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RFK Jr. Joins the Anti-Vaccine Fringe
http://time.com/3012797/vaccine-rfk-jr-thimerosal/A man who used to tell hard truths now peddles dangerous nonsense
There are lots of places to go if you want dangerous crazytalk. There are websites, blog threads, cable channels trafficking in all kinds of addled nonsense about birther conspiracies and one-world governments. And then there was Robert Kennedy, Jr., the tireless, honest climate hero long famous for fighting the very good fight.
But that was then. RFK, Jr. may still know a thing or two about global warming, but he has taken a disreputable plunge into the world of anti-science with his new and inexplicable crusade: warning people about the dangers of vaccines.
Let’s be clear: Kennedy will tell you he’s not against vaccines themselves, but rather, against thimerosal, a vaccine preservative purportedly responsible for the rise in autism in the U.S. He’s even publishing a new book—Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak—making this frightening point. The problem is: he’s wrong—utterly wrong, so wrong it’s hard even to know what the biggest piece of that wrongness is.
But let’s start with a single fact that ought to be, as the lawyers like to say, dispositive: the thimerosal ain’t there. With the exception of the flu vaccine, it was removed from or reduced to trace levels in all vaccines given to children under 6-years-old 13 years ago. You face a greater mercury risk eating seafood and fish—and even that danger is low enough that the EPA recently recommended that pregnant and nursing women increase their intake of certain kinds of fish because the nutritional benefits outweigh the theoretical dangers.
There are lots of places to go if you want dangerous crazytalk. There are websites, blog threads, cable channels trafficking in all kinds of addled nonsense about birther conspiracies and one-world governments. And then there was Robert Kennedy, Jr., the tireless, honest climate hero long famous for fighting the very good fight.
But that was then. RFK, Jr. may still know a thing or two about global warming, but he has taken a disreputable plunge into the world of anti-science with his new and inexplicable crusade: warning people about the dangers of vaccines.
Let’s be clear: Kennedy will tell you he’s not against vaccines themselves, but rather, against thimerosal, a vaccine preservative purportedly responsible for the rise in autism in the U.S. He’s even publishing a new book—Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak—making this frightening point. The problem is: he’s wrong—utterly wrong, so wrong it’s hard even to know what the biggest piece of that wrongness is.
But let’s start with a single fact that ought to be, as the lawyers like to say, dispositive: the thimerosal ain’t there. With the exception of the flu vaccine, it was removed from or reduced to trace levels in all vaccines given to children under 6-years-old 13 years ago. You face a greater mercury risk eating seafood and fish—and even that danger is low enough that the EPA recently recommended that pregnant and nursing women increase their intake of certain kinds of fish because the nutritional benefits outweigh the theoretical dangers.
Those who knuckle their forelock to the Kennedys will only be too eager to dismiss this article as an ugly smear, and the deliberate trashing of the world's bestest Democrat.
In reality, Kennedy is a dangerous loon, because of the disproportionately large megaphone he's able to wield.
I'm sure there will be more articles critical of RFK Jr leading up to the release of his book.
And I'll be happy to post 'em in GD.
Sid
37 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Overly Enthusiastic Alerters, Jurors, and Fellow DUers: This is Extreme-- I do not actually think Sid or anyone else who is a "regular" here works or worked for NSA--unless they identify themselves as such-- and I think that those kinds of "viper in our midst" suggestions, particularly when directed at known members, are rude and disruptive, frankly!
Right on, Sid!
What on earth could be the reason???
Anyway, I agree. I am a pediatric hospice nurse and I don't want more patients.
Thank You Sid!
so he's getting a bunch of press right now. And some of the media are playing catch-up.
And i think Pediatrics nurses are wonderful. 
Sid
What brought this old thread up from the archives?
Did someone link to it?
Sid
