At 11:00 am I joined Eric Topol's interview of Peter Hotez in honor of his new book, "Science Under Seige," and about half way through this wonderful discussion, a group of organized anti-vaxxers entered the "live" column and began firing off the typical bullshit questions ("Name ONE study that included a vaxed/unvaxed control group" or "Name ONE study that included a saline placebo") and numerous derogatory comments ("Reveal exactly how much you are being paid by big pharma to write those books [Dr. Topel recently released "Super Agers" & Dr. Hotez obviously just released "Science Under Seige" respectively]). Dr. Hotez mentioned that a number of years ago, he received a call from Anthony Fauci who specifically asked him to dialog with RFK Jr., which he said went absolutely nowhere, which caused him to write a book about his own young autistic daughter, "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism," which he believes drew the wrath of the ant-vaccine community against him. He spoke about being doxed and how the anti-vaxxers have showed up at his front door, yelling at his home, and how as recently as this past Saturday being awoken before dawn by an anonymous caller who threatened his life and the life of his family in regard to the release of this new book. I have written this several times previously here, and I repeat myself: these people are organized, methodical, and malignant. RFK Jr. will lie to the US Senate, and has surrounded himself with a band of "wellness" grifters who have too much financially at stake to easily back down. They have insulated themselves from any normal controls for conflicts of interest, and congressional oversight is literally absent.
I will never tire of reminding people that this is a war against science which will require more than just respectful dialogue with some antivaxxers. That may work to a limited extent with a limited group of people, but they are not the ones at war with science.
You ignore those warmongers at your peril. They were repeatedly wrong during the pandemic but now they are in power, and they are re-writing the history of their pandemic failures and writing down laws that are destroying the science that demonstrated that the political ideology that motivates them is destroying us all.
I applaud the establishment of this very worthwhile periodical.
I am a laymen, but I try to enrich my knowledge of science, and this journal will edify me.
These days, our attention is often captivated by the bloody crossroads where science and politics meet. (The critic Lional Trilling used to say that his work was at the bloody crossroads where literature and politics met)
I had to offer a couple of ideas re RFK jr. :
Although RFK Jr. has made fallacious and reckless comments about vaccines, his intense skepticism is understandable because the “medical establishment’ has a long and sorry track record of disseminating falsehoods:
1) At the outset of the covid crisis public health authorities said there was no need to wear masks. This lie was disseminated because there weren’t enough masks for both docs and laymen (Trump hadn’t used the defense production act to step up mask production)
2) John Money and John Hopkins FALSIFIED research to assert that gender identity was not determined by biology. (An infant boy’s penis was destroyed in a botched circumcision. The boy was raised as girl. Money said the boy was easily transformed into a “girl.” In fact, he hated being "female")
3) For decades, the med estab. said that psychoanalysis was the treatment of choice for neurotics even though the Eyesenck study showed that while only 44 percent of analytic patients got better, two thirds of patients without therapy got better.
"health authorities said there was no need to wear masks. "
Why are you lying?
The problem was that masks were in short supply at that time in the US and the prevalence of the infection was so low that the general population did not benefit from them to any great extent, but that health care workers were at great risk if they did not have them.
With exponential growth of infections and more masks becoming available, the situation changed rapidly within a very short period of time, and therefore that recommendation no longer applied. The recommendations changed with the changing circumstances.
Did they make mistakes? Did they overstate the case at times? Of course. But those exaggerating and lying about the situation and clacking away on their keyboards in the safety of their own homes to confuse an already confused public did not help.
Thank you from an avid student of science and longevity. I truly appreciate your work and the many collaborators in this exciting time of discovery , your prose is insightful and will cast wide ripple effect as we all need to be proactive and help those on the front lines in the fight , and share a science instead of misinformation .
Thanks! Love collaborating with everyone at Unbiased Science.
Brilliant summary!
Thank you for explaining this in terms I understand (vaccine history for dummies)! Awe inspiring. I <3 science!
Great information! Americans need to be educated on the vaccine manufacturing process. Thank you!
Outstanding writeup! Will 100% be sending links to this one in the future, when people ask this question!
I
loved the way you told this fascinating story about vaccines.
At 11:00 am I joined Eric Topol's interview of Peter Hotez in honor of his new book, "Science Under Seige," and about half way through this wonderful discussion, a group of organized anti-vaxxers entered the "live" column and began firing off the typical bullshit questions ("Name ONE study that included a vaxed/unvaxed control group" or "Name ONE study that included a saline placebo") and numerous derogatory comments ("Reveal exactly how much you are being paid by big pharma to write those books [Dr. Topel recently released "Super Agers" & Dr. Hotez obviously just released "Science Under Seige" respectively]). Dr. Hotez mentioned that a number of years ago, he received a call from Anthony Fauci who specifically asked him to dialog with RFK Jr., which he said went absolutely nowhere, which caused him to write a book about his own young autistic daughter, "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism," which he believes drew the wrath of the ant-vaccine community against him. He spoke about being doxed and how the anti-vaxxers have showed up at his front door, yelling at his home, and how as recently as this past Saturday being awoken before dawn by an anonymous caller who threatened his life and the life of his family in regard to the release of this new book. I have written this several times previously here, and I repeat myself: these people are organized, methodical, and malignant. RFK Jr. will lie to the US Senate, and has surrounded himself with a band of "wellness" grifters who have too much financially at stake to easily back down. They have insulated themselves from any normal controls for conflicts of interest, and congressional oversight is literally absent.
I will never tire of reminding people that this is a war against science which will require more than just respectful dialogue with some antivaxxers. That may work to a limited extent with a limited group of people, but they are not the ones at war with science.
You ignore those warmongers at your peril. They were repeatedly wrong during the pandemic but now they are in power, and they are re-writing the history of their pandemic failures and writing down laws that are destroying the science that demonstrated that the political ideology that motivates them is destroying us all.
Fantastic summary!! Thanks for what you do!
I applaud the establishment of this very worthwhile periodical.
I am a laymen, but I try to enrich my knowledge of science, and this journal will edify me.
These days, our attention is often captivated by the bloody crossroads where science and politics meet. (The critic Lional Trilling used to say that his work was at the bloody crossroads where literature and politics met)
I had to offer a couple of ideas re RFK jr. :
Although RFK Jr. has made fallacious and reckless comments about vaccines, his intense skepticism is understandable because the “medical establishment’ has a long and sorry track record of disseminating falsehoods:
1) At the outset of the covid crisis public health authorities said there was no need to wear masks. This lie was disseminated because there weren’t enough masks for both docs and laymen (Trump hadn’t used the defense production act to step up mask production)
2) John Money and John Hopkins FALSIFIED research to assert that gender identity was not determined by biology. (An infant boy’s penis was destroyed in a botched circumcision. The boy was raised as girl. Money said the boy was easily transformed into a “girl.” In fact, he hated being "female")
3) For decades, the med estab. said that psychoanalysis was the treatment of choice for neurotics even though the Eyesenck study showed that while only 44 percent of analytic patients got better, two thirds of patients without therapy got better.
https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/rfk-is-wrong-but-the-medical-establishment
Looks like the mad Englishman was simply promoting his own Substack.
"health authorities said there was no need to wear masks. "
Why are you lying?
The problem was that masks were in short supply at that time in the US and the prevalence of the infection was so low that the general population did not benefit from them to any great extent, but that health care workers were at great risk if they did not have them.
With exponential growth of infections and more masks becoming available, the situation changed rapidly within a very short period of time, and therefore that recommendation no longer applied. The recommendations changed with the changing circumstances.
Did they make mistakes? Did they overstate the case at times? Of course. But those exaggerating and lying about the situation and clacking away on their keyboards in the safety of their own homes to confuse an already confused public did not help.
And some are still doing it.
Thank you from an avid student of science and longevity. I truly appreciate your work and the many collaborators in this exciting time of discovery , your prose is insightful and will cast wide ripple effect as we all need to be proactive and help those on the front lines in the fight , and share a science instead of misinformation .