{"id":177176,"date":"2019-12-02T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/12\/02\/bobby-kennedy-jr-would-you-please-dine-on-excrement-and-then-expire\/"},"modified":"2019-12-02T20:11:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T01:11:00","slug":"bobby-kennedy-jr-would-you-please-dine-on-excrement-and-then-expire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/12\/02\/bobby-kennedy-jr-would-you-please-dine-on-excrement-and-then-expire\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Would You Please Dine on Excrement and then Expire?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. took his antivax sh%$ show to Samoa<\/a>, where 42 people, including 22 infants, have now died of measles.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Kennedy is a murderer:*<\/sup><\/div>\n

It was probably inevitable that the success of the anti-vaccination movement would eventually lead to an outbreak with substantial casualties. It has now happened in Samoa, where 48 people so far have died from measles, including 22 infants. Public health officials do not believe the outbreak has peaked, and expect those numbers to rise, possibl considerably. Why is the outbreak (which has hit much of Oceania in recent months) particularly bad and particularly deadly in Samoa? <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep, drops in vaccination rates?<\/p>\n

And who was front and center of this?  Bobby, Jr.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, the decline in vaccination rates wasn\u2019t due solely to domestic causes; it was assisted by a well-resourced global movement, with some familiar faces.<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, visited the country in June, appearing next to officials at Samoan independence celebrations. His visit was \u201cfor a program that is not government-related,\u201d an official in the prime minister\u2019s department told Samoan news media<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

Kennedy has asserted that vaccines cause autism, a claim disproved by extensive research. Members of the Kennedy family have publicly criticized him<\/a> for helping \u201cspread dangerous misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Instagram photo<\/a> shows Kennedy embracing the Australian Samoan anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein in Samoa on June 4. \u201cI am deeply honored to have been in the presence of a man I believe is, can and will change the course of history,\u201d Winterstein wrote in the caption, adding hashtags #makinginformedchoices #investigatebeforeyouvaccinate.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As appalling and reckless as their advocacy is in their home countries, it\u2019s considerably moreso in lower income countries like Samoa, where measles fatality rates are likely to be considerably higher, as we\u2019re seeing here. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But don’t worry, antivaxxers are sending vitamins, so everything is cool.<\/p>\n

What the f%$# is wrong with these folk?<\/p>\n

*<\/sup>FWIW, Charlie, my son on the autism spectrum, spotted by Sharon when he was about 3 days old, well before any vaccines, agrees with description of Kennedy as a murderer. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. took his antivax sh%$ show to Samoa, where 42 people, including 22 infants, have now died of measles. Kennedy is a murderer:* It was probably inevitable that the success of the anti-vaccination movement would eventually lead to an outbreak with substantial casualties. It has now happened in Samoa, where 48 people …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,702,460,600],"class_list":["post-177176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-evil","tag-polynesia","tag-public-health","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}