Some experts fear rise in medical misinformation following RFK Jr.'s presidential announcement

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News

A number of medical experts and health care officials are concerned about a rise in medical misinformation following the announcement by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, that he is running for president in 2024.

Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has become one of the most prominent faces of the anti-vaccine movement, according to experts. He is the founder of Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit organization known mainly for its anti-vaccine efforts. The group was kicked off Instagram and Facebook last year for spreading misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization's revenues doubled to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

Kennedy's bid for the presidency "puts science squarely on the ballot," said Brian Castrucci, president of De Beaumont Foundation, a group dedicated to advancing public health policy. "His campaigns make the benefits of vaccines a question up for debate rather than settled science."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/experts-fear-rise-medical-misinformation-rfk-jrs-presidential/story?id=98506164

[AngryOldDem]

1. Can RFK Jr. be declared a hazard to public health?

[emulatorloo]

3. He's definitely toxic.

[raging moderate]

2. A reporter should ask Kennedy what he feeds the little cows growing all over his body.

That is what the anti-vaxxers, several hundred years ago, predicted when the smallpox vaccine (derived from cowpox) was first being distributed. I have seen actual drawings made at the time to warn people of the so-called "dangers" of the smallpox vaccine. This vaccine was invented when people realized that the smallpox epidemics almost always skipped over people who milked cows for a living.
When I was a girl, almost everybody was given this vaccine. And it worked! Smallpox now is almost non-existent. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is old enough, isn't he?

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Smallpox and polio. Every parent in the neighbourhood dropped...

to their knees and thanked God.

[raging moderate]

6. Yes. My older brother nearly died of polio.

When I was about 4 and he was about 11, my older brother nearly died of polio. He was in an iron lung for awhile. You bet my family always gets their polio shots. And their COVID shots.

PS My brother finally recovered almost completely, with no observable effects. He served in the US Navy at age 17, and he is now 82 years old. We had a wonderful doctor, and a wonderful little hospital nearby! They worked fast to get my brother into treatment right away!

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Went to school with a girl who was a polio survivor. Nobody made...

fun of her struggling with her crutches.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Polio and smallpox

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

25. These are great.

I had a discussion with my Mother-in-Law about COVID co-morbidities because she said her friends were saying that people with contributing factors most likely died of those factors rather than COVID.

I made the case that if I have high blood pressure for years and did not die, then get COVID and die, it is probably the COVID that killed me, not the blood pressure.

I know it was a simplification, but I did not want her (85yo) listening to the anti-vaxxers and putting her life at risk.

[canetoad]

28. I remember seeing that illustration

Many years ago.

As a kid a neighbour's son who was a teenager had polio and wore heavy, metal braces on both legs to walk.



Also some good information on the site about history of smallpox vaccine.
https://dnascience.plos.org/2017/01/12/a-necessary-retelling-of-the-smallpox-vaccine-story/?platform=hootsuite

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. RFKjr is a Steve Bannon-funded

sabotage campaign.

[Bayard]

7. I think Bannon described him as,

An agent of chaos.

[LastDemocratInSC]

12. Chaos is what fuels anarchy.

[Quanto Magnus]

21. I thought there were some articles about MAGAts trying to recruit him

Is this part it?

[Miguelito Loveless]

22. Yes.

They hope the "Kennedy" name will be a spoiler against Biden.

[JohnSJ]

9. Then he should be called out as a fraud by his opponents. Reality is though that he doesn't stand a

chance to get through the primaries

His own family is embarrassed by him

The media of course will give him far too much attention, just like they did Jill Stein in 2016

[Bengus81]

10. Born in Jan 1954. You can bet your ARSE that his dad and mom had him vaccinated for Polio

smallpox everything like my parents thankfully did for me. Sure don't remember Robert Kennedy Sr being some crazed anti-vaxxer.

Hell...his trophy wife actress even trashed talked him over his comments. He's a dangerous idiot that many have believed and who knows....DIED from Covid.

[Richard D]

13. He would kill more people than did the defendant. NT

[Paladin]

14. I'm sick of RFK Jr. smearing shit on his family name and endangering children.

Enough, already.

[DFW]

15. With all due respect to «some experts,»

With all the deliberately false information spread by Republicans nationwide, many of whom were taken seriously enough to now be sitting Senators or members of the House, who in the world fears a sudden mass wave of newly gullible people being taken in by Bobby’s rantings? At this point, he couldn’t get elected head cashier at his local Starbucks,

[dembotoz]

16. is important to remember that some dems lie just as much as republicans do

i do tend to give dems the benefit of the doubt, but this clown is a special case....in oh so many ways

[orleans]

17. he's running for president???

first i've heard

[madinmaryland]

27. Yes. Though his cousin JFK, Jr. is out polling him in the latest polls.

[orleans]

30. LOL nt

[LiberalFighter]

18. What is the likelihood he is doing it for money?

[oldsoftie]

19. He had a Christmas party & his wife told everyone coming they needed to be vaxxed

And his voice is aggravating too. So THERE

[Warpy]

20. Evangelists for idiocy

have always been out there and most set their sights a little lower the first time out, Congress is a little more realistic.

RFK Jr. thinks we old folks will confuse him with his dad but there's no fear of that. Those of us who remember his dad know if his dad had been allowed to live, he'd be going upside Jr's head with a rolled up newspaper on a daily basis, trying to get a few facts to penetrate. RFK was tough and pragmatic, tough enough to go after Cosa Nostra when Hoover (FBI) had let them slide for years. Jr. is pure mush in comparison, a zealot with no substance.

I have to hope that shows up for younger folks as well as us old crocks who remember his dad.

[rogue emissary]

24. That's probably why he's running to spread his anti-vaccine message.

[Richard D]

26. Not quite, but . . .

I would almost prefer trump over Jr.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Can't they just file a lawsuit to cancel approval for vaccines?

Maybe they could file in, say, Amarillo, where the judges are always honest and unbiased.

We could outlaw vaccines for Covid, Smallpox, Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio, a clean sweep.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

31. Oh for crying out loud

We're already up to our armpits in nitwits spewing medical misinformation. That horse left the barn long ago, so what would be the difference if this idiotic scam artist was blabbing his alt-med fantasies as much as usual?

The only people who would listen to it have already drunk the Flavor-Aid. Everyone with a brain already knows to ignore whatever cranks like him say about medicine or science.

So this won't move the needle at all.