RFK Jr.'s War on Vaccines and Public Health Continues

In the newest front in his cause, the Department of Health and Human Services secretary has canceled $500 million in mRNA research, an effort President Donald Trump once called a "modern-day miracle." The HHS head, who in 2023 said no vaccine was "safe and effective," says he still supports "safe, effective vaccines."

Twenty-two research projects focused not only on COVID-19 vaccines but also on influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and other communicable ailments, which are being canceled. It should be noted that new research often leads scientists to unexpected results and uses, as well. However, Kennedy contends that "mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses."

How does he know? Maybe the technology that uses fragments of the genetic code to manipulate the body to defend itself against infection and disease won't produce any significant breakthroughs. But RFK Jr. wants Americans to believe that RNA, a molecule in every living cell, isn't just ineffective but dangerous.

Of course, the real purpose of the cancellation is to preemptively undermine the credibility of research, which almost surely goes on in the private sector that sees value in it.

In the past, RFK argued for the need for greater research to understand vaccines before recommending them, yet in this case, he demands less research. The pattern is clear.

Example: After visiting Texas children who were needlessly struggling with measles earlier in the year, Kennedy also visited "two extraordinary healers" named Dr. Richard Bartlett and Dr. Ben Edwards, who "have treated and healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin." The purpose of the juxtaposition is to create the impression that alternative medicine is enough. It's not.

If you want to use that therapy, go for it, I guess. As far as I can tell, there's no evidence that inhaled steroids such as budesonide or oral antibiotics like clarithromycin are effective in treating measles; many doctors think it's junk science. Bartlett was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 for "unusual use of risk-filled medications" of this variety.

But RFK Jr., you'll notice, didn't bother to wait for the research to praise those doctors or their methods. A quack who once claimed that the Polio vaccine causes cancer that killed "many, many, many, many, many more people" than Polio itself and lied about the connection between autism and vaccines long after the hoax had been exposed — grossly comparing it to a "holocaust" — doesn't give one whit about any inquiry that proves or disproves the efficacy of vaccines, live attenuated or inactivated or mRNA. He's reflexively against it.

Not long ago, RFK Jr. fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced it with his people to create the impression that he had more fairly represented the scientific debate over vaccines. "A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science," was Kennedy's reasoning. The former committee members, he argued, had too many "conflicts of interest," a euphemism for working or advising "Big Pharma." Imagine creating an advisory board for an industry without including people who understand how it works.

Granted, I'm a layman. But I don't believe COVID mRNA vaccines are detrimental (as a lot of people seem to think), nor does it seem that they are miraculous, as proponents like Trump claim.

My problem with the COVID-19 regime was the compulsion, not the efforts to mitigate a pandemic, nor the development of new technology that might head off future ones. Pharma companies can't compel you to inject anything. Only the state can do that. And the Luddite demonization of pharma, which saves and improves the millions of lives, is still one of the big mysteries of the modern age.

Now, the same people who claim that public health institutions can't be trusted believe everything the new head of HHS tells them. It's a shame that so many groups like the American Medical Association, all in on the authoritarian COVID regime, have burned the public's trust and goodwill.

However, it needs to be stressed whenever possible, RFK Jr. is no better than the hacks who undermined our trust in science under former President Joe Biden. In some ways, he is worse.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 08/01/25: Europe's Recognition of 'Palestine' Is a Cynical Joke
• 07/18/25: Legacy Media Still Covering for Biden
• 06/27/25: Trump Learned the Lessons of Iraq
• 05/30/25: We Have No Constitutional or Moral Duty to Subsidize Harvard
• 05/30/25: Welcome to the Intifada, America
• 05/16/25: Scapegoating Biden Isn't Going to Solve the Dems' Problems
• 05/09/25: The Pulitzer Prizes Have Become a Sad Joke
• 05/05/25: How Do You Do, Fellow White People? Tim Walz Says Hello!
• 04/25/25: Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes a Powerful Argument for School Choice
• 04/18/25: If Everyone Is an Expert, No One Is
• 03/31/25: The Left's Imaginary COVID 'Reckoning'
• 03/21/25: Sorry, Conspiracy Theorists -- Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone
• 03/03/25: Mitch McConnell: A GOP Hall of Famer?
• 02/21/25: RFK's Dangerous Autism Lie
• 02/14/25: It's Time to End the EV Racket
• 02/07/25: If You Really Support Immigration, Stop Excusing Chaos
• 02/03/25: Trump's Gaza Proposal Makes Complete Sense
• 01/24/25: How Biden's Pardons Normalize Abuse of Power
• 01/17/25: Israel Makes a Deal With the Actual Devil
• 01/13/25: Why Javier Milei Matters
• 12/20/24: The Obama Doctrine Is Dead
• 12/13/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 12/09/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 11/08/24: Don't Trash the Constitution to Dunk on the Libs
• 11/08/24: This 'liberation' will NOT be reported
• 11/01/24: HARRIS Is the Bigger Threat to the Constitutional Order
• 09/20/24: Fact checked! Harris Is the Extremist
• 07/13/24: Explain Yourself, Kamala Harris!
• 07/05/24: How Biden's Mental Decline Went From 'Misinformation' to Fact in a Week
• 04/12/24: Biden Is Now Chasing the 'Death to America' Voter
• 03/15/24: Turns Out Biden Lied About Hur, Beau, And Why He Pilfered Classified Docs
• 02/09/24: Why Biden Is Threatening to Veto Aid to Israel
• 02/09/23: Electric Cars Are a Scam
• 06/30/23: Americans Have Never Been Less Threatened by 'Extreme Weather'
• 03/03/23: Questioning Biden's Ukraine Policy Doesn't Make You an 'Isolationist'
• 01/20/23: No ribbons? Don't hide behind religion!
• 01/13/23: On Classified Documents, Joe Biden Is Out of Excuses
• 04/29/22: Biden's Ministry of Truth
• 04/08/22: The Most Radical Abortion Law in the Nation
• 04/01/22: Recuse Yourself, Joe Biden
• 03/25/22: No, School Boards Are Not 'Banning Books'
• 03/11/22: Let Them Drive Teslas
• 01/28/22: It's Not Government's Job to 'Root Out' Misinformation
• 01/14/22: Biden's Big Elections Lie
• 01/07/22: Schumer's Ugly 'Voting Rights' Gamble
• 12/24/21:AOC's Grasp on American Governance Is a 'Farce'
• 12/17/21: Dems Pivot from Build Back Better to Useless Extremism
• 11/19/21: Reckoning' Over Steele Dossier?
• 10/15/21: The Biden White House Will Pay for Playing Inflation Games
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• 09/02/21: Why Isn't Biden to Blame for COVID-19 Deaths?
• 08/06/21: Biden's Unprecedented Attack on the Constitution
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• 03/05/21: AOC's Terrible Minimum Wage Argument
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• 02/05/21: What NOT to Do with Marjorie Taylor Greene
• 01/15/21: Free Speech Is a Value Not Just a Right
• 12/31/20: It Can't Get Any Worse Than 2020. Here's a 2021 Political Wish List
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• 10/26/20: These are the questions 'Big Guy' Biden must be forced to answer about Hunter's emails
• 09/11/20: The Dems' Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election
• 08/28/20: Biden Is Underperforming Hillary in Battleground States
• 08/14/20: Kamala Harris, Imaginary Centrist
• 07/24/20: Who you calling a fascist?
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• 05/22/20: Dems Warning Trump Will Reject Election Results Should Look in the Mirror
• 05/15/20: Obamagate Is NOT a Conspiracy Theory
• 05/08/20: Really, Joe --- due process is the opposite of justice?