On Wednesday, NewsNation hosted Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a town hall where he answered questions about inflation, immigration, gun control, foreign policy, and vaccines.
Kennedy, often criticized for his vaccine stance, managed to flip the audience’s perception, presenting a nuanced and thoroughly researched argument.
Numerous scientific and medical organizations like the CDC, the FDA, the AMA, and the American Academy of Pediatrics disagree with RFK Jr.’s stance on childhood vaccines. However, his articulate presentation during the town hall served to provide a comprehensive understanding of his position.
Audience member and family physician Dr. Tariq Butt asked how he could help Kennedy “come to the side of science.”
“The eradication of chickenpox and polio from the US and many parts of the world is a direct result of regular vaccinations. Measles, mumps, rubella, and many other diseases are preventable, and there is little to no evidence of these diseases in the vaccinated population.Your vaccine stance is dangerous to the health and well being of millions. Medical experts are deeply concerned about your message. How can we help you to come to the side of science?” asked Dr. Butt.
In response to a question from audience member Dr. Tariq Butt, Kennedy emphatically reiterated that he is not anti-vaccines. Instead, he believes in testing vaccines like other medicines, maintaining that they should be safety tested.
“I think most people don’t know what my stance is on vaccines. I’ve never been anti-vaccine, and I’ve said that hundreds and hundreds of times. But it doesn’t matter because that is a way of silencing me, using that pejorative to describe me as a way of silencing or marginalizing me,” said Kennedy.
“Every American would agree with my stance on vaccines, which is that vaccines should be tested like other medicines. They should be safety tested. And unfortunately, the vaccines are not safety tested.”
Kennedy claimed that none of the 72 vaccine doses mandated for American children have undergone pre-licensing placebo-controlled trials. This statement sparked debate between Kennedy and the host, leading him to mention his 2016 meeting with Dr. Fauci and the subsequent lawsuit against HHS for not providing a single safety study for any vaccine on the childhood schedule pre-licensing.
“I met with Dr. Fauci in 2016. I agreed to go on Trump’s vaccine safety commission. We said to him, can you show us one test from any vaccine pre licensing safety test? And Fauci said -I’ll send it to you. I can’t find one now. – He never did. So we sued him and we sued HHS,” said Kennedy.
“After a year of litigation and stonewalling, they said that they could not provide a single safety study for any vaccine that is on the childhood schedule pre-licensing, safety study.”
“You can go to my to the Children’s Health Offense website and you can read HHS admission that not a single one has ever been safety tested pre licensing. Now, what I’ve said is other medicines are required to do that, and we should have to do that for vaccines. If I’m wrong, show me the test. Show me the study.”
“You won’t be able to because there are none. That means that we don’t know what the long term risks are, the risk profile of those products,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy further exemplified his stance with a recounting of the effect of mass vaccination with the chickenpox vaccine, asserting that it has been known to cause shingles epidemics later on. He underscored his belief in the importance of long-term studies to determine the potential impacts of vaccines.
“If you go to the British National Health Service website right now, you can read on that where they say, we do not recommend chickenpox vaccines because it causes shingles epidemics later on. And that’s the problem. You can’t just look at you can say that this product is going to prevent this particular disease, but you have to look at the long term impacts.”
In response to Kennedy’s assertions, Dr. Butt pointed out the difference between association and causation. He acknowledged the need for safety in vaccines but reaffirmed the medical community’s stance that vaccines are crucial in preventing diseases, citing the eradication of smallpox as a case in point.
Kennedy responded, “When I was a kid, there was only three vaccines and I was compliant. But when we passed the Vaccine Act, it made vaccines very, very valuable. And all of a sudden, there was a gold rush to add a lot of new vaccines to the schedule for diseases that aren’t even casually contagious.”
“Why are we giving Hepatitis B vaccine to a one day old child? Hepatitis B, the major vectors for that are sexually transmitted or by needles. Why would you give that to a one day old? It’s really a profit motive.”
Kennedy conceded that correlation is not causation, arguing that the CDC’s refusal to conduct studies on over 150 injuries likely associated with vaccines was an area of concern. He asserted that it was necessary to prioritize public health over pharmaceutical profits.
When asked about the consensus of various scientific organizations worldwide that vaccines are safe and save lives, Kennedy pointed out instances where the FDA had been found to be wrong, such as in the case of Vioxx, a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and oxycodone, a potent opioid.
“The FDA lied to us about Vioxx. They knew that the Vioxx was causing heart attacks, but they let doctors believe that it was a medicine that was good, beneficial for headaches and arthritis without telling it that they were going to kill… and they ended up killing between 120,000-500,000,” Kennedy claimed.
NewsNation host Elizabeth Vargas weighed in and said, “All these doctors and all these scientists around the world who say vaccines are safe and have saved millions and millions of lives.”
“The same people said Vioxx was safe,” Kennedy refuted.
“The same people said opioids such as oxycodone was not addictive because FDA said it. And they believe them. And that’s the problem. We have a corrupt federal agency that’s lying to the AMA, to all of those agencies and all of the doctors, and they believe them. But those agencies are controlled by pharma. That is the problem. And that’s what I’m trying to end as president,” Kennedy added.
RFK Jr. emphasized that his aim was not to abolish vaccines but to ensure proper scientific studies were conducted for their safety. Kennedy’s primary concern was to end the pharmaceutical influence over federal agencies, a key goal for his presidential campaign.
WATCH:
🔥 Robert F. Kennedy Jr Debates a Family Physician on Vaccine Safety During the NewsNation Town Hallpic.twitter.com/ffJIzffZUZ
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) June 29, 2023
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
