Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Acting Director Dr. Richard Besser raised concerns Sunday over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because he advocates for optional vaccinations, though he acknowledged that no immunization is 100% protective.
President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Kennedy as the leader of HHS on Nov. 14, stating he believes the former Independent presidential candidate, who has been an outspoken advocate against the COVID-19 vaccines and others, is prepared to restore “the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic.” On ABC’s “This Week,” host Martha Raddatz asked the former acting director if he had concerns that Kennedy would push to “get rid” of vaccines altogether. (RELATED: WATCH HERE — SICK: UNMASKING BIG MEDICINE)
“Well, it’s not a matter of getting rid of them. No vaccine is 100% protective. When when you send your kid to school, fully vaccinated, you don’t want to have to worry that the child sitting next to them, that their parents chose not to vaccinate their child, because once the level of vaccination in a classroom drops below something like 95%, it’s a setup for diseases like measles or whooping cough to spread,” Besser said. “If there’s a child in the classroom who has an immune problem, that child is at risk.”
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“So it’s not a matter of saying, ‘Oh, yes, you have access to your vaccines.’ It’s pushing the idea that vaccines should be something that is totally up to the individual. We have a social contract in our country. There are things we do for our own health, but there are things we do that are good for ourselves, our families and our communities. Vaccination falls into that category. Having someone who denies that in that role is extremely dangerous,” Besser concluded.
Trump’s partnership with Kennedy isn’t their first collaboration. In 2017, the former president asked Kennedy to chair a commission on “vaccine safety and scientific integrity.” Kennedy agreed, saying his goal was to “make sure we have scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects,” as Trump had expressed skepticism about vaccine policies at the time.
Following Kennedy’s nomination, corporate media began raising concerns over Trump’s pick, with PBS host Margaret Hoover appearing on “Erin Burnett OutFront” to claim that Kennedy’s beliefs on vaccines, specifically measles, could cause people to die. Despite the calls from Democrats and corporate media pundits, pharmaceutical companies — Moderna, BioNTech, and Novavax — saw their stock prices drop significantly by market close on the day of Kennedy’s nomination.
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