this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Summary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, has a history of extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories about vaccines.

In previously unreported comments at autism conferences, Kennedy likened vaccination programs to Catholic Church abuse scandals and Nazi death camps and argued for jailing vaccine scientists.

He has falsely claimed vaccines cause autism and accused public health agencies like the CDC of corruption and hiding vaccine dangers.

Critics fear his leadership could dismantle vaccine safety efforts, decrease public trust, and disrupt public health policy.

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[–] Droggelbecher 75 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Fuck the vaccines cause autism argument. Like even if it were true. I'm autistic. You're telling me you'd rather your child die than be like me? Speaks volumes to how much hate you have both for people like me and your own child.

[–] CitizenKong 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also (without wanting to belittle your condition), if the choice is between autism and life in an iron lung, I'd take autism.

[–] Droggelbecher 6 points 1 week ago

Can't speak for everyone, I'm quite high functioning. But 100% same.

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[–] nman90 63 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Even if it happened to be true, obviously it's not, RFK isn't attacking the church over their rampant abuse. Definitely speaks volumes.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

Wait, so Christians voted not only for a president who clearly isn't Christian, but also a man from a Catholic family who disowned the church and speaks against them? Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with everyone bashing the Catholic Church until they find ways to root out all the evil within, but how did Christians vote for him when they were claiming Trump (the man who stands against all of Jesus's teachings) was the Christian choice.

Maybe I'm wrong and he didn't abandon the Catholic Church though, just calls them evil while joining them for mass? Idk

[–] Hazor 21 points 2 weeks ago

Decades of propaganda have convinced Christians that Republican=Christian, and the last decade of propaganda have convinced them that Trump is a good Christian man anointed by God and all the bad stuff they might hear about him is just Democrat lies. Many, if not most, honestly don't know the half of Trump's evils, let alone believe them.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Holy fucking shit this guy is going to be in charge of stuff

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

The CDC has been involved in genetically sequencing strains of the virus and working on vaccine development, in exactly the kind of preparedness we need for a very deadly virus that could go pandemic at any time. RFK has promised to end vaccination programs and force vaccines off the market, and he's about to be put in charge of the CDC. The whole world will be worse prepared for a bird flu pandemic thanks to his wacky antivax views, and many, many people will die in the USA and elsewhere as a result. This is a virus that by some measures has a fatality rate of 51%, whereas COVID was probably somewhere between 1% and 2%.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's sad. But every single Trump voter who is also anti-vax deserves to actually experience the consequences of their actions.

[–] FlyingSquid 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Their children, who they won't vaccinate, do not.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Also all the rest of us. People all around the world will suffer the consequences of Trump voters' ignorance. An unvaccinated USA will be a huge pool in which any pandemic virus can linger and mutate.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 5 points 1 week ago

Like the first time, the next Spanish Flu will be a US export.

[–] Hackerman_uwu 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They should read Roald Dahl’s letter.

“Read” …sorry guys, I say some crazy things.

[–] WhatYouNeed 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Until the GOP ban Dahl's books.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I don't fully understand why the deaths of tens of millions or more helps corporations maintain cheap labor?

What's the conservative benefit here? Simply suffering?

[–] Diplomjodler3 13 points 2 weeks ago

Yes. They enjoy making people suffer. Nothing gives them more satisfaction than making people suffer and then being worshipped for it by those same people.

[–] diffusive 11 points 2 weeks ago

Votes. People vote with emotions and fear is one of the most powerful emotion.

This is for giving the various people scared by a world where there are (and will be) more and more deadly diseases (due to intensive farming and whatnots) a simple, reassuring and deadly wrong answer: it’s all a big conspiracy theory for big pharma to make money and for the government to control your brain and Bill Gates to steal your top candy crush score.

This is the same technique at work with economy btw: economy is scary and complex…here a simple answer “Trump will fix it because he is rich so he understands money”

Democrats talk to rationality (and sometimes rationality crosses emotions e.g. with abortions rights), Republicans talk to emotions, where facts, interests, justice doesn’t matter

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[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Don't know much about it, can is spread to mosquitoes? (I'm still in the unknowing bubble assuming it is transferred via blood). If you tell me it can be airborne I wouldn't have known. (Insert bird pun here)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Bird flu can spread to humans through the air. From the CDC:

What Causes Bird Flu Virus Infections in Humans

I don't know about mosquitoes. I haven't heard that they're a major concern for this virus.

[–] Hazor 31 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Can you imagine what it'd be like if mandatory childhood vaccines are eliminated? Can you imagine what a resurgence of measles or even polio would be like?!

No, you probably can't, because vaccines made them non-issues before most of us were even born. And now they might come back because some dullard thinks he knows better than actual doctors and scientists. Dunning and Kruger must be crying themselves to sleep these days.

[–] FlyingSquid 18 points 2 weeks ago
[–] somethingsnappy 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

He will probably try to roll back washing hands and quarantine. Then XDR TB will roll up and kill waaaay more than most other things. But, to be fair, some of the other things will kill more quickly.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

If vaccination is just as bad for children as the Catholic church then he's going to ban both of them, right? 🙄

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

People like these will end up causing thousands of deathsand untold suffering

At the inevitable end, when people finally realize what normal people already have known for a century (that none of these policies work) I expect them all to be punished appropriately. None of this "one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic" bullshit, if multiple homicides gets you life, what should thousands get you?

[–] Maggoty 11 points 2 weeks ago

We politely clap for the paintings of a former president who lied to get us into a war and got thousands more Americans killed. He did this for political and financial gain, not because the US needed to go to war. So fraud on a massive scale with thousands of murders.

Make sure to clap.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He looks like someone that would be an expert on child abuse

[–] FlyingSquid 12 points 1 week ago

Considering he decided to take his kids with him when he went to saw that whale's head off and they had to ride back in the car with the whale's head on top wearing tarps but still getting covered in "whale juice," and his daughter just told that story casually in an interview a few years ago, I'm guessing he's got quite a bit of experience in abusing children.

Maybe not the way the Catholic Church does, but...

[–] Potatisen 19 points 2 weeks ago

I just imagine a worm that caved out a little den with a bunch of tunnels running throughout the brain. Wormo got a couch and two sticks with a big red button in between that he's using to control RFK. When he pushes the button it sends a shock through RFKs brain and he says something, like a tick. Every now and then something in another room fucks up so Wormo has to leave the sticks and jiggle-wiggle over to fix the issue and leave RFK unattended.

🪱

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Prosecute the Catholic Church first, then we might take your point seriously.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

We'll take his point as seriously as Trump promising not to enact Project2025.

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[–] iAvicenna 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

promote raw milk (likely infested with H5) to people at the same time as demonizing vaccines. surely that can't go wrong.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

When I was a kid, my grandma would send me to a nearby farm to get raw milk. It was then brought to a boil at home, the top skimmed, for making pastries, and then consumed. It was way better tasting than store bought, but it was boiled.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He is ready to make Polio great again!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

And measles and mpox and, finally for many of us, bird flu.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Gaslight
Obstruct
Project

Fuck fascists.

[–] distantsounds 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So are people just gonna go along with ‘ole worm for brains’?

[–] Diplomjodler3 10 points 2 weeks ago

They went along with Diaper Don, so yeah, they will.

[–] splonglo 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In his defence he has a worm in his brain.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

And now he gets to dictate public health policy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Why are we trusting a rich guy with a brain worm

[–] 800XL 7 points 2 weeks ago

Because we've been told for eons that to be rich you have to be smart.

Most of the time we don't know all these fucking dumb rich people inherited their money instead of earning it themselves so we assume they're smart too.

Hey we'd all be rich too if mommy and daddy gave us seed money and the expertise of their business advisors for free.

Hell, I'm still confused why anyone gives a shit about the Kennedys. They are so stupid they bought into lobotomy despite everything saying how dumb it was to do.

Rich people are dumber than middle class and poor people.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm always curious how people with opposing views on serious topics stay married. I guess if he's just some kooky anti vaxxer on his own it doesn't affect much, but if he starts doing serious damage by being the guy in charge, I wonder if it'll force Cheryl Hines to confront some issues about him.

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[–] TheTimeKnife 5 points 2 weeks ago

Terrible sign of the times anybody listens to this clown.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Oh wow! So he's gonna give tax breaks to every semi-~~coherent~~cohesive group of health-based believers and force their top-10 most influential protocols and PSAs to be taught in schools??? I wonder if he'll fight to pay $45/student to schools that let teachers teach from the Pink Book!

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