RFK Jr. is a monster

All new 'On Democracy with FPWellman' dives into just how dangerous he is for all of us

This isn’t news but…

He manages to find a new low everytime he opens his mouth. This week was the outrageous press conference that was supposed to be about the release of a CDC study showing the most recent data on the increased diagnosis of autism. Instead Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used it to spread lies about the disorder, its causes, and the Americans who have struggled to find acceptance in society.

He set the effort to fight stigma back decades in a few minutes of lies, smears, and conspiracy theories.

The CDC report released this week doesn’t see any kind of an autism “epidemic” at all. “The increases seen in various communities, says the report, “might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices…Another reason for differences in prevalence could be whether children have insurance coverage or meet eligibility criteria for access to early intervention services.”

But as Time points out,

Kennedy doesn’t agree with that explanation. “One of the things I think we need to move away from today is this ideology that this diagnosis, rather [than] the relentless increases, are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition," he said at a press conference following the release of the CDC report. “Doctors and therapists in the past weren't stupid, they weren't missing all these cases. The epidemic is real." He went on to condemn what he called “epidemic denial” on the part of the scientific community. “External factors, environmental exposures,” Kennedy said. “That's where we're going to find the answer."

You see in RFK’s world everyone has equal access to healthcare and always has. He comes from a rich family and has never known a moment of discomfort as long as he’s lived. He simply can’t imagine that there are millions without access to health care, insurance, or mental health practitioners.

Autism is a complex spectrum and every single person dealing with it has a different story. RFK Jr.’s blanket assumptions about how no one with autism will be a taxpayer, work, love, or in the most disgusting of comments, use a toilet alone. His stereotyping and bigotry is astonishing.

It’s par for the course

This is who he is. His anti-vaccine work ties directly into his completely insane beliefs about autism and are just as dangerous. We are currently battling the largest measles outbreak in tens of years in the United States and he continues to deny the severity of the illness and its prevention.

Doctors across the country saw who he was from the start and organized to try and stop his appointment to the Health and Human Services. The Committee to Protect Health Care gathered over 22,000 doctors signatures to implore the Senate to block his nomination.

They ignored it all and placed the most dangerous man imaginable in charge of our healthcare system. Now they are shutting down key elements of our public health system from the department that tests and mitigates lead in water systems to testing for HIV/AIDS.

I was joined this week for ‘On Democracy with FPWellman’ by Dr. Rob Davidson, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Health Care and co-host of the Paging America podcast. Dr. Davidson is also an ER physician in West Michigan.

Dr. Rob Davidson

We discussed this moment, the dangers we face, and pushing back against the outlandish bullshit. Check out the entire conversation before it debuts tonight at 11:00 PM ET/8:00 PM PT on the MeidasTouch Network.

Catch it all:

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