Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

‘The Reality Is Ugly’: Trump Reportedly Pushing RFK Jr. to Ramp Up Assault on Vaccines

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Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on December 2, 2025. (Photo by Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“If Trump gets his way and waters down the child vaccine schedule over the debunked autism myth, more American kids will suffer and die of preventable disease.”

With the US already experiencing public health crises involving measles and explosive diarrhea, President Donald Trump reportedly believes it’s time to further undermine Americans’ faith in the safety of vaccines.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Trump in May asked US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. why he wasn’t doing more to research disproven claims linking childhood vaccination with increased incidence of autism.

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Trump specifically said he’d like to see Kennedy cut the number of shots the CDC recommends for children on the idea that doing so would make “autism rates drop, even if any such effect could take years.”

Kennedy, despite being best known as an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist before being appointed as the nation’s top health official, was reportedly “taken aback” by Trump’s demands, as White House political advisers had asked him to tone down his rhetoric about vaccinations.

During a White House meeting roughly a month later, the Journal reported, Trump complained that Kennedy “wasn’t doing enough” to reduce the number of childhood vaccinations.

Multiple high-quality medical studies have found no link between vaccines and autism.

Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, expressed horror at the president leading the charge against childhood vaccinations, which are estimated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent 4 million deaths per year worldwide.

“The reality is ugly,” said Woodhouse. “If Trump gets his way and waters down the child vaccine schedule over the debunked autism myth, more American kids will suffer and die of preventable disease. We’re already in the middle of a record-breaking measles crisis thanks to vaccine lies amplified loudly by this administration, yet Trump is determined to do more damage.”

Gavin Yamey, director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health at Duke University, declared himself “livid” at Trump’s latest efforts to undermine confidence in vaccines.

“Ahead of the midterms, RFK Jr. and Trump… are ALL IN on their dangerous anti-vaxx activism and conspiracy theories,” Yamey wrote in a social media post. “There is a wealth of high quality evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney noted that Trump’s false belief in a link between vaccines and autism stretches back years.

“For decades, Trump has pushed the lie that vaccines cause autism,” Pitney wrote. “Now he reportedly wants RFK Jr. to push it even harder. The result? More US measles cases in the past 18 months than in the previous 20 years combined.”

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘The Reality Is Ugly’: Trump Reportedly Pushing RFK Jr. to Ramp Up Assault on Vaccines

Measles, Salmonella, Explosive Diarrhea: Public Health Crises Erupt Under RFK Jr.’s Leadership

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Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on June 23, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“When the Trump administration declares a crisis ‘under control’, it’s time to brace for the worst yet to come,” said one critic.

The United States under Trump-appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently experiencing major public health crises, including record-high measles cases, an outbreak of a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea, and potential salmonella contamination that led to a recall of nearly two million egg cartons.

Numbers released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday revealed that there have been 2,318 recorded cases of measles this year, the highest number of cases recorded since the virus was declared eliminated in the country more than two decades ago.

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Some public health experts who spoke with The New York Times said that lower uptake of the measles vaccine was to blame for the outbreak.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, told the Times that “this is just going to keep happening” in the US unless vaccination rates improve.

“It’s going to mean living in a perpetual state of vulnerability and risk until we get vaccination levels up,” Nuzzo emphasized.

Dr. Jonathan Temte, a former chairman of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, placed blame for the outbreaks on the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the leadership of Kennedy, who prior to becoming America’s top public health official was best known as an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist.

“We have seen virtually no national messaging,” said Temte. “We’ve seen no ad campaigns… I think that really tells us something about their priorities.”

Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, also slammed Kennedy’s leadership at NHS, accusing him and President Donald Trump of being on “a suicide mission to scare America families away from vaccines without cause or evidence.”

“What they’ve accomplished is a huge dip in vaccination rates and the worst measles crisis in 35 years,” Woodhouse added. “While the nation’s measles elimination status is doomed, the Trump CDC apparently has not spent a dime on public service ads promoting the one thing that will get us out of the woods: the measles vaccine.”

Measles isn’t the only disease spreading throughout the country, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Friday that “four new states… are now considered part” of the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a foodborne illness that causes explosive diarrhea.

The FDA has said that iceberg lettuce sourced from Taylor Farms de Mexico is likely the source of the outbreak, which so far has led to nearly 2,000 infections and almost 100 hospitalizations.

News about the continued spread of the outbreak came two days after the FDA revealed it was investigating another potential source of cyclospora, the parasitic bacteria that causes cyclosporiasis.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who earlier this week demanded answers from Kennedy about his decision to terminate the CDC’s previously required surveillance of cyclospora, sent the HHS secretary a letter on Friday ripping his leadership of the department.

“Your silence amidst an ongoing outbreak of diarrheal disease,” Ossoff wrote, “is indicative of the reckless arrogance with which you demolished America’s public health defense.”

Woodhouse, in a statement released Thursday, noted that Kennedy had declared the outbreak “under control” this week even though federal data shows it growing.

“If history is any judge, when the Trump administration declares a crisis ‘under control’, it’s time to brace for the worst yet to come,” said Woodhouse.

The FDA also announced on Wednesday that Midwest Poultry Services was voluntarily recalling nearly 1.6 million cartons of eggs over potential contamination by the bacteria salmonella.

As the FDA noted, salmonella infections often result in a number of unpleasant conditions, including “fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.”

Economist Dean Baker summed up the current situation in the US in a Friday social media post: “War, diarrhea, measles, and now salmonella, that’s pretty damn MAGA!”;

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Continue ReadingMeasles, Salmonella, Explosive Diarrhea: Public Health Crises Erupt Under RFK Jr.’s Leadership

As Florida Ends All Childhood Vaccine Mandates, Doctors Fear Preventable Diseases Will ‘Come Roaring Back’

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo speaks before the Miami-Dade County Health & Safety Committee on March 14, 2025. (Photo: Joseph Ladapo)

“Florida’s decision to erase school vaccine requirements will cause preventable illness and death,” said one immunologist. “Not just for kids in Florida, for whole communities, of all ages, across the country.”

In a decision that has terrified medical professionals, Florida’s surgeon general announced Wednesday that he would seek to end all childhood vaccine requirements in the state, which he compared to “slavery.”

Currently, Florida requires children to be immunized against deadly diseases like measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, and hepatitis in order to attend public school.

At a press conference alongside the state’s anti-vaccine Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said that he believed the decision to make these vaccinations optional would receive the blessing of “God.”

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said of the mandates. “People have a right to make their own decisions. Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Our body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”

Many Republican-led states have rolled back requirements for residents to receive the Covid-19 vaccination and, in some cases, restricted access to it. But Ladapo, who has in the past been caught personally altering data to exaggerate the risks of the Covid-19 vaccine, is treading new ground with his pledge to eliminate “every last one” of the state’s childhood vaccine mandates, something no state, red or blue, has done.

While Ladapo’s decision is unprecedented, it is in step with the position of the current Republican Party, which is making health policy under the stewardship of longtime anti-vaccine influencer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is the secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.

Kennedy has limited who is eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and is reportedly considering pulling it from the market altogether. And alongside a handpicked panel of anti-vaccine activists, he has also launched an effort to revise the entire childhood vaccine schedule.

In April, as a measles epidemic swept through pockets of Texas with low vaccination rates and killed two unvaccinated children, Kennedy downplayed the disease’s severity and hyped long-disproven claims about the dangers of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, which virtually eradicated the disease in the US for over 20 years.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of parents declining to vaccinate their children has soared across the US. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, during the 2019-20 school year, just three US states had rates of MMR vaccination lower than 90%. In 2025, that number had increased to 16.

As of July, 1,280 measles cases had been reported in the US—the most cases since 1992, before the MMR vaccine became part of the standard childhood vaccine schedule. In 92% of cases involving children and teenagers, the people who became infected were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination statuses.

Following news of Florida’s decision to end childhood vaccine requirements, Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Washington Post: “We can expect that measles will come roaring back. Other infectious diseases will follow. This is an unprecedented move that will only put our children at unnecessary risk.”

Measles is not the only vaccine-preventable illness experiencing a resurgence. After the rate of whooping cough vaccinations dropped below the 95% threshold required for herd immunity during the 2023-24 school year, the number of cases of the disease doubled, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Florida will repeat what happened in West Texas, where immunization rates are low,” said Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, a pediatrician who serves as Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “All for health freedom propaganda, and lousy Fox News sound bites.”

According to CDC data, Florida has one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the country, with just over 88% of kindergarteners receiving the required shots in the 2023-24 school year. But just as they did in Texas, the effects may harm people across the country.

“Florida’s decision to erase school vaccine requirements will cause preventable illness and death. Not just for kids in Florida, for whole communities, of all ages, across the country,” said Dr. Andrea Love, an immunologist and microbiologist, who writes a newsletter responding to medical misinformation. “Pathogens don’t follow state lines.”

Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, called the plan “a recipe for disaster and exactly the wrong approach to protecting state residents from infectious diseases.”

“High immunization rates against dangerous infectious diseases such as measles and polio protect individuals as well as their communities,” Steinbrook said. “If this plan moves forward, Florida will terminate one of the most effective means of limiting the spread of infectious diseases and embolden [Kennedy] to wreak even more havoc on vaccinations nationally. The Florida Legislature and state residents must vociferously reject these plans.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Continue ReadingAs Florida Ends All Childhood Vaccine Mandates, Doctors Fear Preventable Diseases Will ‘Come Roaring Back’

Trump Is Turning the White House Into a Billionaire Time-Share

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Original article by Bob Burnett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk talk ringside during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

It appears that Trump has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Musk and several other wealthy individuals including Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and David Sacks.

Democracy decays into oligarchy when a few individuals accumulate most of the political power.

The reelection of Donald Trump has accelerated the decline of the United States into oligarchy. Trump has had billionaire donors for each of his presidential campaigns, but in 2024 the role of these wealthy donors expanded. Donors such as Elon Musk made gigantic contributions to Trump’s campaign; in return for this they are taking an active role in the Trump White House. Perhaps, this time around, Trump turned the oval office into a time-share.

On December 19, Elon Musk led the call for House Republicans to repudiate a continuing resolution they had just negotiated to keep the federal government running through the end of the year. Perhaps Musk’s charter includes coordination with Congress.

When Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy speak of increasing government efficiency, they usually start with services for the unfortunate.

It appears that Trump has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Musk and several other wealthy individuals including Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and David Sacks. However this arrangement works, it’s likely that the Trump administration will cater to billionaires—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) observed that the 13 billionaires chosen by Trump to serve in his administration have a combined wealth of at least $383 billion.

What do these billionaires want? The oligarchs and billionaires want lower taxes and reduced government regulations. Of course, each billionaire has a particular set of interests; for example, David Sacks, Trump’s “AI and crypto czar,” is a venture capitalist with heavy investment in AI and crypto. Sadly. most of the oligarchs are climate-change deniers.

The oligarchs want more wealth. Robert Reich observes:

Since [1980], the median wage of the bottom 90% has stagnated. The share of the nation’s wealth owned by the richest 400 Americans has quadrupled (from less than 1% to 3.5%) while the share owned by the entire bottom half of America has dropped to 1.3%… The richest 1% of Americans now has more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.

The oligarchs share a fiscally conservative agenda. They intend to shrink the size of the federal government. The particulars vary but the oligarchs are not concerned with the size of the defense budget; their cost-cutting focus is on programs that service the poor and disadvantaged—such as Medicaid. When Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy speak of increasing government efficiency, they usually start with services for the unfortunate.

What are the practical consequences of this shift to oligarchy? It’s unsettling to be in a political situation where we do not understand who is in charge at the White House. We don’t know how power-sharing will work. The relationship between Trump and Congress has been fraught. The shift to oligarchy will make this relationship even more difficult.

Will the oligarchs fix the economy? Trump was elected because he promised to fix the economy. Most Americans believed he would drive down inflation; they thought Trump would reduce the cost of food, housing, and household and medical expenses. Since November 5, Trump has given no indication of how he plans to do this. Perhaps he has lost interest.

During the presidential campaign, Trump said his inflation-fighting agenda would rely upon tariffs, but it’s likely that the oligarchs will influence how Trump’s tariff strategy plays out. Musk has huge business interests in China, and it’s unlikely that he would support a tariff policy that would hurt his relationships with the country.

Trump has appointed a “czar” for immigration (Tom Homan), energy (Doug Burgum), and AI & Crypto (Sacks). Trump has not appointed a czar for inflation. With much fanfare, Trump has appointed a commission on “government efficiency;” they’ve already started meeting. Trump has not appointed to a commission to curb inflation.

After January 20, Trump will own inflation and the economy. Trump’s immigration “purge” will drive up the cost of food. Trump’s tariffs will drive up the cost of household expenses.

Trump’s trying to ignore inflation. Or turn it over to an oligarch co-president. Stay tuned.

Original article by Bob Burnett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingTrump Is Turning the White House Into a Billionaire Time-Share

‘Make Polio Great Again’: Alarm Over RFK Jr. Lawyer Who Targeted Vaccine

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage at a campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on October 23, 2024 in Duluth, Georgia. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“So if you’re wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is,” said one critic.

Public health advocates, federal lawmakers, and other critics responded with alarm to The New York Times reporting on Friday that an attorney helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. select officials for the next Trump administration tried to get the U.S. regulators to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022.

“The United States has been a leader in the global fight to eradicate polio, which is poised to become only the second disease in history to be eliminated from the face of the earth after smallpox,” said Liza Barrie, Public Citizen’s campaign director for global vaccines access. “Undermining polio vaccination efforts now risks reversing decades of progress and unraveling one of the greatest public health achievements of all time.”

Public Citizen is among various organizations that have criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with the watchdog’s co-president, Robert Weissman, saying that “he shouldn’t be allowed in the building… let alone be placed in charge of the nation’s public health agency.”

Although Kennedy’s nomination requires Senate confirmation, he is already speaking with candidates for top health positions, with help from Aaron Siri, an attorney who represented RFK Jr. during his own presidential campaign, the Times reported. Siri also represents the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) in petitions asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “to withdraw or suspend approval of vaccines not only for polio, but also for hepatitis B.”

According to the newspaper:

Mr. Siri is also representing ICAN in petitioning the FDA to “pause distribution” of 13 other vaccines, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A, until their makers disclose details about aluminum, an ingredient researchers have associated with a small increase in asthma cases.

Mr. Siri declined to be interviewed, but said all of his petitions were filed on behalf of clients. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy, said Mr. Siri has been advising Mr. Kennedy but has not discussed his petitions with any of the health nominees. She added, “Mr. Kennedy has long said that he wants transparency in vaccines and to give people choice.”

After the article was published, Siri called it a “typical NYT hit piece plainly written by those lacking basic reading and thinking skills,” and posted a series of responses on social media. He wrote in part that “ICAN’s petition to the FDA seeks to revoke a particular polio vaccine, IPOL, and only for infants and children and only until a proper trial is conducted, because IPOL was licensed in 1990 by Sanofi based on pediatric trials that, according to FDA, reviewed safety for only three days after injection.”

The Times pointed out that experts consider placebo-controlled trials that would deny some children polio shots unethical, because “you’re substituting a theoretical risk for a real risk,” as Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, explained. “The real risks are the diseases.”

Ayman Chit, head of vaccines for North America at Sanofi, told the newspaper that development of the vaccine began in 1977, over 280 million people worldwide have received it, and there have been more than 300 studies, some with up to six months of follow-up.

https://twitter.com/greenhousemd/status/1867639259567731149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1867639259567731149%7Ctwgr%5E7e48f49e770c41569c1cc4056fd12b7ed80473b6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10

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Trump, who is less than six weeks out from returning to office, has sent mixed messages on vaccines in recent interviews.

Asked about RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine record during a Time “Person of the Year” interview published Thursday, the president-elect said that “we’re going to be able to do very serious testing” and certain vaccines could be made unavailable “if I think it’s dangerous.”

Trump told NBC News last weekend: “Hey, look, I’m not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they’re going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are—certain vaccines—are incredible. But maybe some aren’t. And if they aren’t, we have to find out.”

Both comments generated concern—like the Friday reporting in the Times, which University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC columnist Joyce White Vance called “absolutely terrifying.”

She was far from alone. HuffPost senior front page editor Philip Lewis said that “this is just so dangerous and ridiculous” while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan declared, “We are so—and I use this word advisedly—fucked.”

Ryan Cooper, managing editor at The American Prospect, warned that “they want your kids dead.”

Author and musician Mikel Jollett similarly said, “So if you’re wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is.”

Multiple critics altered Trump’s campaign slogan to “Make Polio Great Again.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a video on social media:

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1867576860571287653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1867576860571287653%7Ctwgr%5E7e48f49e770c41569c1cc4056fd12b7ed80473b6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Frfk-jr-polio-vaccine

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Without naming anyone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, put out a lengthy statement on Friday.

“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed—they’re dangerous,” he said in part. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Continue Reading‘Make Polio Great Again’: Alarm Over RFK Jr. Lawyer Who Targeted Vaccine