Trump Adamant About Inciting More Anti-Vax Fear in Middle of Measles Crisis: Public Health Project Newsletter

Exhibit Z on how Donald Trump is personally driving the administration’s deadly, unfounded, and unpopular anti-vax agenda. Last night, the Washington Post revealed White House officials are “drafting an executive order focused on the childhood vaccine schedule and autism” over objections from their own Republican pollsters.

This follows recent reporting from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal on how Trump has been pressuring Health Secretary Kennedy for months to manufacture a link between autism and vaccines despite the mountain of peer-reviewed data that has thoroughly concluded no such connection exists. And “most famous vaccine skeptic on the planet” RFK Jr. has loved the encouragement, bragging his relationship with Trump is “very, very strong.”

As Protect Our Care president Brad Woodhouse has stressed: “If Trump gets his way and waters down the child vaccine schedule over the debunked autism myth, more American kids will suffer and die of preventable disease. We’re already in the middle of a record-breaking measles crisis thanks to vaccine lies amplified loudly by this administration, yet Trump is determined to do more damage.”

Indeed, enshrining anti-vax misinformation in an official decree from the highest office in the land can only lead down one path: more needless confusion and fear among parents, a further drop in vaccination rates, and a huge uptick in preventable disease. Trump’s ignorance of vaccine science and insistence that he’s never wrong will put more children in the ER and morgue, full stop.

The Page Is Coming From Inside the White House, Dr. Oz: Without a hint of irony, Dr Oz sanctimoniously declared on Fox News this week: “The reality is all these grifters have come because we invited them into the federal government to steal our money.”

There’s a good chance these grifters are in the room with Dr. Oz right now. In recent days, RFK Jr. has come under two Senate investigations over quid pro quos and conflicts of interest, including into recent shady HHS actions on flavored vapes and kratom products linked to thousands of deaths after the industries made large donations to his and Trump’s presidential campaigns – and into how RFK Jr.’s family is likely profiting from “a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.” Also this week, Kennedy exploited his title to promote his hacky anti-Fauci book on national TV despite telling lawmakers he never would. But, of course, when it comes to abusing federal power to fleece Americans, no one will ever top Donald J. Trump.

Start the Clock: The dangerous leadership crisis at the Trump HHS got slightly less severe this week with the Senate confirmation of Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director. The agency has been without a permanent head for over 11 months after the last one was booted in less than a month after refusing RFK Jr.’s demands to “pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public and fire career scientists.” RFK Jr. and Trump’s anti-vax agenda has only intensified since then. Thus, Dr. Schwartz will inevitably be given two choices: go along with Trump’s anti-vax program despite her pledge to always follow the science, or pack up her office like her predecessor. Given her repeated refusal to pledge to stand up to RFK Jr. when presented with that choice, odds are unfortunately good she will go along to get along at the expense of public health.

First 2 Deaths Reported in Record-Shattering Cyclosporiasis Outbreak While RFK Jr.’s Cooks With Celebrities: The outbreak of the explosive-diarrhea causing parasite has now spread to 15 states, sickened 6,358 people, hospitalized 278, and killed two. The nation’s top health official RFK Jr. has made no acknowledgement of these deaths, and still no apology for Trump’s short-sighted cuts to CDC and FDA safety nets that preceded the administration’s inept and delayed response to the crisis. He’s just been too preoccupied with his celebrity cooking show that’s being called a “rich person’s solution to a poor person’s problem.”

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