Dangerous Anti-Vacciner Robert F Kennedy Jr. Not His Father’s Son
Read Time:1 Minute, 43 Second
Those old enough to remember the Kennedy family know that John was gunned down in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald in November 1963, and Robert, was shot to death by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968 in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, in the case of the latter, his surviving son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fell far from the family tree as people all over America are beginning to learn.
His insane anti-vaccine rantings have grabbed the proverbial spotlight and Laura Helmuth, writing at Slate, can barely believe it. “Fascinating it is, and absolutely maddening. And dangerous.” You see the Junior believes that a vaccine preservative, thimerosal, causes autism, even though one medical organization after another disputes that—and thimerosal was removed from vaccines “out of an abundance of caution,” notes Helmuth. Yet some senators “nod politely” when he talks about it, and he commands big, adoring audiences on the subject and he’s even got a book coming out on vaccines.
“The more people dismiss Kennedy, unfortunately, the more obsessive and slanderous he becomes,” she writes. For example: A Washington Post profile quoted Kennedy as saying scientists are “involved in massive fraud” or “should be in jail, and the key should be thrown away.” Kennedy seems so extreme that Helmuth fears he’ll become a “heroic underdog,” but journalists, at least, have a different take:
At Slate, Phil Plait writes that Kennedy makes “baseless, unwarranted claims about vaccines, sowing doubt and fear,” while Steven Salzberg writes at Forbesthat Kennedy “is firmly in the camp of conspiracy theorists and cranks.” All well and good, but Helmuth notes that measles cases tripled in the US last year—partly due to “Kennedy’s tireless efforts.”
What makes it worse is millions of people will believe Kennedy’s baseless rantings simply because of who he is. The Kennedy cult is alive and well in America.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Of course he has a right to lie to the detriment of public health and safety, but I have a right devoutly to hope he dies from one of the easily preventable diseases now returning because of perverts like him.
But without the steady and I believe deliberate dumbing down of the US public he wouldn’t get air time.
Preservatives whose name is scarce amazing that otherwise intelligent people jump onto the anti-vaccine bandwagon. They start with the whole question of Mercury, nevermind that type of move through is not hazardous (yeah, sodium is hazardous, although sodium chloride is more than common, even though it uses sodium…). And even when the CDC decides to delete preservatives whose name scares people, it’s easier to all buckle a than to fight a losing battle. But those who want to believe that someone is out to get them can come up with amazing arguments! And then we have measles outbreaks and whooping cough epidemics!
As in may powerful families, the ethics, intelligence, and competence degrades with later generations.
The Kennedy Klan had its place in the sun and are now falling into disgrace and deliberate dumbness.