We are led by fools
RFK Jr. has appointed a clown car to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). And it shows:
“If observers were waiting for a moment when the newly anointed members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made a clear case against U.S. vaccine science, it didn’t happen during the group’s 2-day meeting last week.
“Instead, panelists repeated old COVID grievances, re-litigated solved issues around thimerosal and the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and asked basic questions about epidemiologic methods underpinning high-quality science, experts told MedPage Today.”
“We have people who are asking questions of the CDC like it’s a college epidemiology class, not understanding basic principles,” said James Lawler, MD, MPH, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security in Omaha. “It’s embarrassing for the United States and it makes me incredibly sad.”
Not just sad, it’s dangerous. Would you want inexperienced people chosen for aeronautics skepticism flying your plane? Would you want architects who are suspicious of “big engineering” designing the bridges you drive on? Would you trust your prostate surgery to someone who believes prostatectomies are a conspiracy against men?
This is MASA (Make America Stupid Again).
ACIP amateur hour
“If observers were waiting for a moment when the newly anointed members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made a clear case against U.S. vaccine science, it didn’t happen during the group’s 2-day meeting last week.
“Instead, panelists repeated old COVID grievances, re-litigated solved issues around thimerosal and the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and asked basic questions about epidemiologic methods underpinning high-quality science, experts told MedPage Today.”
“We have people who are asking questions of the CDC like it’s a college epidemiology class, not understanding basic principles,” said James Lawler, MD, MPH, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security in Omaha. “It’s embarrassing for the United States and it makes me incredibly sad.”
Not just sad, it’s dangerous. Would you want inexperienced people chosen for aeronautics skepticism flying your plane? Would you want architects who are suspicious of “big engineering” designing the bridges you drive on? Would you trust your prostate surgery to someone who believes prostatectomies are a conspiracy against men?
This is MASA (Make America Stupid Again).
ACIP amateur hour
I understand your concern. I was a Trump supporter until the man was elected, and started doing absurd, cruel, and unwise things. But when aircraft engines explode in flight, aircraft fly into the ground due to bad software and unwise design choices, and their sides fall off in flight, the “experts” have failed. Obvious questions need to be asked.
Honestly, I am much more concerned about how US Conservatives have completely given up on the ideals of “free trade” and “human rights” and so on. I thought those were core Conservative values. Seems in USA-land, not the case, which means a profound change is underway (and every investment operation on the planet is facing new risks and required changes…)
But the CDC needs some real outside guides. In fact, it is good to have non-experts actively question the opinions of so-called “experts” – we can then avoid aircraft that have the sides blow-off during flight, aircraft that have insane automatic “push the wheel forward” software that can fly them into the ground, and out-sourcing of critical flight-control software from folks with aviation experience to cheaper, off-shore shops which have no aviation experience at all – all specific actions that took place at a major US-based aircraft manufacture, which once-upon-a-time had a reputation for building very good airplanes.
The “Cult of the Expert” is toxic. And modern AI (even old-fashioned AI), could be shown to do a better job than most medical “experts”.) The Covid-19 vaccines were a spectatular failure. The chances of getting serious, lethal blood-clots from the mRNA vaccine – which was basically the Covid-19 spike-protein – seems to be very high. The injury-and-death risk from blood-clot problems which appear to be vaccine-related is very real. I got a weird clot which made my foot go numb. A good friend, very healthy, had a full heart-workup only 1 year prior to his death, also very healthy, died of a blood-clot in the artery which supplied the heart. A fellow I know had weird micro-clots in his eye, and lost his vision in one eye. All these clot-related illnesses appear to be related to the ineffective and dangerous mRNA vaccine. All individuals in question were very healthy, and had no history of blood-related issues.
The Covid-19 vaccines did not work. I got Covid-19. *All* my vaccinated friends and associates got Covid-19. When it became clear the vaccines were worthless, the narrative was re-framed to say that the vaccines “lessened the seriousness” of the Covid-19 infection. There was no evidence of this.
There was this datastorm of bogus, dishonest government-pumped information that was pushed out. And it was just false. It was plain old-fashioned *wrong*, and I think it is a very good thing that there are now some serious questions being asked of the “experts” who pushed this.
But the economic program of the Trumpsters, removing non-criminal folks that have lived in USA for many years (and paid a lot of tax, and done a lot of work), just because they are “illegal” – is madness, as are the anti-free-trade “tariffs”. Great harm will be done – not just to world trade, but also to America itself. The D.O.G.E. efforts were needed, but then all that Musk tried to do, was completely betrayed by the “Big, Beautiful Bill”, which is of course, not beautiful at all.
Many appreciate what Kennedy is trying to do. The entire “Covid Lockdown” was a grotesque and stupid thing to do. It had no positive effect, and the Covid-19 vaccines caused harm that is not even tracked by the vaccine adverse-reaction reporting system, because the blood-clot illnesses and deaths occur months later. This foolishness must be investigated.
The real tragedy now – the real MASA action – is in the unwise American economic policy choices, which are certain to harm America going forward. A liquidity tsunami is still goosing the markets, and this will be made worse if interest rates are lowered. But the economic harm that is being programmed in by current actions, stands to be significant. Musk is right to call attention to all this.
Even Republican political persons are asking the Trumpsterites to stop the ICE stormtrooper-style sweeps in California. What we are seeing is tragic and unwise, as is the attack on Harvard and the other American universities, and the curious USA assault on it’s trading partners. It seems even beyond just MASA – it seems to be a programmed evil, that looks like a clear attempt to degrade and damage America and it’s linkages with it’s partners.
It’s not just MASA – it looks like a program to create “MAWA” – “Make America Weak Again”, like it was in the early 1800’s, when USA was a new nation with big ideals and big plans. Trump and his gang are attacking many aspects of American greatness and American strength. His team are actively breaking American economic and military linkages that have taken a hundred years to put in place.
And this is very serious action which weakens us all.
@Russel,
As far as vaccines go, the “cult of the expert*” has served us very well. There isn’t an atom of evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines caused harm, and there is a mountain of evidence that they saved tens of millions of lives world-wide and prevented millions of cases of long COVID. It is foolishness to claim otherwise.
“There was this datastorm of bogus, dishonest government-pumped information that was pushed out. And it was just false.”
LOL! I’m a retired medical school professor. I was in the Moderna Phase III trial. I’ve been following the pandemic since January 2020. Your comment is bogus, dishonest conspiracy-theory information. It is just false.
Knowledgeable people are appalled at what RFK Jr. is doing. The implementation of COVID lockdowns may have been excessive, but they were not stupid. They undoubtedly saved lives and prevented infections. Whether the economic costs were worth it depends on how you monetize human life. Meanwhile, replacing experts with political hacks weakens us all.
*also known as “respect for data and evidence”
expose on covid
https://raineymedia.com/video-store/
@Paul,
Watched it. Great production values!
It may be an expose on COVID (he had two separate COVID infections), but it isn’t an expose on the COVID vaccine. The claim that his issues were “caused” by the mRNA vaccine is the old fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc. Just because his condition came after a jab (it wasn’t his first jab, either) doesn’t mean it was caused by that jab. Correlation isn’t causation. Why can’t we talk about the possibility that he’s suffering from a condition caused by two COVID infections?
Moreover, the plural of anecdote isn’t data. If it were, I’d just say I’ve had eight jabs since August of 2020 and had COVID once during that time (that I know of), and I’ve had absolutely no neurological problems. Same with my wife. That’s twice as many anecdotes. But they’re still just anecdotes. Why can’t we talk about data? Why can’t we talk about the 30,000 people in the Moderna phase III trial? Why can’t we talk about the 45,000 people in the Pfizer phase III trial? Why can’t we talk about the fact that hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated and we don’t have an epidemic of his disease?
Paul:
AB does not accept advertisements. You can talk to the place and offer up a discussion. However, your one liner advertisement link is a violation without some type of presentation as to what they do. Joel has watched presentation. Perhaps you can write a bit more?
My wife and I retired to Italy three years ago from Connecticut.
For now, we have a more tolerable form of idiocracy.
Keith
I will have an Italian pass port as a citizen sometime soon which may give us an avenue also. How are you doing in Italy. Curious . . ..