More Lies and Deception

 After helping our dog, Finn, survive the thunderstorm that settled atop our home during the middle of the night, I read a New York Times article that tightened my jaw. The article was about how our Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., continues to ignore science while at the same time trying to promote Make America Healthy Again. Much of the article was about his presentation at the Children's Health Convention.

I was appalled to read in the article, titled, Kennedy Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’, that regarding the four measles deaths in Pennsylvania that, Mr. Kennedy publicly questioned whether measles played a role and suggested the deaths may have been “fabricated.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he oversees, has refused to acknowledge them and is currently reporting no measles deaths for 2026.

Playing like an ostrich won’t alter the facts. I was reminded of a perplexing scenario: if someone has a severe heart condition, COPD, and is shot dead, what is the cause of death? Is it a heart attack, COPD, or lead poisoning?

I was also further distressed to read that at the conference. The speaker before Mr. Kennedy was Mark Gorton, the president of the MAHA Institute, who called the success of the polio vaccine a “fraud,"

The current administration had managed to destroy confidence in nearly every aspect of health management. The very governmental enters whose reasoned scientifically-based opinions were considered the "Gold-standard" around the world have been reduced to purveyors of repudiated theories and misinformation.

Lies and deception. I only hope we can put the genie back into the bottle.

Even more concerning, how many more children and adults will die because of the misguided acceptance of discredited and scientifically disproven theories? 

Sadly, the health related lies and deception continues a trend from Trump's first administration where estimates climb up to about 400,000 needless American deaths from COVID-19 due to the initial denial of its existence and then a slow response.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL