Though it’s received scant coverage from the legacy press, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down for a NewsNation town hall Wednesday evening.
During the town hall, he said a number of things: That gun control cannot “meaningfully” reduce gun violence, that he’s “proud” former President Donald Trump likes him, that he won’t support the Democrat nominee if it’s not him, etc.
During the hour-and-a-half-long town hall, the controversial Democrat also kind of debated a family physician named Dr. Tariq Butt. It wasn’t really a debate, in that RFK did most of the talking, but there was a bit of back-and-forth exchange.
Listen:
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
The exchange began with Butt slamming the Democrat over his “anti-vaccine stance.”
“Eradication of chickenpox and polio from the U.S. and many parts of the world is a direct result of regular vaccines. Measles, mumps, rubella, and many diseases are preventable, and there’s little to no evidence of these diseases in vaccinated populations,” he said.
“Your anti-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 come to the side of science?” he added.
Kennedy replied by explaining that he’s “never” been anti-vaccine.
“I’ve never been anti-vaccine. Using that pejorative to describe me is a way of silencing or marginalizing me. Virtually every American would agree with my stance on vaccines, which is that vaccines should be tested like other medicines,” he said.
“They should be safety tested. And unfortunately, vaccines are not safety tested. Of the 72 vaccine doses now mandated for American children, none of them — not one – has ever been subjected to a pre-licensing placebo-controlled trial,” he added.
This prompted loud “no’s” from the unnamed debate moderator, but RFK dismissed her complaints and continued.
“Dr. Fauci and many other people for many years said this: Bobby Kennedy, when he says that [about the safety testing], he’s wrong. So I met with Dr. Fauci in 2016 and I agreed to go on Trump’s vaccine safety commission. … And we said to him, can you show us one test for any vaccine? And he said I’ll send it to you; I can’t find one now,” he said.
“He never did. And so we sued HHS. And 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. So anybody who wants to read that can go to my website, and you can read HHS’s admission that not a single one has ever been safety tested,” Kennedy added.
While it’s not entirely clear if his claim is accurate, it’s known for a fact that the FDA approved the latest COVID boosters “without results from human trials.”
Some are saying there are no human trials for the newest COVID boosters being administered this fall. I beg to differ. If you take this booster, you are the human trial. https://t.co/laWbrtpM6Q
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) September 2, 2022
“What I’ve said is that 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. But you won’t be able to because there are none. That means that we don’t know what the long-term risks are of those products,” Kennedy continued.
He then turned back to Dr. Butt and addressed what he’d said about chickenpox.
“When the CDC was thinking of recommending the chickenpox vaccine for children, they did a study, and the scientist they hired to do that study was a scientist named Gary Goldman. And he did the study in an isolated place in California,” Kennedy said.
“And what they found is that if you give the chickenpox vaccine, it stops chickenpox, but it causes shingles epidemics later on, which are 20 times as deadly as chickenpox. Despite those studies, we mandated it for children in this country. In Europe, they don’t,” he added.
Finally granted the option to respond, Butt replied by pointing to clinical/randomized trials and arguing that, while vaccine safety is important, “we” should all be able to agree that “vaccines are important.”
“We do have evidence of that [testing]. Like there are clinical trials, randomized trials. And there’s a difference between association and causation, right. Someone can take a medication and get involved in a motor-vehicle accident; it doesn’t mean that that is associated. But it was not caused by medication,” he said.
“So many times, we should continue to figure out ways to [enhance] the safety of vaccines of course, and the medical community is always looking for that. But at the same time, we can come to agreement that vaccines are important. They do prevent those diseases. After all, smallpox was all around the world — it’s not there anymore, so there is evidence of that,” he added.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.