Early reports that President-elect Donald Trump would pick longtime Overlawyered and personal favorite Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head a panel on vaccine safety and scientific integrity — I am not making this up — appear to have been based on RFK, Jr.’s own account of his interaction with the President-elect, whose office promptly clarified that no such decision has been made. [Azeen Ghorayshi/BuzzFeed]
More: Seth Mnookin reviews the sad record on RFK and vaccines.
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Apparently, he nominated himself….
Circular firing squad?
Saying “no decisions have been made at this time” is a classic non-denial. Presumably, the President-elect has some semblance of priority, and so is meeting with people who have genuine chance of serving in the government. (This would regrettably include Kanye West.) Moreover, Trump didn’t respond with an emphatic statement in support of vaccination.
Thus, even the meeting itself is a public health disaster. I’m the last person to defend the pharmaceutical industry and its endless parade of dangerous lies, but vaccines are another matter entirely. Discouraging their use is like discouraging literacy.