Like most people, it’s not easy for me to admit error. Many of my past articles were highly critical of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the doctors who promoted him. I was doubtful that he would restore trust in our public health infrastructure as well as vaccines. That’s a part of my legacy.
However, watching Kennedy testify yesterday made me realize the how wrong I was about him, and the only way to restore trust in you, my readers, is to admit this obvious truth. As he has for the past 6-months, Kennedy demonstrated a nuanced, sophisticated understanding of complicated medical and scientific issues, and his cool, calm demeanor highlighted his compassion and kindness. It’s no wonder morale and confidence at the CDC, FDA, and NIH are soaring, while vaccines are thriving. This is what happens when a mature, competent practitioner of critical thinking and evidence-based medicine like Kennedy is given a chance. Hospitals are emptying out and Americans are finally becoming healthy again.
I doubted doctors who knew all along this would be the case. I was critical of Dr. Martin Kulldorff and his essay The Cure for Vaccine Skepticism which said:
The only way to restore public trust in vaccination – which has taken a big hit since the lies attending the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine – is to put a well-known vaccine skeptic in charge of the vaccine research agenda. The ideal person for this is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
At the same time, we must put rigorous scientists with a proven track record of evidence-based medicine in charge of determining the type of study designs to use. Two ideal scientists for this are Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Marty Makary, who have been nominated to lead the NIH and FDA, respectively.
Dr. Vinay Prasad made similar points in his article Sabotaging RFK Jr’s Confirmation Will Increase Vaccine Hesitancy:
At this point, the best way to curb vaccine hesitancy is to approve RFK Jr, and redirect his energies to generating more data. More data will answer the key questions that remain unanswered: which childhood immunization program is optimal. The worse thing we can do is tank his nomination. Then vaccine hesitancy will explode.
Obviously, Drs. Prasad and Kulldorff were right. The news reports are full of parents who are finally confident that vaccines are safe and effective thanks to Kennedy.
In their article RFK Jr Will Disrupt the US Medical Establishment Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Kevin Bardosh wrote:
His agenda will focus on decentralising power in America’s recalcitrant scientific and medical institutions, offering an opportunity to allow true scientific research and evidence-based policy to flourish. With his focus on chronic disease and children, research priorities will realign with public health ones. Kennedy also plans to confront the veil of secrecy and dishonesty that inhibits transparency and integrity in public health and medicine. He intends to strengthen checks and balances in Government health bureaucracies to confront groupthink and undue corporate influence. More than that, he is seeking to ensure open public debate in medicine, recognising that science is incompatible with censorship.
Censorship, especially at the NIH under the wise leadership Dr. Bhattacharya, is a thing of the past, thankfully.
In his article Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA, Dr. Joseph Marine wrote:
I argue that we should embrace the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda and try to convince our medical leaders to work for major changes in our dysfunctional health agencies and deteriorating health care system.
RFK Jr has tapped into a strong sense among the public that government health agencies, and the health system at large, have been corrupted by corporate interests that have become increasingly misaligned with the public interest, a fact that was exposed by the disastrous authoritarian covid response.
It’s true that we had a “disastrous authoritarian covid response” and even doctors like me, who vigorously opposed to Kennedy and MAHA, have learned to love him.
In his article The Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services: A New Beginning? Dr. Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer said:
Our current system for testing, approving and regulating vaccines is inadequate, and for the majority of the vaccines currently used, the importance of aspects such as the non-specific effects of vaccines, sequence, and co-administration has not been adequately assessed. By all health outcome measures, US public health is a complete failure and someone who thinks radically different is needed.
Despite his shortcomings, RFK Jr. can be this person and it bows well that he has surrounded himself with COVID-19 era heroes and evidence-based medicine champions Bhattacharya and Makary.
Indeed, Kennedy has been this person, thanks to COVID-19 era heroes and evidence-based medicine champions Bhattacharya and Makary.
In his article Donald Trump Has a Plan to Make America’s Children Healthy Again. It’s a Good One | Opinion – Newsweek Dr. Robert Redfield wrote:
To heal our children, a president must see the possible and lead our nation to act. After more than 40 years in the public health arena, it might surprise some of my colleagues to know I think President Trump chose the right man for the job: Robert Kennedy, Jr.
In an interview titled RFK Jr. is Saying Things People Know are True but Don’t Want to Hear Dr. Marty Makary said:
[Kennedy Jr.] talked about guilt by association, that sort of modern-day McCarthyism. He’s talked about how asking questions is not allowed. He asked a lot of questions himself. But what’s interesting is people really don’t criticize the details of what he actually said when it came to the COVID pandemic. He’s been a skeptic, and he may have a different opinion, but he wrote a 500-page book on Dr. Fauci and the medical industrial complex. 100% of it was true. He said that [Biden’s] NIH nominee to direct the NIH … received $200 million from Pfizer for research. 100% true. So he’s saying things that people know are true, but they just don’t want to hear it.
One thing RFK Jr. did is he would post true stories of children who died immediately after the vaccine. These were otherwise healthy children. Social media didn’t like that. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, anyone who even associated with him was censored. And in his hearing yesterday, what I really appreciated is when he talked about the so-called toxic polarization of society and how we need to be kind to one another and restore civility. That is a message people are hungry for in the medical community and I think at large.
Indeed, I was hungry for that message, and Kennedy and his team have quelched my thirst. I was wrong. That wasn’t so hard to write after all. While my errors will be permanently memorialized here at SBM, so too will the words of these doctors, who forevermore will be known for having gifted us Kennedy.
