Washington D.C. – The Trump administration’s deadly and deeply unpopular war on vaccines continues to escalate no matter the cost to public health.
The NYT reports anti-vax Trump health secretary RFK Jr. is cooking up a “new billing code to reimburse doctors for filing reports of serious vaccine side effects” based on his conspiracy theory against mercury and aluminum salts in vaccines — despite “no evidence that either are harmful.”
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reveals that the Trump CDC is raiding $1.6 million from its global health security programs (despite a raging Ebola crisis in the DRC and growing concerns about the Russian plague death) to fund a dubious study in Guinea-Bissau to fish for harms of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, conducted by researchers “accused of scientific misconduct.” In a nation where “one in five adults have hepatitis B”, the clinical trial flies in the face of all medical ethics by giving the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine to “half of the 14,000 newborn participants, but not to the other half,” putting thousands of children at needless risk of chronic liver disease and cancer.
It is a transparent effort to manufacture and cherry-pick data to justify Donald Trump and RFK Jr’s effort to scrap the lifesaving and proven-safe hepatitis B shot from the CDC child vaccine schedule, which was blocked by a federal judge in March. This reckless and unethical study was approved by CDC Director Erica Schwartz despite her pledge to Senators to always “follow the science.” It is a prime example why Senator Patty Murray’s new plan for “insulating the C.D.C. from political pressure” is so badly needed to ensure public health always comes before the political whims of science-deniers in the Trump White House.
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care: “Somehow the Trump-RFK Jr anti-vax agenda keeps getting more corrupt and dangerous. Now Secretary Kennedy wants to bribe doctors to claim they see vaccine harm without proof, which is just asking for higher insurance costs and a rash of waste, fraud and abuse. Meanwhile, the administration is raiding resources that should be spent on active global health threats like Ebola to pay for a beyond-unethical ‘study’ that deliberately puts thousands of children in harm’s way. RFK Jr’s latest fishing expeditions are about one thing: concocting any excuse Donald Trump can use to obstruct vaccines that have saved countless lives. For years, Kennedy got rich off spreading debunked lies about vaccines, and now wants to keep the grift going for his family and friends no matter how many kids get hurt in the process. RFK Jr is a walking ethics scandal and public health enemy number one.”
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