robert kennedy
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is overseeing a plan to collect data on autistic people nationwide, which has drawn backlash from the public.
According to reports, the National Institute of Health is creating a database of Americans’ private health records in line with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial plan to find a cause and cure for autism. The plan will cull data from pharmacy chains and private laboratories as well as from government agencies such as the Department of Veteran Affairs and potentially from Medicaid and Medicare.
NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya detailed the plan in a meeting with a panel at the agency, according to NPR. “The idea of the platform is that the existing data resources are often fragmented and difficult to obtain. The NIH itself will often pay multiple times for the same data resource,” he said while emphasizing that the data collected would be subject to “state of the art protections” for confidentiality purposes.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been persistent in promoting his incorrect views on autism, having recently stated at a press conference that those diagnosed have “regressed … into autism when they were 2 years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” He also falsely claimed that vaccinations and environmental factors are the causes.
“Even among those with an intellectual disability, there’s huge variability,” Penn Center for Mental Health David Mandell said, refuting RFK’s autism claims. “People with Down’s Syndrome have an intellectual disability, but often are quite capable and can do all the things RFK points to.”
The plan has alarmed many who call it an “autism registry” and liken it to eugenics. “This idea is dangerous, unethical, and a serious threat to privacy. People with autism deserve dignity and respect—not surveillance by their own government,” New York State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding: “I stand with advocates across the country in strongly opposing this proposal.” Santabarbara has a young child diagnosed with autism.
Senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center Sara Geoghagan touched on the breach of privacy involved. “The collection and processing of personal information, especially health-related information that can reveal health conditions in this way, is out of context and inappropriate,” she said in an interview.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the Senate to be the Health and Human Services Secretary for President Donald Trump’s administration, worrying many observers.
On Thursday (February 13), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was officially confirmed by the Senate to be the new Health and Human Services Secretary, ending a tumultuous period of debate. The vote was a narrow one, 52-48, with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell the lone Republican to join all the Democrat senators who voted against him. Kennedy, the son of America’s prestigious political family, will now oversee $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations, and food safety as well as half of the nation’s health insurance policies. He will also oversee 80,000 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kennedy, 71, has been a controversial figure who has spread misinformation about vaccines in the past, particularly that they cause autism. He has also made claims about raw milk and fluoride in water, as well as asserting that Lyme disease and COVID-19 were bioengineered weapons. During his testimony before the Senate, he had issues confusing Medicare and Medicaid and was attacked for his flip-flopping on abortion. Although he gained some support for his “Make America Healthy Again” platform aiming at food additives, there is doubt that he will earnestly follow through on his proposals.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren decried the confirmation. “Putting Kennedy in charge of the nation’s public health is a huge mistake. When dangerous diseases resurface and people can’t access lifesaving vaccines, all Americans will suffer,” Warren said in her statement. “And thanks to his serious, unresolved conflicts of interest, RFK Jr.’s family could continue getting richer from his anti-vaccine crusade while he’s in office.” Senator McConnell, who survived polio as a child, criticized Kennedy thoroughly. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” he said in a statement.
President Donald Trump took offense to the criticisms, particularly coming from McConnell as characterized the vote as a vote against him. “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader,” Trimp said to a reporter after the vote.
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An outbreak of measles has hit the state of Texas, with fears that the numbers will rise among those who are unvaccinated.
According to reports, a county in Texas is seeing a rise in measles cases, with worries that there may be more cases to come given the rate of unvaccinated people in the area. At least 10 cases were reported in Gaines County, which is in west Texas on the state’s border with New Mexico. The closest major city, Lubbock, is 87 miles away. Eight of those cases are among school-aged children, a week after two cases were initially reported by Texas Health and Human Services. Measles had been considered eradicated by health agencies in 2000 after there was no continuous spreading of the virus for a year.
Concerns are growing due to seven of those ten cases resulting in hospitalization, but also because Gaines County has the lowest vaccination rates among children in the entire state. Per medical rules, a community can be protected against measles if 95% of the people are vaccinated. Currently, the rate among kindergarten students in Texas was 97% in the 2019-20 school year but declined to 94.3% for 2023-24. In Gaines County, only 46% of students were vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella. The disease can cause severe complications among children, with a death occurring one every thousand cases.
The low vaccination rates are being driven by conspiracies about the vaccines, which has compelled lawmakers to push more than 20 bills to weaken vaccine mandates, including one bill to amend the state’s constitution to make it a Texans’ right to refuse being vaccinated. Notably, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose anti-vaccine stance led to a deadly outbreak of measles in Samoa after a visit in 2019, is currently awaiting approval to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Medical officials are working heavily to get more measles vaccines to those not immunized. “We are going to see more kids infected. We will see more families taking time off from work. More kids in the hospital,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, the chief strategy officer for the Houston-based nonprofit The Immunization Partnership in an interview. The state’s Department of Health Services is continuing to work with South Plains Public Health District and Lubbock Public Health to investigate the outbreak.
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Source: Pool / Getty / Donald Trump / RFK Jr.
When it comes to RFK Jr. caring about the health of American citizens, the jig couldn’t be clearer, thanks to a photo making its rounds on social media.
Donald Trump’s heada** pick to head the Health and Human Services Department, RFK Jr., got caught consuming the food he claims is “poison” and is on a mission to stop Americans from eating.
In a photo that made its rounds on social media, Donald Trump, his new favorite glazer, Elon Musk, his “favorite son,” Donald Trump Jr., and RFK Jr. all looked very stupid while consuming McDonald’s, presumably on Trump’s private plane.
Before his election win, in exchange for his support, Trump vowed to allow the alleged Democrat/Independent “go wild on health” before ultimately nomination the health conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic to run the Health and Human Services Department.
Kennedy, in the past, has been vocal about the obesity rate of Americans and once ridiculously claimed that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” not to affect Jewish people.
Social Media Is Frying RFK Jr.
Social media instantly started frying everyone in the picture, specifically RFK Jr., because of how hypocritical it made Kennedy look.
“Making the new gang member do drugs to make sure he’s not an undercover cop,” Economy commentator Geiger Capita wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Tennessee Holler wrote on social media, “Nothing says ‘Make America Healthy Again’ like a Big Mac and a Lipper.”
“Mr. Kennedy, blink twice if you are being forced to eat McDonald’s against your will,” added market researcher Anna Matson.
Welp.
The Senate has not yet confirmed RFK Jr. for the job, and many are clinging to the little hope that he doesn’t earn the nomination because he is not qualified for the gig—period.
The confirmation hearing is still many days away. Until then, you can see more reactions to RFK Jr. getting caught consuming McDonald’s in the gallery below.
2. F R A U D
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Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the Health & Human Service Secretary, causing observers and those on social media to be outraged at the potential danger he poses.
President-Elect Donald Trump is filling out his cabinet, and his latest pick has ratcheted up worry among the public, as he nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his Health & Human Services Secretary. “I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website on Thursday (November 14). “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump added. Kennedy accepted the nomination in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The pick of Kennedy is another controversial choice for Trump, inspired by the former Democratic and independent presidential candidate’s support of him after dropping out of the race in August. Trump even touted Kennedy’s potential in his Election Night speech, saying: “I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on medicines.” In a recent NBC News interview, Kennedy said that Trump wanted him to “clean up corruption” within federal health agencies and stated that “there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA, that have to go.” He recently suggested that he’d fire 600 employees at the National Institute of Health.
Kennedy has been a staunch vaccine denier for decades, claiming that vaccines were the source of childhood autism. The environmentalist even falsely claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was designed to “attack Caucasians and Black people,” but cause less harm to “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese”. The controversial eldest son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has also cozied up to noted Hip-Hop icons in the past and was the center of a scandal that saw him accused of having an affair with former New York Magazine journalist Olivia Nuzzi.
The pick was met with sharp rebuke online. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that RFK Jr. “wants to stop parents from protecting their babies from measles and his ideas would welcome the return of polio.” Dr. Uche’ Blackstock, a prominent author and healthcare advocate, wrote that “this decision pushes us backward.”
We need leadership that strengthens public trust and stands firmly on the side of science. RFK Jr.’s views are incompatible with the mission of safeguarding health equity for all. This decision risks pushing us backward.
— uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) November 15, 2024
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4. Mehdi Hasan
6. Phillip Klein
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Source: David Berding / Getty / Rudy Gobert
Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert has once again stepped into it. This time, he threw his support behind one of Donald Trump’s heada** picks for his presidential cabinet and is getting roasted for it.
Felon 47, aka Donald Trump, is putting together what is easily one of the worst cabinets in the history of the presidency. His latest pick is Robert Kennedy Jr., a constant promoter of conspiracy theories related to health and vaccine hater, to run the Health and Human Services Department.
While the rest of the country knows just how BAD that is, Gobert took to Elon Musk’s dying platform, X, formerly Twitter, to express his excitement for the failed presidential candidate, landing a job he has no business having, writing in the post, “Let’s go @RobertKennedyJr (praying hands emoji).”
Now, why is this bad, you ask? Well, let’s quickly break it down. The former environmental lawyer turned his attention to public health and wrote numerous books that promoted baseless conspiracy theories, many of them about the use of vaccines, which ironically gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, a subject he also had conspiracy theories about.
Then there are reports about Kennedy Jr’s nonprofit group, the Children’s Health Defense, causing a measles outbreak in American Samoa in 2019 because they believed his nonsense about vaccines, leading to vaccine skepticism, which is on the rise globally and led to the death of 70 people.
You Know It’s Bad When People Actively Root For Draymond Green Against You
Combine the worst Kennedy’s track record and Gobert’s presser incident, which many believe was the catalyst to the NBA shutting down after the pro hooper caught COVID-19; it’s no wonder people are now saying on social media Draymond Green was right for putting him in a chokehold and constantly being a thorn in Gobert’s side.
The backlash to Gobert’s post on X has been epic, and honestly, we wouldn’t be shocked if it made him cry like when he got “snubbed” for participating in the 2019 NBA All-Star Game.
On top of that, Minnesota Timberwolves fans and superstar Anthony Edwards might want their overpaid big man to put down his phone and focus on basketball because he’s struggling right now, and the Timberwolves are not looking like the team they were last year.
Granted, the Timberwolves are not the same team from last year, but there were big moves made, with Karl-Anthony Towns being traded to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle, who is off to a great start, while Donte DiVincenzo struggles to fit in on his new team.
Welp.
You can see more reactions to Rudy Gobert celebrating our health going down the drain in the gallery below.
1. We understand Draymond, we understand
4. The timing is immaculate
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