Former CDC Director Highlights the Challenge RFK Jr. Faces in Making America Healthy Again

When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he will confront an entrenched bureaucracy hostile to his ideas and a network of megacorporations and powerful nonprofits who will oppose him at every turn. A prime example of what lies in store was on ABC’s This Week program, hosted by Martha Raddatz. On Sunday, she interviewed former CDC Director Richard Besser, who is now the CEO of the multibillion-dollar Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, a powerhouse public relations arm of the healthcare industry.

Fmr. CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser Worries RFK Jr May Take Away Vaccine Mandates

“We have a social contract in our country … and vaccination falls into that category. Having someone who go denies that, in that role, is extremely dangerous.”pic.twitter.com/hYKs39Il90

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 17, 2024

RADDATZ: You know, he said that he does not intend to get rid of all vaccines. Said he and his children had been vaccinated before the Covid vaccine, which they did not take.

BESSER: Right.

RADDATZ: So, would he get rid of them? Do you think – do you think he’s lying about that?

BESSER: Well, it’s not a matter of getting rid of them. No vaccine is 100 percent protective. When you send your kid to school fully vaccinated, you don’t want to have to worry that the child sitting next to them, that their parents chose not to vaccinate their child, because once the level of vaccination in a classroom drops below something like 95 percent, it’s a setup for diseases like measles or whooping cough to spread. If there’s a child in the classroom who has an immune problem, that child is at risk.

So, it’s not a matter of saying, oh, yes, you have access to your vaccines, it’s pushing the idea that vaccines should be something that is totally up to the individual. We have a social contract in our country. There are things we do for our own health. But there are things we do that are good for ourselves, our families, and our communities, and vaccination falls into that category. And having somebody who denies that in that role is extremely dangerous.

RADDATZ: He has not only denied some things in that role, or potentially in that role, but he has said there is some sort of autism that is a result of these vaccines. Totally not true then.

BESSER: Yes, you know, this was a question that was asked and addressed decades ago. And to continue to lift that up is a cruel thing to do.

We need to, as a nation, address chronic diseases in children. And one of the dangerous things about RFK Jr. is that there are bits of things he says that are true, and they’re mixed in. And it makes it really hard to sort out what things you should – you should follow because they’re based on fact, and which things are not. We should address chronic diseases, autism is one of those, and spending money trying to understand, what are the causes of autism and how can you address that. But keep lifting up the idea that it has something to do with vaccination is really a cruel thing to do.

If you want to understand the fascistic madness that overtook this country during the COVID panic, you need to go no further than this.

We have a social contract in our country. There are things we do for our own health. But there are things we do that are good for ourselves, our families, and our communities, and vaccination falls into that category. 

To the extent that I care about what is good for anyone other than my family, it’s pretty much my call. When it comes to putting myself or my family at risk for some harebrained virtue-signaling scheme, no matter how good it makes you feel about yourself, count me out. The way this guy ignores vaccine injuries and deprives every citizen of agency because he thinks it is a good idea that we get with the program is breathtaking. If you are telling me that I need to have a foreign substance injected in my body so that someone else might not get sick, I’m probably going to tell you to take your “social contract,” roll it up into a nice tight tube, and put it somewhere out of sunlight.

The second part of the answer shows the arrogance of the medical establishment. I’m agnostic on the role of vaccines in autism. I’m becoming much less so about the role vaccines play in other conditions. That said, we can’t reasonably expect the population to be subjected to dozens of shots for a wide variety of diseases and not encounter some mishaps. For anyone to say that a claim “was asked and addressed decades ago” when the number and types of shots, as well as the chemical compounds of today, were not evaluated is outrageous.

During COVID, we saw a vaccine that was more akin to a therapeutic than a vaccine — the COVID vaccine could neither prevent you from catching COVID nor could it prevent you from spreading it — imposed on the country and made a condition of attending school or retaining employment.

No, Mr. Besser, we don’t have a “social contract” that requires me to take involuntary risks based on your opinion. No, I don’t have to accept your assurances that the vaccine you want to stick into me or mine is safe and effective; I get to ask questions and demand proof.

I don’t buy a lot of RFK Jr.’s ideas. Some of them are borderline lunacy. But the arc of his lunacy bends toward freedom, and that is a welcome change for how Mr. Besser views the world.

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