RFK Jr. Is Giving Infectious Diseases a Promotional Tour

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/rfk-jr-is-giving-polio/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/xchIO

My father had polio when he was about 2 years old. My grandparents, living in Brooklyn, were immigrants from Portugal. This was the Great Depression and they were already poor. My grandfather was a janitor, and my grandmother was a housewife. They had two other children to care for and to try to protect from the virus, which every summer would sweep through some town or city in America, infecting thousands, with no vaccine yet available. My father survived the bout with polio, though the growth of his right leg was stunted and he had to wear an orthopedic shoe for the rest of his life. Dad was a terrific pitcher, a talented southpaw, and dreamed of playing baseball professionally. But polio stole that dream from him. I keep this story close to my heart.

So when The New York Times reported that RFK Jr.’s lawyer, Aaron Siri, asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine, I was filled with rage. My father’s story and the story of the millions who have suffered and died from the disease are a matter of historical fact, as is the medical miracle of the advent of a vaccine to prevent the infection. In fact, after three decades with no reported cases, one case of the disease emerged outside of New York City in 2022, in a community undervaccinated for the infection. We don’t need to see more. And to make matters worse, last week, Reuters reported that President-elect Trump “will be talking to [RFK Jr.] about ending childhood vaccination programs”—not just for polio, but for everything.

My anger isn’t exactly for RFK Jr. and Aaron Siri—they are half zealots, half cynical grifters. Rather, it is for members of US Congress who are considering voting for RFK Jr.’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and those in the media who have platformed RFK Jr.’s views as not-all-bad, as if you can choose from his various views like you’re ordering from a restaurant, asking the chef to hold the onions. There are no substitutions on this menu—to vote for, or to promote RFK Jr., is to get all of him.

I recently recalled what Adam Serwer said about Trump and his minions in 2018—cruelty is the point. Serwer said Trump and his supporters revel in the suffering of those they hate and fear. Still, messing with vaccination in the US takes cruelty to the next level. Now, they’re eating their own. As my Yale colleagues Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Jason Schwartz reported in 2023 in JAMA Internal Medicine, discouraging Covid vaccination has led to a disproportionate number of deaths among Republicans compared to Democrats.

*snip*