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RFK Jr. DNR’d the US Healthcare System

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

I’ve been sick with COVID this past week, missing the first classes of the fall semester.

I was exposed by a cancer patient who finished a second round of chemotherapy earlier this month. They weren’t vaccinated within the last year because they were undergoing chemo.

They were exposed after Saturday evening mass at their Catholic church in Florida, where others around them were likely not vaccinated, and definitely unmasked, unlike the cancer patient. A dementia patient who refused to mask was the vector between the congregation and the cancer patient.

The cancer patient is still recovering and now at about 90% of their capacity. They’re moving very slowly, thinking just as slowly. They can’t be left alone because they don’t have the reaction time they used to have.

I’m about 95% recovered, still have some sinus congestion and lingering crud in my chest. My ribs and my throat feel still feel bruised from hacking up my lungs so hard earlier this week.

What I’m not certain I’ll recover from is the trauma of having to check my father the cancer patient for a pulse last week when he collapsed on the kitchen floor, reviving him, getting him up and moving and into my car so I could rush him from their remote home to an urgent care facility more than 30 minutes away.

I didn’t think to put a mask on him or a mask on myself at the time because I was worried something had gone very wrong after my dad’s two-year fight with cancer. I was worried about the monsoon-like storm I had to drive through to get to urgent care. I thought erroneously he had recovered from COVID and wasn’t contagious because he hadn’t had a fever and he hadn’t been coughing.

So I unintentionally hot boxed my dad’s COVID-laden exhalations in my car for 30 minutes trying to save my father. I’d do it again if it came down to it but I should never have had to.

This country has been deeply damaged enough by the anti-vaccine movement since the COVID pandemic began; it shouldn’t have to face worse.

~ ~ ~

By now you’ve read Peterr’s Thursday post about the government’s internecine warfare at the Centers for Disease Control and the excision of director Susan Monarez, followed by the protest resignations of senior CDC staff in support of Monarez. The senior staff who resigned are:

• Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
• Debra Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science
• Daniel Jernigan, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
• Jennifer Layden, former director of office of public health data, science, technology

Each of these individuals has a deep background and education in medicine, healthcare, or public health. None of then should have been expected compromise themselves to support our nation’s public health.

None of them should have been treated so shabbily by RFK Jr.’s shit-tastic management of HHS. It’s not at all hyperbole to call it shit-tastic; I strongly recommend listening to The New York Times’ podcast interview with Demetre Daskalakis because it will rid you of any doubt the label is deserved.

Here’s an excerpt I found particularly telling:

DASKALAKIS: Yeah. So this was not related to ACIP, the announcement by the Secretary to change the childhood schedule. I learned about the change of the childhood schedule on X.

ABRAMS: You learned about it on social media —

DASKALAKIS: Yes, ma’am.

ABRAMS: — like the rest of us.

DASKALAKIS: That is correct.

ABRAMS: Wow.

DASKALAKIS: So I was sitting in a meeting with senior leaders at CDC. And as I was sitting there talking about the outbreaks that I was managing, my phone blew up with, “I didn’t know you guys were changing the children’s schedule.”

ABRAMS: People texting you?

DASKALAKIS: Yeah.

ABRAMS: Wow.

DASKALAKIS: Not from HHS, people in the world. Because they saw —

ABRAMS: People in the world, your friends and family or whoever seeing this and being like, this doesn’t sound like you.

DASKALAKIS: Correct. So we then asked the question, what’s going on? Can we see some kind of documentation? Because they were like, implement the change. But we’ve never seen anything in writing, so we asked if we could see the supporting data that led to the decision. And we were told no.

ABRAMS: Just flat out no?

DASKALAKIS: Flat out no.

ABRAMS: But can I ask you, did you ever actually have a conversation with Kennedy about any of this or any of his senior staffers?

DASKALAKIS: No.

ABRAMS: Or is it just that —

DASKALAKIS: No.

ABRAMS: No communication.

DASKALAKIS: No.

ABRAMS: Did you ever try?

DASKALAKIS: Yes.

ABRAMS: And what would happen?

DASKALAKIS: So we offered to do briefings when he first started. I think some people were able to brief some lower level staff, but not staff that were Secretary Kennedy’s staff. So no one from my center has ever briefed the Secretary.

ABRAMS: On anything.

DASKALAKIS: Correct, on anything.

ABRAMS: So basically, don’t have a line into RFK, and he’s not seeking out your advice or the advice of people who are theoretically supposed to advise him on things like this. How did you feel about that at the time?

DASKALAKIS: I felt that this was highly atypical, that we weren’t able to share our expertise up the chain to be able to provide information that could be meaningful and thought process. And so what I kept thinking was, we’re not doing this, but there sure is a point of view up there. I wonder who’s doing it.

My job is to make sure that we’re giving good science so people can make good decisions. And if I can’t make sure that science is untouched by non-scientific influence, I cannot say that I’m doing my job.

I believe that CDC science is going to be compromised by HHS. And if that science becomes biased, if it gets unduly influenced, then I can’t have my name on that science as something that I think should be used to make important decisions for people’s lives.

Again, I strongly recommend listening to this podcast. The other disturbing facet is the way in which Abrams just plows on; it could be an artifact of editing, but it could be another of the many ways in which media has not paused and shouted at the public how disturbing and inappropriate are RFK Jr.’s and Trump’s management of public health, in a misguided effort to remain neutral about a subject which isn’t and can’t be neutral at all.

How can a US media outlet be neutral in the face of what looks increasingly like an occupation of government agencies by hostile forces? In the case of the CDC under RFK Jr.’s HHS, it’s damaging the administration of vaccinations to the entire country while undermining the nation’s ability to respond to pandemic and bioterrorism, not to mention its ability to safely provide basic healthcare. No one will be unaffected; no one can be neutral.

~ ~ ~

I’m not kidding when I say our healthcare is now utterly compromised. Our first responders and healthcare providers can’t be assured of necessary vaccinations. From an ER doctor on Mastodon:

This is absolute bullshit.

One of the biggest purveyors of anti-vaccine propaganda, one without any healthcare education and training, has decided the persons most likely to be exposed to diseases on a daily basis are no longer eligible for COVID vaccinations if they do not have a limited number of pre-existing chronic health problems. From Jen Bendery on Bluesky:

(For the record, my autoimmune disorder which has cost me lung capacity, is not on this list. I am not eligible for another COVID shot until I turn 65.)

This is a recipe for disaster. Not only are rural hospitals at risk because of cuts to Medicare under Trump’s Big Fugly Bill, all hospitals are at risk if their staff can’t be vaccinated readily in the face of a new COVID wave.

If my father were to become sick again and collapse like he did, could he be assured there would be healthcare personnel ready to receive and treat him? Or might the healthcare system be overwhelmed and triage him to the very end of the line?

The same goes for any of the rest of us, really. How can anyone in the US be assured the healthcare system will be able to respond if RFK Jr. is allowed to continue to hack away at it without supporting data, without support by seasoned, qualified professionals, without adequate oversight by Congress?

~ ~ ~

Of the many things that raced through my mind as I tried to revive my dad was the thought we had not talked about DNR status.

I’m pretty sure my dad and mom have both indicated on healthcare POAs they are DNR under certain conditions.

What happens, though, when one of them collapses at home? Should I have left him on the floor while ensuring his comfort?

Obviously I didn’t do that.

But a little over a week later I can’t help wonder if RFK Jr. has now forced DNR on swaths of Americans, and we’re already DNR where we are in our own homes whether we realize it or not.

If our healthcare system collapses because of his anti-vaccine and anti-healthcare regime, is he not assuring our healthcare system cannot resuscitate many of us?

How would this be different under a hostile foreign occupation?

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CDC Shooting 2.0 – It’s Coming from Inside the House

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Centers For Disease Control and Prevention

I feel like I’m watching a bad sequel to a scary movie from 20 years ago.

Back in 2004, Dick Cheney and the Bush White House were desperate to get the Department of Justice to sign off on an extension to an NSA warrantless wiretapping program. Complicating matters was the fact that AG Ashcroft was in the ICU at George Washington University Hospital and had designated Deputy AG Jim Comey to be the acting AG while he was incapacitated.

And make no mistake: Ashcroft *was* incapacitated. In broad strokes, no one just hangs out in an ICU – you’re there because you are in bad shape and need constant observation and often constant medications/treatments. Most conversations that happen in an ICU are between the staff and the family, and less so with the patient, because the patient is less-than-competent because of their condition, their medications, or both.

Comey was known by the WH to be opposed to extending this program, so the WH tried an end round to induce Ashcroft to sign the relevant documents without Comey’s knowledge. Before Alberto Gonzales (WH Counsel) and Andy Card (WH Chief of Staff) could get to the hospital, word reached Comey of what was up. Bart Gellman described it like this in his book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency as excerpted in the WaPo:

In early evening, the phone rang at the makeshift FBI command center at George Washington University Medical Center, where Ashcroft remained in intensive care. According to two officials who saw the FBI logs, the president was on the line. Bush told the ailing Cabinet chief to expect a visit from Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr…..

Alerted by Ashcroft’s chief of staff, Comey, Goldsmith and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III raced toward the hospital, abandoning double-parked vehicles and running up a stairwell as fast as their legs could pump.

Comey reached Ashcroft’s bedside first. Goldsmith and his colleague Patrick F. Philbin were close behind. Now came Card and Gonzales, holding an envelope. If Comey would not sign the papers, maybe Ashcroft would….

Unexpectedly, Ashcroft roused himself. Previous accounts have said he backed his deputy. He did far more than that. Ashcroft told the president’s men he never should have certified the program in the first place.

When everyone left the hospital, Comey, Mueller, and other DOJ folks began writing letters of resignation. Again, from Gellman:

All hell was breaking loose at Justice. Lawyers streamed back from the suburbs, converging on the fourth-floor conference room. Most of them were not cleared to hear the details, but a decision began to coalesce: If Comey quit, none of them were staying.

At the FBI, they called Mueller “Bobby Three Sticks,” playfully tweaking the Roman numerals in his fancy Philadelphia name. Late that evening, word began to spread. It wasn’t only Comey. Bobby Three Sticks was getting ready to turn in his badge.

Justice had filled its top ranks with political loyalists. They hoped to see Bush reelected. Had anyone explained to the president what was at stake?

Whelan pulled out his BlackBerry. He fired off a message to White House staff secretary Brett Kavanaugh, a friend whose position gave him direct access to Bush.

“I knew zilch about what the matter was, but I did know that lots of senior DOJ folks were on the verge of resigning,” Whelan said in an e-mail, declining to discuss the subject further. “I thought it important to make sure that the president was aware of that situation so that he could factor it in as he saw fit.”

Kavanaugh had no more idea than Whelan, but he passed word to Card.

The timing was opportune. Just about then, around 11 p.m., Comey responded to an angry summons from the president’s chief of staff. Whatever Card was planning to say, he had calmed down suddenly.

When faced with mass resignations from high-ranking DOJ officials who stubbornly refused to adjust their principles with respect to the law to fit the preferred WH policy, the WH backed down. Marcy has a big timeline (of course!) of all the stuff around the warrantless wiretapping program memos if you want to dig into the weeds of yester-year.

But I’ll be damned if what’s coming out of the CDC right now doesn’t sound *exactly* like what happened 20 years ago.

Susan Monarez, the CDC director, refuses to change her mind, not on a matter of policy but on a principle of adherence to science. After some back and forth, including various lawyers, it appears the WH has terminated her and named RFK’s deputy as the acting CDC Director. Meanwhile, a raft of Monarez’s very senior deputies submitted their resignations in order to stand with her. Hundreds of other CDC staffers are rallying outside to support their bosses.

This horror movie is magnitudes worse than the Hospital Confrontation of the Bush era, because if RFK Jr. and Trump prevail in this, CDC policies will change in ways that will cost people’s lives. Medical science will take a back seat to political expediency and pseudo-scientific quackery. What once was the organization that set the worldwide standard for a national Public Health agency is fast becoming not a joke but an actual danger to public health. The end result will be deaths – unnecessary yet inevitable deaths – and these CDC officials who resigned want no part of it.

RFK Jr. is no Dick Cheney, and Trump is no George W. Bush. Cheney and Bush recognized when they were outflanked, and so backed up and tried to find another way to do what they wanted to do. RFK Jr. and Trump, on the other hand, are the guys who charge loudly into the doctor’s office and won’t leave until they get an antibiotic to deal with a viral infection. Antibiotics do *not* work on a virus, no matter how loudly you shout, how many quacks you cite, or what your job title is.

A gunman shot up the CDC headquarters a few weeks ago from outside the gates and guards. But like any good horror movie, Trump and RFK Jr. are shooting it up from inside the house.

God help us all.

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Reaching Velocity to Escape Anti-Vax Stupidity

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

Before I go any further, here’s a public service announcement:

If you were born between 1960 and 1968 and have not been vaccinated for measles since 1968, go make appointments for a two-shot MMR vaccine regimen.

“Starting in 1963 we started vaccinating,” [CBS News’ Dr. David] Agus said. “The first five years of the vaccine — some batches of it were not very good. None of us really know which batch we got.”

“So you can either go to your doctor and say, ‘Draw a blood test and see if I have a high enough level,’ or just get the shot,” he said. “By the way, it’s a lot cheaper to just get the shot. So people who were vaccinated from 1963 to 1968 — that needs to happen.”

According to Agus, those who were born before 1957 were most likely exposed to measles, meaning 95-98 percent of them have enough antibodies to fight the disease. From 1968 to 1989 doctors gave only one shot, meaning immunity among those people may be a little lower than those who received two shots.

source: CBS News

I’m in that group and I’ve gotten my first shot of the series with the next in a couple weeks. I got mine at the local health department office, easy in and out. If you’re in the age bracket, get it done some place you trust.

~ ~ ~

I wish I could have gotten one at my usual provider – the pharmacy where I’ve gotten all my vaccinations for decades. Unfortunately that’s where things got weird immediately after my recent flu shot.

After getting my flu shot I asked the pharmacist – a new person I’d never see before – if I could get an MMR vaccine because of my age and uncertainty about my level of immunity to measles, if any. I had concerns because I was going to be around persons who were flying to and from Texas and could be exposed to measles during travel.

They told me the pharmacy only gives MMR vaccines to children, that I’d have to have a script from a physician to get one, and a physician might require a titer run first to determine if I needed a booster at all.

Then the pharmacist proceeded to tell me measles was only an Old World problem (what the fuck, I thought), that everyone in the Old World had immunity from exposures (what the actual fuck), and that the outbreak in Texas was from “border crossers” (OH NO MOTHERFUCKER).

I exited that pharmacy as fast as I could. I probably left a vapor trail behind me like the Road Runner.

I felt gross, digusted, like I needed a shower after that wretched dose of stupid.

I wish I’d known what that person really thought before I let them touch me, because I would have left and gone to a different pharmacy.

Having such a close brush with stupidity and racism was revolting. I didn’t dare confront this person in a confined space about their stupid assumptions knowing the measles outbreak was centered in a community of white Christian Texans of the Mennonite faith and not “border crossers” — code for those brown people coming into the US from Central and South America, which is the New World.

You’d think there’d be an institutional safety net protecting us from this wretchedness across the country. Sadly, we’re all of us now exposed to this kind of stupidity thanks to the Trump administration’s appointee helming Health and Human Services, our new chief anti-vaxxer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

~ ~ ~

The Food and Drug Administration’s director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Dr. Peter Marks, resigned yesterday.

In his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn’t possible.

“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.

Of course this was RFK Jr’s work, not a resignation but a firing because Marks — a hematologist oncologist who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University, followed by a Doctor of Medicine and PhD in cell and molecular biology from New York University — wasn’t willing to roll over and rubber stamp RFK Jr’s bullshit anti-vax nonsense.

And by nonsense I mean the deadly kind – misinformation and disinformation about vaccines directly leading to the deaths of 83 Samoans from measles after being misled by RFK Jr. about measles vaccinations.

That RFK Jr. learned absolutely nothing from these deaths, continuing to spread his well-known, well-documented dispersion of anti-vaxx bullshit, is a shame.

That he has now cost our country the top official in FDA’s vaccine regulatory system while the US is experiencing a spreading measles outbreak, is on the verge of bird flu making a human-to-human leap, and still dealing with the COVID pandemic borders on criminal.

His nonsense is even more toxic in that he not only discourages scheduled vaccinations; RFK Jr. has promoted alternative therapies which are not effective and instead create more health risks.

RFK Jr. – who is not a medical doctor, has no education in science, having a BA in American history and literature, a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a Master of Laws from Pace University — touted vitamin A as a means to treat measles. This vitamin only works to alleviate some measles symptoms in patients who are malnourished; it is not an acceptable therapy.

Unlike water soluable vitamins like B and C which flush out of the body as wasted in urine, vitamin A will bio-accumulate in the body’s fat until the body can use it. An excess of vitamin A can damage the liver. Knowing this you can predict what could happen next: someone takes RFK Jr’s bullshit seriously and poisons themselves or their children thinking they’re doing the right thing for measles.

What do you know but now there are patients with liver problems:

Several patients at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock have been found to have abnormal liver function, CNN reported, which can occur when a person takes excessive doses of vitamin A. Those being treated include “a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage,” the New York Times reported.

This is exactly the kind of crap which cost the lives of mostly infants in Samoa. Well-meaning parents took RFK Jr’s idiocy seriously and didn’t seek measles vaccinations which are safe and have spared hundreds of millions of people from illness and death over the last six decades.

The worst part of this mess is that some portion of the American public is just plain stupid and willful. They rely on authority figures to tell them what’s best; if it doesn’t conflict with their beliefs they’ll seize it. The parents of the six-year-old who died of measles in Texas are a perfect example:

The Texas parents of an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl who died from measles Feb. 26 told the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense in a video released Monday that the experience did not convince them that vaccination against measles was necessary.

“She says they would still say ‘Don’t do the shots,’” an unidentified translator for the parents said. “They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be.” …

“We would absolutely not take the MMR,” the mother said in English, referring to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination children typically receive before attending school. She said her stance on vaccination has not changed after her daughter’s death.

“The measles wasn’t that bad. They got over it pretty quickly,” the mother said of her other four surviving children who were treated with castor oil and inhaled steroids and recovered. …

source: Texas Tribune

I’m only surprised these poor children received castor oil and not cod liver oil for vitamin A therapy.

These are the kind of people to whom RFK Jr. is a real risk. We can only expect more illnesses and deaths among those who take seriously RFK Jr’s practicing medicine without a license let alone adequate appropriate education and training.

~ ~ ~

How are we going to escape this stupidity? I don’t know, but you can protect yourself from some of the damage by making sure your vaccinations are up to date. Make sure your friends and family are up to date as well.

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