Open Letter: RFK, Jr.
Dear Secretary Brainworm:
Whenever you go off the rails, I figure it’s those pesky parasites again. I really don’t know what all that wriggling feels like, but I can only imagine that it’s a red-hot mess. Parasites in the brain would be a deficit for anyone, but especially for someone with national responsibilities.
Take that ugly example of measles in Texas (and New Mexico and Georgia and New York and California) and—very soon—in a state near you. First you told us that it was a minor matter and part of a cyclical pattern of outbreaks.
When the first child died, it seemed to catch your attention, and you acknowledged that “cyclical” wasn’t exactly the right word. In fact, we haven’t had an outbreak since 2015, and herd immunity has been a huge success. Score one for the brainworms, who seem smarter than you are.
They also probably noticed that the outbreak was local. That means a county associated with immunization resistance where people listen to people like you who undermine confidence in established science. It’s hard to sympathize with willful ignorance, but there are actual children who suffer in consequence.
Yet you did what you people always do. You doubled down on your wormy sense that the dangers of vaccination are more serious than the disease and that the regimen of shots needed to be looked at again. As if that weren’t confusing enough, you offered support to frightened parents in Texas, who decided to vaccinate their children anyway. Score one for the worms and one for incoherence. When you send out two diametrically opposed messages, there’s a very good chance that neither will stick.
This week, of course, we were back to Ground Zero. What was the cause of our new outbreak of measles, one of the most contagious diseases known to epidemiology? Poor nutrition and dietary additives! When our Health Czar says it, it must be true.
What’s clear is that we have a ways to go. Many children will likely be sacrificed in the process while you duke it out with worms in your brain. If it weren’t so grotesque (and ignorant and lethal), it might be interesting to watch you treat the laboratories of our government as a personal plaything and idiosyncratic indulgence. The truth is that it’s a shameful horror.
Sincerely,
Marc B. Fitzerman