Let Him Run Wild

My continued mental health post-election requires that I avoid any mention of (He Who Shall Not Be Named). But I cannot resist venting on the Secretary of Health and Human Services-In-Waiting, RFK, Jr.

Washington Post humor columnist Alexandra Petri brilliantly placed Bobby Junior’s nomination in MAGA context. Paraphrasing, most Americans are not equipped to test food safety or vaccine safety on their own. That’s because we have unwisely delegated those tasks to the FDA. It’s time we gave them back to the people! George Washington never had an FDA so he never drank fluoridated water (and had one real tooth left as an adult). Abraham Lincoln never gave his kids FDA-tested vaccines (and one of them made it to adulthood). Franklin Roosevelt never had FDA-approved polio vaccine (and he got around OK in a wheelchair). Those guys made out great.

When I was 7 years old, I got measles (twice) and mumps in a four month span. Miss Cloherty’s second grade classroom at James Monroe #8 School was a veritable petri dish of vile contagion. I was not alone. Everyone in that class suffered the same diseases. Had the MMR vaccine been available in 1955 all that could have been avoided. On the other hand, Bobby Junior claimed that those vaccines cause autism and gender fluidity. That’s why none of Miss Cloherty’s Finest became Rain Man or Cailtlyn Jenner, I guess.

Nowadays, there is a safe, FDA-approved vaccine for chicken pox. There was not one when my darling daughters were in elementary school and both suffered through fever, rashes, and oatmeal baths. Their kids need not suffer through chicken pox, but if Bobby Junior has his way, their grandchildren might.

In 1961, a German pharmaceutical company developed Thalidomide, a wonder drug that effectively countered morning sickness, trouble sleeping and other pregnancy-related problems. It was widely used in Europe, but prevented from the US market by the FDA pending further testing. 10,000 Thalidomide-related births later resulted in 4,000 infant deaths. Those who survived had grotesque limb defects and permanent urinary tract, heart, and eye problems. I recall photos of babies with “flippers” in place of arms and legs.

(He Who Shall Not Be Named) said, “I’m going to give Bobby Health and let him run wild. He wants to do some things and we’re going to let him go to it.” Placing a non-medically-trained vaccine skeptic in charge of the nation’s health safeguard is insane.

By Ed Dufton