Raw Story: GOP senator: 'Everybody here has lost someone' -- possibly from the COVID vaccine

[Dennis Donovan]

Raw Story - GOP senator: 'Everybody here has lost someone' — possibly from the COVID vaccine

Matthew Chapman
December 17, 2024 6:39PM ET

A Republican senator launched into an anti-vaccine rant Tuesday when reporters asked about confirming noted health conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of Health and Human Services.

/snip/

"What I was excited to hear him about was getting away from guessing, into facts. Do science, get behind the science, stay with it, don't be guessing. That's a lot of what these vaccines have done," said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). "They haven't been 100 percent proven. If you look at the number of vaccines young babies get over a short period of time, it's dozens and dozens of them. And he's totally against that, he wants to make sure that parents understand the good and the bad and the ugly, instead of just forcing parents to give vaccines to their kids."

"You know, he and I both grew up and we had three vaccines: tuberculosis, polio, and I think smallpox. And that's how much it's grown. Now we give dozens and dozens," he continued.

Vaccines are exhaustively tested for safety, even those approved on an emergency basis such as COVID-19 shots. There is no evidence that the modern vaccine schedule "overwhelms" or "overloads" a baby's immune system. While children are vaccinated against more diseases today than decades ago, vaccines today contain far fewer antigens than they used to and rely less on live viruses that carry a risk of accidental infection.

/snip/

"At the end of the day he believes that we don't all need to be guinea pigs," Tuberville said, adding of the COVID vaccine, "Everybody in this group has lost somebody ... possibly from the vaccine that were perfectly healthy."

/snip

Dumbass.

[patphil]

1. DTP - Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis is another vaccine that has been around for a long time.

It was redone in 1991 to have less side effects.
This vaccine has protected millions of children each year, and pretty much eliminated these diseases.

People don't die from the vaccine, they die from the illness. The GOP is full of shit, right up to their eyeballs.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. DPT was available when I was a baby - I was born in 1948 That was it besides smallpox

until polio vaccine was approved. TommyTube thinks TB had a vaccine when he was a kid. Well, if there had been one I would have gotten it because my mom and our pediatrician did not mess around when it came to immunizations. Now we did get typhoid vaccines every other year because we got out water from a well, out in the country. SInce you do not know what might fall into a sinkhole upstream from your well, typhoid shots are a good thing.

Maybe TOmmyT confused the TB test which is like an injection with a vaccine. WOuld not surprise me at all.

[Celerity]

2. I knew it was Ol' Tubbs before I even opened the OP

He is by far the stupidest Senator in office now, perhaps ever.

[Initech]

14. And MAGA loons are the ones who spat in the face of experts and gloated about it.

I have this feeling RFK Jr's conspiracy theory bullshit is going to be putting a new kind of drain on our hospital systems.

[Ms. Toad]

3. And what country was he born in where he received a tuberculosis vaccinatoin?

It is not (nor has it ever been, as far as I know) a standard vaccination in the US.

[zeusdogmom]

6. He's probably mixing it up with the TB test to screen for the disease or exposure to it

The man isn’t very bright …. Sadly he is also ignorant - not a good thing when you are a senator

[Ms. Toad]

9. Probably right.

We're close to the same age, and I had those at least twice middle/high school (and then again when I was teaching high school).

Dodo.

[zeusdogmom]

12. I have to do the screening every year because I come in contact with zoo animals (zoo docent)

It’s not to protect me - it’s to protect the animals. I don’t mind - in reality I come in contact with thousands of people every year from so many different places, many times in vey close contact. Protects all of us. We were also screened grade school thru high school. Basic public health SOP.

You can be assured I keep up to date with all my vaccinations. Although those didn’t protect me from the viral crud the 4 year old grandchild brought home from preschool …. 😀

[Irish_Dem]

4. Rewriting history, all the Covid deaths were vaccine deaths.

OK sure.

[Ocelot II]

5. How did I know this was going to be about Tuberville

before I got to the second paragraph?

Maybe because he's the dumbest member of the Senate, despite the stiff competition for that designation...

[Initech]

7. Didn't even have to click to guess it was Tub'o'shit.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Why Was I So Certain....

...that this came from Tuberville?

[republianmushroom]

10. Dumb and dumber.

[Johonny]

11. No wonder his football teams never won the big one

Dude makes Nick Saban look like a genius.

[Whiskeytide]

16. First of all, Nick Saban IS a genius. But Tubbs is a ...

… truly dangerous idiot. He speaks as if his opinions have validity, and doesn’t care when people point out how stupid they are. He knows that the base will believe him over any other information.

As stupid as he is, I genuinely worry that he has a bright future in the GOP.

[Johonny]

17. Wasnt a genius when he coach my Dolphins team

But Saban killed it in college.

[Whiskeytide]

19. Can't dispute that. At Miami, I think he realized that when he's being paid $8M...

… a year, but some of his players are being paid $30M a year, he wasn’t really in charge of the program. Decisions were made for him, and that wasn’t his idea of coaching.

He pretty much was given the key to the program at Alabama, and he rose above everyone.

Plus, he’s actually a pretty good guy. My school was lucky to have him for 17 years.

[Solly Mack]

15. Happy little idiot. Oblivious. Blissful.

[struggle4progress]

18. Sounds like Tommy should drink more bleach