Tax-Funded Junk Science? Kennedy Digs In on His Anti-Vax Fixation

Kennedy plans a large-scale study to ‘re-examine’ the debunked vaccine-autism link, a sad stunt in his crusade to outsmart the medical elite in a twisted push to live up to his family’s storied name.

The Kennedy Outlook …

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has railed against vaccines for decades, plans to use taxpayer money to conduct a large-scale study to re-examine whether there’s a connection between vaccines and autism, a link that’s long been debunked by dozens of studies by top scientists.

Is there any doubt a team cherry-picked by this man, who for years has been one of the nation’s leading conspiracy-peddling agitators, will “find” exactly what he wants them to find, despite the mountains of scientific evidence that says otherwise? We’re getting to the point where we can no longer trust any part of the government to move forward in a truthful way.

Kennedy, now the Health and Human Services Secretary, and Donald Trump, still the world’s most relentless (and shameless) unrepentant liar, have repeatedly linked vaccines to autism, ignoring basic facts to push their anti-science agenda. With no legitimate study in hand, Kennedy has linked autism to vaccines in at least 36 appearances, according to a Washington Post report in late January.

Nothing fuels Kennedy more than proving he’s smarter than the so-called “medical elite,” even if he has to twist reality to do it. It’s a personal characteristic that’s stuck with Kennedy through his heroin use as a young man, his worm-in-the-brain excuses during his divorce proceedings, his Central Park Bear carcass escapade, and to his latest conspiracy-laced tirades about Big Pharma and the “deep state” plots against him.

This is a man who has long been desperate to repackage his personal chaos as noble defiance in a twisted effort to live up to his family’s storied name.

The debunked theory linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines to autism traces to a 1998 study that was ultimately retracted. The study’s author, Andrew Wakefield, was found guilty of professional misconduct and barred from practicing medicine in Britain afterward. But, hey, any port in a storm, I guess, and the anti-vaxxers still swear by this study in making their arguments.

Meanwhile, years of research based on data from hundreds of thousands of patients has shown no link between vaccines and autism. A decade-long study of half a million children in Denmark published in 2019, for instance, showed the MMR vaccine does not increase the risk of autism, lending new statistical evidence to what was already medical consensus.

Public health and other experts have feared Kennedy would use his new authority to mislead the public on vaccines, and it looks like he’s already meeting their expectations.

Trump, meanwhile, has pointed to the rising numbers of children with autism as possible support for Kennedy’s warped views on vaccines. But the facts are that autism is diagnosed differently now than in the past with an “autism spectrum” medical strategy bringing in a much larger group of those with the disorder, ranging from mild to extreme. And the disorder’s cultural prominence has boosted the number of parents seeking help.

What could be better researched? The overwhelming consensus among experts is that autism arises from a complex interplay of genetics and environmental influences, not vaccines.

Studies have estimated, for instance, that 80-90% of autism risk is genetic. Identical twins have a 60% to 90% higher concordance rate compared with fraternal twins. And researchers have identified hundreds of genes linked to autism, particularly those affecting brain development, synaptic function and neural pathways.

Environmental influences have also been noted, with the disorder being seen more with fathers over age 40, following exposure to certain drugs during pregnancy, maternal infections and immune responses during pregnancy and complications including preterm delivery or oxygen deprivation during birth.

Make Measles Go Away Again?

Meanwhile, vaccine fears have caused a highly dangerous situation in the U.S. Southwest. As of Saturday, two states — Texas and New Mexico — have confirmed a total of 228 confirmed cases and counting, up from 133 the last time I wrote about the outbreak a week ago.

And not surprisingly, all of the cases are in unvaccinated people. One child is dead and an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico has also died while carrying the virus. Health officials haven’t yet confirmed measles as the direct cause of death, the likelihood of it being at least a contributing factor is high.

“We are following the measles epidemic every day,” Kennedy said at the recent White House Cabinet meeting. He then went on to downplay this outbreak, adding, “Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year,” with his demeanor suggesting it’s nothing to even be bothered with.

“In this country last year there were 16,” he added. “So, it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year."

Indeed, we do. But the 16 “outbreaks” he’s referring to are defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as involving just three or more related cases, and the average outbreak size for those 16 outbreaks in 2024 was just 12 cases, not the 228 we’re seeing in the Southwest.

Recently, Kennedy has emphasized parental choice over government-imposed vaccination requirements. Instead of advocating for mandatory immunizations, Kennedy advised parents to consult healthcare providers and consider alternatives like vitamin A supplements gained through the use of Cod Liver Oil, despite medical experts warning that such measures are ineffective in preventing measles and could pose health risks.

Measles isn’t something to fool around with. It’s highly contagious, lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. And it can cause severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation, blindness, long-term immune damage and something called “Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis,” an unpronounceable brain disorder that that can develop years after infection.

Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, around 48,000 people were hospitalized yearly with measles, 1,000 people a year suffered dangerous brain swelling and 400 to 500 people died.

You can be excused if you didn’t know all this because measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in late 2000 by the CDC. This meant that there was no continuous transmission of the disease for over 12 months due to high vaccination rates and strong public health efforts.

Since then, with Trump and Kennedy’s full-throated attacks on science leading the way, vaccination rates have dipped and measles is making a comeback. While we’re making “America great again,” how about making measles go away again? So far, all this administration has achieved is raising the threats against ordinary folks to the benefit of the wealthy.

And that doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.

Should autism be studied using taxpayer funds? Absolutely! But don’t waste taxpayer money trying to disprove hundreds of other scientific studies done by a wide variety of well-respected researchers. Focus it on where it can do some good.

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Sunday Updates …

Social Security, Not So Secure: For those of you who actually believe Trump when he said he would leave Social Security and Medicare alone, here’s a disheartening note. Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner, has said he plans to cut at least 7,000 jobs, or more than 12% of the agency, from staffing that’s already at a 50-year low.

Dudek is also closing field offices, and senior staff with the agency have either left or been fired. Heaven help any senior moving forward who has questions about the Social Security check he depends on to … well, survive.

As of January, roughly 56.2 million Americans aged 65 or older receive Social Security benefits, with the number growing by about 10% annually due to our aging population. And for about 14 million seniors, or a quarter of the total, Social Security makes up at least 90% of their income.

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Targeting Our Veterans: Clinical trials at the Veterans Administration (VA) have been delayed, contracts canceled and support staff fired. With deeper cuts coming, some are warning of potential harms to veterans.

Trump has never shown much respect for our veterans, offering lip services publicly and disdain private, according to a number of sources within his last administration. Now, his innate lack of of respect is spilling out in the agency most affecting their health.

The VA treats 9.1 million veterans, provides critical medical research and, according to some studies, offers care that is comparable to or better than many private health systems. How long will that be true with the VA’s new leader, Doug Collins, vowing to eliminate 80,000 jobs and reviewing tens of thousands of contracts?

Veterans, on the whole, have long supported the Republican Party. But like with American seniors and those with lower incomes, they’re being betrayed.