Wyden: "Measles are in fact deadly and highly contagious, something that you should've learned after you lies contributed to the deaths of 83 people, mostly of them children, in a measles outbreak in Samoa."
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the death rate for measles WAS very low a long time ago, yeah... so what?
it has since evolved and become a LOT more deadly and dangerous. sure, go ahead and blame vaccines for that. it doesnt change the fact that measles IS very dangerous now.
Tired of magas whining that "measles is a harmless childhood disease" and "toughing it out" is somehow more virtuous than getting vaccinated against it. I know people who are permanently deaf or sterile from having had measles as children. My parents saw vaccinating us as a blessing, not a weakness.
From W.H.O.-“Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.”
In the decade before the vaccine in 1963, nearly all children got measles. Estimated 3-4 million people in the U.S. were infected each year. Among reported cases per year, an estimated
400-500 people died
48,000 hospitalized
1,000 suffered encephalitis.
We also had to quarantine!
Measles were also a significant cost burden to families and the nation, both in terms of medical expense and loss in economic productivity when adults got sick.
I knew two kids that were deaf because of measles. I had measles and my body lost its immunity to Whooping Cough which I had as a baby. So...? I had it again.
I remember reading in a biography of Joni Mitchell how she spent time in an iron lung from the Polio epidemic. What a horror. And we just completed shot two of the Shringrix series for Shingles. I am 78 and remember the Polio epidemic. We don't want children to die if we can prevent it.
When questioner says, "yes or no" and the person answering launches into a soliloquy, why doesn't the questioner stop them and demand a "yes or no" response?
Exactly. It's a well-known tactic to get around actually answering the question. What's why I'd hold them to it or say something like, "Since you can't answer the question, I'm going to mark you down as a 'no.'"
Why is Sen Crapo letting Kennedy supporters whoop & applaud? And why don’t Dem Senators have writings handy to contradict his lies? Will there be more questioning? My main concern is he will end original Medicare and replace with Medicare Advantage. I have original Medicare and I love it.
He also claims that if given the opportunity to go back in time, he would NOT vaccinate his children. Did he support his grandkids being vaccinated? Are they vaccinated? It seems to me RFK Jr. has no REAL convictions, just grabs on to anything to make him money! DO NOT CONFIRM the ambulance chaser!
When a supposed "health professional" (which he isn't) starts any answer in 2025 by quoting a study in 1963 the hearing should just end
The answer would not be acceptable in any university it should not be accepted in the Capitol
Talk about bad takes.
In this case, most of the epidemic data and academic studies about measles comes before 1963 because the vaccine that came out in 1963 shut down epidemics in the subsequent years.
Then he went on a string of lies over the Samoa issue, with no one fact-checking him realtime. This is how it will go. And Fox/twitter will give their propaganda take on it, and the masses will follow.
Idk why these ppl want all their BS dragged out in front of everyone? So embarrassing, but I guess not to these egomaniacs. All his nominations are pathetic!
YES WYDEN! Calling out RFK Jr., the Vaccine Whisperer, for the REAL consequences of his lies. Kids DIED because of this nonsense—no spin, no excuses. ACCOUNTABILITY NOW!
Highest R0 out of most infectious diseases. If you stand in a room an hour after someone contagious was present, you're highly likely going to get it unless you're fully vaccinated against it.
A lot of Americans have issues such as Asthma and other respiratory conditions. Contracting something like Measles for them, can be deadly. This isn't a virus to play FAFO with. It's been controlled with minimal cases for decades, thanks to vaccination.
While Republicans want to gut Medicaid so how are we treating at risk poor kids with measles. I'm starting to think this is some kind of closeted eugenics movement.
I can only guess but my guess is there was that one protestor who said RFK Jr. lied as he claimed he wasn't Anti-Vaxx (even though he totally is) and I guess it may be that protestor.
@wyden.senate.gov is right
and I'm old enough that I had measles (and mumps, etc) and later on my childhood pediatrician was the co-developer of the measles vaccine
His 1 in 10,000 number is a common anti-vax trope that measles isn't THAT bad. The CDC reports the mortality as 1 in 1,000 - but that's of cases bad enough to be reported. It's probably more like 1 in 3 or 4,000, but not 1 in 10,000 as Kennedy claims.
RFK Jr has lied about everything his whole life which is what made him a useful operative for spreading misinformation to undermine public health for the concentration of capital.
RFK is a Samoan baby killer - the children died from not receiving the measles vaccine. And, he denied it. He is a liar, con man and dangerous man and does not deserve any seat in any government.
The tics, the weird head/eye movements, the voice, this can't be someone who is healthy? Right?! It feels like he going to disintegrates at any point or is having constant seizures.
Senator Ron Wyden is my senator 💞 and I do not want Jr as my boss. I work for the State of Oregon Medicaid program, he’s unfit for this position or any position in our government.
He’s lying! He’s lying to get the job, and then as soon as he gets in there, he’s gonna do what he said he wanted to do and that was to remove the polio vaccine, particularly
We didn't say you went there with an active case of measles. We said you used your family name and influence to spread FUD all over the internet, which is global, BTW.
Well before he went to Samoa he was in touch with anti-vax leaders in the country and feeding them quotes and lies that they used to discourage vaccinations. Even after measles started killing babies RFK made statements, widely circulated in Samoa, discouraging and fear mongering vaccination.
He should know that the root cause of the measles outbreak in Samoa was from the lack of herd immunity that giving the vaccine to those children would have prevented the outbreak in the first place.
Next question should have been: would the measles vaccine have saved the lives of those children? It would be good to get his answer on the record. I mean, he's defending himself by angrily insisting that measles killed them without his help.
Yikes. A HHS Secretary who cannot comprehend the process of communicable diseases? I knew RFK jr. was dishonest and insane, but watching these hearings it is apparent he is also really, really stupid.
Does this fool think people are saying he literally spread measles as if he was patient zero? The Samoans invited him because they were already listening to his kooky theories.
That logic - ""I dropped a landmine in June and someone stepped on it in August, therefore I had nothing to do with that guy's legs getting blown off.""
Did anyone remind him that June is before August? 🤔 Another example of how utterly compromised @gopsen.bsky.social is that he is even sitting there as a nominee.
A whole 2 months after that idiot went there and convinced them to not vaccinate their kids against a common and potentially deadly childhood virus for which medical science has created a defence, a load of unvaccinated kids died from that same childhood virus. Totally unrelated... 🤪
I mean, if I'm a parent and I hear that measles are going around, but I've been told by a "credible" person that measles isn't deadly and the vaccine is unsafe, I'm not gonna vaccinate my kid.
RFK Jr might as well have dug those kids graves themselves.
Call me crazy, but I see this timeline, along with the actions he took while there, as strong evidence he was at least partly responsible.
It sure as hell doesn’t help his case that he wasn’t.
wow. So a guy saying "don't get the measles vaccine" goes to a country where a measles outbreak BEGINS 5 months later -- but people don't get the vaccine because they think measles is not deadly, thanks to his lies?
So, you advocated for no vaccines, and then when people said “no vaccine!”, there was an outbreak two months later. RFK is not as think as he smart he is.
Bennet: "What's disturbing to me is that out of 330m Americans, we're being asked to put somebody in this job who has spent 50 years of his life peddling in half-truths, peddling in false statements, peddling in theories that create doubt about whether or not things we know are safe are unsafe."
RFK jr. is peddling conspiracies based on his hobby for spreading anti-science false information in exchange for money.
Tell me America, does RFK Jr. look like the picture of health to you??🤦♀️
RFK Jr. was definitely bumbling after Bennet’s blistering questions. I’m glad members of the committee are grilling him on his absurd and dangerous comments.
I love how exhausted and defeated he looks here. He wanted power and somehow didn't realize how much of a mental burden that entails. If he can't handle these questions, there's no way he can do the job.
If he can't deal with the actuality that his decisions during a avian flu pandemic with 50% lethality could rely on his decisions, he needs to stay home.
Trumps plan on eliminating chronic disease is by letting people with underlying conditions die by making it impossible to afford health care and medicines
This is exactly it. Let the weak, disabled and infirm die. That way they don't take up resources - leaving more in the pockets of the oligarchs. Those left are the strongest and probably the dumbest - they're the workers who make money for the oligarchs.
It’s important RFK JR not get in…but his head sticking out of his suit looks like a head of a penis infected with gonorrhea. Now I’ve never actually seen an infected penis this way. But I assume this is what one would look like. An infected penis head, and Kennedy bear a striking resemblance.
USA is a joke. None of this theatre will change the fact they are putting a demonstrable conman into a seat of great power and gravity. I hate the USA because now i have to fend this off in my own country #RealityTVNation
I don’t blame anyone- I blame the system. Both ‘sides’ made this happen. It was bound to. It’s still completely sad. I wish for nothing but good things for people of USA- just don’t care about ones who think musk, etc are cool. If they make it- hurray. If they don’t- oh well. MAGA taught me hate.
US Senator Michael Bennet serving up the reality. RK is dangerous. We may live in our own reality more and more these days, but I do still believe we know a climber when we see one.
None of these people has an actual "position" on anything anymore. Once they sell their souls to Trump, his attention and approval of them is all that matters to them. They have no position. Their position is HIM.
This is the level of complete lunacy and the utter lack of humanity that we have been facing since MAGA evolved.
BTW, this clown was 70 years old when he said this.
Texas Lt. Gov.: Elderly Should “Sacrifice” And Die For U.S. Economy Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Headline Mar 24, 2020
Here's my biggest worry... RFK is obviously a nut and should not be in this position. What twisted, sadistic asshole does Trump have lined up for this position next?
We should have nominated him in 2020. Like Biden he wouldn’t have scared people then and UNlike Biden he wouldn’t have scared off people in 2024. I live in the northeast and sent his campaign a fair amount. Maybe he’ll be the antidote to chaos next time.
He better not be. Really sick of Dem Senators giving any quarter at all to *any* of these numpties. Made sure to ring in this morning to both Bennett and Hick and let them know.
And sadly the GOP will confirm him bc their fear of Trumps influence on their positions is greater than the public’s safety. And this isn’t just the US people. We become a hot spot for a pandemic, it will spread. The lives of the rest of the world could very well be on this idiots shoulders also!
Somehow…He’s the one candidate in any of these hearings who carries himself as though he seems somewhat unsure of whether he already has the job or not. This is likely just his indignation at having to comb through his memory of what insane things he has or hasn’t said or written. Publicly.
That’s my Senator! Keep fighting @bennet.senate.gov Democrats need to be aggressive and loud, which I know is not in your nature but I know you will speak out, especially on matters of healthcare! Please show everyone how to fight this disaster of an administration!
A leader of health should rely on the facts,
Not talk nonsense and baseless attacks.
RFK’s theories are crazy and strained,
Perhaps it’s the dead worm lodged in his brain?
The guy has a hard time even speaking. Labored breathing. He looks like he could keel over at any moment. How can this guy be the pick to lead our human health agencies? He is obviously extremely unhealthy.
Remember when conservatives were passing around those comparison pics of RFKJr like shirtless and jacked and Dr. Levine and going "which one looks healthier"?
Turns out maybe it was more a case of steroids covers a lot of sins, I wager.
Addison Disease? JFK is known to have had it. “The darkening of the skin in Addison's disease is sometimes referred to as “bronzing ” and usually develops in the areas of the skin that are exposed to direct sunlight. For the patient, the particular coloring will appear unnatural.”
I truly do not understand why they all tan excessively and wear bronzer, work hard to have dark skin. When they hate anyone and want to rid the country of anyone who naturally has dark skin?!? 🤪
Look at him, he's darker than most of the people he racially targets.😵
I know! I’m Irish (American) and both my parents have had skin cancer -I hide from the sun now. I keep thinking what the heck are they doing getting tanned? Irish skin cannot handle the sun!
My (fair-skinned) mom was a skin cancer survivor.
Thirty+ years ago, I heard a doctor say, "The only thing you can buy in a drugstore that will help you look younger is sunscreen." I have taken that to heart since.
Resist Dems! Do whatever needs to be done to get this imposter away from our health. Do what it takes. Show us that you are good opposers. Every country needs a strong opposition. Oppose Oppose Oppose! ⛔️
It would if the Republican lawmakers weren't terrified of Trump and his unhinged cult. The years of stochastic terrorism had paid off. The GQP are a bunch of quivering, weak bootlickers and glorified rubberstamps in flesh form.
This whole RFK hearing will be like an episode of “Entourage” where a lawyer reads off all of Ari’s worst rants and all he can do is shrug and say, “yeah, I probably said that.”
Except of course, in this case, the sullen admissions will be made by a repurposed vintage baseball glove in a nice suit.
So if RFK Jr is approved, that will indirectly mean Republicans want more people to be transgender, right? Pesticides cause Transgender >Repub-aligned corp agribusiness says we can't get rid of pesticides as they are necessary for profitable crop production > let's create more transgender people!
So if being transgender is a "disability" caused by exposure to pesticides, wouldn't that mean being transgender is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so they can't be discriminated against in access to facilities, employment, etc?
Lyme disease has existed for literally thousands of years. It has been found in Egyptian mummies. It is recorded in Great Britain and Scotland in the 1700s. It predates medicine and it predates bioweapons.
As does being gay! Seems the good Christians should pipe in as they often use the verse about men not lying down with other men, and that certainly predates chemicals in water!
that's the thing about a lot of these idiot goons trump has appointed, they have a large paper, audio, and video trail of moronic things they've said and done so every lie they tell on the stand can be countered with their own words and actions.
Wild how many people will rag on women who use a vocal fry while ignoring how often men put one on.
It's absolutely mind boggling how little anyone talks about how awful this man sounds. Every words from him sounds like a painful struggle and provides the same stress as nails on chalkboard
The drugs he took for 14 years as an adolescent by his own admission caused permanent damage to the part of his brain that controls adult behaviors like empathy, judgment, impulse control. Our brains develop into our late 20s and young addicts never recover. Exhibit A
Also: see Brett Kavanaugh
Got to say this is fucking hilarious. Trump picked this moron so elements of his moronic base didn't vote for this moron instead of him. I reckon he'll be fucked off now he has served his purpose.
How dense does RFK Jr. have to be to imagine that if he gets asked in a Senate committee hearing "did you say x" that there wouldn't be a record of him saying exactly that?
As someone who works in the water industry I really want to know what chemicals they think do this. Because I check every plant I visit for gay frog chemicals and can’t find anything labeled as such.
A leader of health should rely on the facts,
Not talk nonsense and baseless attacks.
RFK’s theories are crazy and strained,
Perhaps it’s the dead worm lodged in his brain?
Atrazine -banned in the EU - is in our water supply. We don't know what it does to human sexual development, but we do know what it does to the sexual development of frogs. Can we get atrazine out of use without having to bring in an imbecilic team like Trump/RFKJr to do it?
As a Lyme patient, I know all about the conspiracy theory. It overlooks so much. And I don't give a flying FUCK how it got here--I wanna know what they're gonna do to GET US WELL.
As a kid in Florida in the summer we used to follow the trucks spraying nightly for mosquitoes. It was DDT they were spraying. I’m not transgender nor are any of my friends who ran behind the trucks. Many of us do have asthma though.
I grew up in the age when huge planes flew over our town spraying for mosquitoes. I'm not talking little crop dusting planes I'm talking HUGE planes.As children we ran outside to watch the planes very low to the ground,so low you could see every detail.The liquid floating down on us.It was a thrill!
What really gets me about all this is none of this is going to stop him from getting confirmed. I just want to know which Democrats don't have the balls to vote against him.
Probably some of the ones that have already voted the other ones in. Yesterday finding out what Cory Booker did broke my heart. I’ve always liked Cory, but not anymore.
Any scientific study regardless of how flawed it is or biased it may be is listed in the NIH if published. It isn’t difficult to get published as there are quite a few junk science magazines today. People with any medical/scientific knowledge know this but his dumbass doesn’t.
Dems: You’re a fraud. You’re a charlatan. You’re unqualified. You’re a danger to the American people.
Reps: Mr. Kennedy we know you’re everything that the Dems are bringing to light but we are such shameless fucking cowards that we can’t oppose you because we fear the Fat Orange Fuck.
I don't think Trump really cares about RFK Jr. Trump wanted him out of the race because he was drawing support from Trump. The price was an HHS nomination. If the nomination fails because Bobby Jr. is a nut, it's no skin off Trump's ass.
Just curious……You all hear his voice right? The fact that everyone acting like he isn’t a raging virus spreading corpse of poison and nobody talking about his fcking voice is mind blowing. The dude did so many drugs he destroyed his box box!
In this day and age, where everything someone high profile like this guy says and with videos of it easily found, it would appear to be bad form to lie under oath. He's done this repeatedly today.
Watch Cheryl’s eyes - 👀 - I don’t think she could possibly blink any more per minute. I remember reading about blinking being a sign of lying in body language talk.
All the 🍊🤡’s people are awful humans and he is having it his way, no matter the Q&A. Hegseth and Noem, https://et.al., made it thru! Why bother with this charade? What the democrats need to do is not show up to the circus. Mass protest!
Yup. The vocal cords are tight in his case (there are also people where they won’t close as much and they have a “breathy” voice) and he has to really force the air out through them to vocalize, usually triggering a sharp intake of air.
Comments
it has since evolved and become a LOT more deadly and dangerous. sure, go ahead and blame vaccines for that. it doesnt change the fact that measles IS very dangerous now.
so how many kids do you want to sacrifice?
You are making us Oregonians proud.
In the decade before the vaccine in 1963, nearly all children got measles. Estimated 3-4 million people in the U.S. were infected each year. Among reported cases per year, an estimated
400-500 people died
48,000 hospitalized
1,000 suffered encephalitis.
We also had to quarantine!
1 in 1,000 will die.
But WHY would you put your kids through this, or even risk it? When a safe vaccine in available?
My older kids got chickenpox, I think there was a vaccine for the younger two.
Poor things suffered so much. It was so uncomfortable and they had scars afterward too.
If the vaccine had been avaliable they would have had it.
Vaccines save lives.
#measles #Vaccine
https://tinyurl.com/w2yrthrx
In fact, unvaccinated children who die of measles ALL die from neurologic complications -- their parents are MORONS.
You slayed it!
The answer would not be acceptable in any university it should not be accepted in the Capitol
In this case, most of the epidemic data and academic studies about measles comes before 1963 because the vaccine that came out in 1963 shut down epidemics in the subsequent years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrTsDpBcPDs&t=810s
Measles smashes your immune system too making you prone to infection afterwards.
and I'm old enough that I had measles (and mumps, etc) and later on my childhood pediatrician was the co-developer of the measles vaccine
RFK Jr's personal brand is skeptic
Mullin + Paul are trying to promote that brand
RFK doesn't pay enough attn to detail to merit it
He's downplaying 400-500 deaths a YEAR!
No one needs to die of measles. Kennedy's lies have contributed to actual, countable deaths.
https://fs.blog/roald-dahl-letter-daughter/
Does this make 'the Don' look better?
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lgvcmhenz22p
Democrats need to be aggressive as possible on offense.
#Resist
People keep focusing on the brain worm, completely ignoring the mercury poisoning.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-parasitic-brain-worm-mercury-poisoning/
These offices are the most responsible in all the land. They deserve proper scrutiny not this gloss over bullshit
And that's an understatement.
Yeah, because they're dead, asshole.
FFS
In fact, unvaccinated children who die of measles ALL die from neurologic complications -- their parents are MORONS.
(like RFK Jr.)
RFK Jr might as well have dug those kids graves themselves.
It sure as hell doesn’t help his case that he wasn’t.
"I had smallpox in June and they got it in August, wasn't me!"
I have my auto play setting on, but still can’t get videos to play. Instead I get the triangle icon.
This is recent.
Suggestions please? Thanks.
Old rich white dude said it.
Means it makes total sense.
Duh.
‘I was there in June. They died in Aug, therefore, clearly, the time travel vortex was glitchy’
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/RFKletterSamoanPM.pdf
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2025/01/06/dr-vinay-prasad-gaslights-his-readers-about-rfkjr-and-samoa/
Tell me America, does RFK Jr. look like the picture of health to you??🤦♀️
https://trumpgolfcount.org
And he needs to STOP HIS FUCKING PODCASTS, TOO
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lgvdgfisrx2q
BTW, this clown was 70 years old when he said this.
Texas Lt. Gov.: Elderly Should “Sacrifice” And Die For U.S. Economy Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Headline Mar 24, 2020
They heard the promises from both parties over and over.
Then came Donald a bulldog, saying speech that was music to their ears.
To them, Facism can't be any worse than the lying Republican and democratic parties.
#Samoa #Measles
In fact, unvaccinated children who die of measles ALL die from neurologic complications -- their parents are MORONS.
(like RFK Jr.)
I’m sick of #RFKjr is an embarrassment and is fooling no one with his BS.
🚫Hacks Allowed in HHS.
RFK Jr "I prolly did, yeah."
2024 voter suppression documentary on how voter suppression helped Weird Thug 🍊 win.
https://www.watchvigilantesinc.com/
A leader of health should rely on the facts,
Not talk nonsense and baseless attacks.
RFK’s theories are crazy and strained,
Perhaps it’s the dead worm lodged in his brain?
Turns out maybe it was more a case of steroids covers a lot of sins, I wager.
Well, maybe.
Every one of them is leathery from sun exposure.
But they can't *all* have Addison's disease.
Look at him, he's darker than most of the people he racially targets.😵
Thirty+ years ago, I heard a doctor say, "The only thing you can buy in a drugstore that will help you look younger is sunscreen." I have taken that to heart since.
How is any of it, the best you can do?
RFK Jr: I probably did say that
BENNET: Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender
RFK Jr: No
BENNET: I have the record
Except of course, in this case, the sullen admissions will be made by a repurposed vintage baseball glove in a nice suit.
RFK Jr is insane.
Much of RFK's most harmful work has been sanewashing and elevating the conspiratorial rants of cranks into reasonable-sounding 'just-asking-questions'
It's absolutely mind boggling how little anyone talks about how awful this man sounds. Every words from him sounds like a painful struggle and provides the same stress as nails on chalkboard
Missed asking him WHO the "developer" is.
We're only going through this because it personally benefited Donald Trump and he doesn't GAF about America
Also: see Brett Kavanaugh
Looks like things really aren't going too well for the brain worm
'The developer of Lyme Disease' might be the most ridiculous string of words in this clip...press him on it. Who is the 'developer of Lyme Disease?'
Did someone take credit for creating Lyme Disease in a lab?
He sounds even worse...is "death warmed over" still a saying?
Yeah, that.
He’s such a fucking idiot.
A leader of health should rely on the facts,
Not talk nonsense and baseless attacks.
RFK’s theories are crazy and strained,
Perhaps it’s the dead worm lodged in his brain?
RFK Jr: alma mater - YouTube
https://bulletpicker.com/pdf/Seventh%20Annual%20Report%20of%20the%20Chemical%20Corps%20Bio%20Labs.pdf
It’s not going to change anyone’s minds. The people who didn’t like him before still won’t, and the people who support Trump will still like him.
US politics is more entertainment than action
Second, when did super-healthy fitness buff RFK, Jr. get Parkinson's Disease?
RFK Jr: I don't think my campaign exists anymore
WARNER: Listen, I gotta tell you this -- somebody is out there soliciting money for it
JFC.
Either he doesn't know or he's stealing money from morons.
Either way. We're royally fucked if this guy gets confirmed.
Reps: Mr. Kennedy we know you’re everything that the Dems are bringing to light but we are such shameless fucking cowards that we can’t oppose you because we fear the Fat Orange Fuck.
Shanahan’s dark money.
WARNER: Based upon your opinion?
RFK Jr: Based upon my opinion
WARNER: So I guess that means a lot of folks who have any type of views on vaccines will be out of work
#Trump #RFKJR
Bro, you *literally* wrote a book about it.
🐂 💩
The mortality rate among infected individuals is over 10%, if I recall correctly - I know it's over 30% in immunocompromised people.
I love it.