Presidential candidate RFK Jr. suspended his campaign last week and endorsed Donald Trump.
I disagree with Kennedy about a lot. But at least he was willing to talk to people who disagree with him.
In my newest video, we debate.
Kennedy complains that mainstream media won’t have him on — even to argue with him.
“Nobody will. None of them. They won’t have me on any of their networks.”
“I see why,” I reply. “You get into the weeds of vaccine science and we feel not all of it’s true.”
“If it’s not true,” Kennedy responds, “then argue with me, or post something afterward.”
OK.
Here are three incorrect things Kennedy says:
No. 1: “I was in Dimock, Pennsylvania, watching fire come out of a faucet from fracking. Every home in that neighborhood, they can light up a cigarette lighter under their faucet, turn their faucet on and it’ll flame like a lighter. That’s from fracking.”
No, it isn’t.
A leftist documentary, “Gasland,” publicized flaming faucets and claimed fracking is the cause.
But it’s not.
Water is flammable in many places in America where no fracking is done. It happens because of naturally occurring gas, already in the ground.
Even the director of the EPA during Obama’s presidency said, “In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater.”
No. 2: Kennedy claims many vaccines do more harm than good.
I ask, “If your kids were young now, would you give them the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine?”
“No,” he says, “Studies show that kids who get measles as a child are much healthier when they grow up … resistant to cancers, atopic diseases … “
I tell Kennedy, “You convinced people not to get the measles vaccine. An outbreak resulted in 83 deaths in Samoa.”
“That story is not true,” he says. “Nobody died in Samoa from measles.”
But the Samoan government and the Lancet medical journal report there were 83 deaths.
Kennedy blames the deaths on bad vaccines, and two babies did die after being given incorrectly mixed vaccines.
But Samoa’s response, after years of anti-vax messages, was worse: They pulled the measles vaccine.
That’s what caused the 83 deaths.
Now, Samoa vaccinates kids again.
No. 3: Kennedy ties vaccines to autism.
“You still say that autism is caused by vaccines?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he replies firmly. “Autism is caused by vaccines.”
He points to unpublished data presented decades ago by a researcher named Verstraeten.
“They looked at children who got the hepatitis B vaccine during their first 30 days and compared those to kids who got it later or didn’t get it at all. There was a 1,350% elevated risk for autism!”
That was true, about the preliminary raw data. But in later analyses of the same data, Verstraeten made adjustments, and the vaccine-autism correlation went away. RFK doesn’t trust the adjustments. Even if he were right, the chemical in the vaccines (thimerosal) that Verstraeten looked at was discontinued in vaccines, except flu shots, decades ago.
More thorough researchers have now studied the effects of modern vaccines and found no connection to autism.
One study even looked at every child born in Denmark over 10 years and concluded that the MMR vaccine “does not increase the risk for autism.”
“You ignore the big studies,” I tell him.
“You have this wrong,” he insists.
Finally, Kennedy’s critics claim he makes things up.
One told me, “Studies he cites won’t show what he says they show. The web is full of detailed explanations of why nearly every study he has cited is bogus or wildly misinterpreted by him.”
I didn’t find that. I found that when Kennedy cites studies, he cites them accurately.
But he misleads by ignoring bigger, better, more reliable studies.
This does a grave disservice to his followers. Vaccines (most of them, anyway) reduce misery and save lives.
Although Kennedy and I disagree about a lot, I’m grateful that he will debate.
All my career, I’ve debated people for my TV shows. Debate is one of the best ways to get closer to the truth.
But today, activists and politicians hide from skeptical inquiry. Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert Kennedy are rare exceptions.
Good for them.
Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash
I am not going to debate the back and forth issue whether vaccines are good or bad. But I will side with freedom of choice in taking a vaccine injection.
The Fed and State government/ Media/ Big Pharma/ Medical bureaucracy instigated lockdowns based on politics which led to economic devastation by Governors playing God with people’s lives!
I agree with your statement that all of us should be able to debate and not be so polarized. We learn so much when we listen and communicate.
I do believe the government should give every American the freedom to vaccinate or not. They also should publish all the deaths caused by those vaccinated.
Would be helpful to see citations in the fact check.
““You ignore the big studies,” I tell him.”
—-The studies have pre-conceived boundaries. Anyone who has independent thinking and may come to a different conclusion that Big Pharma will not benefit financially from- is not included in getting the grants for the Big Pharma Big Studies.
The big studies are rigged. They are paid for by Big Pharma or their affiliates and cohorts, as the saying goes, “follow the money” and if you dig deep enough you will find the connections. Who analyses these studies? -their corhorts. It’s a circle of the same characters. The medical schools are their programs, it’s a huge industry and they are NOT liable.
—–Why do you believe them?
—–The minute Big Pharma will be LIABLE for injuring people you will see a lowering of the statistics of autism in the US.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 was signed into law by Pres. Reagan. NCVIA’s purpose was to eliminate the potential financial liability of vaccine manufacturers due to vaccine injury claims.
—–Does this make sense to you? They have ZERO to lose if they injure people. The more vaccines the more money!
—–Every baby today is given about 70 doses of 16 vaccines (per CDC).
—–In the 1980s with about half the doses of only 7 vaccines.
Statistics:
In the 1970s there were 1 in 10,000 cases of autism.
Today, 1 in 36 cases of autism. In California 1 in 22.
Parents are witnesses – they know what happened to their baby after the vaccination that damaged their baby forever.
There’s a lot more to say, but I think the main disappointment I have in your comments about RFK Jr. is that you trust Big Pharma and you trust their “studies.”
Maybe it’s not really how you feel but you must say it. Cause it doesn’t really make sense that you would.