Northern Virginia Congressman Don Beyer is going there with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying outright on Thursday that Kennedy needs to be relieved of his duties as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“President Trump must fire Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he further endangers millions of American children, mothers, and families. If Trump does not remove Kennedy before this kook fully unleashes his crackpot conspiracy theories on America’s vaccination efforts, Trump will bear the responsibility for the unnecessary and preventable illnesses and deaths that result,” Beyer said in a statement.
ICYMI
- Senators to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: You’re making America sick again
- Blue Ridge Poison Center: Too much vitamin A, touted as a measles cure, can kill you
- Virginia healthcare professionals tired of political rhetoric around role of vaccines
We already knew that Bobby Kennedy’s failson was a crackpot when it comes to health matters, but the guy has gone overboard, even for him, this week, cancelling mRNA contracts, limiting the use of COVID-19 vaccines, and attempting to fire the new CDC director, Susan Monarez, because she clapped back at what he’s doing.
The harebrained stuff RFK Jr. has been busying himself with this week comes on the heels of his move a few weeks back to sack the CDC vaccine advisory committee, every single one of them, in favor of vaccine skeptics.
As all of that has been going on, we have public health folks at the state level here in Virginia using the month of August to remind everyone that getting immunizations protects the entire community.
The Central Shenandoah Health District sent out a press release on Wednesday reminding Virginians of the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing everything from the measles to diphtheria.
ICYMI
Approximately 95 percent of kindergarteners are fully vaccinated against measles, the local health district reports, but there has been a decline in children nationwide receiving immunizations, putting communities at risk again.
It’s entirely because of the messaging associated with the quack that Trump put in charge of HHS, who is trying to force out Monarez from her job at the CDC because she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives,” and accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health,” according to her lawyers.
Monarez has lawyers because she’s challenging her dismissal.
Top CDC leaders not waiting for the legal battle to play out include Dr. Debra Houry, the chief medical officer at the CDC, Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Daskalakis went out guns-a-blazin’, after making public a scathing resignation letter accusing Kennedy of using the “CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”
“Vaccines are safe, and they are essential to saving lives and ensuring that children are healthy and protected,” Beyer said Thursday, as he called for RFK Jr’s immediate dismissal.
“RFK Jr.’s threat to vaccines represents a clear and present danger to the health and wellbeing of ordinary Americans, and any mentally capable president would recognize that and remove him at once,” Beyer said.
Important qualifier there from Beyer – that “any mentally capable president” would recognize the danger of having RFK Jr. anywhere near the public health apparatus, much less have the guy in charge.
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Chris Graham
