I’m struck, in your story about coincidence and vaccines, at how your travels and unexpected meet-ups also mimic the way viruses spread. Synchronicity indeed.
I'm afraid that any website or podcast that has thoroughly documented the abuses and lies of Anthony Fauci will not be heard by dems. Do your homework. Fauci .makes Mengela look like an altar boy. I will say no more on this issue.
"A stark example of the devastating impact of vaccine misinformation is Samoa's 2019 measles outbreak. In this island nation of 200 000, more than 5700 people were infected and 83 people died, most of whom were young children. Samoa's Ministry of Health cited Kennedy's visit and his rhetoric as exacerbating vaccine hesitancy at a crucial moment. Kennedy's non-profit, Children's Health Defense, contributed to this atmosphere of mistrust just months before the outbreak. Samoa's experience underscores how even one prominent anti-vaccine figure can ignite a public health crisis."
Along with America's decline into carnage as the result of Donald Trump and his supporters, part of our society has descended into an ignorant Dark Age, marked by the absence of science, the presence of superstition, and an antipathy to reason. Time to light as many candles as possible.
Correlation is not causation. People who think vaccines are dangerous because of the reported “adverse events” are exemplified by Homer Simpson in this clip:
It's funny people who take the trouble to know we have a vaccine registry aren't discerning enough to know it is wide open self reporting with the limits that brings. I mean it's not like this takes a lot of thought
My husband has to start revaccinating in a couple of weeks (he had a cancer treatment called CAR-T which got rid of the cancer but also wiped out all of his vaccine immunity). In a different world I wouldn't worry about him not being vaccinated against polio, but today, with so many antivax folks out there I do. People also need to understand herd immunity and how there are people who can't vaccinate and who are vulnerable: we get vaccines to protect ourselves, but also our community
That is why so many of these diseases were almost completed eradicated. Cut to foreign aid that support vaccines overseas also means the U.S. will be more at risk. Maybe Ambassador Stefanik can work on that issue.
We all survive only because we are a society. The risks from taking vaccines is incredibly small, and we accept those small risks because decent human beings prefer to take small risks to their own safety in order to protect the vulnerable, such as infants, children, and those with health problems.
Some people are either ignorant of what others have done for them or just plainly do not care.
Along with everyone present in RFK Jr.’s first hearing roomful of Senators, aides, etc., I watched the entire TV coverage, observing his persistent tremulousness, obvious rhinitis, repeated rubbing of his watery eyes, worsening of his spasmodic dysphonia diagnosis, poor concentration… and general state of un-wellness. Even without my 40 yrs. nursing career… including military and civilian substance abuse detection/ intervention/treatment training certifications…and care of countless addicts going through classic withdrawal symptoms, I believe I was witnessing a self- proclaimed “recovering addict’s” withdrawal from something.
These were not merely symptoms of current respiratory viruses plaguing our nation, often communicated virally in the air by non-Vaxers. If so, he should have been wearing an N-95 face mask!
Throughout that hearing, and after a break, in full view, RFK Jr. repeatedly pulled out little white packets from his left jacket pocket, popping them into his mouth much more frequently than any cold lozenge…or prescribed medical marijuana dose. The New York Post, Associated Press/ YouTube videos recorded this behavior and have allegedly identified a tin he carried as ZYN…a highly addictive nicotine product used for swift energy boosts, but requiring frequent re-dosing to achieve a sense of well-being/desired energy level. Maybe we need to do drug tox screen blood levels on Trump’s nominees vs. banning gun metal detectors?
Today’s Post Star, pg A2, includes SEN Ron Johnson’s document submission of 800 names of DRS. and other medical provider/supporters of Trump submitted during the hearing. It is now known to include at names of Drs.whose medical licenses have been suspended, revoked or under review, along with more than 90 avowed non-Vaxers with no medical credentials at all.
I have rosary beads in 3 rooms and one set in my car…and wish I still had some Lourdes Holy Water to reinforce my prayer vigils and courage muscles.
I beg to add context to your wonderful comments of this morning. It is so important to realize that RFK Jr is being considered by the Senate to head the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), an immense $1.8 trillion cabinet level branch of the federal government. And it is so impotrtant to consider what his candidacy may mean,
DHHS oversees the FDA, Medicare and Medicaid, NIH, CDC, and the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP).Its mission is support public health oriented programs and basic science research, specifically including to prevent infectious diseases.
It is OIDP that oversees the National Vaccine Program, which provides strategic leadership and coordination of vaccine and immunization activities among all federal agencies. To think of an anti-vaxxer at the head of all these is scary beyond belief.
But consider too that, as its name suggests, OIDP provides the federal strategy designed to end the HIV epidemic. It oversees efforts to diagnose, to treat and to care for the infected, and also to prevent HIV infection in the first place. That includes research into preventative measures such as an HIV vaccine, which is currently in progress. In his current Senate hearings, RFK Jr has not said what his views on these HIV efforts are. But we can imagine. Because RFK Jr has the highly controversial, and in my view misguided and misleading, idea that HIV is not the underlying cause of AIDS. So I bet he will pull funding from HIV research and probably from clinical work too.
OIDP also overseas the US program that addresses the HIV/AIDS pandemic abroad. It is called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Already, the Trump administration has issued a “stop-work“ order to cancel all global health funding, which includes that of the PEPFAR program. Right now, clinics around the world that provided anti-HIV medications have suddenly become unable to do so. Millions of patients depend on these meds to stay alive. In other words, they will die without them…and within months to a couple of years. Not only that, but the unleashing of the virus in so many millions will quickly lead to its spreading far further. And kids will be born with untreatable infection.
I bet my Social Security income that RFK Jr will support this unconscionable “stop-work” death sentence for millions, will drop funding, and maybe will entirely stop programs in the DHHS. Safe bet. Because when he was running for president, he went on record saying that if elected, he would “give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” .He wasn’t talking about Daytona Beach: he meant by that he would ignore them.
Please know too that his anti-vaccine and HIV/AIDS garbage is more than just that. It has been powerful in helping to stoke the recrudescent fires of mistrust of medical and behavioral research, of science itself. Do we really want this guy in charge of the DHHS?
If you have any doubts, please consider this. Public health and infectious disease experts around the world predict that there s about 27.5% chance that another pandemic will strike us within 5 to 10 years. How will DHHS under RFK Jr - a notorious anti-vaxxer and HIV skeptic - work to prepare the US and the world for such a disaster? Wow…terrifying question.
All this is both so complicated and so important as to be mind numbing. Yet we citizens must wake up, look carefully at the real facts and science, not the misinformation being propagated by the Trump administration and RFK Jr. Then look too at the just plain destruction the Trump administration is so amazingly bringing down on national and world infrastructures designed to confront infections and minimize suffering and deaths. Then decide where we stand, where we fight.
Dear Will, thank you for for providing space for these comments.
But allow me one more: DHHS also helps to fund housing for detained undocumented minors and for the settling of refugees. You can imagine what will happen to those dollars, and you can imagine how I feel about that.
Thank you Dr. Leach for your lifetime of local, national and international attention to and personal interventions for the control of infectious diseases. And your action-oriented compassion for refugees from many countries. Your Post Star and Chronicle articles through the years have always reflected well- researched educational information easily readable by the general community. We need your expertise now more than ever before.
Thanks, Will. Once again you’ve pushed several of my buttons on a Sunday morning.
Your vaccine/coincidence analysis was right on. Another good reminder of the importance of vaccines. The denial of scientific methods in some circles is scary.
Your “Reunion” picture .purchase at LARAC stirred up memories. in 1990 I was in the USSR, a.time when decay of the Soviet Union had begun. Our group was there not only to experience the sights and sounds, but to have conversations with the Christian community in three Soviet Republics. Very memorable was our time in Tallinn, Estonia. The people of Estonian were beautiful, filled with joy and hope, as reflected in your picture.
I reported to VAERS a medical adverse condition that happened 2 days after a Covid booster. As it turned out this was an unrelated coincidence. VAERS was very thorough, contacting me more than once about what happened. I did inform VAERS after it became clear that the vaccine wasn't responsible. This is a good thing.
That's what all nutty conspiracies are: the conflation of correlation and causation. Of course, some conspiracies are real. The US formenting coups in Iran and Chile, for example. And that's what gives ammo to the conspiracy theorists. But plausible does not equate to true.
I’m struck, in your story about coincidence and vaccines, at how your travels and unexpected meet-ups also mimic the way viruses spread. Synchronicity indeed.
RFK Jr. has baggage for sure, but Fauci has caused way more damage and is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people.
You mean through his membership in the Illuminati?
In what way has Fauci done that?
Ummm, the article was about RFK jr.
You shouldn't just assert that without specifics. He was a career public servant dedicating his life to helping people and preventing disease.
I'm afraid that any website or podcast that has thoroughly documented the abuses and lies of Anthony Fauci will not be heard by dems. Do your homework. Fauci .makes Mengela look like an altar boy. I will say no more on this issue.
I see you still cannot provide any valid or reliable evidence for your claims. Talk is cheap, especially when it’s propaganda.
Yeah, you really should provide specifics. I'm a pretty well-read person and comparing him to Mengele is pretty out there. Examples please!
Well maybe don't post those kind of comments then, if you don't have facts to back them up. Telling people "do your research" is a total cop out .
Hi Nancy, Josef Mengele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele#Human_experimentation
Scroll down to “Auschwitz”
“an altar boy”?
Him and Diddy....
This, from The Lancet, on the anti-vaxxer RFK Jr:
"A stark example of the devastating impact of vaccine misinformation is Samoa's 2019 measles outbreak. In this island nation of 200 000, more than 5700 people were infected and 83 people died, most of whom were young children. Samoa's Ministry of Health cited Kennedy's visit and his rhetoric as exacerbating vaccine hesitancy at a crucial moment. Kennedy's non-profit, Children's Health Defense, contributed to this atmosphere of mistrust just months before the outbreak. Samoa's experience underscores how even one prominent anti-vaccine figure can ignite a public health crisis."
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02603-5/fulltext
Pretty dangerous baggage.
Along with America's decline into carnage as the result of Donald Trump and his supporters, part of our society has descended into an ignorant Dark Age, marked by the absence of science, the presence of superstition, and an antipathy to reason. Time to light as many candles as possible.
Correlation is not causation. People who think vaccines are dangerous because of the reported “adverse events” are exemplified by Homer Simpson in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=4GzMizVAl-0&dp_isNewTab=1&dp_referrer=serp&dp_allowFirstVideo=1
Perfect 👍
It's funny people who take the trouble to know we have a vaccine registry aren't discerning enough to know it is wide open self reporting with the limits that brings. I mean it's not like this takes a lot of thought
And what's her name forgot to read/hear RFK Jr.s own admission at his hearing that ALL of his family members have been vaccinated!
My husband has to start revaccinating in a couple of weeks (he had a cancer treatment called CAR-T which got rid of the cancer but also wiped out all of his vaccine immunity). In a different world I wouldn't worry about him not being vaccinated against polio, but today, with so many antivax folks out there I do. People also need to understand herd immunity and how there are people who can't vaccinate and who are vulnerable: we get vaccines to protect ourselves, but also our community
That is why so many of these diseases were almost completed eradicated. Cut to foreign aid that support vaccines overseas also means the U.S. will be more at risk. Maybe Ambassador Stefanik can work on that issue.
This is such an important comment.
We all survive only because we are a society. The risks from taking vaccines is incredibly small, and we accept those small risks because decent human beings prefer to take small risks to their own safety in order to protect the vulnerable, such as infants, children, and those with health problems.
Some people are either ignorant of what others have done for them or just plainly do not care.
We should be questioning these MRNA gene therapy shots.
Because?
Along with everyone present in RFK Jr.’s first hearing roomful of Senators, aides, etc., I watched the entire TV coverage, observing his persistent tremulousness, obvious rhinitis, repeated rubbing of his watery eyes, worsening of his spasmodic dysphonia diagnosis, poor concentration… and general state of un-wellness. Even without my 40 yrs. nursing career… including military and civilian substance abuse detection/ intervention/treatment training certifications…and care of countless addicts going through classic withdrawal symptoms, I believe I was witnessing a self- proclaimed “recovering addict’s” withdrawal from something.
These were not merely symptoms of current respiratory viruses plaguing our nation, often communicated virally in the air by non-Vaxers. If so, he should have been wearing an N-95 face mask!
Throughout that hearing, and after a break, in full view, RFK Jr. repeatedly pulled out little white packets from his left jacket pocket, popping them into his mouth much more frequently than any cold lozenge…or prescribed medical marijuana dose. The New York Post, Associated Press/ YouTube videos recorded this behavior and have allegedly identified a tin he carried as ZYN…a highly addictive nicotine product used for swift energy boosts, but requiring frequent re-dosing to achieve a sense of well-being/desired energy level. Maybe we need to do drug tox screen blood levels on Trump’s nominees vs. banning gun metal detectors?
Today’s Post Star, pg A2, includes SEN Ron Johnson’s document submission of 800 names of DRS. and other medical provider/supporters of Trump submitted during the hearing. It is now known to include at names of Drs.whose medical licenses have been suspended, revoked or under review, along with more than 90 avowed non-Vaxers with no medical credentials at all.
I have rosary beads in 3 rooms and one set in my car…and wish I still had some Lourdes Holy Water to reinforce my prayer vigils and courage muscles.
I am not a nurse, but I noticed the exact same thing and wondered to myself. Is this guy OK?
And, it has been said that, "Those who don't know the difference between causation and correlation will die!". . . (Joke intended)
Understanding data and it's use is valuable critical thinking. Thank you for sharing the cautionary statements from the VAERS originators.
Apparently my dark view of humanity is not sufficiently so. The embrace of the anti-vax and related nonsense by so many is astounding and suicidal.
Will, I totally agree about the coincidences. Life is full of surprises. I am happy to start reading your columns and your dog is a riot!
Thanks Cecily. Nice to hear from you!
Brand new to Substack love it
I beg to add context to your wonderful comments of this morning. It is so important to realize that RFK Jr is being considered by the Senate to head the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), an immense $1.8 trillion cabinet level branch of the federal government. And it is so impotrtant to consider what his candidacy may mean,
DHHS oversees the FDA, Medicare and Medicaid, NIH, CDC, and the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP).Its mission is support public health oriented programs and basic science research, specifically including to prevent infectious diseases.
It is OIDP that oversees the National Vaccine Program, which provides strategic leadership and coordination of vaccine and immunization activities among all federal agencies. To think of an anti-vaxxer at the head of all these is scary beyond belief.
But consider too that, as its name suggests, OIDP provides the federal strategy designed to end the HIV epidemic. It oversees efforts to diagnose, to treat and to care for the infected, and also to prevent HIV infection in the first place. That includes research into preventative measures such as an HIV vaccine, which is currently in progress. In his current Senate hearings, RFK Jr has not said what his views on these HIV efforts are. But we can imagine. Because RFK Jr has the highly controversial, and in my view misguided and misleading, idea that HIV is not the underlying cause of AIDS. So I bet he will pull funding from HIV research and probably from clinical work too.
OIDP also overseas the US program that addresses the HIV/AIDS pandemic abroad. It is called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Already, the Trump administration has issued a “stop-work“ order to cancel all global health funding, which includes that of the PEPFAR program. Right now, clinics around the world that provided anti-HIV medications have suddenly become unable to do so. Millions of patients depend on these meds to stay alive. In other words, they will die without them…and within months to a couple of years. Not only that, but the unleashing of the virus in so many millions will quickly lead to its spreading far further. And kids will be born with untreatable infection.
I bet my Social Security income that RFK Jr will support this unconscionable “stop-work” death sentence for millions, will drop funding, and maybe will entirely stop programs in the DHHS. Safe bet. Because when he was running for president, he went on record saying that if elected, he would “give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” .He wasn’t talking about Daytona Beach: he meant by that he would ignore them.
Please know too that his anti-vaccine and HIV/AIDS garbage is more than just that. It has been powerful in helping to stoke the recrudescent fires of mistrust of medical and behavioral research, of science itself. Do we really want this guy in charge of the DHHS?
If you have any doubts, please consider this. Public health and infectious disease experts around the world predict that there s about 27.5% chance that another pandemic will strike us within 5 to 10 years. How will DHHS under RFK Jr - a notorious anti-vaxxer and HIV skeptic - work to prepare the US and the world for such a disaster? Wow…terrifying question.
All this is both so complicated and so important as to be mind numbing. Yet we citizens must wake up, look carefully at the real facts and science, not the misinformation being propagated by the Trump administration and RFK Jr. Then look too at the just plain destruction the Trump administration is so amazingly bringing down on national and world infrastructures designed to confront infections and minimize suffering and deaths. Then decide where we stand, where we fight.
Dear Will, thank you for for providing space for these comments.
But allow me one more: DHHS also helps to fund housing for detained undocumented minors and for the settling of refugees. You can imagine what will happen to those dollars, and you can imagine how I feel about that.
Thank you Dr. Leach for your lifetime of local, national and international attention to and personal interventions for the control of infectious diseases. And your action-oriented compassion for refugees from many countries. Your Post Star and Chronicle articles through the years have always reflected well- researched educational information easily readable by the general community. We need your expertise now more than ever before.
Thanks, Will. Once again you’ve pushed several of my buttons on a Sunday morning.
Your vaccine/coincidence analysis was right on. Another good reminder of the importance of vaccines. The denial of scientific methods in some circles is scary.
Your “Reunion” picture .purchase at LARAC stirred up memories. in 1990 I was in the USSR, a.time when decay of the Soviet Union had begun. Our group was there not only to experience the sights and sounds, but to have conversations with the Christian community in three Soviet Republics. Very memorable was our time in Tallinn, Estonia. The people of Estonian were beautiful, filled with joy and hope, as reflected in your picture.
I reported to VAERS a medical adverse condition that happened 2 days after a Covid booster. As it turned out this was an unrelated coincidence. VAERS was very thorough, contacting me more than once about what happened. I did inform VAERS after it became clear that the vaccine wasn't responsible. This is a good thing.
"thinG"
Why would you think it was unrelated if it happened 2 days after your COVID booster?
That's what all nutty conspiracies are: the conflation of correlation and causation. Of course, some conspiracies are real. The US formenting coups in Iran and Chile, for example. And that's what gives ammo to the conspiracy theorists. But plausible does not equate to true.