Brass Neck Science
ACIP, formerly known as the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices is now the ACIP - Antivaxx Chums in Power.
Not a week goes by without more scary stuff from the USA. When it comes to health, Kennedy’s tanker of doom is slowly heading to the rocks, powered by the same idiocy and illusion driving increasingly cruel US politics. An obscure, behind the scenes committee has been hand picked to do the dirty work and is now taking centre stage in defining the future of vaccination.
What are they doing?
Kennedys hand-picked ACIP have started their work, if that’s what you can call it. Procedural errors abound with Robert “I invented the mRNA vaccine” Malone stated that discussions were ongoing in the background between members, which is illegal as votes should not be decided in private and debates on this issues debated in public after listening to evidence.
ACIP members are meant to consider the evidence, not present their own. Nevertheless Lyn Redwood, a professional antivaxxer, gave a presentation without clearance from the CDC experts regarding Thiomersal used as a preservative in some flu vaccines, in which she even got the amount wrong, doubling the actual content - this was deleted but the schoolboy error was repeated in a different slide.
She relied on out-of-date studies and cherry picked the data. As with Kennedys report on child health, she also presented references which didn’t exist. Lazy use of AI again.
Dramatic conflicts of interest like selling supplements falsely claiming to reduce infections, or even leading a prominent antivaccine group set up by Kennedy himself were not declared. That is as much radical transparency as the deliberations were gold standard science.
The two day meeting would be beyond tedious to work through, but when analysed by the Evidence Collective, it seems that members made 50 errors.
Much of this is instructive and right out of the misinformation handbook. Cherry picking studies to make your point is called Policy Driven Evidence. Misquote studies you pick and load the references with studies that doesn’t even exist.
This is the first public display of the damage being inflicted by Kennedy. The ACIP will now not be trusted by anyone with any knowledge or expertise. The proceedings also vividly demonstrate how antivaxxers work, how they manipulate data and misinform. Kennedy and Redwood have been doing exactly this for decades, and Mallone for years, now they have power.
Decisions
They have recommended against Thiomersal as a preservative which is used in multi-dose vials which are important is some settings and cheaper. More importantly the decision ignored the science which shows the preservative to be safe.
They continued the general recommendation for flu vaccines with the worrying comment by Malone that 250 US childhood deaths from Flu last year (overwhelmingly in the unvaccinated) was “modest” and it would seem, for him, acceptable. A new monoclonal antibody to protect kids against RSV was added to the childhood schedule.
COVID vaccines were not on the agenda this time but ‘working groups’ are being set up to undermine vaccine science yet more. The relevant professional bodies have boycotted the meetings as they bring science and medicine into disrepute.
Killer Kennedy….
With a horrible inevitability, Kennedy has taken upon himself to totally end funding for GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) and will thus deny vaccination to millions of children. who will now have to suffer infectious disease, and die once again. That this wasn’t his decision to make, (it is a matter for the State Department) demonstrated power and reach is now comprehensive. It is with a sense of shame I see the Labour Governments also cutting its contribution to GAVI by 25% in another act of careless and deadly vandalism.
Kennedy also sent a letter to Senate to justify his downgrading of COVID vaccines for pregnant women. He cited a papers to bolster his case – he was lying. This is from Paul Offit’s website detailing Kennedys deceit:
· Study #1: RFK Jr. wrote that the study found that, … pregnant women showed higher rates of fetal loss if vaccination was received before 20-weeks of pregnancy.” In fact, the study concluded that “SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was not associated with miscarriage.”
· Study #2: RFK Jr. wrote that the study “showed statistically significant increases in preterm birth,” when in fact the authors concluded that “SARS-CoV-2 vaccine appears to be safe during pregnancy with no increase in incidence of preterm labor.”
· Study #3: RFK Jr. wrote that the study “…showed an increase in placental blood clotting in pregnant mothers who took the vaccine,” when the term “placental blood clotting” doesn’t appear anywhere in the paper. RFK Jr. counts on the fact that few people will read the studies he references. This level of misrepresentation is at least cynical and at worst fraudulent.
Again, this is what Kennedy calls “Gold Standard Science”.
AMA have sent an open letter to the US public stating their commitment to combating infections disease before Autumn when they will take off again. There is an accelerating professional fightback against the harm Kennedys gang will inflict. they will have to work hard.
Meanwhile in the UK, we are not exempt from all this. Dr David Cartland, a somewhat strange GP built a considerable online following on the back of the sort of anti-science nonsense coming out of the US. Thankfully, he has been struck off the resister for serious misbehaviour.
Perhaps in the US, he would now be on Kennedys team of experts!