For comparison:
This is all based on disinformation spread by right wing conspiracy theorists and idiot woo-woo lefties. It’s the most grotesque example of the political horseshoe ever.
Yes, Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. The price of drugs is a crime. We really should do something about it. But to exploit a genuine concern for political gain by pushing vconspiracy theories that kill children is almost too much to bear.
This story is a reminder of where we’re going with this:
In November 2019, when an epidemic of measles was killing children and babies in Samoa, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who in recent days became Donald Trump’s pick to lead the department of Health and Human Services — sent the prime minister of Samoa a four-page letter. In it, he suggested the measles vaccine itself may have caused the outbreak.
He claimed that the vaccine might have “failed to produce antibodies” in vaccinated mothers sufficient to provide infants with immunity, that it perhaps provoked “the evolution of more virulent measles strains” and that children who received the vaccine may have inadvertently spread the virus to other children. “Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance,” he added, writing in his role as the chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group.
At the time of his letter, 16 people, many of them younger than 2, were already reported dead. Measles, which is among the most contagious diseases, can sometimes lead to brain swelling, pneumonia and death. For months, families grieved over heartbreaking little coffins, until a door-to-door vaccination campaign brought the calamity to a close. The final number of fatalities topped 80.
RFK was completely wrong. Most of the dead were under 4 years old.
I’m including a gift link to that entire article, written by a journalist who covered the story in real time. He and others had been strongly pushing disinformation about vaccines for some time in the area. The results were catastrophic.
Unfortunately, as those maps above show, it’s already happening here even without Kennedy and his anti-vaxx wrecking crew being in the government. It’s horrifying that even one child should die over these lies. But it will very likely be many more than that.