Trump Presidency

[Mailo]

Great news! The federal government has (finally) removed COVID-19 vaccines from the list of shots recommended for healthy pregnant women and children. There's no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children. Go RFK!

It's past time to stop vaccinating children AND healthy adults with COVID vaccines. The science indicates that there is no real benefit to continue imposing these vaccines on healthy people.

Yeah, you should check your data sources. 19 european countries still recommend the covid vaccine during pregnancy, and "the science" seems to back that up. But at least Russia and Belarus agree with RFK ...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping politics out of science in general, and medicine in particular, but the Republicans kind of did away with that a while back.

[felter]

In the UK, the advice for pregnant women is:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is strongly recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives.

And:

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice is that pregnant women are more at risk of severe COVID-19 disease.

And to be honest, when it comes down to it, I would trust the UK government and health care system well before I would take any kind of advice from RFK, a man who thinks it's healthy to swim in faeces or any other current American government agency.

[fiksal]

This speaks right at the topic of the science based approach.

Removing vaccines is not based on science.

It's about as real as homeopathy.


Also let's not forget that vaccines don't help people who already sick, they are specifically for those who didn't yet.

But it makes perfect sense to anyone who thinks COVID isn't real, vaccines don't do anything, or they cause autism.


You know, anti science crowd

[matthewfarmery]

From a man who doesn't understand how germs work. Not a man I would trust. all they are trying to do is keep yelling that COVID isn't real, its a myth, so because its a myth, we won't vaccinate it anymore.

[matthewfarmery]

As things can't get any worse

U.S. Citizen Handcuffed and Held in ICE Raid

“A U.S.-born citizen who was wrestled into the dirt, handcuffed and detained in a vehicle as part of an immigration raid had a REAL ID on him that was dismissed as fake,” NBC News reports.

Not much else to say about this, apart from history is repeating itself.

[Mailo]

As things can't get any worse

Please don't say that, every time someone utters this sentence, things immediately find a new way to get worse

[matthewfarmery]

thats the problem though, it is getting worse. and these thugs are only going to escalate things farther. If they are claiming that a real ID is fake, then everyone is at risk, and they need to fill their quotas.

[Vertigo 7]

He might as well have just said "Great news! People are going to get sick and die to satisfy my narrative! hooray!"

[Observe]

More good news.

HHS sent a letter to health care providers, risk managers, and state medical boards urging immediate updates to treatment protocols for minors with gender dysphoria based on HHS’ comprehensive review that found puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries have very weak evidence of benefit, but carry risk of significant harms, including sterilization. Providers should no longer rely on discredited guidelines that promote these dangerous interventions for children and adolescents based on ideology, not evidence.

Finally we have people in charge that are pushing back on the wave of medical abuses that have run rampant in this area. This is another example of a field where health care 'science' has been sabotaged by greed for profits and another reason why RFK Jr. was the right choice.

[Vertigo 7]

Click the link in my signature, dude. Even he knows he's not smart enough to speak on matters of healthcare.

[mr.WHO]

Looks like honeymoon is over:

US trade court blocks Trump's sweeping tariffs
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xgdj9kyero

Elon Musk leaves White House
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9y4exj822o

Trump appears to set Putin 'two-week' deadline on Ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyn3vqex47o


Art the deal 101 - for bluff to work, people need to wonder, if you bluff or not - when you bluff all the time it doesn't work.

[chew-ie]

Jip, popcorn time. Already Musk leaving WH is painted as "just because the contract ended" and damage control Re Doge efficiency is already in place ("it's all Trumps fault obviously if it doesn't perform anymore").

[fiksal]

what a country

[Mailo]

More good news.

HHS sent a letter to health care providers, risk managers, and state medical boards urging immediate updates to treatment protocols for minors with gender dysphoria based on HHS’ comprehensive review that found puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries have very weak evidence of benefit, but carry risk of significant harms, including sterilization. Providers should no longer rely on discredited guidelines that promote these dangerous interventions for children and adolescents based on ideology, not evidence.

Finally we have people in charge that are pushing back on the wave of medical abuses that have run rampant in this area. This is another example of a field where health care 'science' has been sabotaged by greed for profits and another reason why RFK Jr. was the right choice.

Translation for the bold part of the quote: "Don't follow their ideology, follow my ideology!"

Unfortunately, the wish for ideology-free, science based decisions on anything is about as realistic as wishing for a unicorn. First the tobacco industry, then the oil industry and finally religion has perfected the ways to attack neutral science by mass publishing fake sciency sounding papers, until only experts in the field can actually distinguish between what's real science, and what started out with the conclusion and then wrote a paper starting from that (e.g., smoking is healthy, climate change does not exist, creationism is real, vaccines cause autism ...).
Anyone without a relevant degree in the field is left to believe in whatever facebook tells them.

While Democrats aren't free of blame for this and at times also use this tactic, Republicans and Conservatives take the majority of the blame here though, mostly because they keep trying to promote policies that go counter to what reliable studies show.

Edit: Sidenote about the "relevant degree in the field part" above ... depending on the subject, this is very specific. Not any doctor should be believed on any medical subject, not any engineer on any engineering issue. I for example have a PhD in physics, with a minor in atmospheric physics, and I KNOW that noone should listen to me if I tried to discredit what scientists actually working on climate change research are saying, because I am not qualified enough.
The idea that people should listen to a quack who believes in the miasma concept as opposed to germs on anything related to health is so unbelievably ludicrous and dangerous.

[matthewfarmery]

RFK announcement blindsided the CDC

RFK Jr. Blindsided the CDC on Vaccine Advice

“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s surprise announcement Tuesday ending coronavirus vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women blindsided the agency that offers that advice,” the Washington Post reports.

“Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scrambling to understand Kennedy’s decision, announced in a 58-second video on X on Tuesday morning, which took agency staff by surprise.”

So his views weren't endorsed by that agency. Maybe Observe, you should dig into a story more before you back a man who has alternative views to everyone else.

And then there is this

RFK Jr.’s Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist

“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission report harnesses ‘gold-standard’ science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions,” NOTUS reports.

“Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.”

[Observe]

US trade court blocks Trump's sweeping tariffs
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xgdj9kyero

Hopefully that'll stick. In the meantime, the tariffs remain in place until the matter winds its way through the courts. I'm all for some tariffs to equalize what other countries have imposed and to protect certain domestic industries, but this 'tariff war' on everything needs to stop.

Elon Musk leaves White House
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9y4exj822o

Good. Hopefully, Musk hasn't done irretrievable damage already. Again, getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse is a good idea, but using a hatchet instead of a scalpel does more damage than benefit.

It is still early days, but it is my hope that the Democrats can learn from all this and put forward a proper candidate next time around. So far, no one substantive on the horizon that I would support.

[Observe]

@Mailo: Thanks for the thoughtful response.

You make a fair point about the general difficulty in achieving truly ideology-free science, and I agree that every political side has at times weaponized or distorted science to serve agendas.

That said, the issue at hand isn’t simply one ideology versus another. It’s about whether the current standard of care for vulnerable minors is supported by robust, long-term evidence - and increasingly, even mainstream international bodies (like those in the UK, Sweden, and Finland) are pausing or reevaluating these treatments due to concerns over weak evidence and potential harms. That’s not a Facebook opinion; it’s a growing international medical reassessment.

It's also valid to be skeptical of appeals to authority, - especially when profit, politics, or social pressure can influence the narrative. The concern many people have isn’t anti-science per se, but pro-accountability: are we letting ideological commitments race ahead of careful, longitudinal data? That’s a legitimate question, not a culture war slogan.

And as for RFK Jr., you don’t have to agree with all his views to recognize that raising hard questions about consensus in controversial medical areas is sometimes necessary, especially when children are involved.

[matthewfarmery]

@Mailo: Thanks for the thoughtful response.

You make a fair point about the general difficulty in achieving truly ideology-free science, and I agree that every political side has at times weaponized or distorted science to serve agendas.

That said, the issue at hand isn’t simply one ideology versus another. It’s about whether the current standard of care for vulnerable minors is supported by robust, long-term evidence - and increasingly, even mainstream international bodies (like those in the UK, Sweden, and Finland) are pausing or reevaluating these treatments due to concerns over weak evidence and potential harms. That’s not a Facebook opinion; it’s a growing international medical reassessment.

It's also valid to be skeptical of appeals to authority, - especially when profit, politics, or social pressure can influence the narrative. The concern many people have isn’t anti-science per se, but pro-accountability: are we letting ideological commitments race ahead of careful, longitudinal data? That’s a legitimate question, not a culture war slogan.

And as for RFK Jr., you don’t have to agree with all his views to recognize that raising hard questions about consensus in controversial medical areas is sometimes necessary, especially when children are involved.

Did you ignore what I posted above? that RFK's statement blindedsided the CDC who was at this time giving the advice to give covid shots to pregnant women and children. How if that helping things when he is saying something that contradicts the CDC? Yet you applauded his announcement, when it was BS. That was just his (RFK's view) when the reverse is true, When the CDC was saying the complete opposite.

[Observe]

Did you ignore what I posted above? that RFK's statement blindedsided the CDC who was at this time giving the advice to give covid shots to pregnant women and children.

Sounds like a communications problem between agencies. Keep in mind that RFK Jr. oversees CDC as HHS head, so his announcement calling for dropping COVID vax for healthy people/kids/pregnant women will most likely prevail. CDC needs to get onboard with the program! Possibly more heads rolling at CDC?

[matthewfarmery]

This is one man's view that vaccinations should be dropped, The CDC were giving good advice on this, until RFK made this decision on his own. Seriously, this is one man stupidity because of his views don't work with the CDC. He is a quack, has no medical knowledge and is saying stuff that is going against sound advice.

He isn't helping, his views are only going to harm a lot of people, especially as there is a new strain of COVID 19 starting to surface.