Statistically, it was bound to happen. But still, fucking hell, man, this was preventable!!
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He has no concept of how damaging even a brief pause on these programs is. Not just on the people the program was helping but on getting it going again after they uncancel it. These programs are far more complicated than the companies he doesn’t bother running. fucking ignorant asshole.
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Rapidly becoming obligatory: That is not The Onion
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This, this, a billion times this!
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Feel like I need to add:
The current outbreak in Texas also involves a close-knit religious community—Mennonites—that has largely eschewed vaccination.
We have a very large, and for the most part well-vaccinated Mennonite population here. There are some who have fallen for the Trump/RFK grift, and they do trend conservative, but most vaccinate their kids.
ETA, because holy shit.
U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was asked about the death at a meeting of President Trump’s cabinet Wednesday. He noted that the outbreak is spreading among a Mennonite community and said, “we’re watching it.” He also said “it’s not unusual” and noted there are measles outbreaks every year in the U.S.
FUCKING NO IT IS NOT USUAL, AND NO, WE DO NOT HAVE MEASLES OUTBREAKS ALL THE TIME!!
You fucking ghoul, this is your fault!! You have been working toward this for decades and now you have it. Enjoy the needless deaths. Asshat.
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There’s something weird and terrifying that for all toxic nostalgia that Project 2025 seeks to reinstate today–a 1800’s U.S. social structure and power structure–somehow the “definitely gotta turn the clock back on public medicine” pushing from RF"NotUnusual"Kjr just happens to be congruent with the agenda that the Founding Fathers’ era was (to hear MAGA tell it) the best era in U.S. history.
Fascinating and utterly inexcusable.
The world is watching.
We are watching.
By their fruits shall we know them.
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Founding Fathers, you say?
Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography said:
“In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.”1
Ben Franklin would have kicked RFK lesser’s worm-ridden ass.
And @sqlrob, that is fucking terrifying. He is going to try to sow doubt and fear against vaccinations as a whole. I just saw my very first influenza encephalopathy in an athletic young man who can no longer function. Damn it, i fought the vaccine wars for 30 fucking years. I am not surrendering now.
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An Orange County infant infected with measles arrived at Los Angeles International Airport following overseas travel earlier this month, and health officials Wednesday are notifying passengers on the flight they have increased risk of exposure.
And:
Kentucky health officials identify measles case in Commonwealth
The Kentucky Department of Public Health and the Franklin County Health Department said a Kentuckian went to a gym in Frankfort while infectious.
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Posted not for the article, which is small study, pre-print, non-peer reviewed bullshit, but to alert folks that the press and the fucking trump admin will take this and run wild. Note the comments from docs who actually do this for a living.
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More measles. May have to start a dedicated thread at this rate…
Fuck.
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No words.
I am so sorry.
Yeah, he’d probably be branded a kinda lefty-woke guy these days.
That is one helluva apropos quote.
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I expect no support from the Republican party, even as they proclaim to be the party of family values, but the mockery we receive from wealthy, influential progressives above the Mason-Dixon line is shameful.
THIS!!!
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I am a pediatrician in Texas, and I can assure you the situation is so abnormal that most younger physicians have never seen a case of measles, thanks to successful vaccination campaigns.
Younger physicians? I guess I should be flattered, but I am 60, and have been practicing for 30 years. But apparently, I am a “younger pediatrician?” OK, maybe? I have been reviewing old pictures of measles rash because I figure it will come here eventually, but wow!
Aside from that, she is absolutely correct. Talk of “abandoning” the South is not productive and needs to die in a fire.
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Nuke it from orbit.
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Yeah, for real… you know how angry that makes me…
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Oh hey, it’s a top priority now.
Wonder what changed over at HHS for the man to pivot.
Here’s hoping RFKjr’s laissez faire hot take in the outbreak’s early days, when it would have been easier to contain, doesn’t kneecap his newfound commitments:
“Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team,” Kennedy – an avowed anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who for years has sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines – said in a post on X.
Kennedy said his federal Department of Health and Human Services would send Texas 2,000 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine – typically meant to be given to children in a series of two shots at 12 to 15 months old as well as between the ages of four and six years old – through its immunization program.
Not sure 2000 doses will be anything close to enough, but it’s a start.
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What changed is he’s getting negative feedback and bad press. My problem with this regime is that the public cannot trust anything GOP pols say. They promise a lot and deliver little to nothing - because they value popularity over performance. Unless there’s action and actual proof that they are doing something, their statements are meaningless.
If the press would attempt to cover that, maybe it would make a difference. The follow-up to that statement from Kennedy should’ve been, “2,000 doses? Ok, when and where will they be delivered?” Then they should f’ing go there on the date and do a follow-up report.
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