Crackpots

Ars Technica reports: Just days after anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the country’s top health official, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already pulled back some of its efforts to protect Americans with safe, lifesaving vaccines. The agency has indefinitely postponed a public meeting of its vaccine advisory committee and killed a campaign promoting seasonal flu …

Mother Jones reports: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has issued a statement that laid out sweeping plans for his first 100 days in office. Chief among his goals, he wrote, was to combat what he called a “growing health crisis” of chronic disease.  The government, he said, would “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake …

Time Magazine reports: In an interview just hours after his confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined his priorities in response to specific prompts by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “It’s MAHA time” read a chyron as Kennedy joined the program, later changing to “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!” Kennedy said, “I’m not going to take …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic and former presidential candidate who fled his family’s party and threw his “medical freedom” movement behind President Trump, has been confirmed by the Senate as the nation’s next health secretary. The vote 52-48, capped a remarkable rise for Mr. Kennedy and a curious twist in American politics. He …

CBS News reports: The Senate appears poised to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday, following weeks of questions surrounding whether the controversial nominee would win the Senate’s approval. After all Republicans voted to advance Kennedy’s nomination in a procedural vote Wednesday, the final vote is scheduled for Thursday morning. He …

The Hill reports: The Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to end debate on Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a key step that puts him on the precipice of confirmation later this week. The 53-47 vote came as Democrats have been forcing Republicans to use up all debate time on President …

“It’s the Trump effect, I really think so. There’s masculinity back in America and we’re not afraid to be alpha males anymore. This is fantastic. It’s a great sign of things to come.” – Former SNL cast member turned far-right cultist radio host Joe “Hairpiece” Piscopo, joining Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy in celebrating the “hot sexy” [white] girl in a …

The Washington Post reports: A Senate panel voted Tuesday to narrowly advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the nation’s health agencies. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist seeking to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has been the focus of an intense lobbying campaign, with public health leaders calling him a …

Mediaite reports: A woman who worked with the anti-vaccine nonprofit run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused him of sexual misconduct and was paid a nearly $1 million settlement as part of a nondisclosure agreement in late 2020, multiple sources told Mediaite. In recent days, Kennedy admitted under questioning from Senate Democrats to two misconduct claims against him, which he …

The Associated Press reports: Samoa’s top health official on Monday denounced as “a complete lie” remarks that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made during his bid to become U.S. health secretary, rejecting his claim that some who died in the country’s 2019 measles epidemic didn’t have the disease. “We don’t know what was killing them,” Kennedy said during tense U.S. Senate …

The Associated Press reports: A letter submitted to the U.S. Senate that states it was sent by physicians in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services includes the names of doctors who have had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline, The Associated Press has found. The letter was meant to lend …

Bernie Sanders: “There have been, as I understand it, dozens of studies done all over the world that make it very clear that vaccines do not cause autism. Now, you just said, if I heard correctly, well, if the evidence is there. The evidence is there! That’s it. Vaccines do not cause autism. Do you agree with that?” Robert Kennedy: …

The New York Times reports: In a tense exchange with Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. displayed a surprising lack of familiarity with Medicare and Medicaid, the government programs responsible for covering more than 150 million Americans. At times, Mr. Kennedy seemed to confuse the two programs. Medicare is a federal program that provides coverage to …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose antipathy toward vaccines has raised alarms among health experts and galvanized the “medical freedom” movement, will testify Wednesday at the first of two Senate committee hearings as he seeks to become the nation’s health secretary. Until now, Mr. Kennedy has had only closed-door meetings with senators. His appearance Wednesday before …

“The two candidates I helped elect, Senator Raphael Warnock and Senator Jon Ossoff, please know I will be watching your votes very closely. I will make it my personal mission that you lose your seats in the Senate if you vote against the future health of America’s children. “And more than that, I also want to say to Senators Mitch …

Mother Jones reports: In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. It was ugly. Richardson had found a diary RFK Jr. kept that chronicled multiple extramarital affairs he had engaged in—possibly numbering in the dozens—and she was enraged and tormented by his infidelity. She was drinking and racked …

The New York Times reports: Caroline Kennedy wrote a letter to key senators on Tuesday, calling her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a “predator” who is addicted to the attention he gets from airing dangerous views on vaccinations. She called on lawmakers to reject his nomination. She cited his lack of experience, misinformed views on vaccines and personal attributes. In …

From the New York Post editorial board: On Thursday, Senate hearings begin on RFK Jr.’s nomination as secretary for Health and Human Services. But nothing has changed about Kennedy from last spring. He’s still a radical left lunatic who is anti-energy, a “big time” taxer and completely incoherent about our nation’s health. No Republican can vote for this guy. No …

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: Most troubling is his long record of anti-vaccine advocacy. In the past he has claimed that the measles vaccine causes autism despite reams of studies that have found no causative link, and that the polio vaccine might have killed many more than the actual virus. Deadly infectious diseases disappeared because of better hygiene, …

“There are those that say, ‘They [Democrats] must’ve done it on purpose.’ I won’t go that far, but if they didn’t do it on purpose, I think they certainly facilitated it. And my heart goes out to all the other residents. “You meet people all the time who’ve lost their homes. And you talk and commiserate and buck each other …