RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He's Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.

[Eugene]

Source: Politico

RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.

We love Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he is part of a misinformation campaign that’s having heartbreaking—and deadly—consequences.

By KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II and MAEVE KENNEDY MCKEAN May 08, 2019

-snip-

Americans have every right to be alarmed about the outbreak of measles in pockets of our country with unusually high rates of unvaccinated citizens, especially children. Right now, officials in 22 states are grappling with a resurgence of the disease, which was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. With over 700 cases already reported and indications that more outbreaks will occur, 2019 will likely see the most recorded cases of measles in decades. And it’s not just measles. In Maine, health officials in March reported 41 new cases of whooping cough, another disease once thought to be a relic of the past—more than twice as many cases as this time last year.

This problem isn’t only an American one. The World Health Organization reports a 300 percent increase in the numbers of measles cases around the world this year compared with the first three months of 2018. More than 110,000 people are now dying from measles every year. The WHO, the health arm of the United Nations, has listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019. Most cases of preventable diseases occur among unvaccinated children, because parents have chosen not to vaccinate, have delayed vaccination, have difficulty accessing vaccines, or the children were too young to receive the vaccines.

These tragic numbers are caused by the growing fear and mistrust of vaccines—amplified by internet doomsayers. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Joe and Kathleen’s brother and Maeve’s uncle—is part of this campaign to attack the institutions committed to reducing the tragedy of preventable infectious diseases. He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.

We love Bobby. He is one of the great champions of the environment. His work to clean up the Hudson River and his tireless advocacy against multinational organizations who have polluted our waterways and endangered families has positively affected the lives of countless Americans. We stand behind him in his ongoing fight to protect our environment. However, on vaccines he is wrong.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798

[TwilightZone]

1. I've always found his anti-vaccine nonsense to be a bit inexplicable.

He seems like a reasonably-intelligent person outside of his vaccine views. On that issue, however, he's arguably as stubbornly irrational and intentionally obtuse as anyone in the entire movement.

[mopinko]

2. doesnt he have a kid he said was affected?

trying to remember, but i thought that was what set him on that path.

[lagomorph777]

3. The Anti-Vax movement is a Putin plot. A pox on all of them.

Even RFK Jr.

[Igel]

4. RFK Jr's book is from 2005.

The anti-vaxxer movement that's on the left side of the spectrum predates Putin, really.

The religious anti-vaxxer movement predates my birth in the late '50s.

That brush is suitable for Phineas and Ferb in painting a desert.

It's better--and easier--to use existing divisions than to try to create new ones, which is the conundrum in how do deal with disinformation--it means you have to say, "No, this is where this problem stops--it's a real issue on this side of the line and a fake one here. This fact is true, but this one, very like it, is false. This is a viable solution and builds harmony, this one is a polemic that merely stokes outrage, fundraising, and political support." You try that, and you get strung up by the short hairs.

The 2016 saw Russian agitprop supporting both white nationalism and Black Lives Matter, arguing that white racism was a dire threat and that claims of discrimination were a plot against white patrimony. That's not an issue Putin created. But it's a division he could deepen for his own use.

[lagomorph777]

6. Good analysis and it totally fits with how we've seen Putin operate.

Thanks for that.

[SunSeeker]

5. K & R