RFK Jr Says It Is Hard to Kill Healthy Kids With Measles
John Stossel is apparently still around and gives Kennedy a platform to push propaganda about vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases
How do you know RFK Jr is lying when he talks about vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases?
His lips are moving…
If you believe that’s an exaggeration, let’s fact check his latest interview with John Stossel.
When asked, Kennedy said that he would not vaccinate his kids because he had measles and mumps when he was a kid.
Stossel brought up the very good point that many kids died in the pre-vaccine era, but Kennedy was ready for him, saying that in 1964, it was “almost all severely malnourished kids, mainly from the Mississippi Delta” who died when the measles vaccine was introduced.
Kennedy tries to make a point that it was the ‘poverty program’ that decreased deaths from measles and that we didn’t need the measles vaccine.
Kennedy makes the ridiculous statement that “it is very, very hard to kill a healthy child with any infectious disease, but particularly with measles.”
The problem with his theory?
If it is true, why did so many unvaccinated kids die during the big outbreaks of measles from 1989 to 1991?
It is also very easy to see that most of the measles deaths in 1964 weren’t kids from the Mississippi Delta!
Does malnutrition increase the risk of death from measles?
Of course it does!
And that is why many developing countries have measles case fatality rates of 5 to 25%, much higher than the United States, where malnutrition isn’t as big of a problem and most kids have access to health care.
What else did Kennedy lie about?
Kennedy claims that the WHO “now says that vitamin A is an absolute cure for measles, which we didn’t know about back then.” The WHO has never said that vitamin A is a cure for measles. In fact, they say that there is no cure or specific antiviral therapy for measles and that vitamin A supplements should be given to all children with measles as it “may also reduce the number of measles deaths.”
Kennedy claims that there are “lots and lots of studies out there now that show that kids who get measles as a child are much healthier when they grow up, that they’re much more resistant to cancers, to atopic diseases, to allergies, and to heart disease.” There aren’t! We do know that a natural measles infection “weakens the immune system and can make the body ‘forget’ how to protect itself against infections, leaving children extremely vulnerable.” The idea that you could benefit from having measles comes from Peter Aaby, the same Peter Aaby who pushed the idea that the DPT vaccine harmed kids in West Africa, where we are now seeing big diphtheria outbreaks!
Kennedy claims that the story of his going to Samoa and being involved in the measles outbreak that killed 83 people isn’t true, even though he clearly went to Samoa with his wife, Cheryl Hines, about 4 months before the outbreak started. And he makes the ridiculous claim that the deaths in the Samoa measles outbreak were caused by a bad vaccine given to people to already had measles! Surprisingly, he doesn’t talk about the MMR being a leaky vaccine this time, or deadly new rogue strains of mutating measles, his usual talking points. He pivots this time to blame a bad vaccine imported from Australia which was given to folks who already had measles. His proof? People in Tonga didn’t die in their measles outbreak because they didn’t get a bad vaccine. In reality, there were no deaths (there were 21 hospitalizations though) becaus vaccination rates were pretty high in Tonga and there were just over 650 cases. This is in contrast to the low vaccination rates and thousands of cases in Samoa! And people in Tonga and Samoa all got the same vaccines from UNICEF…
Kennedy brings up the Verstraeten study to support his idea that “autism is caused by vaccines.” Tragically, he gets a lot of the facts about the study “assess the possible toxicity of thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) among infants” wrong. A study which concluded that “no consistent significant associations were found between TCVs and neurodevelopmental outcomes,” even though he claims it showed “a 1350% elevated risk for autism among the people who got the vaccine.”
Not surprisingly, Kennedy could be confusing his studies. Instead of the Verstraeten study, he might be thinking of a study by the Geiers and Brian Hooker, anti-vaccine influencers who are well known for dumpster diving in VAERS to produce poorly done studies to make seem like vaccines are associated with autism and other vaccine-induced conditions.
Kennedy loves these types of studies who support his idea that vaccines are bad and says any study which confirms the idea that vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary are done by so-called “biostitutes.”
Ironcially, he ignores the fact that anti-vaccine influencers have turned scaring people away from getting vaccinated into a huge money making industry!
To his credit, Stossel did push back on some of RFK Jr’s claims - after the interview was over.
Stossel says that Kennedy was wrong when he said that nobody died in Samoa from measles.
“Kennedy’s claim that all the deaths resulted from bad vaccines is just wrong.”
John Stossel
And Stossel pushed back on Kennedy’s claim that vaccines are associated with autism.
“Kennedy’s anti-vaccine messages hurt people.”
John Stossel
Stossel is wrong though when he says that Kennedy doesn’t just make things up though.
Often he does.
There might be a hint of truth somewhere in what he is saying, like the fact that there was an outbreak of measles in Tonga, but you can bet that much of what he says, especially about vaccines, is made up.
Hopefully more people are starting to get that message and will stop listening to him!
References
RFK Jr on Deficits, War, Green Energy, Chronic Disease and Vaccines. John Stossel interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj2VyfZFkcU
Measles Key Facts. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles
Vitamin A supplementation. https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/essential-programme-on-immunization/integration/linking-with-other-health-interventions/vitamin-a
Measles outbreaks in the Pacific. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/measles-outbreaks-in-the-pacific
Tonga Measles Outbreak 2019-20 - Situation Report #18. https://reliefweb.int/report/tonga/tonga-measles-outbreak-2019-20-situation-report-18
UNICEF delivers over 260,000 vaccines and medical supplies to fight measles outbreaks in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-delivers-over-260000-vaccines-and-medical-supplies-fight-measles-outbreaks
Measles Outbreak in the Pacific - Situation Report No. 9. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/dps/outbreaks-and-emergencies/measles-2019/measles-pacific-who-unicef-sitrep-20200103.pdf
Verstraeten T, Davis RL, DeStefano F, Lieu TA, Rhodes PH, Black SB, Shinefield H, Chen RT; Vaccine Safety Datalink Team. Safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines: a two-phased study of computerized health maintenance organization databases. Pediatrics. 2003 Nov;112(5):1039-48. Erratum in: Pediatrics. 2004 Jan;113(1):184. PMID: 14595043.