As leaders at Centers for Disease Control quit after director’s firing, Kennedy stokes controversy with pet theories

In a week of chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and has been slammed for them by experts and lawmakers alike.

In recent days, Kennedy has been facing increasing calls for his resignation following the Trump administration’s firing of the CDC director, Susan Monarez, which in turn prompted four other top officials to quit the agency. The chaos across US health agencies also comes as Kennedy released a slew of controversial and contradictory rules surrounding Covid-19 vaccines.

On top of all this turmoil, Kennedy has also met with significant backlash for a handful of outlandish remarks and revelations, which have only fueled the controversy surrounding his leadership at the health department.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Robert F Kennedy Jr, has continued to make questionable medical and health claims

    No

    He doesn’t make questionable claims, he’s spouting outright fairytale bullshit that usually obviously horse shit, or if not, is already disproven at best

    Stop phrasing as if what the guy says has even a remote chance of being true, because it isn’t

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    All it’ll take is one outbreak that goes out of control.

    Edit: I meant without a competent CDC to hold the line.

    • blueamigafan@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Unfortunately it won’t some people just believe what their told and that’s that. I once had an argument with a work colleague because they think COVID was a huge hoax, this person was in a coma for 6 MONTHS and still thinks it was fake

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        was that for covid? or something else? its well known comas has a propensity to cause brain damage as well. look at j peterson.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Ya know, if RFK Jr could just get all these people to die of preventable diseases, I might actually consider it a success.

        They live in a completely different reality. One that is defined entirely by Fox, and Brietfart, and Thiel. They take whatever dribbles down to them as incontestable fact.

        Nothing can or needs to be proven. If they say so, it’s true.

        This isn’t politics, this is religion. They are operating on 100% blind faith.

        • blueamigafan@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I live in the UK but yeah people just read shit online and they just believe it. Because you can’t just believe medical professionals from around the world, nope rando Facebooker number 6 is the only one who knows the truth…sigh

          • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            My father read one random article that said that black plastic kitchen utensils were especially deadly, and tossed the whole bunch and replaced them with bamboo. (The bamboo ones are at least objectively superior, although they are made in China.) But the numerous times I told him to stop cooking on extremely high heat with Teflon coated pans because the outgassing was fucking poisonous? Nope, that didn’t sink in. Not one bit.

            Also, apparently the article disparaging black plastic utensils was quickly debunked.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    What’s everyone complaining about? Bobby Brainworm doesn’t even need an e-meter, he can just scan people in a public setting and tell that children are not clear of engrams “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges”!

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Serious deep studies need to be done on any of the claims he makes that don’t have adequate study. I know the autism thing already has a bunch, along with retractions.

    But I suspect other claims have been deemed not easy enough to study, or worth more study. And some will require long timelines for the study to make sense.

    I shouldn’t be hearing reporting on RFK’s BS that can’t easily share overwhelming evidence to refute his claims.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Well, if a dumbass like Bobby Brainworms just makes claims of something and doesn’t have any evidence for those claims, then the burden of proof is on him.

      It doesn’t fall on others to disprove the claims of idiots who have no relevant education, no relevant skills and no expertise.

      Edit: I mean, don’t get me wrong - I understand what you are going for here, but the denialists need to know that this isn’t how science works - falling for their gambits should not be a thing and everyone should point out what they are doing, at all times.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That’s fair. I just wish it was all more concrete.

        And I think overall, we lack health and nutrition studies that are unambiguously not backed by food companies. And the history of nonsense studies and lack of studies around nutrition makes for such a messy discussion even among people who are normal not crazy people, but who just debate things as simple as fats vs carbs. I dunno.