The witch trials of RFK Jr

Kennedy's assault on science continues with the destruction of ACIP

In June 2023, RFK Jr held a “health policy roundtable.” Early in his presidential campaign, months before leaving the Democratic party, he was building a base. In the coming weeks, he would speak at regenerative farming and cryptocurrency events, hoping to pick up disaffected voters in niche communities.

To really launch his campaign, though he turned to the community he knew best: anti-vaxxers and health contrarians. The call included a who’s who of conspiritualists, including:

• Mikki Willis, creator of the anti-vax propaganda flick, Plandemic, who Kennedy later admitted to funding

• Sayer Ji, founder of the pseudoscience clearing house, GreenMedInfo

• Joe Mercola, who sits on an alt-med fortune and uses at least some of that cash to pay a “psychic” to discuss blowing ozone up his ass as a health hack

• Sherri Tenpenny, the “spoons stick to you if you get vaccinated” woman

During the call, Kennedy invoked the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent agency within the CDC comprised of vaccine experts. The committee is tasked with recommending routine vaccinations, helping formulate vaccine schedules, advising on dosage, and grappling with potential contraindications.

ACIP is essential for the boring yet essential work of public health. They’re a big part of why Americans don’t regularly experience disease outbreaks. When they do their job well, you never know they exist—like most Americans, until yesterday, when Kennedy fired all 17 members from the committee.

Despite telling Congress he would do no such thing during his confirmation hearings, his previous musings reveal otherwise. During that June 2023 online call, Kennedy said, if given power, he would:

• Blackball any scientist on ACIP

• Block any ACIP scientist from ever sitting on a committee again

• Stop them from receiving federal funding for research for “at least” 8 years

Here’s the moment it happened:

conspiritualitypod

A post shared by @conspiritualitypod

Concern over Kennedy’s move was immediate. A longtime anti-vaxxer firing a group of experts to—this isn’t exactly prophetic—replace them with fellow “skeptics” is a public health nightmare in the making.

Meanwhile, Senator Bill Cassidy, the one man who could have prevented Kennedy from becoming HHS Secretary, continued turning a blind eye to what’s right in front of his face:

In the HHS press release about the firing, Kennedy went full Orwellian, stating:

“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Secretary Kennedy said. “The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”

ACIP is not “pro-vaccine” in the sense that Kennedy implies: a group of pharma lackeys rushing through therapeutics to maximize profit. Yet this is how Kennedy frames everything. Responding to Wall St Journal reporting on his decision to place David Geier to lead an autism “study,” Kennedy wrote:

David and his late father, Mark, were dosing autistic children with Lupron, which is used in chemical castrations. Framing the decision as an “inquisition” tells you everything you need to know about Kennedy’s disdain for science, critical thinking, or just plain common decency.

Meanwhile, “hinting” that the journalist is defaming Geier is a classic authoritarian move. Given his penchant for copying Trump, this too shouldn’t surprise.

In reality, nothing about public health under Kennedy’s watch is transparent. But it is traceable. As Dr Andrea Love noted this morning, he has his own vested interests:

RFK Jr. has built a multi-million dollar empire manufacturing vaccine distrust. His organization, Children's Health Defense, raked in over $16 million in 2021 alone—money made by terrifying parents, undermining public health, and selling false solutions.

Kennedy claims the reason for the mass firing is corruption, but as Love writes, this allegation of conflicts of interest comes from a false 2009 report, which was later corrected. Kennedy never lets facts get in the way of a good conspiracy, however.

As for ACIP, their last meeting was postponed until June 25-27. Anticipated votes during this session include:

• Meningococcal vaccines, which prevent against serious infections like meningitis and sepsis

• RSV-adult vaccines, a recommendation for adults ages 50-59 at increased risk of severe RSV disease

• Chikungunya vaccines, for anyone traveling to a part of the world with chikungunya outbreaks, a viral disease transmitted from mosquitoes to humans

Kennedy already canceled a $766 million contract to develop bird flu vaccines because it was “not scientifically or ethically justifiable.” The reason? The vaccine was based on mRNA technology—a breakthrough that won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Apparently, Kennedy knows more than the Nobel committee. I’m not joking: during the health policy roundtable, he claimed to be an expert in reading complex studies and distilling the essence from them. Yes, he said that with a straight face.

It’s one thing to sow distrust in public health by spreading misinformation and monetizing lawsuits. It’s quite another to do so while holding the keys to the nation’s public health apparatus. The damage Kennedy will do is unthinkable, and we can be certain he’s never going to take any responsibility for what’s to come.