RFK Jr at HHS (Politico link) will be a new chapter in the glorious history of MAGA:
For a glimpse of what an empowered Kennedy might mean for America’s parents, it’s worth reviewing his role in “one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory,” as FactCheck.org put it:
In 2018, two infants in American Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine with expired muscle relaxant rather than water. The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program, and anti-vaccine advocates — including Kennedy and his nonprofit — flooded the area with misinformation. The vaccination rate dropped to a dangerously low level. The next year, when a traveler brought measles to the islands, the disease tore through the population, sickening more than 5,700 people and killing 83, most of them young children.
Edit: From the post about Gaetz, below, and even more relevant here, I endorse this comment from sentient ai from the future:
we don’t hold back from opposing a nitwit bigot being placed in a position of serious power just because the next one might be worse/better.
taking a scalp shows that the spell can be broken, and as long as we dont for whatever reason, gambler’s fallacy-like, think we need to approve the next knuckle dragging chud being nominated too, because we’ve somehow spent our political capital *puke* then we can put up a decent fight, even in the minority.
Proof of Life: Washington Meetup, Nov 2024
rikyrah
truly the worst people ever surrounding him.
Baud
Getting vaccinated will be the anti-Establishment thing to do.
John S.
For fuck sake.
If this asshole in any way harms the health of my autistic son with Celiac or Type-1 diabetic daughter…
Butch
I guess the anti-vaxxers have now decided that the tetanus booster causes…..something?
JML
Guess I was wrong, I actually thought RFK Jr might be the suckup who got shut out (for trying to sell his support to the highest bidder, essentially). Maybe The Orange Asshle respects that level of craven scumbaggery…
JaySinWA
@Butch: Lock jaw should shut them up.
Belafon
Maybe the Kennedys need to have an intervention.
Steve LaBonne
Our public health system and our biomedical research have been the envy of the world for a long time. This will be like shooting ourselves in both feet, the gonads, and finally the head. MAGAs sure have an eccentric definition of “great”.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: It’s that word that comes after “great” and before “shark”.
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: I hope their whiteness will be a consolation to them when their kids start dying of childhood diseases that we thought were history.
lowtechcyclist
Kinda sorta like my top 40 radio station used to say, the shits just keep on coming.
These Cabinet noms are like a Murderer’s Row of crazy, stupid, and bizarre.
Trollhattan
Owning the Libs will hit red states earliest and hardest. Cold comfort but all I’ve got.
I’ll treasure my remaining Biden home covid-19 test kits. We’re not getting another booster, are we.
gene108
Trump is nominating people for their obedience and loyalty.
He doesn’t want to deal with people who tell him unpleasant things, like Fauci kept doing in 2020.
Eventually this batch of yes men will make mistakes and irritate Runp and he’ll bring in even sketchier loyalists.
Steve LaBonne
@Trollhattan: A bird flu epidemic and no flu vaccine will be even more fun.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steve LaBonne: That thought occurred to me.
Butch
@JaySinWA: The supposed nefarious effect was so bizarre I can’t even remember what it was. The good thing was that reading this article about the anti-vaxxers reminded me that I’m due for the tetanus booster.
PaulWartenberg
You would think the pharmaceutical companies – who rely on selling a lot of the vaccines and medications that RFK Jr and the anti-vaxxers rail against – would be looking at their profit margins and panic-calling the Republican Senators by now.
Eunicecycle
Does anyone think Big Pharma might have a problem with him? I know vaccines aren’t big money makers, but he is also targeting many other drugs, including antidepressants. And those ARE big money makers. He thinks everything can be cured by eating right (including diabetes, I believe!) so Big Pharma has a lot to lose.
ETA And I see Paul beat me to it!
PaulWartenberg
When I saw trump won I made a plan to get my flu and COVID shots done ASAFP because I knew this was coming.
gene108
@Steve LaBonne:
As long as the bird flu doesn’t kill the egg laying chickens and drive up egg prices again, I doubt people will notice.
Steve LaBonne
@PaulWartenberg: We’re going to find out quickly how much juice the corporate establishment actually has with the American Nazipublican Partei. My guess is, a lot less than they imagine.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: “Some of you will die, but some of us will get wings.”
The Audacity of Krope
I hope they’re the first face the leopards come for. People need to see consequences and RFK’s agenda will surely be consequential.
Belafon
@PaulWartenberg: From what I understand, the margin on vaccines is a lot lower than other drugs.
The Audacity of Krope
@Belafon: Besides the drugs, I worry how much reach will RFK have into the food production chain.
NotMax
@The Audacity of Krope
He’ll be the food chain’s weakest link.
Kayla Rudbek
If I was a bioweaponry specialist for Russia, I couldn’t ask for a better pick.
cmorenc
Beyond just the get-out-of-jail-free card, what is unfathomable is why Trump wants the glory of being President (eg his fondness for wearing “47the President caps) of the most militarily and economically powerful country on Earth, while at the same time deliberately doing so much to undermine and tear it down with nominations like Gabbard and RFK and undermining our alliances. As terrible a nominee as Geatz is for AG, the motivation is at least understandable for such a vengefully corrupt person as Trump. But if it’s his personal goal to be dictator of the most powerful nation on Earth, peer of Putin and Zia in that regard, why is he doing so much to undermine the national secuity and health of his own country, and thereby the status his malevolently narcissistic ego hungers for? Stupidity is part of the answer, but insufficient to explain what’s really up with him.
Princess
I would think that private insurers, for those who have that insurance, will continue to offer and encourage vaccination because it’s hugely cost effective. That being said, wow, the first massive measles outbreak at Disneyworld is sure going to put a damper on tourism to the US.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: At this point all the Republican office holders care about are primary voters, who only listen to Trump.
Rose Judson
Welcome to the age of diarrhea.
Belafon
@cmorenc: He doesn’t care about being the dictator of the most powerful nation on earth, just dictator. It gets him out of trouble and he can make money. Everyone but him and his family can die for all he cares.
twbrandt
Let’s see, Gaetz (allegedly) had sex with a minor, Trump was good pals with Jeffrey Epstein. RFK Jr cheats on his wives, Trump cheats on his.
Miki
What do we call a corp of Useful Idiots? Trump’s Proposed Cabinet.
ETA There’s not even the pretence of competency in this pile of sycophants. SMFH.
The Audacity of Krope
@Belafon: As long as whenever he says jump, the generals say “how high?,” that’s all Trump wants.
Ukai
@cmorenc: “You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.” – Fran Lebowitz
RevRick
@Steve LaBonne: Making Germany, Italy and Japan great was what Hitler, Mussolini and the militarists promised their respective nations. Franco and Salazar lasted longer with more modest promises.
Princess
Also too: a) so much for “pro-Life”, but we knew that was phony already — but b) these people purport to want more children around. This will kill children.
The Audacity of Krope
@RevRick: The good news is that after we got rid of the Nazis, Germany became a very responsible partner to their world allies.
CaseyL
The entertainment value will very nearly make up for dying of typhoid.
I’m not due for my Tdap and MMR until 2029, but I wonder if I should get them asap.
Miki
@gene108: Truth.
Miki
@Rose Judson: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
VFX Lurker
When we had that measles outbreak at Disneyland in 2015, California moved right quick to remove non-medical exemptions from vaccination mandates.
Not sure Florida will make the same effort to protect DisneyWorld. Ugh.
Dangerman
Which makes his voters tribal? I think that was a Star Trek episode, “Trouble with Tribal”. Little fuckers wouldn’t stop reproducing. Kinda the same thing.
Princess
Btw I want to apologize if my comments are overly blunt. *I* just got my Covid booster and I feel like absolute hell, and it’s making me cranky.
Eunicecycle
Ooh RFK Jr. is also going after pesticides and other chemicals. I’m pretty sure there’s big corporate interests there, too! Because that’s been tried before (going after chemicals).
VFX Lurker
I thought your Disneyworld post was spot-on, so thank you for posting it.
You also just reminded me of something — in 2019 I flunked a titer test for measles. I had had both MMRs as a kid, but my immunity had worn off at age 44.
I got the third MMR of my life in 2019 to top off my measles immunity. Folks here might consider getting a titer test to check if they, too, need a third MMR.
Kayla Rudbek
@Eunicecycle: I would put my money on Monsanto (or whatever company owns that mark and products – chemical companies do a lot of mergers, rebranding, and splitting up – IG Farben/BASF as one example)
Kayla Rudbek
@VFX Lurker: co-sign for any GenXer, I had to get another shot in 2018, as I said upstairs.
Soprano2
This reminded me to schedule the Covid vaccinations for both of us. I tried to do it as a walk-in but the pharmacy is short of staff so even though they advertise that they take walk-ins they essentially don’t. Doing it this Sunday.
Betty Cracker
Horrible pick, obviously, but maybe it’s better to have an unqualified buffoon like the Kennedy nepo baby in charge of the public health bureaucracy rather than someone like FL surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, who is a Harvard trained MD and a raving crackpot. As mentioned in an earlier thread, Ladapo is destroying Florida’s public health system by falsifying data, lying to the public and intimidating health officials who are trying to do their jobs. It’s cold comfort, but RFK the Lesser probably doesn’t understand how the agencies work, so it will take longer for him to wreck them.
Steve LaBonne
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think Trump would ever nominate a creature of your governor, whom he loathes and holds in contempt.
Gin & Tonic
My grand-daughter is scheduled to be born in April. Luckily, son and DIL live in NYC, world center of health care, so I’m hopeful that she will be able to get her routine vaccinations.
That’s all assuming that Tom Homan and Stephen Miller haven’t revoked DIL’s green card by April.
This timeline sucks.
Soprano2
@VFX Lurker: I agree, the same thing happened to me. I read that if you got vaccinated in the late ’60’s or early ’70’s your immunity might have worn off, and mine had. So at least that’s taken care of.
TBone
So, Maryland made Harriet Tubman an official Brigadier General last Monday:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/nice-abolitionist-helper-lady-from
A fitting tribute!
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: Yep, horrible. If she’s white I think she’s got awhile, because I’m certain they’re going after anyone who’s not white first. They don’t seem to be bothered by white immigrants, they never talk about them.
TBone
@Kayla Rudbek: ☹️☹️☹️
TBone
@Rose Judson: crap! 😉
MinuteMan
@Princess*I* just got my Covid booster and I feel like absolute hell, and it’s making me cranky.:
It took a shot to make you cranky? I should be so lucky.
Gin & Tonic
@Soprano2:
She can probably pass for white if you don’t look very closely and don’t check her paperwork, but she is Mexican, which isn’t good. I bitched here plenty about her travails getting the right visa and then green card during the first Trump administration. Quite an ordeal.
Prometheus Shrugged
@Ukai: Also Fran Lebowitz: “Anything that could possibly be wrong with a human being is wrong with Donald Trump”
Betty Cracker
@Steve LaBonne: True. DeSantis was probably the kiss of death — I read in the Tampa Bay Times that he was on the dead bird site trying to gin up support for putting Ladapo in charge of HHS. I hope Trump’s spite toward DeSantis continues to his last breath and ruins DeSantis’s political ambitions.
JML
@MinuteMan: I feel like this year’s COVID booster was hard on a lot of people. Absolutely flattened me. But only for a day!
TBone
@TBone:
Baud
The New Yorker should rehire Olivia Nuzzi for the access.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud:
She worked at New York, not The New Yorker. Very different magazines.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks!
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Sorry, but I see Dr Ladapo as US surgeon general. He and RFK are perfect together.
Eunicecycle
@Kayla Rudbek: Monsanto was definitely who I had in mind! They’re pretty evil, but if they can get rid of RFK Jr. I say more power to them.
RepubAnon
@Steve LaBonne: It would be the Democrats fault for asking people to be vaccinated. This gave Republicans no choice other than outlawing vaccination.
Trivia Man
@The Audacity of Krope: Here is the dilemma… good companies like regulations (to a point) because they keep the field fair. With no regulations (or none we enforce!) it is a race to the bottom and legit producers are at a disadvantage cause they plan to stay in business longterm.
Big biz has been bleating CUT THE RED TAPE for a century. Now that they get their wish… how many corners are they willing to cut?
We already know that Tyson and that ilk will jump at the chance. But what about companies with an actual reputation to protect?
eemom
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve seen similar commentary from several sources I respect today re all of the clown “cabinet” thus far. I.e., that the laughably incompetent sycophants he’s picked, while no less evil, are likely to do far less damage than the competent, professional monsters he might have picked who know how to get evil done.
We’ll see.
Trivia Man
@cmorenc: Somebody (hi, vladimir!) told him it would make him MORE powerful and the US more STONG! I believe he said “US is stronk like bull”
FelonyGovt
@Betty Cracker: I don’t understand why Elon, who originally supported DeSantis, got a pass from Mango Mussolini. I guess it was all about the $$$.
Ohio Mom
@Gin & Tonic: I remember your bitching but I don’t think I ever knew where DIL was born.
I think there is some built-in protection being in NYC. There are lots of poor Hispanics to go after first, and it’s always a hassle getting from one place to another; the traffic isn’t going to part for ICE.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: And to boost circulation, maybe they could give her a centerfold as well, since she doesn’t seem to care who sees her nudes.
catclub
@Butch:
I am close but 2017 seems like just yesterday.
BellaPea
I haven’t had the heart to post since last Wednesday. Truly one of the most shattering days I’ve ever had. I had to wake up to find out–again!!!– that the orange-faced, corrupt, fool had been re-elected. And the shit show begins. I don’t know how I’m going to cope this time around. At least I can comfort myself with the thought that he is old, in terrible shape, and close to fogging out with dementia this time.
Glidwrith
@PaulWartenberg: Same, the whole family.
Bill Arnold
@VFX Lurker:
Measles infections sometimes end up wiping out immune system memory (long term immunity) for other diseases. (The number of memory cells can be very very small.)
Not to be fucked with.
Here’s a 2019 link found in my notes: How measles wipes out the body’s immune memory – Study details the mechanism and scope of measles-induced immune amnesia in the wake of infection (October 31, 2019)
A search of scholar.google.com for
immune amnesia measles
suggests that that research has held up.
The Lodger
@Rose Judson: Stock up on toilet paper while there is still some on the shelves.