NIH Boss Jay Bhattacharya Breaks With RFK Jr. On Vaccines
from the you're-fired? dept
Echo chambers are generally bad. Any group making important decisions should have a certain level of diversity of thought to avoid groupthink. But I would argue that there are some stances that are so fundamental that it’s good when everyone is on the same page about them. Vaccines, for instance. It would be just the best if everyone in the agencies that manage American health, all the way up to the top, believed in the power and benefit of vaccines. Sadly, that isn’t the case.
RFK Jr. has fired many people for not agreeing with his stance that vaccines make people autistic, kill them, are bad because too many undesirables poison the gene pool, or whatever other crap he’s spewing these days. He fired Susan Monarez after only weeks on the job, reportedly for not agreeing to rubber stamp changes to vaccine schedules he wanted to make. He fired literally everyone on the CDC’s ACIP panel, the group that advises the CDC on those very same changes to vaccine schedules. There’s probably been more, as well.
We’ll have to see if NIH boss Jay Bhattacharya just started the countdown to his own termination, now that he has publicly broken with Kennedy on vaccines. In a Senate Committee hearing, Bhattacharya was grilled by Bernie Sanders.
NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, 58, faced the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Tuesday. There, ranking member Bernie Sanders asked him point-blank, “Do vaccines cause autism? Tell that to the American people: Yes or no?”
After trying to hedge and say he did not believe the measles vaccine causes autism, he finally admitted, “I have not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism.”
Asked specifically about what his approach would be to the current measles outbreak in America, Bhattacharya was even more forceful.
Unlike his boss, Bhattacharya was vocally pro-vaccine during Tuesday’s hearing. Discussing the measles outbreak in the United States, he said, “I am absolutely convinced that the measles epidemic that we are seeing currently is best solved by parents vaccinating their children for measles.”
Reluctantly stated or not, those are sane comments that are completely at odds with Kennedy. Now, so there is no misunderstanding, Bhattacharya is still terrible. He made his name railing against COVID-19 policies and vaccine schedules. He’s also engaged in some politically targeted attacks on elite universities when it comes to grant money and the like.
But on this, he’s right. And that potentially puts his job at risk. RFK Jr. doesn’t like dissenting opinions. He tends to avoid them through firings. On the other hand, I don’t know if he can afford more chaos at HHS and its child agencies.
But when it comes to placing bets, betting against RFK Jr.’s ego is rarely a winner.
Filed Under: autism, cdc, health & human services, jay bhattacharya, nih, rfk jr., vaccines
Comments on “NIH Boss Jay Bhattacharya Breaks With RFK Jr. On Vaccines”
Health Secretary Kennedy could not be reached for comment, as he was busy swimming in sewage.
Not a hedge?
“I have not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism.”
This is certainly a hedge. Some antivaxxers think that too many vaccines all at once cause autism. Saying you haven’t seen a study could mean you think it hasn’t been studied sufficiently.
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Partial credit.
The wording of what he said is obviously implying that getting multiple vaccines (e.g. the MMR vaccine of Wakefield’s fraudulent claims) can cause autism.
Which is false.
It’s better than RFK is on vaccines, but that’s damning with the faintest of praise.
Re:
No, it’s not. It’s leaving the possibility open, perhaps even suggesting it, but not implying it. It could just be bad wording, but likely is (more) hedging so as not to alienate the anti-vaccine voters.
In terms of strategy, that might actually be optimal. Being so direct as to be kicked out of office would limit the ability to fix the problem. Kind of like how politicians who don’t believe in supernatural entities hedge when asked about God, because they’d never be elected if they told the truth.
What I hate is that all you guys treat all vaccinations, and resistance to them, as equal. Vaccinations are NOT equal.
The MMR vaccine (measles mumps rubella) is really good, 98% effective, with no confirmed side effects.
The flu vaccine kinda sucks, only 40% effective, main side effect is that it usually makes you feel crappy for a day.
The old 50-60’s polio vaccine would sometimes give you polio. Still probably worth it for some people despite that. (newer ones are obviously much better)
The point is that there’s this whole range of effectiveness, cost, benefit vs side effect, etc. Some are much more “worth it” than others. You CANNOT treat it as all the same subject.
Objecting to one vaccine, or making it required, does not make you an “antivaxxer”.
Re:
Nobody has said that it does, but the article is about an underling of RFK Jr. going against his general anti-vaccine stance.
So the efficacy or safety of individual vaccines isn’t really relevant here.
Re: Re:
Literally liberals say this, every day.
All vaccines are not the same.
Re:
Sure, and the U.S. has people whose job it is to evaluate those trade-offs, communicate them honestly to the public, and make recommendations that are in the best interests of the public. Those people include RFK Jr., and ACIP chair Kirk Milhoan, who are abdicating their duties in doing exactly what you say we “CANNOT” do (they, obviously, can).
Re:
According to the World Health Organization, as many people as possible need to be vaccinated against polio, until it’s completely eradicated. (Meaning: anyone who’s not allergic to the vaccine.)
They’ve done the math; it’s definitely worth it, even though there are only 6-200 cases of wild polio per year lately (and more vaccine-derived cases), because polio is extremely infectious and very horrible. Federal U.S. health officials repeatedly came to the same conclusion prior to being replaced by stooges, and the remaining trustworthy state officials concur.
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Just because you’re in a cult of fraud doesn’t mean the rest of us are wrong for calling antivaxxism out correctly.
Re:
Then be specific. Which vaccine?
Heads up: Normal people are fully aware that vaccines for rapidly changing viral populations, and predictive vaccines for seasonal groups of virus families, are not 100% effective. Nothing is. But when “40%” (however you are quantifying whatever you are quantifying here) means you aren’t dead or even hospitalized, go cry me a river. No one ever forced the general public to get a flu vaccine. If some places refuse entry to Typhoid Marys, too bad.
elite-level weasling
As I think others have or will note, even in the face of such a stark moment, he couldn’t QUITE do it, and had to leave himself an escape hatch, either for his own fully-rabbit-holed diseased mind or so he can make excuses to his boss later, but
““I have not seen a study that suggests any single vaccine causes autism.””
lets him continue to assert or imply that multiple vaccines in combination DO, which is at the heart of this particular deadly bullshit claim, and why they are modifying the recommended schedule to take more years.