Incompetence or malevolence? You decide.
Trump appoints RFK Jr. to his Cabinet has scientists fearing a catastrophe for public health
In a tweet he posted shortly before the election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took arms against the Food and Drug Administration and its scientists.
“The FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote, decrying the agency’s “aggressive suppression” of such worthless anti-COVID nostrums as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you,” he continued: “1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees key public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, would give Kennedy the power to turn his threat into reality.
That has sent a chill through the scientific community. Serious scientists are understandably dismayed about the damage that Kennedy and Trump could do to the nation’s public health infrastructure — indeed, to public health itself.
“Scientists are facing a huge threat and need to respond, if not for their own well-being, but for public health in general,” says Robert Morris, an epidemiologist and former professor of community health at Tufts’ medical school. “Academic scientists need to stand together, or they’ll be picked off individually and science will suffer.”
Kennedy is an overt anti-vaccination agitator, among his many other pet pseudoscientific positions. He has called the COVID vaccines, which have saved millions of lives worldwide, “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”.
He has pushed the long-discredited claim that the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine causes autism. A 2005 screed alleging the link, published jointly by Rolling Stone and Salon.com, was so stuffed with falsehoods that it was retracted by both publications.
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Texas measles outbreak grows to over 300 cases in 3 states
Emily Brindley, The Dallas Morning News, 03/18/2025
DALLAS — The measles outbreak that began in West Texas has now grown to more than 300 cases across three states..
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Tuesday morning that Texas now has 279 confirmed measles cases from the outbreak. That number does not include at least four additional measles cases that have been reported in Texas, but which are not not connected to the outbreak..
Texas’ case count also does not include cases reported in neighboring New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The New Mexico Department of Health on Friday reported 38 measles cases in two counties. The vast majority of those cases are in New Mexico’s Lea County, which directly borders Texas’ Gaines County, where the outbreak originated..
The Oklahoma State Department of Health has reported a total of four probable measles cases, which are all believed to be connected to the Texas and New Mexico outbreak.
In Tuesday’s update, the Texas Department of State Health Services did not report any new counties with cases.
Last week, the state reported five measles cases in northeast Texas. Those cases, in Lamar County, were the first instance of the outbreak spreading outside of West Texas and the Panhandle.
Since the outbreak began, a total of 36 people in Texas have been hospitalized. In Texas, one child, who was not vaccinated, has died. New Mexico has also reported one adult death in connection with the outbreak.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads primarily among unvaccinated people. The disease has been considered eliminated in the U.S. since 2000, but there have been outbreaks across the country in communities with low vaccination rates.
Of the 279 measles cases in Texas, only two were identified in people who have been vaccinated. (State officials previously reported five cases among vaccinated people, but revised the number after learning that two cases were people vaccinated after exposure to the virus, and a third case was a measles vaccine reaction as opposed to a measles infection.)
The remaining 277 cases in Texas were among people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the state.
The two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is highly effective at preventing measles infection. It’s recommended for children beginning at about 12 months old and for all adults, with the exception of people who are pregnant or severely immunocompromised.
Local health authorities across Texas are offering the vaccine at clinics. People can also contact their doctor or pharmacy to ask about the vaccine.
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Conservative economist Michael Strain, who was initially optimistic about the prospects of President Donald Trump’s second term, has now found himself aghast at what he sees as the president’s remarkable economic mismanagement.
In his latest column posted at Project Syndicate, Strain argues that in prior years “it would have been unfathomable for a president — including Trump during his first term — to inflict so much harm on the economy deliberately” as what Trump has been doing in recent weeks.
Strain singles out two initiatives as particularly alarming: Trump’s antagonistic trade wars with Canada and Mexico, and the chaotic Elon Musk-led efforts to slash and burn the federal workforce.
“We are witnessing rank incompetence,” he argues. “As has been widely reported, DOGE has charged into federal agencies and fired workers, only to attempt to rehire them days later when it realized how important they were. It is repeatedly posting data with significant errors about its ‘spending cuts.’ Clearly, there is no plan here.”
Incompetence or malevolence? Both.
Musk and Trump are ignorant about what a democratic government should do for the people (incompetence), and they care only for their own wealth and power (malevolence).
What amazes me is the ignorance and malevolence of the right wing American public, who neither have, nor even want, knowledge or compassion, but prefer to be angrily sure about their hatreds.
Trump’s backers are about to receive what they so richly deserve. Then they can go back to blaming Biden.
I feel terrible about the children of those parents.
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#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 