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Dennis Donovan

(28,407 posts)
Tue Nov 19, 2024, 12:38 PM Nov 19

Public Notice: RFK Jr. is a massive public health threat

Public Notice - RFK Jr. is a massive public health threat

Dems like Jared Polis shouldn't pretend pretend otherwise.

Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky
Nov 19, 2024



By Noah Berlatsky
Donald Trump, in his vacuous orange wisdom, has nominated vaccine denier, crank, and champion of disease Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Inevitably, some in the mainstream media and Democratic Party have rushed to placate Trump and ease the way for this assault on public health. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he approved of a coming “major shake-up in institutions like the FDA” under a Kennedy HHS. Sen. Cory Booker posted a video on X expressing RFK Jr.-coded concerns about the food system that Politico interpreted as signaling an openness to his nomination. The New York Times did its usual patented both sides thing and ran an article under the headline, “What RFK Jr. Gets Right — And Wrong — About Nutrition.” The Washington Post used RFK’s bonkers fluoride conspiracy theories as a launching pad to argue against the value of water fluoridation.

We shouldn’t be surprised by people complying in advance and rushing to debase themselves to assuage Trump and his movement. But we should also be very clear: anyone who suggests that RFK Jr. running HHS is anything but a monumental, catastrophic disaster is a liar, a fool, or quite possibly both.

Many of Trump’s nominations are horrific; many of his policies are terrifying. Kennedy is something special even with that baseline though. He has articulated a vision that will, if enacted, lead to the deaths of untold numbers of people, many of whom have not even been born. It is difficult to overstate the long-term danger he poses to the country and world.

/snip
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