Vax Madness

RFK, Florida, and the Bonfire of Medical Sanity

The paranoid kook running America’s public health.

Dr. Andrea Love had a message for senators before their bullshit session hearing with RFK Jr yesterday:

If any Senators are here:

I’m a biomedical scientist with training in immunology, cancer, infectious disease.

RFK Jr. already lied to all of you during his confirmation hearings. Repeatedly. Provably.

He’s lied to EVERYONE—for 30+ years. Repeatedly. Provably.

He WILL lie today during your questioning of him. Repeatedly. Provably.

He is a liar. A grifter. A profiteer who makes money while undermining science. Science he has ZERO understanding of. His actions make humans sicker.

Stop thinking he will suddenly be truthful. He won’t.

He is a threat to public health and scientific progress. He has demonized innovation for:

• Food safety

• Food stability

• Farming

• Infectious diseases

• Cancer

• Genetic disorders

• Dental health

• Public health interventions

• Population health

• The environment

He makes money attacking science while kneecapping our ability as scientists to improve humanity and the planet.

He must be removed as HHS Secretary immediately. So do his allies in other leadership roles.

If he is not, the immeasurable harm he has already caused will magnify exponentially.

Well, yes. And so, the hearing went exactly as you’d expect it would. Kennedy was subjected to withering cross-examination. He dodged. Fudged. Lied. Barked, and Bellowed.¹ And, in the immortal words of Billy Madison, we are all dumber for it. And some of us will be sicker for it. Some of us will die.

That is neither hyperbole nor hysteria. It’s science, for those who remember when we actually followed it.

Which brings me to what just happened in Florida, that petri dish of infectious diseases we thought we had eliminated. As bad as Kennedy was — and he created whole new categories of ghastliness — what’s happening in Florida is a darkling omen. Once confined to the fringes of kookery, the ani-vax movement now controls the levers of government, and it is already spreading like a vast oil slick of communicable stupidity.²

Happy Friday.

The Miracle of Vaccines

Before we dive into the batshittery in DC and Florida, let us take a moment to gaze in wonder at one of mankind’s greatest achievements — a medical miracle of such epic proportions that we have taken it for granted.

Consider polio before and after vaccines:

And measles.

In the pre-vaccine era, measles was a common childhood disease. It was also deadly.

In the 1950s, there were 5,487,332 cases and 4,950 deaths As late as 1962, there were 469,924 cases of measles in the United States and 432 deaths.

Then came the vaccines, followed by a national campaign in 1966 that resulted in a massive decline in both cases and deaths. There were outbreaks, but the measles booster shot proved effective, and by 2000, there was only a single death from measles —- and the disease was declared eliminated in the United States.

The story for other vaccines is equally miraculous. Millions of lives were saved:

Nearly 200 million cases of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A -- and approximately 450,000 deaths from these diseases -- were prevented in the U.S. alone between 1963 and 2015 by vaccination, researchers estimate.

Globally, the picture is even more dramatic.

A major study published by The Lancet found that global immunization efforts have saved an estimated 154 million lives over the past 50 years. The vast majority of lives saved – 101 million – were infants.

Over the past 50 years, vaccination against 14 diseases (diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, measles, meningitis A, pertussis, invasive pneumococcal disease, polio, rotavirus, rubella, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever) has directly contributed to reducing infant deaths by 40% globally, and by more than 50% in the African Region.

Now all of that is at risk of being unraveled.

At the federal level, RFK, Jr. is gnawing away at the foundations of vaccination policy, stacking key committees with fellow crackpots and demanding that their anti-science conclusions be rubber-stamped. In Florida, Ron DeSantis wants to drop all vaccine mandates. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” said Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general.

The stupidly. It burns.

DeSantis’ bonfire of vaccines would include eliminating requirements that students attending public and private schools be immunized for:

• Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)

• Polio

• Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (DTaP)

• Hepatitis B

• Varicella (Chickenpox)

• Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) – for younger children

• Meningococcal vaccine – for certain age groups

What could possibly go wrong?

Last year, the number of whooping cough cases in Florida soared as the vaccination rate dropped. A measles outbreak in Miami-Dade resulted in nine infections in 2024. with four cases in the state so far this year.

Actual, real doctors are sounding the alarm: Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said Florida's move was "going to be a major disaster."

"You're going to get multiple outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease and spread of these diseases," she said. "These kids are going to bring it home."

But what happens in Florida will not stay in Florida. The elderly, the immunocompromised, those who are unable to get vaccinated will be put at risk of disease and death. “And because Florida is a major vacation destination, the move could spread diseases to other states.”

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, called the decision “reckless,” adding that “every parent of a child who dies or who is hospitalized with a vaccine-preventable disease will know exactly why.”

School nurses are also sounding the alarm.

“If they’re able to go through with it, they’re just opening a door to a health crisis that’s 100% preventable,” said Lynn Nelson, president of the National Association of School Nurses.

Schools are a microcosm of society, and when students go home, they can bring diseases to vulnerable people such as infants and the elderly, Nelson said….

Measles, mumps and pertussis – also known as whooping cough -- are among the preventable diseases Nelson is most concerned about if Florida’s plan succeeds. Measles, a highly contagious illness, can create life-threatening situations for infants and small children, she said.

Back in April, I recorded a brief “Memo to RFK, Jr.” about vaccines. Since then, of course, everything has gotten worse, so perhaps I ought to address it to other policymakers who might be able to stand athwart the madness.

Here’s the original piece, which is based on author Roald Dahl’s moving essay about his daughter, who died of measles in 1962.

Here’s the full text of Dahl’s essay:

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

“Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

“I feel all sleepy,” she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk. In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.

Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year. Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another. At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections. About 20 will die.

LET THAT SINK IN.

Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles.

So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised?

They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million to one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.

So what on earth are you worrying about? It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised.

The ideal time to have it done is at 13 months, but it is never too late. All school-children who have not yet had a measles immunisation should beg their parents to arrange for them to have one as soon as possible.

Incidentally, I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was ‘James and the Giant Peach’. That was when she was still alive. The second was ‘The BFG’, dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.

Friday dogs

Like our Germans, our French dog, Zok, is quite enthusiastic about playing ball. (Photos by Sandolore M. Sykes)

1. How bad was it? Even the MAGA-friendly NY Post blasted him as a tin-foil-hat-wearing paranoid kook.

Health Secretary Robert Kennedy’s Senate testimony Thursday made one thing crystal clear: He won’t be restoring sanity to our public-health bureaucracies, desperate as the need is.

In a Finance Committee grilling focused on his vaccine policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy came off as a paranoid kook connecting red strings on a whiteboard.

2. Despite the MAGA embrace of antivax nuttery, polls suggest the public still supports vaccines.

The poll found that there was broad agreement that vaccines should continue to be made available at no cost, including two-thirds of Trump voters and more than 8 out of 10 swing voters.

Respondents said they place their greatest trust in doctors and nurses when it comes to vaccine information, including 76% of Trump voters.

About 73% of Trump voters and 83% of swing voters agreed that vaccines save lives.