RFK Jr. Finally Says Something Sensible: ‘Don’t Take Medical Advice From Me’
from the sage-advice dept
Fresh off of his Mother’s Day swim in a literal shit creek, RFK Jr. sat before House and Senate committees to answer questions about the impact of the proposed Trump budget on Health and Human Services (HHS), the cuts that have and are proposed further for HHS, and an explanation for why some programs are being saved while others are being cut. In his testimony, Kennedy advocated for the Republican budget, including those major cuts to his own ability to deliver on HHS’ mission.
Straight from the HHS website, here is its mission statement.
The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.
That mission statement is obviously no longer valid. Like, at all. HHS certainly isn’t enhancing health anywhere at all compared to a couple of months ago. Social services and public health facilities are being cut back, not advanced. And the “sound science” bit? Miss me with that bullshit while RFK Jr. is leading the charge on American medicine and healthcare.
And it seems RFK Jr. agrees on that last point as well. Kennedy not only currently heads up HHS, but he has written several books on the topics of health, medicine, and healthcare over the years. They include titles like The Real Anthony Fauci, The Wuhan Cover-Up, Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak, and Profiles of the Vaccine Injured, among others. These all touch heavily upon medicine and healthcare, advising the reader as to the truth within medicine or advocating for one health policy or another.
Which makes it pretty fucking rich when Kennedy said this in response to a question about whether he would advocate for the public to get certain vaccinations in these same hearings.
“If you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child for measles?” began the Democratic congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin at the House appropriations committee hearing.
“For measles? Um, probably for measles,” said Kennedy, in one of the few hesitations of the hearing. “What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant … I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.”
On the one hand, hey, he finally said something medically sensible: don’t take advice from him. That’s, well, good advice. On the other hand, maybe it would be better if we had someone leading HHS who’s advice we could listen to? I know, crazy idea, but it just might work.
And given the volume of medical advice Kennedy has dispensed over the years, it’s both remarkable that he would make that statement and equally remarkable that he can’t manage to take any sort of stance on several medical questions in front of Congress.
Pocan went on to ask about chickenpox.
“Um, again, I don’t want to give advice,” Kennedy said, before commenting on shingles.
Pocan continued: “Polio?”
“Polio?” Kennedy said. “Again, I don’t want to be giving advice.”
The issued re-emerged in his afternoon testimony before the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, where the Democrat Chris Murphy asked Kennedy if he would recommend the measles vaccine. The secretary demurred, prompting Murphy to say: “I think that’s really dangerous for the American public and for families.
“The secretary of health and human services is no longer recommending the measles vaccines,” Murphy said.
Again, we’re in the middle of a ballooning measles outbreak in America and the Secretary of HHS can’t figure out a way to tell the public to get an MMR vaccine that is safe and effective. Good times.
There’s a long tail aspect to all of this. Even were Kennedy to be removed from his post today — a move that is so overly justified as to be laughable — the effects of his holding the position even these few months are going to be felt for decades, if not longer. There are already deaths at least partially on his hands. How long is the current administration really going to let this go on?
Filed Under: congressional hearings, health and human services, polio, rfk jr., vaccinations, vaccines
Comments on “RFK Jr. Finally Says Something Sensible: ‘Don’t Take Medical Advice From Me’”
Death is the point. The cruelty is the point. They want a hierarchical society with themselves at the top, and anyone below them to suffer. And if you can’t survive with your lot in life- well, you deserve it. God did not favor you.
It’s darwinian “survival of the fittest” (read: eugenics) combined with a medieval power fantasy, “peasants, slaves and kings”, all badly gilded in the guise of Christianity.
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The almost darkly amusing thing here is that death and suffering is going to fall most heavily on the people who put them in power.
Look at the measles cases, they’re tearing through communities that listened to his snake oil, and they’re doubling down, poisinging them selves with cod liver oil, and spreading the germs faster by visiting his doctor’s in office measles party.
So, who’s going to be there to vote for the leopards again, once they’ve eaten all the faces?
If you're going to be a terrible person at least be an HONEST terrible person...
Pocan went on to ask about chickenpox.
“Um, again, I don’t want to give advice,” Kennedy said, before commenting on shingles.
Pocan continued: “Polio?”
“Polio?” Kennedy said. “Again, I don’t want to be giving advice.”
Lemme just translate from gutless pro-plaguer to english: ‘I know all the evidence says that vaccines are vital in saving countless lives but my ego, money and fame depend upon me not admitting that so I’ll give a weak non-answer so I don’t have to explicitly say so and fellow pro-plaguers can (not unreasonably) claim that I’m still against vaccines.’
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“Don’t nail me down when i am in an actual position of authority, for which i may be held accountable after fascism eats itself.”
Well, he has certainly more chance to find the cause of autism that “enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans” without giving medical advise.
Usaid has been cancelled this will result in millions of deaths in the future chiba and other country’s only now have the capability to help in case of global emergency medicaid is being cut trump does not care if people die it’s survival of the fittest the insurance program for veterans had stopped paying doctors and therapists having switched to a new payment system
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In a country without socialized medical care, it’s actually survival of the richest.
Re: Re: 'If you wanted to live longer you should have been born rich!'
To those burning the country to the ground ‘fittest’ and ‘rich’ are the same thing.
Kennedy via shell companies is already peddling “magic potion/crystal” cures for measles.
Seriously. that was the whole plan all along. Break the science chain for health and sell utter crap that lest we forget is GOING TO KILL 10s of thousands of children.
hell the old fart wants to bring back measles/polio parties because he (lies) claiming Polio “isn’t that bad its more like a heavy cold for most”
There’s a big difference between offering medical advice for a specific instance and providing overall guidance on medical issues. If someone came to me and said, “My infant is immunocompromised, should they get the MMR vaccine?” my response would be to talk their doctor. But I have no problem saying that people should get their kids vaccinated because that’s what the prevailing science tells us. And that’s Kennedy’s job. His job is to take what the prevailing scientific consensus is and communicate that to the public.
“Medical” advice? Try any advice. Pitiful jokes like him shouldn’t even be allowed to give advice, esp. not on health issues–something he’s proven repeatedly he knows nothing about.
"Don't sue me for the harm I'm causing."
RFK Jr has made a very public career out of giving medical advice, very bad medical advice — loudly and at length, unashamedly, repentantly, and willfully disregarding all evidence against his claims.
RFK has written many books, not only to dispense his medical recommendations but to smear those who disagree with him. He’s founded global organizations dedicated to promoting that unfounded, fact-adverse advice as far and wide as possible, RFK Jr and his pet organizations have produced and promoted “documentaries” to convince parents to follow his dangerous medical advice.
And now he expects people to take him seriously when he says “Don’t take medical advice from me”? What he’s really saying is “Don’t sue me when my advice causes harm.”
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And now he expects people to take him seriously when he says “Don’t take medical advice from me”? What he’s really saying is “Don’t sue me when my advice causes harm.”
I’d argue it’s even worse than that, it’s ‘Don’t blame me when people are maimed for life or dropping dead from preventable diseases, after all I told you to get your medical advice elsewhere so it’s all on you to do the work.’
Only because he expects people to do the exact opposite, especially the MAGA faithful.