By John Q. Hosedrinker 
During his Senate Finance Committee testimony last Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made numerous misleading and false statements. He reiterated discredited claims about vaccine dangers and denied previous statements linking school shootings to antidepressants while simultaneously announcing a departmental investigation into the association. Kennedy also claimed that anyone could still receive COVID-19 shots, contradicting reports of restricted access. Finally, he stated that he fired the former head of the CDC due to the former head admitting she was untrustworthy, which resulted in laughter and bewilderment from the committee.
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RFK Jr.’s dangerous rewriting of the COVID pandemic centers on a core falsehood: that the vaccines, not the virus, were the true threat. This narrative flies directly in the face of overwhelming evidence and serves to distort the devastating reality of the pandemic. It’s a dangerous game to play with facts, especially when millions of lives were affected.
One of the biggest issues is that the U.S. saw higher COVID mortality rates compared to other developed nations, and the primary driver behind this was undeniably lower vaccination rates. The initial rollout of the vaccines was remarkably swift, even exceeding projections. The swiftness was thanks in part to efforts from both the Trump and Biden administrations. The CDC also played a crucial role in guiding state and local health departments, designing outreach plans to reach vulnerable communities. However, despite these efforts, vaccination rates lagged behind other countries, leading to preventable deaths.
The reluctance to get vaccinated was a significant factor. While some criticisms of the CDC and other officials are valid, the real damage was done by influential figures who spread misinformation and turned vaccine resistance into a political stance. Figures like Kennedy, who infamously labeled the COVID vaccine the “deadliest” ever made, fueled this dangerous trend. The states that had the best outcomes—the fewest deaths relative to their population—were those with the highest vaccination rates, similar to the best-performing countries globally.
This rewriting of history is not only a misrepresentation of the causes of death during the pandemic; it also provides insight into the kind of harmful agenda Kennedy is currently pushing. The sheer magnitude of the death toll, visualized in makeshift morgues and overworked healthcare facilities, should be a stark reminder of the true cost of this virus. This is why the lies are so infuriating.
The narrative presented is that the vaccines were the primary cause of problems and the source of more deaths than the virus itself. This argument is based on blatant misinformation. It’s important to acknowledge the critical role the vaccines played in preventing deaths and mitigating the pandemic’s impact. It is also important to look at the lack of critical thinking that goes into believing these ideas, and ask, why facts don’t matter.
This revisionist history conveniently overlooks the Republican administration’s actions, like the alleged attempts to downplay the pandemic. There was even an effort to delay national testing in the hopes that the death rate would be concentrated in Democrat states. This is an example of politicizing a public health crisis. By spreading falsehoods about the vaccine, they create a narrative that those responses were the problem.
The success of the vaccine is not just a US phenomenon, but is a worldwide trend. Adverse effects were minor compared to the number of deaths, severe cases and long-covid cases. Research shows that the majority of covid deaths could have been prevented by the vaccine. But the anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-science narrative, used the excess deaths those actions caused as “evidence” for their anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-science narrative. This is the most “science skeptic” move.
The pandemic responses should have saved lives, and if done better at the start, wouldn’t have been so extreme. The downplaying of the virus by the Trump administration and their associated parties resulted in many unnecessary deaths. It is this type of revisionism that contributes to a deep distrust of science and public health measures.
The anti-vaccine movement is a deeply rooted, dangerous ideology. It’s fueled by a mix of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and a distrust of authority. The idea that vaccines change DNA and that they don’t work is just one of many false claims. The irony is, if Trump were correct in his claims of “my” vaccine, he’d be shouting it from the rooftops. The continued propagation of these falsehoods, and the willful ignorance of the consequences, is a real danger.