In an at-times heated hearing before a House committee on Wednesday morning, Health and Human Services Secretary and measles enthusiast Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., finally said something everyone can agree with: “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.” Okay!
The hearing was the first time since his confirmation that the sewage enjoyer testified before Congress, having ignored an invitation from Deep Concerns Haver Bill Cassidy earlier in the year. Kennedy faced questions about his ongoing massive overhaul of the country’s entire medical and research apparatus, including the cutting of 20,000 jobs, rescinding and withholding of huge amounts of grant money, and more. And he did his best to dodge questions about his own medical views, which, yes, he has spent a lot of time trying to force down the country’s collective throat.
“If you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child first against diseases?” asked Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, to which the HHS secretary replied: “I would say my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant… I don’t want to seem like I am being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
This from the guy who downplayed vaccination in favor of just treating measles with cod liver oil, leading to people getting even more sick. The guy who thinks “healthy living” can stave off all chronic diseases. The guy who apparently killed off the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors, not to mention entire divisions of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also on the table during the hearing was HHS’s continued refusal to spend Congressionally appropriated money, in particular at the National Institutes of Health. Kennedy insisted that he would spend any such money, but as Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said, he’s already breaking that promise.
“You have an obligation to carry out the law and implement what Congress has done,” Delauro said. “Unbelievable.”
Kennedy’s moves, more than his articulated medical advice, are what might eventually make him the deadliest of all Trump’s generally dangerous cabinet members. Doing the exact opposite of what he says, though, might at least stave off some of the casualties.
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