RFK jr unfairly treated?

Quote: terapined1

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/health/measles-outbreaks-utah-arizona-south-carolina
Thanks to RFK Jr
Measles is back

the only complicity he would have is if you can make the case he has encouraged anti-vaxers with past activity .... my opinion

however, he is under attack by his enemies and the article says "Dr. Paul Offit ... [says] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has exacerbated problems with both disease surveillance and vaccination rates, he said, by cutting federal health agency workers and failing to fully endorse the MMR vaccine. Instead, as the measles outbreak in Texas spread earlier this year, Kennedy touted unconventional therapies for treatment and said that getting vaccinated is a personal choice." After listening to the 3 hour hearing C-Span recorded, I can tell you RFK would say this is a distortion of the truth. The part "*as* the measles outbreak spread" I strongly suspect is a flat out lie. RFK's response to these claims has never been reported to my knowledge, and the senators at the 3 hour hearing avoided the topic almost entirely, telling me they liked the status quo of the misrepresentation by attack dogs like Offit. Some senator mentioned the measles outbreak *once* in that hearing and RFK's attempt to respond was simply cut off

That "Kennedy [has] touted unconventional therapies for treatment and [has] said that getting vaccinated is a personal choice" I don't doubt, and I agree it hasn't been helpful. I won't accept that he says this during measles outbreaks until I get to hear him respond to those claims.

this morning found an article that includes what Kennedy said at the time of the TX outbreak. Also included in the article are statements he had made previously, and these are mingled in with the current comments to make it look like he said them at the time of the outbreak, but they are honest enough to use the past tense so you can tell if you parse it out. I'll show it here with any *previous* comments he made on measles deleted,

__

April 29, 2025

"In visit to Texas, RFK Jr. said autism, diabetes deserve more attention than measles [the title]

During a visit to College Station, the U.S. health secretary said Europe has a worse track record with the virus, which gets too much media attention [subtitle]

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a visit to Texas on Tuesday that measles deserves less attention than other chronic diseases, while downplaying the number of deaths that have occurred in the state’s historic outbreak of the virus.

During a visit to Texas A&M University in College Station, Kennedy said that Europe’s measles deaths are higher than the U.S.’ “four deaths in 20 years,” two of whom were Texas children this year.

He also said more attention should be focused on chronic conditions like diabetes, as well as autism [criticism of his previously stated position on autism deleted, link is below for all that]

“Every child who gets measles gets a headline,” Kennedy said during the visit alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “When I was kid, there were 2 million measles cases a year and nobody wrote about them.”

Over the last few months, Kennedy has been criticized for his response to the measles outbreak [previous statements on measles deleted, see link below for that]

Public health officials have repeatedly said that two doses of the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles.

He stressed on Tuesday that his agency has to take care of Texans who want to vaccinate, but also Texans who do not.

“We have to talk to those people, too,” he said.

Kennedy stressed the federal support he’s sending to Texas, which has footed the bill so far to try to contain the outbreak through testing and vaccination. So far, the effort has cost the state more than $4.5 million since the first case was detected in late January, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“We’re working very closely with the governor of Texas with the public health officials in Texas. We’ve provided them enormous support from the CDC, all the support that they’ve requested for vaccines and for alternative medicine,” he said.

He also struck an optimistic note about the state of Texas’ outbreak. He said measles cases are slowing as officials are doing well to manage the outbreak.

While Tuesday’s state measles update shows the number of cases slowing in Gaines County, the heart of the outbreak, areas new to the outbreak, such as El Paso, are showing a faster rise in cases. On Tuesday, El Paso had 11 new cases, a 45% increase since Friday. [a refuting comment in case you didn't notice, along with the below as well]

Texas health officials were more cautious about whether this slowing of infections could be maintained. On Tuesday the number of measles cases in Texas had risen to 663 cases in 26 counties. Of those, 87 patients had been hospitalized and two school-aged children have died since the outbreak began in January.

"It’s too soon to say. We can really only see trends looking backwards. We’d need to see a few weeks of decline to say that it was trending downward,” said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. “There was a lot of travel for the Easter holiday so we’re watching to see if there is an increase in cases over the next few weeks."

Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and vocal vaccine proponent, said work remains to contain the outbreak.

“The numbers are still going up,” Hotez said. “This is not a time to take your foot off the gas.”

[unrelated to measles portion deleted]

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/29/texas-measles-robert-kennedy-autism/ .

So much misinformation in this thread presented as fact.

LOL at the AMA being a bully! LESS THAN ONE IN SIX doctors are AMA members. The TOTAL political budget for the AMA, for Presidential election, Senatorial elections, Cngressional elections, is around $20 million. It’s not even close to being a FRACTION as important as ELON MUSK!

Geno is correct on Medicare funding residency spots. But they don’t come close to filling without FMG’s. (Foreign medical graduates). We, UB Anesthesiology, always had a need for FMGs to fil our spots. It certainly is not a free market system. There have been times the government has opened more primary care spots at the expense of specialty (like anesthesiology) spots. The result? There became a shortage of anesthesiologists, driving salaries up. And an oversupply of internists, driving their salaries down! Gotta love government interference!

medical schools are accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which the AMA sponsors

seems like a lot of power to me

I'm sure everyone recognizes the fawning nature of the below article, however it contains some interesting things you didn't see in the article I felt was designed to be hostile to Kennedy, no doubt reporting later upon the end of the TX outbreak that this took too long, thanks to RFK

Quote: below link

Europe reported 127,350 cases in 2024 — the highest number recorded on the continent since 1997 (these facts deemed something definitlely *not* to include in the Kennedy defaming article) . In Canada, 4,586 cases have been documented in 2024 and 2025, while Mexico has confirmed 3,911 cases to date.

And, on Jan. 17, 2025, just three days before President Donald Trump assumed office, the Houston Health Department reported two confirmed measles cases, marking the first case in Texas since 2023. While left-leaning media outlets were quick to criticize the Trump administration over these cases in Texas, they remained largely silent about the 383% nationwide increase in measles cases between 2023 and 2024 during the Biden administration, including Illinois’s largest measles outbreak since 1990, which was linked to a migrant shelter in Chicago.

emphasis mine, parenthetical remark mine

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/3781083/rfk-jr-measles-outbreak-texas-over/#google_vignette .

Hey, SOOPOO, what is your wife's opinion on fluoride in the water.

My thought, is more cavities, makes Dentist more money. So, if it was about money, they'd be anti-fluoridation.

Quote: odiousgambit

I'm sure everyone recognizes the fawning nature of the below article, however it contains some interesting things you didn't see in the article I felt was designed to be hostile to Kennedy, no doubt reporting later upon the end of the TX outbreak that this took too long, thanks to RFK

Quote: below link

Europe reported 127,350 cases in 2024 — the highest number recorded on the continent since 1997 (these facts deemed something definitlely *not* to include in the Kennedy defaming article) . In Canada, 4,586 cases have been documented in 2024 and 2025, while Mexico has confirmed 3,911 cases to date.

And, on Jan. 17, 2025, just three days before President Donald Trump assumed office, the Houston Health Department reported two confirmed measles cases, marking the first case in Texas since 2023. While left-leaning media outlets were quick to criticize the Trump administration over these cases in Texas, they remained largely silent about the 383% nationwide increase in measles cases between 2023 and 2024 during the Biden administration, including Illinois’s largest measles outbreak since 1990, which was linked to a migrant shelter in Chicago.

emphasis mine, parenthetical remark mine

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/3781083/rfk-jr-measles-outbreak-texas-over/#google_vignette .

Trying to blame anti-vaccination movement on Biden is a no go.

Quote: rxwine

Trying to blame anti-vaccination movement on Biden is a no go.

More a matter of pointing out that allowing open borders when the world is jam-packed with measles cases is a pretty good way to get measles going again in the US

The down and dirty short answer on why there is hostility to RFK.

RFK has gone beyond making claims of complaining about practices that may be unnecessary or overpriced, to accusing the wider medical community of causing harm to their patients in order to do it.

Quote: odiousgambit

More a matter of pointing out that allowing open borders when the world is jam-packed with measles cases is a pretty good way to get measles going again in the US

You argue best when you argue my point: A robust vaccination program, where "if it moves, vaccinate it", provides strong protection against those types of diseases carried by folks crossing the border. A robust international vaccination program, bringing these vaccines directly to those nations who need them, provides strong protection against those types of diseases carried by those crossing a border.