World-Renowned Vaccine Scientist: RFK Is Right — Let’s Study Vaccine Risk Factors
Contrarian doctors know they can’t outright endorse RFK Jr’s disinformation on the MMR, HPV, and polio vaccines. However, they also have to maintain their “heterodox” reputations and can’t buck the party line. As such, they have to support RFK Jr. and, displaying their characteristic groupthink, here’s reason they’ve settled on- he’ll soon provide the truth about vaccines.
In this mirror version of reality, RFK Jr. is uniquely qualified to research vaccines and genuinely motivated to get to the truth. He’d do credible and much-needed research on vaccines. He’d figure things out, while those before him failed.
In his article Sabotaging RFK Jr’s Confirmation Will Increase Vaccine Hesitancy, Dr. Vinay Prasad argued:
The best way to curb vaccine hesitancy is to approve RFK Jr, and redirect his energies to generating more data. More data will answer the key questions that remain unanswered: which childhood immunization program is optimal. The worse thing we can do is tank his nomination. Then vaccine hesitancy will explode.
Similarly Dr. Martin Kulldorff penned as essay titled World-Renowned Vaccine Scientist: RFK Is Right — Let’s Study Vaccine Risk Factors, which said:
Kennedy is especially concerned about vaccines, and we need to more thoroughly investigate non-specific effects of vaccines, which can be either positive or negative, as well as potential adverse reactions. It is equally important to investigate other potential environmental and genetic risk factors.
In the mirror world, vaccine-heroes like Drs. Peter Hotez and Paul Offit are to blame for “increasing vaccine hesitancy,” while RFK Jr., the man behind the film Vaxxed III: Authorized to Kill, is the ideal person to fix that problem.
In the real world, RFK Jr. may soon be “researching vaccines”. According to news reports- Trump Suggests Kennedy Will Examine Debunked Link Between Vaccines and Autism– this will be one of RFK Jr.’s core tasks. Someone must investigate whether vaccines cause autism. It is very likely that RFK Jr. will soon be doing exactly that. We should be prepared for the “findings.”
What background does RFK Jr. have to research vaccines? Neither Drs. Prasad nor Kulldorff provided an answer. However, the bigger question is why should we trust any “research” that RFK Jr. might produce? Is there any chance that he will conclude “Boy, I was wrong. Vaccines are safe and effective after all. Sorry for all the fuss“?
Obviously not. Any “research” RFK Jr. conducts will “discover” that he’s been right about everything the whole time. Trusting him to honestly research vaccines is like trusting a hungry python to babysit a kitten.
There are no long-term double-blind studies.
Beyond the absurd suggestion that RFK Jr. is the perfect man to research vaccines, Drs. Prasad and Kulldorff are perpetuating a dangerous and false anti-vaccine myth, vaccines have not been properly studied. As they put it, “key questions remain unanswered” and “we need to more thoroughly investigate non-specific effects of vaccines, which can be either positive or negative, as well as potential adverse reactions“.
As they did through the pandemic, Drs. Prasad and Kulldorff, are spreading doubt and mistrust. Worst of all, they claim to be “pro-vaccine” doctors representing the “pro-vaccine” position. As Dr. Kulldorff said, “vaccine safety studies are pro vaccine.” This is obviously true, but the pro-vaccine and honest position is to inform people of the countless existing studies that already show how safe vaccines are.
Vaccine safety is taken very seriously, as it should be, but we do not need, and, based on the information we’ve acquired over many decades and billions of vaccine doses, we could not ethically perform RCTs of the polio and diphtheria vaccines. We already know they prevent infections and save lives. We do not need more studies investigating whether vaccines cause autism, especially run by dishonest anti-vaxxers.
The notion that vaccines have not been “properly tested” is bread and butter anti-vaccine balderdash that allows anti-vaxxers to claim they are not against vaccines, but rather their only “interest is ensuring medications are safe.” RFK Jr.’s website says this for example:
Vaccines that are injected into our children should undergo rigorous testing to prove safety and efficacy before going on the market. Unfortunately, industry-funded vaccine studies are inherently flawed and poorly designed.
Almost none use inert placebo controls (and even some of the so-called “placebos” contain problematic adjuvants like aluminum), and there are no long-term double-blind studies.
Some of us have been refuting these myths for decades. Vaxopedia has many articles on this topic, and this meme is at least 10 years old. The only new thing is that “respectable” doctors are now mindlessly parroting bog-standard anti-vaccine talking points.
To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with autism spectrum disorder
For now at least, the CDC correctly states, “To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with autism spectrum disorder.” Many studies from around the world prove that vaccines do not cause autism. The CDC has conducted some of them, and reasonable people accept their results. In contrast, anti-vaxxers, distrustful of institutions, immediately reject them all.
Next year pro and anti-vaxxers may switch places concerning their trust in the CDC. With RFK Jr. at the helm, many competent people will leave or be forced out. A hollowed out CDC may crank out anti-vaccine “research”, the kind of nonsense Dr. David Gorski has debunked for years, and anti-vaxxers will treat it as flawless. Not only will parents stop vaccinating their children, these “studies” could be used as justification to revoke authorization for vaccines. That’s always been the endgame.
The risk posed by RFK Jr. isn’t just that measles and pertussis will return, but also that our scientific agencies will become hotbeds of pseudoscience and quackery. If this happens, doctors who called themselves “pro-vaccine” and faked a dedication to evidence-based medicine will own all of the “studies” he produces and all of the suffering the follows.
