this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

You guys know that RFK jr. wrote an article in Rolling Stone that basically introduced America to Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who did the "study" that linked vaccines to autism? While it's true that anti-vaxers have been a thing almost since the founding of the Republic, it was niche until RFK, Wakefield, and finally Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carry (with the help of Socials) took it mainstream and fomented the movement we see today.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 17 hours ago (5 children)

What is he trying to achieve here?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours ago

He probably believes that vaccines are bad and people should eat healthier.

So he's been given control of health care to dismantle it rather than be given control of the department of agriculture where he would push for better food practices.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

I hate to ask what might seem like a stupid question, but….why?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

He is not trying to create a pandemic. He believes that vaccines are unnecessary. Humans existed long before vaccines, and he believes they do not do anything. This is 100% false and vaccines effectiveness has been proven in numerous trials. Before vaccines humans died of a lot of diseases.

Unfortunately, in the USA vaccines have become a political and social issue with many people sharing or partially sharing this belief.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Ok, another daft question….its a fact that vaccines are effective. So why is he against them?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

This is how denialism works. Things that have been accepted as reality by non-denialists are rejected by others. So you have vaccine denialists, evolution denialists, Holocaust denialists, HIV denialists, moon-landing denialists. They typically use logical fallacies and almost never operate in good faith.

Also, vaccines have basically been a victim of their own success. It's easy to look around at a healthy population and think that the thing preventing many now rare diseases didn't really have anything to do with it. I'm surprised someone as old as Bobby Brainworm falls for this, but humans are fantastic at not learning anything from history and not listening to wiser elders. Humans are also great at not understanding science.

The anti-vaccine thing is very much akin to the anti-government thing. The idiots that are still cheering on Republicans and the conservative ideology as they break government norms and government services and institutions have no idea what government was doing for them, but like the measles outbreaks and the anti-vaxxer idiocy, we are all about to find out.

[–] ricecake 7 points 14 hours ago

There's no polite way to say it. He's not very intelligent and has a poor grasp of the information that would lead you to see that they're effective.
If you don't trust the government or establishment and you don't have the capacity to evaluate evidence, then anything the government or established medical system says is good must be bad.

The most charitable explanation is that he, admittedly, had a worm eat part of his brain.

You can find reasons that people could be pushing vaccines that don't do anything, but that doesn't mean they actually are doing so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

The age old myth that vaccines cause autism, he would rather kids be dead than autistic.

Newly ordered study

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago

Brain worm is taking over his already feeble mind.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, I have no clue. If I had to guess, it's to reduce the price of eggs

[–] [email protected] 9 points 15 hours ago

Ironically, the FDA is actually moving towards mass vaccination of industrial chicken and cow operations!

https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-conditionally-approves-vaccine-protect-poultry-avian-flu

[–] Ulvain 20 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

His job as the Fourth horseman of the apocalypse? 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

In terms of politics, "the freedom to choose" not to vaccinate.

The "saner" arguments of the anti-vax movement is parents and individuals should have the right to not vaccinate.

But bare in mind that these arguments are rooted in the same conservative arguments: rules apply to YOU. They don't apply to ME. I am a Christian and therefore know what's best. The law exists to protect me from YOU and allow ME to punish YOU.

Bottom line is that this isn't about vaccinations as much as it is about allowing conservatives to ignore government regulations that have been oPpReSsInG tHeM.

[–] peetabix 1 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Herd immunity? Or just to kill as many people as possible.

[–] ricecake 2 points 14 hours ago

Reducing vaccinations reduces herd immunity though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

Heh. If anything Bobby Brainworms and his ilk are doing everything possible to end herd immunity for several diseases.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

If only there was some kind of defensive immune response our society could have against this toxic infection called RFK.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

I need to make a meme with how we thought nurgle followers look versus what they actually look like. The fact he has a brain worm really lines up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago