« First « Previous Comments 11 - 50 of 53 Next » Last » Search these comments
You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? The Hill ran an enervating story yesterday headlined, “Kennedy sends mixed vaccine messages amid Texas measles outbreak.” The MAHA movement, enjoying a well-deserved run of astonishing good fortune, faced a setback this week, and that setback took the form of a pharma lobby, butt-kissing editorial that RFKjr published in, of all places, Fox News.
It didn’t start that way. The Hill explained that Kennedy “initially downplayed the outbreak in Texas during a Cabinet meeting with President Trump last week, saying it was ‘not unusual’ and falsely claimed that many people hospitalized were there ‘mainly for quarantine.’”
Not only that, but as the Hill correctly reported, “Kennedy has a long history of disparaging the MMR vaccine. He has … repeatedly linked it to rising autism rates and questioned its safety.” So far, so good.
But RFK’s Sunday op-ed sang a different, discordant tune. What a difference a week can make in 2025. Kennedy — or was it Kennedy? — disgracefully opined that, “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
Haha, “community immunity.” Good one. That, my friends, is the stale term “herd immunity,” but rewrapped in NewSpeak to conceal that they think we’re just a pack of dumb farm animals.
The sing-songy slogan “community immunity” was a dog whistle to mandatory jabbers everywhere.
All that said, I’ll scrape up my shattered optimism to defend Kennedy and offer a theory for the longtime vaccine critic’s warp-speed about-face. In my defense, nobody else has a better theory.
There were two subtle signals. First, and maybe most promising, the op-ed was not written in RFK’s voice. I, and many of you, have read Kennedy for years. The op-ed’s robotic, hyper-clinical language did not sound like him at all. I rather suspect that he got an odious assignment and subbed it out to a ghostwriter.
Second —maybe I am reading too much into this— his op-ed started with the sentence, “As the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I am deeply concerned about the recent measles outbreak.” It sounded like a subtle sort of disclaimer. In other words, Kennedy wasn’t writing for himself. He was writing as HHS Secretary. It was his official duty.
The trouble began earlier, with corporate media’s hyperbolic “measles outbreak” story, which crescendoed last week following tragic news of the death of “a school-age child.” One who, I am confident, had multiple co-morbidities and probably died with measles, not from measles, but they won’t say. Patient privacy.
The cumulative media pressure on Kennedy was enormous. After all, he’d just canceled the annual influenza vaccine committee. He was vulnerable to attack— and so the Deep State struck. Yesterday, Politico reported a story headlined, “Top HHS spokesperson quits after clashing with RFK Jr.
On Friday, Thomas Corry, Kennedy’s brand-new Public Affairs Director, “abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak.”
An anonymous HHS leaker blabbed to the Hill that Corry was “the one adult in the room that I saw, unfortunately.”
Two days after Corry rage-quit, Kennedy published his pro-MMR editorial. The next day, yesterday, his principal deputy chief of staff and long-time confidante, Stefanie Spear, sent a statement calling the measles outbreak “a top priority for Secretary Kennedy.”
Obviously, there is a battle raging within HHS, fueled by a media firestorm in the form of a giant burning wicker child. Kennedy made a bad choice in picking Corry. (We can’t even judge that too harshly; for all we know, he was forced to agree to Corry as one of many promises he made to survive Senate confirmation.)
As we discussed yesterday, the Democrats are acting like roadkill, salivating over the first Trump Administration misstep, to launch a narrative counterattack aimed at sanding the Agenda’s machine. Looking at all these facts, it seems the Trump Team maybe reached the difficult conclusion that discretion is the better part of valor. They extracted the canines from the rabid measles narrative before it could strap on its covid face mask.
Switching metaphors, chess sometimes requires sacrificing a piece. On Sunday, Kennedy may have strategically sacrificed a pawnish op-ed, a strategic compromise to quell the swelling counterattack that could have escaped HHS and infected the rest of Trump’s plans.
Either way, it is far too soon to throw the unvaccinated baby out with the pharmaceutical bathwater. Talk, as they say, is cheap. The Administration has plenty of political capital to spend. Perhaps we should hold fire and wait to see what the new Secretary does.
In other words, Kennedy wasn’t writing for himself. He was writing as HHS Secretary. It was his official duty.
Now let’s look at the much juicer things-to-love list from Kennedy’s opinion piece:
“As healthcare providers, community leaders, and policymakers, we have a shared responsibility to protect public health. This includes ensuring that accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy is disseminated.” Did our HHS Secretary just imply that past information about vaccine safety may not have been accurate? Why, I think he did!
“It is also our responsibility to provide up-to-date guidance on available therapeutic medications. While there is no approved antiviral for those who may be infected, CDC has recently updated their recommendation supporting administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection. Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.” The Centers for Dastardly Corruption are recommending a vitamin treatment? Might this be a first?
“Tens of thousands died with, or of, measles annually in 19th Century America. By 1960—before the vaccine’s introduction—improvements in sanitation and nutrition had eliminated 98% of measles deaths.” In case that one slipped by you, the nation’s top public health official just pointed out that the measles vaccine was and is not the game-changing, lifesaving miracle it has historically been made out to be.
“Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses. Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet.” Hold the rotary phone! We have the power to increase our own immunity without a jabbidy-jab-jab? You don’t say!
“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one.” Not a forced one or even one you have to justify. It’s personal—meaning it’s entirely up to the person making it and not a matter of public debate.
Sec. Kennedy, "Radical Transparency" demands answers about the alleged Texas measles fatality
The recent report of an alleged measles death in Texas has been accompanied by almost no information to allow the public to understand the circumstances that may have led to the child's passing. COVID has taught anyone paying attention that public health authorities routinely misrepresent, omit, fabricate, or simply lie about enormously important facts, and those lies always support the methods advocated by the public health authorities. Deaths caused by gun shot wounds, automobile accidents and chronic diseases were attributed to COVID to amplify the fear needed to justify draconian policies, and to cash-in on substantial federal bonuses offered for COVID deaths. Public health's affinity for lying has led to an enormous collapse in trust in those institutions reflected in poll after poll.
Measles outbreaks have also been used as a pretext in California and New York to justify eliminating parental choice over which vaccines are given to their children, and right now Hawaii Governor Josh Green MD is pushing through a bill at full speed to repeal Hawaii's religious exemption. So skepticism about politically significant public health events are well warranted.
RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions; In notice to Federal Register, health agency says public participation is not needed in many decisions; HHS would rescind its longtime practice of giving members of the public a chance to comment on the agency’s plans. It is set to be formally published in the register; I do not understand this decision; how does the public benefit?
RFK to Investigate Mental Health Effects of Purple Hair Dye
The HHS Secretary vowed to study the "obvious correlation" between the use of neon hair dye and psychosis.
This is the only realistic way to get the COVID injections pulled.
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. (@SecKennedy) must revoke the PREP Act liability shield for the jabs—and he can do that NOW, UNILATERALLY
If he does not, he becomes complicit in "mass murder" (his quote) ...
a subset of the population that doesn’t have access to toilets, showers, and running water
https://thefarcefeed.substack.com/p/rfk-to-investigate-mental-health
RFK to Investigate Mental Health Effects of Purple Hair Dye
The HHS Secretary vowed to study the "obvious correlation" between the use of neon hair dye and psychosis.
RayAmerica says
And this is not a 1A violation how?
Up in the PRNY, western NY division, they're selling special Passover Coke for the Jews in anticipation of Passover/Easter. This is 50 cents more than regular Coke per 2 liter, but it has sugar, not HFCS for sweeteners, and reduced preservatives.
This is a textbook example of the tyranny of the minority, and a lesson to those who would create a parallel society. You have to go all the way, and publicly shame anyone who opposes your agenda, whether the opposition is naive or malicious - all are punished disproportionately to make examples.
Mardi Gras falls on March 4 this year, and that Tuesday always signals the beginning of Lent for those who observe. Restaurant chains are ready with seafood deals aimed at those who don’t eat meat during this period.
And this is not a 1A violation how?
Secretary Kennedy has obviously been a very busy boy. And he’s clearly no sentimentalist. Astonishingly, NPR ran yesterday’s most accurate HHS headline. To wit: “The Trump administration restructures federal health agencies, cuts 20,000 jobs.” Boom.
Let’s pause a moment. I’d like to speak directly to all the people who, like me, fumed during the pandemic’s deadly bureaucratic excesses. We passionately longed for mass firings at the public health agencies. We wished upon a star that thousands would get pink slips for what they did. But we never allowed ourselves to hope, not really, because it was too much to hope for. Because, honestly, when has anyone in government ever been accountable for anything?
Welp, be of great cheer. Today is our day. It’s finally here! Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., strode into the Department of Health and Human Services like a multi-armed spanking robot set on ‘high.’ Yesterday, HHS announced a total downsizing of 20,000 jobs, reducing headcount from 82,000 to 62,000. Not only that, but Kennedy is slashing the total number of divisions within HHS practically in half, evaporating the health behemoth to 15 divisions from 28 (it had been happily shooting for 30).
It was truly an astonishing comeuppance for the so-called “health” agency, but it was not just that. Secretary Kennedy explained, “We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.” He plans to do more with less. He continued, “This Department will do more –a lot more– at a lower cost to the taxpayer.” ...
Seriously, being forced to wear a hospital mask at Publix made us feel like how the North Koreans must feel whenever their porky Dictator-de-jeur orders everybody to clap for an hour straight. Faster! Now do it standing on one leg! Even faster! Now stick your tongues out! Guards! Kill that one! And that one!
Anyway. Dear health agency employees, I am sure some of you are hardworking, honest folks who did your best. But you should have spoken up. Now you face the spanking robot. Bend over.
Finally, enjoy yesterday’s headline from Fierce Healthcare: “CDC, DOGE claw back $11 billion in COVID-19 grants nationwide as agency roots out 'censorship' contracts.”
It’s so much better than that. The article reported that a new directive “went out to HHS employees the morning of March 26, telling them to urgently identify contracts that may lead to censorship or cause someone to hold certain ideas more than others. Examples given included COVID-19 vaccine usage, masking and education and outreach advertisements.”
“Hold certain ideas more than others.” In other words, and for example, just one small slice canceled all studies on vaccine hesitancy, and similar sorts of thought control.
Put simply, the government spent billions making sure we thought the “right” thoughts about masking, vaccines, and school closures. Now the spanking robot is cleaning HHS’s house.
Ban all levels of government from attempting to influence public opinion aside from direct quotable speech by specific elected officials; government should respect and reflect the will of the people.
But here's the thing, there wasn't some smug condescending upcharge for not getting the extra shit that is bad for you.
That's what I never got about the Organic movement, it was coddled into some boutique elitist food isle. Rather than any real movement to demand that all food be grown that way.
strawberry
Strawberries are consistently ranked as the fruit with the highest pesticide contamination.
‘Long-overdue Crack in the Dam’: RFK Jr. to Create CDC Sub-agency Focused on Vaccine Injuries
Vaccine safety advocates hailed HHS Secretary Kennedy’s plan to create an agency within the CDC focused on vaccine injuries and also long COVID and Lyme disease. ...
During an interview Thursday night with Chris Cuomo on “NewsNation,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said:
“We’re incorporating an agency within CDC that is going to specialize in vaccine injuries.
“These are priorities for the American people. More and more people are suffering from these injuries, and we are committed to having gold-standard science to make sure that we can figure out what the treatments are and that we can deliver the best treatments possible to the American people.”
Reuters ran an alarmist headline yesterday that probably gave every career bureaucrat heartburn: “Trump begins mass layoffs at FDA, CDC, other US health agencies.” The agency’s former commissioner, Robert Califf, cried “the FDA as we've known it is finished.” Thank goodness. They should have taken the deal.
It might’ve been the biggest single-day purge of the federal government in U.S. history — and it was certainly the largest decapitation of the byzantine health bureaucracies. Newly minted HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. posted on X: “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs. But the reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working.”
Kennedy had already promised to reduce headcount from 82,000 to 62,000, and to trim the number of health agencies from 28 to 15. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
According to Reuters, the layoff blitz was so fast and so brutal that some employees were notified by security guards when they tried to badge into the HHS offices in DC. Those who’d been axed were handed a ticket and sent home. Reuters complained that workers waited in line for hours, not knowing what would happen when they got to the front.
It wasn’t just line workers. Even Fauci’s heir NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo was canned — though she reportedly was offered a “transition job” in the less glamorous Indian Health Service. Reuters didn’t say whether she accepted. Maybe she’ll send up a smoke signal from the reservation to let us know.
No one reported exactly how many federal health employees got the boot. But it was a lot. The unhinged language in the media coverage was apocalyptic: “bloodbath,” “massacre,” “devastation.” You can easily imagine the hysterical quotes; I don’t need to list them here.
The problem isn’t just the crooks at the top; it’s the culture of cowardice beneath them.
All these “good” CDC and NIH employees kept their mouths shut during covid. They could have spoken up and mitigated the harm. But the “good ones” stayed silent, kept their heads down, to save their jobs. Now, they’ve lost their jobs anyway, since the public has learned the hard way that the bloated health bureaucracies are an imminent danger and must be pruned to protect us all.
Silence in the face of institutional corruption is complicity.
Despite all the pearl-clutching predictions of civilizational collapse, I have yet to see a single example of a clear win for public health. Trump’s critics complain only about things that might happen. The CDC prevents pandemics, they cry. But it didn’t prevent covid, did it? We cannot measure things that didn’t happen. But clearly, the massive investment in public health hasn’t stopped cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, autism, the opioid crisis, or a raft of other burgeoning diseases afflicting our country— things that aren’t happening in other countries.
They even helped enforce a false narrative about Alzheimer’s that stalled progress for twenty-five years.
So … what do we need them for? All they’ve done is balloon into a multi-billion-dollar apparatus of failure and finger-pointing. The pandemic proved the federal health agencies are more dangerous to the public than the diseases they claim to fight.
Finally, as we see Trump fulfilling his campaign promises, we should note his brilliance. Trump broke the rules. The reason no administration ever tried this before wasn’t because they couldn’t — it’s because they wouldn’t. Political appointees always feared the inevitable media meltdown and career-ending backlash.
But Trump appointed people who’ve already been through the media’s mangling machine. What can the media now say about Kennedy they haven’t already dished out in heaping measure? Or Bhattacharya, Makary, or the rest? These folks have already been through the cancellation wringer. They don’t care.
I’m sympathetic that some good scientists will experience a temporary period of underemployment. But they should be back to work soon, snapped up by the private sector for their awesome skills.
This is a long-overdue reckoning. I’d even call it karma.
« First « Previous Comments 11 - 50 of 53 Next » Last » Search these comments
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/cancelation-notices-saturday-february