Americas march to Medievalism
Right now malignant Trumpism is the most vivid example of democracy’s divorce from the real world.
Summary – Trump will:
· end research into improving and developing mRNA technology.
· attack contraception and abortion services, including those abroad
· allow millions in developing nations to die of HIV/AIDS
· censor the term ‘climate change’ and end further research
· encourage the spread of measles and dental decay
· appoint pseudo-scientist chums and cranks to lead science.
The fightback begins with people on the streets and markets responding to his economically illiteracy and brutal persecution of his pet hates, but what the hell is happening to science? I can hardly believe what I’m writing, but sadly it’s all true.
Demonising mRNA technology.
Rather that continuing to explore and improve this exciting development in medicine, Trump has instructed the ever complaint Kennedy to make a list of research into mRNA vaccines, and is ‘looking at’ a grant to Moderna to develop vaccines against H5N1 influenza. This means that research programmes are likely to be stopped. I wonder if the use of the term ‘mRNA’ will also be banned? In this America, nothing is impossible - some states are trying to ban the vaccines.
Making Family planning unavailable again
HHS are reviewing all grants involving family planning with further attacks on abortion services likely alongside reviews of grants for family planning and sexual health services to middle and poor Americans. This is a practical manifestation of another idiocy, the pronatalism movement. This includes Vance and Musk, who want more American women to have more kids who they respectively see as souls to be created and saved, and consumers to buy more stuff.
The appointment of a Thomas Bell, an anti-abortionist to lead the HHS office of Inspector General highlights shows what is to come for American women who, unlike too many Republicans driven by religious extremism, see the right to control their lives as worthwhile. Women are already dying - or should I say being killed - due to delayed treatment for complications in pregnancy - expect more.
Spreading the gospel to the UK
This medieval attack on women’s rights is malignant, shown by the UK case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, fined for breaching the buffer zone needed around abortion clinics under attack from evangelical christians. Her defence is being funded by a US anti-abortion group called the “Alliance for Defending Freedom”. These American nutcases have offices in the UK and are actively supported by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), an office within the US Department of State.
This is a signal more global intimidation of women who have decided to have an abortion, and a threat to women’s rights everywhere. Rich to come from Trump (5 kids), Kennedy (6), and Musk (14), for whom women seem to be little more than commodities.
Helping Climate change destroy humanity
All NIH funding for anything to do with climate change is going to end, as well as use of the words in official publications. Expect more natural disasters and more scapegoating, particularly with “Drill Baby Drill” defining infantile US energy policy.
Making HIV/AIDS infections deadly again
Funding for research on HIV will be severely curtailed, banned indeed if it mentions colour or LGBQT, both highly relevant to the infection. Trump has listed South Africa as a country of concern and is holding off any grants or help with HIV. This madness is due to his Musk led fantasy regarding persecution of white farmers, whose ‘refugees’ he welcomes.
The threat to previous cross-party support for PEPFAR which seeks to reduce HIV infections and deaths, and savage cuts to USAID, will lead to many nations running out of anti-retroviral treatments in weeks. This will, according to the Lancet, lead to an additional 4.43 to 10.75 million new HIV infections and 0.77 to 2.93 million deaths. A letter signed by 500 doctors and researchers warned the secretary of state that a sudden end to PEPFAR would kill six million people in the next four years. I honestly think MAGA fanatics couldn’t care less.
Encouraging measles outbreaks and deaths
Hardly deflected by a measles outbreak he has worked so hard to fuel, Kennedy is getting busy. He is cutting huge numbers of relevant staff, clearly in the bonkers belief that we needn’t worry about infections disease anymore.
After decades of campaigning against vaccines and doing his level best to reduce their use, he has the affrontery to attend the funeral of another child killed by lack of a measles vaccine as the outbreak spreads. For me, Kennedy has blood on his hands.
Reluctantly, and without encouraging the minority of unvaccinated to get vaccinated, he has spat out - “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine”. In his new role, he should be urging people to get vaccinated and telling the unvaccinated they have made a mistake. His years of telling people exactly the opposite now clashes with the need to appease the vast majority view that vaccines are worth having.
Meanwhile his organisation, the Children’s Health Defence, are doing everything they can to try to persuade their followers that the measles deaths were not due to measles. They make you sick, literally.
Expanding pseudo-Science
Others are resigning rather than being sacked. Dr Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official felt it was impossible to work with someone as divorced from reality as Kennedy.
His resignation from the FDA reflects the truth of what it going on right now. In his letter of resignation Mark’s reasons are clear:
Inventing vaccination as a cause of Autism
The desire to put belief before knowledge is further demonstrated by the appointment of a pseudoscientist and Kennedy chum, David Grier to look at Autism. He is a dangerous crank, once disciplined for practising medicine without a license, and helping his Dad (whose medical license was suspended) make money by experimenting on children with Autism by them offering Lupron (a prostate cancer drug).
He is now tasked to study, in reality invent, a non-existent link between vaccination and autism. I fully expect Grier to publish corrupt ‘studies’ to show that vaccines cause autism as neither have any scruples when it comes to manipulation of science. It seems to me they are both using people with Autism for their own purposes.
Making Dentists rich again - Fluoride
Following this playbook, Kennedy is now assembling a ‘panel of experts’ (lackeys) to back up his anti-fluoride campaign and will be telling the CDC to stop advising its use. Lo and behold a recent paper published by who else but the Griers on the dangers of fluoridation, using exactly the same methodological errors as their vaccine study, and getting away with not declaring any conflict of interest. They examined publicly available records from Medicaid to suggest that fluoridation causes increased risk of neurodevelopment problems, and conclude new studies on risk-benefit be done - presumably by them in highly paid roles given to them by their chum Kennedy.
Pseudo-environmentalism
Meanwhile, Kennedys environmental credentials, such as they were, have been shown to be paper thin. His legal work with water pollution, which seemed admirable enough at the time, I now be seen as just another profitable, self-serving bandwagon he could jump on, and jump off. Manipulation of science in the courts has been way more profitable.
While focusing on his personal antivaccine hobby, he is turning a blind eye to his “Glorious Leaders” binning of regulation designed to protect American children from pesticides, air and yes, water pollution.
Not all Americans are as mad as their leaders.
While this Madness is just beginning, it’s heartening to see so many Americans on the streets protesting, to see Tesas shares and sales plummeting and the markets giving Trump a very big thumbs down. Over here we have local elections coming up, with a political opportunism ripe as the lacklustre Labour Government and miserable Tories could lose votes to our own Trumpist, Nigel Farage, MP for Clacton and Florida East.
I have been thinking exactly this.
It is not just Kennedy with blood on his hands. Also Trump - a million Covid lives.