Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that catching measles may be better than vaccination amid a spreading outbreak in Texas. Over 220 cases have been identified in the Lone Star State, with additional reports coming from California, New York, and Maryland, The Daily Beast highlights.
Talking to Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday evening, RFK Jr. voiced his preference for natural immunity through experiencing the virus firsthand: “It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he shared.
He also raised questions about vaccine efficacy, saying, “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes.” Texas has seen a lower rate of vaccinations compared with other states, fueled by COVID-related skepticism, reports the Irish Star.
However, the CDC has noted that receiving two doses of the MMR vaccine can provide up to 97 percent protection against measles.
Back in my day all the babies were born at home. Sure, lots of women and babies died, but it was more natural.
Any chance we can get an actuarial assessment of what that would do to life expectancy? I am curious how many dead children would occur per year based on his flippant musings.
The real problem with measles isn’t mortality per se. Its morbidity.
A slice of the children that survive a measles infection will incurr long-lasting physiological damage.
Thats the main concern really. They would end up growing up into sicker adults vs those that took the MMR vaccine.
That’s a big concern with COVID too, and part of the reason why people just focusing on the mortality rates was frustrating.
See this is why I come here. I’m 25 years from being in the profession, I rely on all y’all to fill in the actuarial details. Increase in mortality, increase in morbidity. Is there a reasonable estimate for the costs associated with eliminating the measles vaccines?
Imagine how bad you have to be to get your nomination pulled in this administration. Seems plausible that his beliefs about vaccines, coupled with the measles outbreak, was a bridge too far.
RFK Jr has previously said that he thinks Poppers, not HIV, causes AIDS (poppers, aka amyl nitrite, are a prescription drug with recreational side effects that is popular among gay men for reasons I’ll omit). So now the FDA is coming after producers that make poppers, which has the double bonus of catering to RFK’s crazy beliefs and targeting the LGBTQ community at the same time.
So AIDS is so prevalent in sub Saharan Africa because of all the poppers there? :headsmack:
I mean, that was a plausible theory in 1982, but… There’s now proof that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, and a lot of knowledge about how that happens.
Like, literally, someone managed to infect a chimp with HIV and the chimp developed AIDS. Chimps aren’t very susceptible to HIV, and there are ethical and practical reasons not to do big experiments like that with chimps, so it was pretty late in the history of AIDS before this totally conclusive proof occurred. (Probably a decade after everyone knew AIDS was caused by HIV.) But that is the gold standard of demonstrating a disease is caused by a virus, and it’s been met.
Uh, no spoiler, the chimp didn’t have access to poppers, or any of the other non-HIV things that were speculated to cause AIDS.
Not to mention that the viral theory of AIDS has led to the development of effective drugs that almost always prevent both AIDS and the transmission of HIV when used properly. Of course, now that the US is fucking around with taking those drugs away from people who were on them, HIV may successfully mutate to develop resistance to them.
I think I gotta leave this thread for a while. Sorry.
i was holding my breath thinking it was poppers.
im sorry for the source material having that affect. understandable
That’s what they WANT you to think.
Trump Administration Weighing Major Cuts to Funding for Domestic HIV Prevention
By
Liz Essley Whyte, Dominique Mosbergen and Jonathan D. Rockoff
March 18, 2025 3:57 pm ET
The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention, according to people familiar with the matter.
The plans could be announced as soon as within a day, the people said, but they haven’t been finalized and could be pulled back or adjusted.
The discussions come as the Trump administration is preparing for deep cuts of personnel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of a reorganization of the agency, people familiar with the planning said.
Prevention disproportionately benefits POC and the poor.
https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/hiv-aids
Income inequality has been found to be related to increased HIV risk for males, whereas poverty, health and housing circumstances increased risk for females (Buot et al., 2014). However, for both men and women, increased poverty and unemployment levels and decreased median household income are related to a lower probability of survival after an HIV diagnosis (Harrison, Ling, Song, & Hall , 2008). Other SES indicators, including poverty, homelessness, hunger and lower education, have also been associated with higher mortality (McMahon, Wanke, Terrin, Skinner, & Knox, 2011).
While HIV affects all races and ethnicities in the United States, some groups are disproportionately affected compared to their population size. Black/African American people and Hispanic/Latino people are particularly affected by HIV, making up more than half (70%) of estimated new HIV infections in 2022.
If you wanted to not die of HIV in America, you should’ve been born rich and white.
“Don’t do the shots,” the girl’s mother said. Measles, she added, is “not as bad as they’re making it out to be.” She noted that her four other children all recovered after having received alternative treatments from an anti-vaccine doctor, including cod liver oil, a source of vitamin A, and budesonide, an inhaled steroid usually used for asthma.
The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. I can’t imagine a world in which one of my kids dies and I’m like “Welp, the others turned out ok, so no biggie.”
Bring back blood letting!
If it was good enough for our greatest president it’s good enough for my children.
This is why you a) Don’t put a moron in charge of HHS and b) Don’t fire all of the staff who know what they are doing only to replace them with loyalists.