The White House in Washington, D.C.
In case you’ve missed recent headlines, there’s another Kennedy making a run for president of the United States. Unlike his august uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in office, and his father, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated running for office, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to have been dropped on his head in the delivery room, causing him to suffer dangerous delusions.
The younger Kennedy is running for office trading in on his famous name but minus the respect for truth that the aforementioned Kennedys had (personal peccadilloes, aside). RFK Jr., as he is known, is an environmental lawyer who promotes anti-vaccine propaganda and public health-related conspiracy theories.
RFK Jr. continues to make the non-existent connection between thimerosal -containing vaccines and autism, despite the fact that studies involving millions of children have conclusively shown that none exists.
Studies have conclusively shown that mRNA vaccines dramatically reduce the severity of SARS-CoV-2, with billions of shots having been now given. There are some known associated side effects, such as myocarditis, but myocarditis is much more common and severe when contracted from the virus itself. Furthermore, having been vaccinated and boosted appears to make the side effects of Long Covid such as brain fog, severe fatigue, organ damage, and other manifestations of that condition far less severe.
So, what exactly is there to debate? That there was government overreach with respect to mandates? That’s open to discussion but that the inflexibility in that approach resulted in a very high inoculation rate. That the vaccines didn’t always prevent spread? Once variants and subvariants emerged, this was largely the case, but the fact that they spread so easily made the vaccines even more important because they did successfully reduce severe disease and death.
What we’re left with is a kind of call to arms by RFK Jr. to gain attention largely by appealing to the anti-vax camps and hoping others just vote for him because he’s a Kennedy.
In other news we cover today, Moderna plans to manufacture mRNA vaccines in China, 25% of Americans haven’t had Covid (yet) and Long Covid symptoms may persist throughout a patient’s life, a study found.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
