125 Comments
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Stacy K Oshields's avatar

I feel more brokenhearted over this failure to protect vaccines mandates than all the other rfk failures. All his vaccine policies will result in needless child deaths. Yet somehow the knowledge of some future kid or young adult dealing with cirrhosis or liver cancer and them finding out it could have been prevented with a shot when they were born makes me so, so angry and full of sorrow.

Patricia Hanna's avatar

Thank you for this clear and detailed account of how our health care is being destroyed from within. I hope the voting public wakes up before the mid-terms. Congress needs to grow a spine and take a serious approach to impeachment proceedings against Junior. There are a few others who should be held to account as well, but for now let's try to stop the pile up of dead bodies and the return of diseases we thought were gone.

Marta Layton's avatar

Back when they were debating changing the COVID vaccine recommendations, one of the big concerns was whether insurance would still cover it if the CDC or whomever didn't consider it medically necessary. Is that a concern here? If a mother didn't have confirmed Hep B and the parents wanted to vaccinate them straight off rather than waiting a few weeks to see a pediatrician, could insurance refuse to pay?

Speaking of medical billing, just where in the world are doctors supposed to find all this time to educate parents on the efficacy and safety of vaccines? I do hope Dr. Oz is planning to roll out some new CPT's or at least up the fee schedule. (Dr. Oz. God help us.)

Marta Layton's avatar

I'm always surprised this admin is so blasé about vaccines given what happened with COVID. I guess Hepatitis isn't prone to the same pandemic-style flareup, but you'd think if there's one kind of emergency he'd be particular vulnerable to it happening again, a disease uptick would be it.

The reality is the chaos and incompetence is somehow good for him, politically at least. It gives him space to declare emergency and do things his way, and also people psychologically tend to give a lot of sympathy to people putting out fires, even if they're also the arsonist who set them. That's somehow both depressing and illuminative, and also not surprising in the least.

Mike B's avatar

Whenever our MAGA loving relatives quiz us about our view on vaccines, my wife and I will simply say we rely on the recommendations from our family doctor. Needless to say our GP is not a fan of ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.

All kidding aside, I expect doctors are going to play an important role providing wise council to families regarding vaccines and other politicized health issues during these weird times.

Insurance companies ignore climate change deniers and bluntly say insurance rates are increasing due to greater fire/flood risk cause by climate change. Likewise, I expect Insurance will continue to pay for vaccinations, not because it's the right thing to do, only because it will help their profits.

I don't worry much for my more fanatic family members, friends and acquaintances if they choose to follow RFKjr crazy advice. I do worry for their children.

Libtard1776's avatar

Thanks Mr. Cohn! At least we can retreat from the BS under the warm and sane sanctuary of the Bulwark.

Blessings to you and yours.

Kim Sherwood's avatar

Dismal.

We really need a 'bang your head against the wall' icon instead of the heart to signify concurrence with the article.

mary's avatar

when 1 of only 2 [limited choice] political groups take over they both do same tho not in same ways maybe - change all they didnt like + dont want + dont agree etc. with to what they can - now they have the power ....

and then to demean, discredit, dis-a-vow all any thing that the Opposition does instead... of course...

how long has it been before trump's 1st term that couldnt eliminate enough of many years of Democrats power-rulings-laws-traditions ? How many in recent prior regimes of anti-Conservative ways- policies- were latent, dormant, waiting for their turn to up-turn-out those versions they dont want - discard the prior's 'traditions' ?

Yes - Bulwark's mission is to get rid of this current authoritative version of USA govt power...

but at least admit the ways things are taken down/ replaced, dismissed or eliminated are similar in results ...ea time....

an "opposite" version of men take over ALL POSSIBLE POWER ACTS & MOVES ...for a while..again...then...

the next 'new' Truths emerge again... hmmmmm

mary's avatar

tho my comment appears as if anti-vax as most others authoritatively demand-ed, my above 'skepticism' includes Questionning all the lies, mis-directions, falsehoods implied =

that CDC spewed out during pandemic times + those many mandates imposed on all federal workers, restaurants, compliers ...

But that were dishonest, mis-informing- like lies are - by leaving out important 'facts' & discrepancies too

- that the magical covid vaxes still left that person transmittig virus anyhow,….

that only 'serious' covid was helped w/ vax, but not all other variations prevalent,…..

that masks were useless when there was no other credited help except magical vaccines …

those only shots that were not as preventative as presented.... etc. etc.

too much necessary info was all ways 'left out' or falsely & deliberately implied…. w/o corrections admitted nor questionings taken seriously !

all that left many to distrust all else,,,,, that then emerges from Our own taxpayers’ Govt's CDC,…. and then more that spreads on to Wuhan being exonerated too? huh?

what else is true or not true ? all same versions of govt’s supposedly claimed as ‘evidenced’? facts - as declared via majority of media salesmanship too --

to convince all TAPeople of what was NOT dangerous to our daily lives. Huh ?

so Yes - distrust is now highly infectious & prevalent [nothing new tho

gtgfg's avatar

You might want to be a little more careful about the lack of erudition in your posts. This one is basically incomprehensible. Fewer words and more lucidity would help. Otherwise, find a decent editor.

mary's avatar

thanks for being such a more-educated but stiff necked ? critic of my writing..being an artist and fully academically educated, i passed on exams and wrote professionally too... tho not to your standards

...or are you just being 1up enjoying being the one that finds fault in others so easily to please your own self? whatever, good to know someone reads what i offer anyhow. enjoy your self-assigned 'job' here. he he

p.s. you may assume - any 1 else- can afford to hire/ pay / for writing editors, services, etc.? bc you can ? that may be 'projecting' your stuff on strangers - anonymous others ?

NanceeM's avatar

Chalk up another win for ignorance and sadism.

Ken Kiyama's avatar

I have a slightly different take than Dr. Osterholm's observation that having Kennedy and his fellow cranks in charge of vaccine policy is "like putting the Flat Earth Society in charge of NASA.”

With their constant claims of unknown risks and accusations of corruption among people who believe in science, I think they're like sailors in the Middle Ages who used maps with pictures of sea monsters captioned, "There be monsters here."

James Kirkland's avatar

When it comes to infectious diseases nature always wins. Every time. Vaccines raise the bar by increasing the body's ability to cope with pathogens. No vaccine is perfect and a certain portion of the population will not obtain the full benefit while some may also encounter side effects. However, suppress vaccines and morbidity and mortality due to preventable diseases will rise because the pathogens are still in nature and ready to do what they do. The T. Rump criminal enterprise knows this and has made the calculation-they know full well what they are doing and they just do not care. Peasant revolt, anyone?

Mona Ross's avatar

I have to commend Evidence Collective for keeping and reporting data when government bodies who did this in the past have been attacked and even shut down by this administration. Keep up the good work.

Stephanie Forbes's avatar

What an AWFUL HUMAN BEING is RFK. What a waste.

Anne's avatar

I'm sure I've said this before: there's a reason that brainworm died.

Giving credit where it is due (sadly): Last fall, when Tim Miller and Sam Stein tried to assess which Cabinet nominee would be the most dangerous, Sam picked RFK Jr.

Shelfie's avatar

It's a tough choice, in his rogues gallery of misfits, morons and moral-less monsters, ain't it?

Subhav's avatar

It's so hard to predict, isn't it...

In the first Trump administration, I thought Jeff Sessions and Rex Tillerson were the most dangerous cabinet appointments. They ended up being among the most responsible!

This time around, I would have thought Elon Musk and RFK Jr. would have been too clownish to do any real harm, but it turns out their naivety makes them pretty effective at burning institutions to the ground.

Victoria Brown's avatar

I thought the whole idea

behind the "new" regime

was to increase the

white population in our

country? They keep

doing away with all

these vaccines; there's

no herd immunity from

polio, Heb B, measles,

etc and they could miss

their intended goals.

Thank you Jonathan for

another good report.

Karma R Wyatt's avatar

I agree with "It's like putting the flat earth society in charge of NASA. Maybe that will be next.