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#antivax

10 posts10 participants0 posts today
Public
AnarchoNinaAnalyzes

Perhaps my friends, running an authoritarian government based on enforced unreality and fascist conspiracy theories is actually *not* a very good idea? A US government website that used to post Covid information has been edited to promote the lab leak theory and prosecute reactionary anti-vaxer grievances about former Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a

Trump White House replaces Covid website with treatise on ‘lab leak’ theory

"The Trump administration has replaced Covid.gov – a website that once provided Americans with access to information about free tests, vaccines, treatment and secondary conditions such as long Covid – with a treatise on the “lab leak” theory.

The site includes intense criticism of Dr Anthony Fauci, who helmed national Covid policies under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the World Health Organization (WHO) and state leadership in New York."

Look, I don't do hagiography here and I'm not going to pretend that ignoring Covid and just letting people die wasn't eventually a bipartisan position in American politics. But for the Trump regime to replace one of the few supports for the public that the government was bothering to offer with some winger conspiracy nonsense about the lab leak theory and two minutes of hate about Fauci is both disgusting, and definitely a kind of fascist propaganda operation designed to generate an enforced unreality. If the truth be told, I'm not even a huge fan of Dr. Fauci's work as a public health official, but I can absolutely fucking guarantee you these nazis aren't upset over a general failure by the US government and health apparatus to respond adequately to the AIDS/HIV crisis or the decision to pretend Covid is over and send everyone back to work in a still quite deadly pandemic. The fascist American right literally wants to hang that guy because he made them take a vaccine, full stop.

As for the so-called "lab leak" theory, I think the Guardian is being far too generous. Every scientist or medical observer I've ever talked to or heard speak about the origins of Covid has said the only reason to believe the lab leak conspiracy is because it cannot be absolutely disproven as it's hard to prove a negative, but the vast and overwhelming body of evidence points to a zoogenic or spillover origin. For the White House to take down a useful anti-Covid resource and replace it with a conspiracy theory only relevant because "you can't prove it's *not* true beyond a shadow of a doubt" is both irresponsible, and ideologically revealing.

And to what end? Well promoting this conspiracy theory, and discrediting a medical establishment that disagrees with everything your HHS secretary is trying to push as public policy, has value to the Trump regime. This is an administration that absorbed the reactionary anti-vax conspiracy movement into its base years ago, and rode that base to what Trump clearly considers absolute power; Trump already put a guy who thinks vaccines cause autism in charge of the entire American state health apparatus. They're anti-science, and pro private medical care, even if that "care" comes from discredited quacks or unlicensed personnel. Furthermore, Trump is currently in the middle of a trade war with China that he's characterizing as an existential struggle for the survival of America and the lab these crackpots claim leaked Covid into the world is located in Wuhan, China.

And in the end, that's why it doesn't matter if the regime is right about the lab leak theory; they most certainly aren't, but the fact is that promoting these ideas as official government positions was never about right or wrong in the first place. The Trump administration is governing by fascist conspiracy theory because those reactionary conspiracies further their reactionary goals. The truth was never, and will never be a factor in these decisions.

The Guardian · Trump White House replaces Covid website with treatise on ‘lab leak’ theoryBy Jessica Glenza
#Fascism#USPol#Trump
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MikeDunnAuthor

Ready for the next pandemic? Probably not. And who could blame you? The current one has been so much fun.

A recent study indicated that only 1/4 of Americans even understand that they can catch H5N1. And over 60% say they'd refuse, or aren't sure they'd get, a new H5N1 vaccine once it was available.

cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza

CIDRAPPublic ignorance, apathy toward avian flu could threaten containment, researchers say
#publichealth#H5N1#influenza
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Frank Heijkamp

Measles cases in the US continue to climb and it is killing children. The question is, how bad do people in the US want this to get?

Worse outcome would be that the virus mutates and it might potentially kill a lot of people. Please remember this is a highly contagious virus.

And by the way, we have a vaccine against this virus that can prevent a lot of suffering for children and parents.

#Measles#AntiVax#FaFo
Continued thread
Public
AnarchoNinaAnalyzes

After watching Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spout ableism and eugenic theory on live TV while lying about and dehumanizing folks with autism, I'm alarmed that the story here appears to be "wow RFK Jr is a total crank" What it should be is that everything about RFK Jr’s sham HHS study into the “causes” of autism is a reactionary eugenicist nightmare that threatens the health & lives of autistic people, particular children.

ninaillingworth.com/2025/04/18

Nina-Bytes: Kennedy, Conspiracies, and Kids

"Reading this piece, two things immediately sprung to mind. First, I wouldn’t let Robert F. Kennedy Jr within ten feet of any child whatsoever if I had the ability to prevent it. Secondly; are we sure putting RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services isn’t just a way to let some sadistic eugenicist freaks torture autistic children and profit from it? Because from out here, it sure does seem like that’s Kennedy’s plan and the reason for his department’s “massive testing and research” effort. I’m not a scientist, but somehow I doubt that conspiracy crank Kennedy and a fake doctor whose family business is apparently torturing children have the best interests of autistic Americans at heart; particularly when Kennedy is openly promoting the eugenicist idea that autism is an “epidemic” that is “destroying our children.”

Nina Illingworth Dot Com | "When the revolution is for everyone, everyone will be for the revolution" · Nina-Bytes: Kennedy, Conspiracies, and Kids | on NIDCEverything about RFK Jr's sham HHS study into the "causes" of autism is a reactionary eugenicist nightmare that threatens the health & lives of autistic people.
#Fascism#TrumpRegime#RFKJr
Public
PrivacyDigest

Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the #Measles #Outbreak —and Claim a #Bioweapon Caused It

#Activists affiliated with Robert F. #Kennedy Jr. are selling a “measles treatment and prevention protocol” for hundreds of dollars, including supplements supposedly formulated by #AI.
#antivax

wired.com/story/antivax-grift-

WIRED · Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the Measles Outbreak—and Claim a Bioweapon Caused ItBy David Gilbert
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AnarchoNinaAnalyzes

So, uh, are we sure putting RFK in charge of Health and Human Services isn't just a way to let some sadistic eugenicist freaks torture autistic children and profit from it?

*Warning: this article gets kinda grim and horrifying at a couple of points; so if you're not up for that, maybe don't click the link and just read my analysis this time.*

archive.ph/KIb6k

RFK's pledge to discover the "cause" of autism isn't just a ploy — it's a war on children's health

"Robert Kennedy can't be bothered to hide his thorough contempt for science. "By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic," the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared on Thursday, when announcing a supposed "massive testing and research effort." Even a person with only a fifth-grade understanding of science can see the problem: no scientist can promise a definitive "answer" to a complex biological question at the beginning of a study. Nor can anyone confidently declare they'll have that inquiry wrapped up in a few short months, as if they're writing a summer book report instead of conducting a scientific investigation.

But it's easy enough to make these declarations when you've pre-determined your conclusion, and the only work left is to generate some fake statistics to back up that preordained "discovery." In the spirit of open-mindedness, I suppose I should pretend we must wait to see whatever nonsense is produced before judging it. In the spirit of common sense, however, there is no point in playing dumb. Kennedy has already indicated what he expects the "findings" to be: that vaccines did it, even though all legitimate science shows that is false. To make sure no real science accidentally happens, he has put a non-scientist/non-doctor in charge of this non-study: David Geier, a man who has been fined for practicing medicine without a license. Worse, his "treatments" of children are better described as pointless torture."

I don't want to minimize the primary thrust of Marcotte's analysis here; Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the Trump regime's Secretary of Health and Human Services, is definitely an anti-science, anti-vax grifter freak whose government-funded "study" into the causes of autism is an absolute sham designed to codify the winger conspiracy that vaccines cause autism as official state policy. Vaccines work, they don't cause autism, and we don't have an epidemic; we're just much better at diagnosing autism in young people. This man absolutely is a walking public health crisis, and his leadership of HHS is unquestionably a danger to the health of children (and everyone else) in America; this is after all the same RFK Jr who recently touted his agency's wholly inadequate response to a measles breakout in America that has a child body count, as an example for all the world to follow.

Acknowledging that, I also couldn't help but notice the much darker implications of Kennedy's installation as HHS Secretary and his choice of unlicensed child torturer David Geier to head up his study, that the author mostly hints at. Look, if RFK Jr just wanted a sham study to back up the reactionary right's eugenicist conspiracy theories about autism in modern society, he could have easily found some quack with a medical degree to help him do so. The choice of Grier, a man who, along with his father was caught running illegal, needlessly cruel, and objectively harmful medical experiments on children "to prevent autism," strongly implies that Kennedy is after far more than a round of applause for speaking Q-Anon conspiracies into public health policy "reality." Grier is a man who has already demonstrated a willingness to prey on parental fears to umm, torture children for money, basically?

All of which brings me back to the widespread eugenicist mindset towards autism on the larger American right. These are folks who, because they believe they have a right to literally own their children, perceive a child with autism as "defective goods," and terrifyingly there are millions and millions of people in America who have adopted that mindset. This cluster of reactionary, abhorrent ideology sees autism as an "epidemic" that must be "corrected" rather than recognizing even their own children with special needs as unique, vibrant human beings who don't need to be "fixed," but rather supported by a society that accepts them for the people they are. Trapped inside that eugenicist, dehumanizing worldview, we have seen that these folks will happily pay someone to essentially "torture the autism" out of young people, and I fear that folks like Kennedy and Grier know this, and plan to legitimize those inhumane attitudes and ideas through the force of public health policy - so grifter cranks like them and their friends can get filthy stinking rich in the process.

#Fascism#Eugenics#RFKJr
Continued thread
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Anthony
We in the US are living in a eugenic modernity, by the way, when the putative head of "Health and Human Services" is making the kinds of statements he makes about autistic people. This is not just an anti-vaccination meme; it's an attempt to subordinate an entire class of people, suggesting they are subhuman for being who they are. This is a eugenic move. One has to wonder whether the "human services" people in HHS imagine themselves providing has to do with "improving the human stock" of the nation, the services not being provided to humans but instead having humans as an output.

Rather than get mired in the thought-terminating arguments around political parties or political factions, though, I think we'd do well to reflect on what sorts of other ways of thinking feed into this one: the measured life; standardized testing; the internet of things (sensors); tracking apps of various kinds; electronic health records; data science as a profession and Big Data generally; predictive modeling; generative AI and other optimization-oriented or productivity-promising technology. All of these function to render life as an object of knowledge in one way or another. All of them trace their origins through eugenics and the patterns of thought that led to it, and all of them threaten to enable and enhance further eugenic thinking. This is not to say these things are always all bad; this is meant to be a reflection on what exactly they're for.

Why read the number of steps your FitBit told you you took today, unless there were some sense in which you want your future self to be better than your present self? It's not an accident that this is called "physical fitness", "fitness" being the Darwinian concept describing which organisms should survive. Why subject children to standardized testing unless there were some belief it made them better students? To what end tends to be left out. Why adopt a technology meant to improve productivity, unless you're of the belief that improvement (optimization) were even possible?

Generally speaking, if one is able to bring oneself to believe that a human being is made better by a data-informed technical intervention, isn't one playing the same game as these anti-autism anti-vaxxers, just with different terminology? If your answer to this provocation is that your data is better than theirs or that you're more aligned with reality than they are--some variation of "the science is on our side"--you've ceded the territory: this is more of the same optimization logic that brought us to this point to begin with. I think we have no choice but to do better than this.

That's my reflection anyway.

#USPol #autism #vaccination #vaccines #antivax #eugenics #BigData #AI #PredictiveModeling #DataScience #science
Public
TheAuroraSentinel

PERRY: Stop being polite about deadly quackery. Tell anti-vaxxers to stick it in their arm or up their ostium

‘No parent should be empowered to risk the lives of millions of other children, and adults, because we choose as a community to politely accommodate someone’s neurosis and misinformation’

sentinelcolorado.com/opinion/p

Sentinel Colorado · PERRY: Stop being polite about deadly quackery. Tell anti-vaxxers to stick it in their arm or up their ostiumBy DAVE PERRY | Sentinel Colorado Editor
#Antivax#Measles#COleg
Public
Frédéric ⏚

Que penser de l'étude lancée par Robert Kennedy Jr, ministre de la Santé américain, censée établir les causes d'une supposée "épidémie d'autisme" ?

> Les hypothèses évoquées par Donald Trump, alors que les cas diagnostiqués sont en nette hausse dans le pays, rouvrent déjà la porte à de vieilles antiennes antivax.
francetvinfo.fr/monde/usa/que-

Le ministre de la Santé américain Robert Kennedy Jr lors d'une réunion à la Maison Blanche, le 26 février 2025 à Washington (Etats-Unis).
Franceinfo · Que penser de l'étude lancée par Robert Kennedy Jr, ministre de la Santé américain, censée établir les causesBy Fabien Magnenou
#EtatsUnis#Santé#Vaccins
Public
Mimi

Le demeuré narcissique du bureau ovale a mis toute la Santé américaine entre les mains du plus célèbre des paranoïaques américains, celui au podium mondial des diffuseurs de désinformation médicale depuis 20 ans au moins.

La mafia Krasnov va donc nous fabriquer une ou des pandémies parfaitement prévisibles et parfaitement évitables sans qu'aucune réaction politique sérieuse n'ait pris corps aux USA pour empêcher cette catastrophe et sans qu'aucune mesure préventive ne soit instaurée aux frontières des autres pays. Youpi.

Je ne sais pas si les politicien.ne.s américain.ne.s sont aussi cintrés que celui-ci, seulement lâches ou les deux en même temps puisque ça va souvent de pair.

La différence avec les platistes est que quand ces derniers font une fusée "pour prouver que la terre est plate" leur incompétence et leurs délires paranoïaques ne tuent en général qu'eux-mêmes. Lui, là, il part pour tuer des millions de gens, dans une sidérante quasi-indifférence mondiale.

Citation :
M. Offit est également professeur de pédiatrie à la Faculté de médecine de l'Université de Pennsylvanie. Il pense que l'objectif final de M. Kennedy est de rendre les vaccins "moins accessibles, moins justifiables et plus effrayants. […] Penser le contraire, c'est ne pas avoir prêté attention à qui il est et à ce qu'il fait depuis 20 ans".

ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Radio-CanadaRFK Jr. s’engage à trouver la cause de l’autisme d’ici septembre, des experts en doutentM. Kennedy a indiqué que des centaines de scientifiques allaient prendre part aux recherches.
#USA#Pandémies#Antivax
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