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47
GOP
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CNN's Dana Bash interviewed Secretary of HHS Robert Kennedy Jr. yesterday. It was extremely confrontational. Kennedy's view is that Anthony Fauci was wrong to recommend measures to save people's lives because some of them were mildly inconvenient and restricted people's freedom. If grandma got COVID and died, well tough luck. She was going to die eventually anyway. Kennedy spent much of the interview attacking Bash. If you want to watch, here it is, but we recommend that you do not watch on a full stomach:
Kennedy lied repeatedly about vaccines and measles and every time Bash corrected him he challenged her. He said "When you and I were kids, everybody got measles and that gives you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn't do that." He seems to think Bash is as old as he is. He was born in 1954 and probably got measles because the vaccine was introduced in 1963. Bash was born in 1971 and was probably vaccinated as a baby and didn't get it.
Kennedy tried to rewrite the history of the pandemic and tried to downplay the biggest resurgence of measles in at least 30 years. He criticized experts of all stripes.
They butted heads on the COVID-19 vaccine, with him challenging her to cite research that the vaccine did more good than harm. She could have quickly looked up this paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that shows the vaccine prevented 2.5 million deaths. Or maybe this paper that shows although there are occasionally side effects, the vaccine is safe and effective for children.
Kennedy maintained that vaccine skeptics, like himself, were treated badly during the pandemic. She said she wanted to move on. He shouted: "Of course you want to move on. Because you were part of the problem." She replied: "No, I wasn't." Kennedy came back with: "There was absolute press malpractice [during the pandemic]. Your job is furious skepticism toward authority. And you weren't doing that. You were beating up on people who were dissenting." Bash then said: "Okay. Do you want to sit here and attack me or do you want to have a conversation about public health?" It went downhill from there.
Bash went on to say that she was not going to allow Kennedy to say things that are untrue without being challenged. He accused her of speaking nonsense. He also attacked her for not having a scientific background. Then she pointed out that he didn't have one either, unless you consider moving dead bears around to be zoology. Actually, in his job, as the highest health official in the country, at least an awareness of science is valuable. He cut her off multiple times. She defended people with scientific backgrounds. He scoffed at them. It went on and on like that. (V)