The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, does not believe in traditional medicine and science. One of the greatest advances in medicine in the last century and a half has been the development of vaccines to prevent a whole host of infectious diseases. Literally, millions of lives have been saved by these vaccines which RFK has denigrated. He thinks some of the vaccines that have contained compounds with mercury as a preservative (thimerosal) have been responsible for the increase in autism in the United States. Research has shown that thimerosal has no relation to autism but Kennedy refuses to accept the data. He wants new controlled testing to be done before he will accept the results, which could take years. Kennedy also refutes the effectiveness of many vaccines which have been proven without a doubt to work.
Because experts at the CDC have disagreed with what Kennedy is doing and favor the use of vaccines, RFK fired the CDC’s panel of 17 vaccine experts, claiming they had conflicts of interest in approving vaccines. These were people who specialized in infectious diseases, including prevention and treatment, and were known as the ACIP- Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. They had been carefully vetted in the past before being appointed. Kennedy subsequently appointed new members of the committee, most of whom had no experience with infectious diseases or vaccines.
Vaccines contain killed or attenuated micro-organisms, bacteria and viruses that cause serious diseases. When these benign micro-organisms are injected, the body’s immune system produces antibodies against the particular virus or bacteria, which ameliorates the risk of them causing active diseases. The effectiveness of vaccines has been known since smallpox was blocked by vaccination over 200 years ago. Since then, all the major childhood diseases which have a small mortality, and some long-term adverse effects have been controlled by vaccines. But because of the refusal of a large segment of the population to get vaccinated, there has been a measles outbreak in Texas and the adjacent states. A number of children have been hospitalized and several have died. There is also a late complication of measles that can kill patients called subacute sclerosing pan-encephalitis, that is yet to show up. An outbreak of polio is also possible as the vaccine is not being used by many adults and children. There is a risk of diphtheria, whooping cough, rubella, chicken pox and numerous other diseases because of Kennedy’s campaign against vaccinations.
Perhaps even more serious are influenza outbreaks which can kill elderly people, those who are immune compromised and young children, producing viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia. Flu vaccines are not 100 percent effective but can reduce the severity of the disease if the right variants are in the vaccine. If avian flu- bird flu, mutates and is more contagious for humans, there could be a devastating pandemic if we are not prepared with the appropriate vaccines. While RFK appears to be doing a good job going after food contaminants, his work with vaccines negates any positive effects he may be having with our foods. Bobby, let the experts handle our needs for vaccines and see a psychiatrist about your vaccine phobia.
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Buy The Uninformed Voter on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or your local bookstore.
Posted at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Health and Human Services, Kennedy, measles, RFK, vaccine panel, vaccines
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020