Folks - this man is a nutcase who goes around suing American companies and trying to fear monger about how bad what they do is so he can taint a jury pool and win a verdict. And he’s good at it. Please understand that nothing this man says is true. I’m sure our posters on this board who work in farming would love to hear that they are more dangerous to America than Al-Qaeda. 😏
From the WSJ today .
Start with his longtime campaign against vaccines. “There is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” he told CNN last December. None? Has polio nearly vanished on its own?
“A mountain of scientific study links autism to early vaccination with certain vaccines,” he told NBC News in March. No, it doesn’t. The Wakefield study that was the basis for this claim was the result of fraudulent research.
Mr. Kennedy has toned down his anti-vaccine evangelism of late, and he now says he merely wants parents to have a choice of vaccinating their children. But places in the U.S. where parents have sought exemptions from school vaccine mandates have experienced more community outbreaks of measles.
He has suggested that “wifi radiation” is increasing autism, food allergies, asthma and chronic illnesses. “I think it degrades your mitochondria and it opens your blood-brain barrier,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan last year. There’s no evidence for that either. Nor for his claims that chemicals in sunscreen are hazardous.
Mr. Kennedy has blamed chemicals in water and consumer products for every health ill from cancer to gender dysphoria among young people. Genetically modified foods are another RFK Jr. villain. He has proposed that the government create organic-farming communes to treat drug addictions. The American diet could certainly improve, and processed foods have contributed to obesity and chronic diseases. But Americans don’t want to know how high food prices would be if it were all produced “organically.”
Like vaccines, genetically modified crops have been one of the modern age’s greatest inventions. They have increased crop yields, reduced spoilage and pesticide use, and enabled farmers to end starvation. Perhaps Mr. Trump is unaware of Mr. Kennedy’s animus against U.S. farmers, who have been among his most loyal supporters.
“Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network,” Mr. Kennedy declared in 2002. He spearheaded the trial-lawyer assault on the Roundup herbicide despite little evidence of cancer-causing risk. Ballooning litigation costs have spurred Bayer to consider pulling Roundup from the U.S. market, which would benefit competing Chinese manufacturers.
The same is true of Mr. Kennedy’s anti-business agenda. Beijing would like nothing more than for Mr. Kennedy to use his clout at HHS to hobble U.S. biotech innovation and American drug makers. By the way, where does Mr. Kennedy think most of the “natural supplements” that he touts as alternatives to medicines are produced? The answer is China.
Some Republicans have rallied in support of Mr. Kennedy because they think he will make public-health agencies more transparent and weed out alleged collusion between Big Pharma and government. But he lacks the experience and temperament to manage, let alone reform, HHS’s unwieldy bureaucracy. Mr. Kennedy’s expertise is as a gadfly.
Mr. Trump’s desire to focus on America’s health agencies is welcome, but RFK Jr. won’t make America healthier. He’s more likely to harm public health by spreading confusion and attacking the American companies that are saving lives and feeding the world.
From the WSJ today .
Start with his longtime campaign against vaccines. “There is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” he told CNN last December. None? Has polio nearly vanished on its own?
“A mountain of scientific study links autism to early vaccination with certain vaccines,” he told NBC News in March. No, it doesn’t. The Wakefield study that was the basis for this claim was the result of fraudulent research.
Mr. Kennedy has toned down his anti-vaccine evangelism of late, and he now says he merely wants parents to have a choice of vaccinating their children. But places in the U.S. where parents have sought exemptions from school vaccine mandates have experienced more community outbreaks of measles.
He has suggested that “wifi radiation” is increasing autism, food allergies, asthma and chronic illnesses. “I think it degrades your mitochondria and it opens your blood-brain barrier,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan last year. There’s no evidence for that either. Nor for his claims that chemicals in sunscreen are hazardous.
Mr. Kennedy has blamed chemicals in water and consumer products for every health ill from cancer to gender dysphoria among young people. Genetically modified foods are another RFK Jr. villain. He has proposed that the government create organic-farming communes to treat drug addictions. The American diet could certainly improve, and processed foods have contributed to obesity and chronic diseases. But Americans don’t want to know how high food prices would be if it were all produced “organically.”
Like vaccines, genetically modified crops have been one of the modern age’s greatest inventions. They have increased crop yields, reduced spoilage and pesticide use, and enabled farmers to end starvation. Perhaps Mr. Trump is unaware of Mr. Kennedy’s animus against U.S. farmers, who have been among his most loyal supporters.
“Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network,” Mr. Kennedy declared in 2002. He spearheaded the trial-lawyer assault on the Roundup herbicide despite little evidence of cancer-causing risk. Ballooning litigation costs have spurred Bayer to consider pulling Roundup from the U.S. market, which would benefit competing Chinese manufacturers.
The same is true of Mr. Kennedy’s anti-business agenda. Beijing would like nothing more than for Mr. Kennedy to use his clout at HHS to hobble U.S. biotech innovation and American drug makers. By the way, where does Mr. Kennedy think most of the “natural supplements” that he touts as alternatives to medicines are produced? The answer is China.
Some Republicans have rallied in support of Mr. Kennedy because they think he will make public-health agencies more transparent and weed out alleged collusion between Big Pharma and government. But he lacks the experience and temperament to manage, let alone reform, HHS’s unwieldy bureaucracy. Mr. Kennedy’s expertise is as a gadfly.
Mr. Trump’s desire to focus on America’s health agencies is welcome, but RFK Jr. won’t make America healthier. He’s more likely to harm public health by spreading confusion and attacking the American companies that are saving lives and feeding the world.
