Bari is so pathetic. After trashing RFKj she brings this guy on where we have to swallow it all. Barri could give a shit about vaccines, her real aim is to silence and discredit RFKj because he stands against Neocons like Barri who has learned absolutely nothing from her unabashed support for the Iraq war. Will Barri take a stand against the cluster bombs Joe Biden just offered to be sent to Ukraine a weapon system so despicable that it was banned in over 100 countries. Let's hope so! Bari is part of the gang that will ensure RFKj stays bogged down on this one issue.
Help me out here: to a layman, your statement "the cumulative effect across the totality of the data is that..." bespeaks a standard of data/study crunching that yields a statistically significant conclusion. It does not mean that there are no data showing the efficacy of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine; rather that, taken in sum, those studies do not tip the efficacy scales. That very important difference is obfuscated. Some studies may show that they do work; if that is the case, why is that? Maybe those studies can be run again. Not an active conspiracy theorist myself, but weighing the "totality" of studies to show that a cheap, easy available drug does not work, while the high price tag one that has all these revolving door options does, does not engender trust.
If there is no proof that vaccines cause autism then why is RFK always giving supporting data? If you are serious then you will reference his CDC results and point by point show where he is wrong. And if ivermectin and hydroxichlorquin are of no use then you can say no harm no foul but you absolutely cannot say that it was legitimate to only offer intubation and remdesovir as the “gold standard” treatment for Covid 19. That protocol killed more people than Covid did.
"No doubt Dr. Gottlieb is a decent man, but the system we have in place has made this kind of obvious corruption normal." So, he's a corrupt, but decent man who is only out to line his immoral pocket? Yikes, he should be prosecuted!
"and I wrote, there is no evidence that Paxlovid improves the course of the illness in people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19." You have the power! Hammer the shit out of this. Let people know the truth!!!! You have a unique power, use it!
"At this point, the burden of proof for these two drugs falls on people like Kennedy who support their use in defiance of robust evidence. " You know there is no money in doing these studies. The gov't does not care and only big pharma does these studies and certainly not on drugs where they can't make money. You need to open your mind and read more from Dr Peter Korey (sp?).
My kids had a short vax schedule, now it's over 72. How can we trust the FDA when so much of their funding comes from big pharma - how insane is that? Why would a gov't agency need funding from the industry they regulate? Hmmm, nothing here ladies and gents, please move on...
You keep mentioning the interviews you've listened to, but didn't mention reading his books. Why? Podcasts are not in-depth, but books are. If you're going to write for the FP, then do the actual research. Sorry if this comes off harsh, but come on...
I appreciate that you didn't trash him, but you didn't do your research. If I were to speak for America (big one huh?), I'd say, we want honesty and he appears to deliver that. Agree or disagree with his positions and I am on both sides, I believe he is honest and that's really all i want. His views on Vaccines are just a plus for me.
First of all, a qualifier. I LOVE Vinay Prasad. And i also love Robert Kennedy and was active in forming the emerging Health Professionals to Elect Kennedy committee. Vinay, your arguments and critiques are fair and understandable. I believe you are not entirely accurate in depicting Kennedy as anti-vax across the board. He is FOR vaccine safety and randomized trials, which is very different from being anti-vax. He was anti-vax MANDATES (as were you), and he is willing to ask questions, but it's not fair to characterize him as anti-vax. And pointing out a possible connection between elements in the MMR vaccine, the microbiome, the gut and the brain which in SOME cases might lead to neurological disturbances-- which is what the greatly misunderstood and demonized Andy Wakefield said-- is NOT the same as saying "vaccines cause autism".
Nonetheless i am thrilled that you wrote such a generally fair and compelling piece on Kennedy without trashing him for views he doesn't really hold. And i hope you will continue to keep an open mind and listen to his positions, which, i believe you will find, are much more nuanced, layered and reasoned than one might have thought.
warmly
Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS co-author of "The Great Cholesterol Myth"
I just listened to Bari Weiss' interview with RFK Jr. Lots of good, hard hitting questions. In that interview, RFK J mentions two or three studies that link autism to vaccines. It would close the book for a lot of people if someone could directly address those studies, what their conclusions are, and why they are wrong or at the very least inconclusive. I can't think of anyone I trust more to do that than Vinay Prisad
RFKJr is 100% correct with regard to the liability shield granted to pharmaceuticals in the 80s. It not only absolves them of any repercussions of creating unsafe products (even if for only a small number of people), but it encourages them to create yet more vaccines without ever being required to publish long-term safety or efficacy data. We have no idea if the good outweighs the bad. I have zero doubt that mandating the chicken pox vaccine is a net negative for public health. The UK authorities understand this, which is why they recommend against giving it to healthy children.
On top of that, they own the FDA, all but ensuring that they'll get these vaccines on the childhood immunization schedule, followed by state mandates for all children, guaranteeing a perpetual revenue stream for the manufacturers. There is zero down-side for them. The liability shield must go.
Dr., You are being used as nothing more than a pawn in Bari Weiss neocon delusion to take down RFK jr. He has stated on many occasions that he is NOT leading on this issue. Bari, Brett Stephens, Lindsey Graham, the entire democrat club and the warmongers that have surrounded Joe Biden will resort to the most disturbing forms of propaganda to silence RFK. Bari has successfully managed along with the likes of Medi Hassan to get most of those on this chain to focus on this one component of RFK jr's campaign and away from so many crucial issues like his strategies to put an end to our endless wars that are taking so many lives.
You guys are reporting on this dude to the point where I might have been willing to consider voting for one of the two traitor-parties, but believing in ivermectin and Jenny McCarthy's world of vaccine science are absolute deal breakers. He sounds like a moron.
Since Peter Hotez is incapable of defending his medical opinions in public, I'd like to nominate Vinay Prasad to take his place to have a civil conversation with RFK Jr. on the topic of vaccines. We (and likely RFK Jr.) would learn a thing or two. Are disagreements (and the changing of opinions) not allowed any more? Thanks for the balanced article.
Totally weak. You miss RFK's main points on vaccines: there are no placebo controlled trials for the majority and no liability for the big pharma companies manufacturing them. Combine that with the big pharma and elite corporate capture you apparently agree with and you have untested drugs running rampant through childrens' veins. That's the scariest thing: no liability and we go from a handful of tested vaccines in the '60's and '70's to like 80 now, most apparently with no real testing (according to RFK) and most effectively mandated by doctors who don't really know anything about them to parents like me (who certainly don't). That's the issue here, and you don't address it at all. Also, Ivermectin schmivermectin. The issue there isn't whether or not it worked, it's that all cheap alternatives were taken off the table for mandated, untested vaccines foisted on us by pharma criminals and their shills in the institutions we pay for, and that it's now clear that all of us who weren't of a certain age or suffering from co-morbidities would have been better off taking vitamin D and a brisk walk, unmasked. The top ten pharma/ insurance CEO's took home over $5bn last year, and 500k families were bankrupted by healthcare for a fraction of that number. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Between you today, Dr. Prasad, missing the point on all this, and Bill Barr the other day with his neocon forever war nonsense about classified docs putting lives at risk, I'm losing faith that The Free Press remains free. The people putting lives at risk, and getting millions killed, are the shills for the healthcare business and the military industrial complex (you and Barr and all the rest, and all of us citizens who have listened uncritically for so long).
"While the totality of the randomized trials of these drugs show they don’t work, Kennedy wants to exclude some trials and focus on the more promising ones." -- Hmm, there are a number of medical professionals who beg to differ: Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr Christy Risinger, Dr. Tess Lawrie, Dr. Benigno Agbayani , the consortium at Front Line Covid Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), the authors of the famous Bangladesh study. Even the WHO finally admitted Ivermectin reduced covid deaths! And then there's the 200+ studies compiled here: https://c19ivm.org/
The links used as evidence are not actually credible sources. That ivermectin is paired with a picture of a horse is an egregious mischaracterization of the award winning human drug. And to point to articles in WaPo
and the NYT as credible sources when they have proven themselves partisan actors working to support a specific narrative--it’s below you as a physician and researcher who should know better. Bari and team--I generally value what you do--how did you let this go to press?
I think the issues RFK jr. raise should be explored. Do we really need all the vaccines our children are required to attend public school? Are there any long-term, negative effects? Are the levels of mercury and aluminum in our bodies rising? What are the effects and why? If childhood chronic disease has increased dramatically in the last few decades, as RFK jr. claims, then we should be looking for the answer.
Bari is so pathetic. After trashing RFKj she brings this guy on where we have to swallow it all. Barri could give a shit about vaccines, her real aim is to silence and discredit RFKj because he stands against Neocons like Barri who has learned absolutely nothing from her unabashed support for the Iraq war. Will Barri take a stand against the cluster bombs Joe Biden just offered to be sent to Ukraine a weapon system so despicable that it was banned in over 100 countries. Let's hope so! Bari is part of the gang that will ensure RFKj stays bogged down on this one issue.
Publishing a doctor’s opinions as a fact check of RFKJr should be an embarrassment to the FP. You’re better than this Bari. This is pathetic.
Help me out here: to a layman, your statement "the cumulative effect across the totality of the data is that..." bespeaks a standard of data/study crunching that yields a statistically significant conclusion. It does not mean that there are no data showing the efficacy of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine; rather that, taken in sum, those studies do not tip the efficacy scales. That very important difference is obfuscated. Some studies may show that they do work; if that is the case, why is that? Maybe those studies can be run again. Not an active conspiracy theorist myself, but weighing the "totality" of studies to show that a cheap, easy available drug does not work, while the high price tag one that has all these revolving door options does, does not engender trust.
If there is no proof that vaccines cause autism then why is RFK always giving supporting data? If you are serious then you will reference his CDC results and point by point show where he is wrong. And if ivermectin and hydroxichlorquin are of no use then you can say no harm no foul but you absolutely cannot say that it was legitimate to only offer intubation and remdesovir as the “gold standard” treatment for Covid 19. That protocol killed more people than Covid did.
"No doubt Dr. Gottlieb is a decent man, but the system we have in place has made this kind of obvious corruption normal." So, he's a corrupt, but decent man who is only out to line his immoral pocket? Yikes, he should be prosecuted!
"and I wrote, there is no evidence that Paxlovid improves the course of the illness in people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19." You have the power! Hammer the shit out of this. Let people know the truth!!!! You have a unique power, use it!
"At this point, the burden of proof for these two drugs falls on people like Kennedy who support their use in defiance of robust evidence. " You know there is no money in doing these studies. The gov't does not care and only big pharma does these studies and certainly not on drugs where they can't make money. You need to open your mind and read more from Dr Peter Korey (sp?).
My kids had a short vax schedule, now it's over 72. How can we trust the FDA when so much of their funding comes from big pharma - how insane is that? Why would a gov't agency need funding from the industry they regulate? Hmmm, nothing here ladies and gents, please move on...
You keep mentioning the interviews you've listened to, but didn't mention reading his books. Why? Podcasts are not in-depth, but books are. If you're going to write for the FP, then do the actual research. Sorry if this comes off harsh, but come on...
I appreciate that you didn't trash him, but you didn't do your research. If I were to speak for America (big one huh?), I'd say, we want honesty and he appears to deliver that. Agree or disagree with his positions and I am on both sides, I believe he is honest and that's really all i want. His views on Vaccines are just a plus for me.
First of all, a qualifier. I LOVE Vinay Prasad. And i also love Robert Kennedy and was active in forming the emerging Health Professionals to Elect Kennedy committee. Vinay, your arguments and critiques are fair and understandable. I believe you are not entirely accurate in depicting Kennedy as anti-vax across the board. He is FOR vaccine safety and randomized trials, which is very different from being anti-vax. He was anti-vax MANDATES (as were you), and he is willing to ask questions, but it's not fair to characterize him as anti-vax. And pointing out a possible connection between elements in the MMR vaccine, the microbiome, the gut and the brain which in SOME cases might lead to neurological disturbances-- which is what the greatly misunderstood and demonized Andy Wakefield said-- is NOT the same as saying "vaccines cause autism".
Nonetheless i am thrilled that you wrote such a generally fair and compelling piece on Kennedy without trashing him for views he doesn't really hold. And i hope you will continue to keep an open mind and listen to his positions, which, i believe you will find, are much more nuanced, layered and reasoned than one might have thought.
warmly
Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS co-author of "The Great Cholesterol Myth"
I just listened to Bari Weiss' interview with RFK Jr. Lots of good, hard hitting questions. In that interview, RFK J mentions two or three studies that link autism to vaccines. It would close the book for a lot of people if someone could directly address those studies, what their conclusions are, and why they are wrong or at the very least inconclusive. I can't think of anyone I trust more to do that than Vinay Prisad
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1917338
https://www.asccp.org/Default.aspx
please see above
RFKJr is 100% correct with regard to the liability shield granted to pharmaceuticals in the 80s. It not only absolves them of any repercussions of creating unsafe products (even if for only a small number of people), but it encourages them to create yet more vaccines without ever being required to publish long-term safety or efficacy data. We have no idea if the good outweighs the bad. I have zero doubt that mandating the chicken pox vaccine is a net negative for public health. The UK authorities understand this, which is why they recommend against giving it to healthy children.
On top of that, they own the FDA, all but ensuring that they'll get these vaccines on the childhood immunization schedule, followed by state mandates for all children, guaranteeing a perpetual revenue stream for the manufacturers. There is zero down-side for them. The liability shield must go.
Dr., You are being used as nothing more than a pawn in Bari Weiss neocon delusion to take down RFK jr. He has stated on many occasions that he is NOT leading on this issue. Bari, Brett Stephens, Lindsey Graham, the entire democrat club and the warmongers that have surrounded Joe Biden will resort to the most disturbing forms of propaganda to silence RFK. Bari has successfully managed along with the likes of Medi Hassan to get most of those on this chain to focus on this one component of RFK jr's campaign and away from so many crucial issues like his strategies to put an end to our endless wars that are taking so many lives.
You guys are reporting on this dude to the point where I might have been willing to consider voting for one of the two traitor-parties, but believing in ivermectin and Jenny McCarthy's world of vaccine science are absolute deal breakers. He sounds like a moron.
Since Peter Hotez is incapable of defending his medical opinions in public, I'd like to nominate Vinay Prasad to take his place to have a civil conversation with RFK Jr. on the topic of vaccines. We (and likely RFK Jr.) would learn a thing or two. Are disagreements (and the changing of opinions) not allowed any more? Thanks for the balanced article.
Totally weak. You miss RFK's main points on vaccines: there are no placebo controlled trials for the majority and no liability for the big pharma companies manufacturing them. Combine that with the big pharma and elite corporate capture you apparently agree with and you have untested drugs running rampant through childrens' veins. That's the scariest thing: no liability and we go from a handful of tested vaccines in the '60's and '70's to like 80 now, most apparently with no real testing (according to RFK) and most effectively mandated by doctors who don't really know anything about them to parents like me (who certainly don't). That's the issue here, and you don't address it at all. Also, Ivermectin schmivermectin. The issue there isn't whether or not it worked, it's that all cheap alternatives were taken off the table for mandated, untested vaccines foisted on us by pharma criminals and their shills in the institutions we pay for, and that it's now clear that all of us who weren't of a certain age or suffering from co-morbidities would have been better off taking vitamin D and a brisk walk, unmasked. The top ten pharma/ insurance CEO's took home over $5bn last year, and 500k families were bankrupted by healthcare for a fraction of that number. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Between you today, Dr. Prasad, missing the point on all this, and Bill Barr the other day with his neocon forever war nonsense about classified docs putting lives at risk, I'm losing faith that The Free Press remains free. The people putting lives at risk, and getting millions killed, are the shills for the healthcare business and the military industrial complex (you and Barr and all the rest, and all of us citizens who have listened uncritically for so long).
"While the totality of the randomized trials of these drugs show they don’t work, Kennedy wants to exclude some trials and focus on the more promising ones." -- Hmm, there are a number of medical professionals who beg to differ: Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr Christy Risinger, Dr. Tess Lawrie, Dr. Benigno Agbayani , the consortium at Front Line Covid Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), the authors of the famous Bangladesh study. Even the WHO finally admitted Ivermectin reduced covid deaths! And then there's the 200+ studies compiled here: https://c19ivm.org/
The links used as evidence are not actually credible sources. That ivermectin is paired with a picture of a horse is an egregious mischaracterization of the award winning human drug. And to point to articles in WaPo
and the NYT as credible sources when they have proven themselves partisan actors working to support a specific narrative--it’s below you as a physician and researcher who should know better. Bari and team--I generally value what you do--how did you let this go to press?
I think the issues RFK jr. raise should be explored. Do we really need all the vaccines our children are required to attend public school? Are there any long-term, negative effects? Are the levels of mercury and aluminum in our bodies rising? What are the effects and why? If childhood chronic disease has increased dramatically in the last few decades, as RFK jr. claims, then we should be looking for the answer.