Anti-Vaxxer-In-Chief: Public Health Project Newsletter

Building on Reuters’ recent reporting, this week the Wall Street Journal further confirmed that Donald Trump is regularly pressuring his health secretary to ramp up their shared anti-vax agenda — unimpressed with RFK Jr.’s progress in weaponizing the debunked autism-vaccine link. So much for those claims from White House officials that “We’re just kind of done with the vaccine issue.”

Trump clearly doesn’t care his war on vaccines is political poison for Republicans (Independents now reject RFK Jr. by a 2-to-1 margin) — and cares even less that the resulting decline in vaccination rates is literally deadly to American kids. This explains why RFK Jr. has gone to extraordinary lengths in recent months to make Trump happy, including trying to seize “access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism.”

Not that Sec. Kennedy even needed more motivation from Trump to keep the vaccine fear machine humming. The money is just too good. This week, several Senators “opened a new investigation” into whether RFK Jr.’s family may be profiting from “a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.”

Trump-RFK Jr. Deadly Anti-Vax Agenda Rolls Down Hill: The New York Times released a sobering analysis: “Emboldened by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to oppose vaccines … [l]awmakers flooded statehouses this year with bills seeking to dismantle vaccination rules or raise questions about vaccine safety, introducing more than 200 measures in 34 states.” While not a single one of these bills has any basis in science, they all contribute to the unfounded vaccine fear epidemic that has given rise to the worst measles outbreak in 35 years. Trump’s insistence on fanning the flames of misinformation from the highest levels of power will only feed worse state-based attacks against proven safe and effective vaccines and welcome new surges of preventable disease.

Cooking With Celebrities While Public Health Crises Rage: The explosive-diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora has now sickened over 10,000 people in Michigan alone just days after Sec. Kennedy pronounced the crisis “under control” – while Ohio is suffering its third measles outbreak so far this year, adding to the other record-breaking health crisis. While you might expect the nation’s top health official to be heavily involved on the ground trying to put out these worsening public health fires. In ordinary times, sure. Except, we’re stuck with someone more interested in stroking their own ego than doing their job. Forget a competent and coordinated emergency response plan from the administration, instead ailing Americans are being treated to a new celebrity cooking show hosted by RFK Jr. himself.

Search for Cassidy’s Spine Continues: Republican HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy rightly castigated a Trump nominee vying to oversee the nation’s emergency supply of vaccines over his disqualifying record of smearing vaccine safety – and Trump’s CDC nominee for refusing to pledge to stand up to RFK Jr when he inevitably meddles with CDC vaccine guidance and disregards the science. After some hemming and hawing, Cassidy moved both along for full Senate approval. Why bother repairing your legacy and standing up for science now after putting RFK Jr in charge, right Senator?

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