Recent blog posts by contrarian physicians have tried to defend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) as someone who will improve public health if confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary. They claim United States COVID19 policies and the mainstream media created the poor public health situation in the US, including vaccine hesitancy. These authors seem to think antivaccine sentiment did not exist before 2020, and that vaccine hesitancy has nothing to do with RFK Jr’s antivaccine nonprofit, which grew significantly during the pandemic.
On Sensible Medicine Dr. Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, a Danish vaccine researcher, states that the high US mortality compared to other wealthy countries is possibly explained by “the higher use of pesticides such as glyphosate, additives in processed foods…ultra processed foods, seed oils, unequal access to health care, and overconsumption of medicines and vaccines.” He cites zero evidence to support this speculation but goes on to elaborate about vaccines as a possible explanation for poor health outcomes in the US.
Intentional deception
The crux of the piece centers on vaccines with Dr. Schaltz-Buchholzer claiming Danish children only receive 11 shots whereas American children receive 72 injections. This is a classic antivaccine trope and borders on intentionally deceptive. He is counting the Danish combination vaccines such as DTaP/IPV/Hib as one shot but counting the same US vaccines that are almost always given as a combination shot as individual shots — DTaP/IPV/Hib = 3 shots. He is counting oral rotavirus as an injection which it isn’t.
But best of all, he criticizes the inclusion of yearly COVID & flu vaccines for children in the US schedule, which are not required by schools and generally have less uptake. He makes a point to say the flu vaccine is completely unnecessary for children, which is not an accurate reflection of what studies show. Meanwhile he neglects to include that the Danish Pediatric Society and Danish Health Authority now recommend a yearly flu shot for children aged 2-6. He has such high praise for the Danish vaccine schedule but ignores many of the recommendations as we will find out later.