Covidiots

The Guardian reports: State legislation to ban what some lawmakers call chemtrails has been pushed forward in Tennessee and, most recently, Florida. Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy, who has expressed interest in the conspiracy theory on social media and his podcast, is set to be at the heart of Donald Trump’s new administration following his nomination as health secretary. Believers of …

NBC News reports: Del Bigtree, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement, brought in a record windfall last year for the nonprofit group he founded, according to the latest tax filings. The Informed Consent Action Network, known as ICAN, reported $23 million in revenue for 2023, a 74% increase from the previous year. The group spent nearly $17 million on …

New Orleans’ NPR affiliate reports: A group of high-level managers at the Louisiana Department of Health walked into a Nov. 14 meeting in Baton Rouge expecting to talk about outreach and community events. Instead, they were told by an assistant secretary in the department and another official that department leadership had a new policy: Advertising or otherwise promoting the COVID, …

The journal Science reports: A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems, according to a retraction notice. The paper in the …

The Hill reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be seeking to ease any skepticism over his confirmation this week as he begins meetings with Senate Republicans over his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While Kennedy was considered one of the most controversial choices initially, there has been little public criticism from Senate Republicans. GOP …

NBC News reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a polio survivor, responded critically to a report in The New York Times that a key lawyer and longtime advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine. McConnell, who still deals with the effects of his battle with …

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed legislation that would enable patients to force hospitals into administering drugs for off-label use if the hospital’s own physicians refuse. The legislation comes after a COVID-19 pandemic when conservatives came to believe that drugs like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, neither of which have been proven to benefit COVID-19 patients, would cure, …

Florida Politics reports: Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo continues to speak out against fluoride in the water supply, saying it’s “clearly something that was far riskier than how it was presented” by advocates of the practice. “It really is insane to keep on doing it,” Ladapo said. “You just can’t justify it.” During a recent interview on the CR Podcast with …

Axios reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the CIA had a role in assassinating his uncle, President John F. Kennedy — part of RFK Jr.’s motivation for pushing his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for deputy CIA director, Axios has learned. President-elect Trump feels indebted to RFK Jr., his pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, for his help in …

NOTUS reports: Do cell phones and 5G cause cancer? It’s a question that has plagued Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and if Kennedy is confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, it’s one he will have power to explore. “The next-generation telecommunications network should be discontinued until it has been ‘sufficiently demonstrated that there are no …

Raw Story reports: New reporting flagged what it called an “unusual” application to work for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which applicants are asked a slew of bizarre questions, including a pattern completion test and even whether they have an interest in having “sexual experiences with another person.” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, confirmed to Puck …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is in line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the next Trump administration, is well-known for promoting conspiracy theories and vaccine skepticism in the United States. But Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has also spent years working abroad to undermine policies that have been pillars of …

The Hill reports: Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA during President-elect Trump’s first term, expressed concerns with his pick of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Humans Services due to his anti-vaccine advocacy. “I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it …

From a Washington Post op-ed: It is certainly possible that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be Health and Human Services secretary, will move to restrict vaccine access. A likely first target is the coronavirus vaccine. Kennedy could instruct the CDC to remove the shot from its recommended list of vaccines, which would mean insurers no longer …

NBC News reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a dark view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2019, he called the federal agency’s vaccine division a fascist enterprise and accused it of knowingly hurting children. He also compared what he saw as a widespread conspiracy to hide harms from the child vaccination program to the cover-up of …

The Hill reports: President-elect Trump’s choice for deputy secretary of Health and Human Services is Jim O’Neill, an investor and historically close associate of billionaire Peter Thiel, the president-elect said Tuesday. O’Neill has also held roles as managing director at Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management and principal associate deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services during former President …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday evening that he had selected Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford physician and economist whose authorship of an anti-lockdown treatise during the coronavirus pandemic made him a central figure in a bitter public health debate, to be the director of the National Institutes of Health. If confirmed by the …

Politico reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is enlisting associates with close ties to anti-vaccine organizations to help vet and interview candidates for senior roles at the Department of Health and Human Services, even as he publicly seeks to distance himself from the movement he once led. At least three informal advisers connected to the anti-vaccine movement are assisting Kennedy in …

CBS News reports: President-elect Donald Trump nominated Dr. Marty Makary Friday to lead the Food and Drug Administration, selecting a surgeon and author who opposed vaccine mandates and some other public health measures during the coronavirus pandemic. Makary, a Johns Hopkins University professor, is the latest in a string of Trump nominees who have declared the U.S. health system to …

USA Today reports: The only person Eliza Cooney told what happened was her mom. This summer, she went public with her story. About how Kennedy, a man closer to her father’s age really, groped her when she worked as a live-in nanny for his family. She was 23 years old. One night, there was a meeting in the family kitchen …