Tag: RFK Jr.

How Science works

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It’s not rocket science. Well, I suppose some of it is. The bits with rockets, most specifically.

But generally, science works by using the Scientific Method: a tried and tested method which has been around for millennia and which has stood us in (very) good stead during that time.

Ask a question, answer that question in your head by forming a hypothesis, test the hypothesis with experimentation, draw a conclusion, report, rinse, repeat.

It’s not difficult. It’s methodical, and it means that you can get meaningful results, whether or not your hypothesis was correct.

What you can’t do is mix up the pretty coloured boxes. That’s not how it works. You don’t make huge, influential, wide-ranging and dramatic statements and decisions based on your hypothesis and then “make the proof” through studies.

Celia has got it right: you don’t “make” the proof at all. Unless you’ve maybe already huge, influential, wide-ranging and dramatic statements and decisions based on your hypothesis, and now you’re scrambling to try and find some sort of escape route.

Surely not, though. Right?

I mean, whatever next?

Of course he does.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Thursday reasserted the unproven link between the pain reliever Tylenol and autism, and suggested people who opposed the theory were motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump. During a meeting with Trump and the Cabinet, Kennedy reiterated the connection, even while noting there was no medical proof to substantiate the claim. He also mistakenly described a pregnant woman’s anatomy and linked autism to circumcision. 

Thankfully, no-one will believe him, though.

Of course they do.

Meanwhile, in America…

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Spotted online today. I’ve been too busy rewiring an office to have too much to say about these, but:

Honestly, I think we went beyond his expertise many, many years ago. It’s actually his brainworm that’s in charge now.

Honestly, I thought that this was made up. How could anyone be so stupid?

But no, he said that. It’s true.

But if the anti-vaxxers and the grifters ever think that they’ve outwitted the scientists, we need to remember that we’re always (at least) one step ahead.

It’s a great idea. It’s just not very original. A guy called Edward Jenner did it in 1796.

240 years of technological advancement, scientific effort and improvements in education, and Jack comes up with a lightbulb moment that – ironically – was devised 85 years before the light bulb was invented.

When will this madness end?

On Trump and Tylenol

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In an opening paragraph dripping with sarcasm, as the Marmalade Moron and his brainworm-addled side gimp gave us the answers to autism yesterday (see below), I was reminded of the other times that grifting politicians had helped out humanity by miraculously discovering causes and cures for well-known ailments.

OK, it’s mainly HIV and Covid, but still…

How could we forget Manto Tshabalala-Msimang – our ex-Health Minister, and now also ex-alive – who claimed that HIV could be prevented by a diet of beetroot, garlic, lemons, olive oil and African potatoes?

President (not then and thankfully not now) Jacob Zuma who did have relations with that woman, but then took a shower to prevent infection with HIV.

Let’s not omit Yahya Jammeh, ex-despotic leader of Gambia and all-round bastard:

whose only positive contribution to society was curing people of AIDS using herbs and prayer.
On Thursdays. Seriously.

Amazingly, despite all of these interventions almost 20 years ago, the spread and impact of HIV seems to have been best controlled by the rollout of ARVs and PrEP.

Weird that.

Bringing things a little bit back to the present, Covid brought all the weirdos back out of the woodwork.

Let’s stay in Africa with Tanzania’s ex-President John Magufuli and his plan to get rid of Covid by inhaling steam, and using herbs and prayer.

“You inhale while you pray to God, you pray while farming maize, potatoes, so that you can eat well and corona fails to enter your body. They will scare you a lot, my fellow Tanzanians, but you should stand firm.”

Didn’t really work for him, as he allegedly contracted Covid-19 and died from heart complications a couple of weeks later, but that’s not to say he was wrong.

Well, it is.

Trump told us to use Hydroxychloroquine to combat Covid, but then again, he also said that we should inject bleach to rid ourselves of the virus. Is there really anyone so stupid as to actually do that, though?

Yes, of course there is.

And then there’s his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. What a goon.

He despises “Big Pharma” while still punting Ivermectin (made by… er… “Big Pharma”) as the cure for everything (it’s not). And he studiously ignores the ills of “Big Supplement” and “Big Snake Oil” while repeatedly and completely dismissing “Real Science” – including denying that HIV is the causal agent of AIDS and suggesting that 5G masts are being used to control our behaviour.

In which case, could someone please switch him off?

But back to that theatre show last night, hinted at by the Tangerine Twat over the weekend:

“Tomorrow we’re going to have one of the biggest announcement[s] … medically, I think, in the history of our country,” he said. “I think you’re going to find it to be amazing. I think we found an answer to autism.”

A whole 5 months of no research have got them further than every other scientist ever. These guys are superhuman. So it turns out that it was Tylenol all along, then? That’s slightly differnt to RFK Jr.’s previous assertions that it was vaccines and/or environmental toxins, but hey, the facts really don’t matter here.

They never have.

As Trump said yesterday:

“It’s not that everything’s 100% understood or known, but I think we’ve made a lot of strides.”

Oh, I think that there are a few things that we can 100% understand and know. And one of those is that literally whatever these two clowns state as the truth is completely the opposite. Once again, it’s the experts versus the grifters.

I’m really not sure what the Salmon Shithead and his sidekick stand to gain from this ridiculous “discovery”. I’m sure that there will be money in it somewhere for them. Because it surely can’t be the fame in being the guys who rid the world of autism, given that nothing they have said is going to make the slightest bit of difference to those diagnoses.

And as we noted above, time will tell and history will judge – and ridicule – their ongoing nonsensical, alleged “scientific” triumphs.

Sadly, in the meantime, there will be more complications in pregnancy as mothers-to-be avoid a completely harmless medication and instead choose to “fight like hell” (his words) to only take it in cases of extreme fever.

“There’s no downside”

said Trump, being wrong yet again. Because:

“While you’re pregnant, experiencing uncontrolled fevers or some of the side effects from pain, such as high blood pressure, will be a lot more detrimental to a developing baby and a mother than paracetamol will be,” said Dr Monique Botha, who studies bias in autism research at the University of Durham.

My advice?

Listen to the experts, none of whom were the ones talking bullshit at the White House last night.

It’s not just about measles

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More from YLE: Your Local Epidemiologist. And they are still banging on about measles.

I (last) “banged on about it” here.
Great post, that. Just enough rant, balanced nicely with facts and an appropriate amount of sarcasm.

Anyway…

The latest newsletter from YLE has the same title as this post. That’s not coincidence – I copied it.

Because it makes a very good point:

It’s not just about measles. It’s about what measles represents.

As scientists, having worked and studied hard for many years to become experts in our fields, we need to remember that not everyone is like us. Some people studied hard to become mechanics or accountants or teachers. And what seems obvious to us, perhaps only seems obvious to us because of our studying and our expertise. Much like the reasons behind a broken engine will be more obvious to a mechanic, or the meaning of a balance sheet will be more obvious to an accountant. And also teacher… stuff. Probably.

The measles outbreak in the US (and in Europe); the reappearance of a deadly disease that we had completely under control in the developed world is every bit as terrifying as it is completely avoidable.

Measles is a canary in the coal mine. When measles reappears in a country like the U.S., it signals that something has gone seriously wrong. This is a disease we had essentially eliminated—thanks to one of the safest and most effective vaccines in the history of medicine. But the way things are heading, the U.S. is at risk of losing its elimination status this year. This is not just a failure to move forward—it’s the unraveling of decades of progress, representing one of the greatest public health achievements of our era.

It’s a massive failure, and it’s a huge indicator of the high level of mistrust in what is – objectively – clear and obvious, successful science. But as we see regularly in politics, when there is a vacuum of power – or the perception of such – then nefarious parties will take advantage and move in.

It’s because trust has, both due to failures of public health to reach communities and due to well-organized efforts to spread inaccurate information about vaccination, leaving many Americans’ heads spinning as they sort through the noise and figure out who to trust.

We shouldn’t have to keep telling the public just how well vaccines work and just how essential they are: the proof is all there in the data. But maybe we should still have been explaining those data to the public, because in the absence of that sort of communication, others have taken the baton, contorted it, and presented their alternate version to the relay running public.
And as a scientist, it’s both absolutely infuriating that these snake oil salesmen and grifters have peddled their constant lies and unfounded theories around vaccination, and thoroughly depressing that (some) people have looked at the evidence set out before them, and then chosen to believe these venomous blatherskites.

For many in medicine, the resurgence of measles, along with declining rates of routine childhood vaccination, is a concerning sign of what’s to come. If we’re losing ground on measles, we may soon be vulnerable to other vaccine-preventable diseases. Whooping cough cases are already rising. Polio, Hib, or even diphtheria may soon appear in our emergency rooms.

It’s shocking and it’s embarrassing. And YLE’s attempt at a measured response to this upcoming crisis:

…the road back to a world where this isn’t a challenge will not be paved with more facts, fear, or finger-wagging. It will be built, as it always has, through stories and relationships—one respectful, genuine, evidence-based conversation at a time.

is absolutely admirable, but also smacks of someone living in a Walter Mitty world.

Sure, it would be perfect if we had the time, the resources and the ability to talk to concerned, confused parents and families out there and explain to them why they should listen to us and not the other “opinions” on this. But firstly, we don’t have the capacity to do that, and even if we did, in this divided, polarised world, there’s no reason why they would take our word over the nice “doctors” with their brain worms, and their books and supplements to sell. And I say that because if the public could see through the lies and the clever manipulation of the anti-vax lobby, then they would surely have done so already and we wouldn’t be facing this disastrous situation.

This won’t get any better anytime soon.
In fact, without wanting to be pessimistic, I don’t see how it will get any better anytime at all.

More on that thing that’s happening over there

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As a scientist, I have written a lot of stuff which is detailed, well referenced, and (I think, at least) explains things in a straightforward, step-by-step manner which can be understood by the layperson. Sometimes, I write them on the blog. Like this, maybe. However, recently, those sort of posts have been few and far between. They take a lot of research and effort and this blog is something of a hobby for me, not a job. I simply don’t have the time to lob out 2,000 words on stuff very regularly. I’m sure this is a relief to some of you and a bit of an annoyance to others, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, much to the beagle’s delight.

Other people do write stuff for a living though, and so I’m going to piggy back on a really well-researched, really nicely written post here today. It’s from Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE), which is a sceince communication website:

Providing a direct line of “translated” public health science to you.

And they do exactly that: cutting through the big words and the jargon…

Scientists, Engineers, Lawyers and, most of all, Medical Doctors have been using unnecessary terminology to maintain their lofty positions in society for years. I hate it. One of the most important things I have learnt during my career is that presentations, explanations, even informal chats about work and technical stuff should always be pitched according to one’s audience. Sure, chat to the Prof about Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase producing Gram Negative Bacilli, call them ESBLs – he’ll understand. But when you’re explaining it to your mum, call them “superbugs” – and then she’ll understand too. Otherwise you’re wasting your time.

…to give a easy to understand – and so a useful and easy to learn from! – version of what’s happening in public health at the moment.

And that’s exactly what Kristen Panthagani has done here.
[PDF mirror here for anyone struggling with the Substack website]

She describes in intimate detail and open, honest language why Trump’s health policies – in the hands of the loony RFK Jr. – are based on inconsistencies and nonsense, and the huge and very real costs of getting this sort of thing wrong. Which they are clearly doing.

It’s a really great read with fundamental concepts which apply to so many other of the dodgy internet health cowboys and grifters plaguing us out there, and I’d fully encourage you to take a few minutes out to read through it and follow some of the links which support her watertight case.

I’d write more of this sort of thing if I could.
For the moment, though, please enjoy someone else’s fine work.