Simply Wrong

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

Remember: Kennedy is not a doctor. Kennedy is not a scientist or an epidemiologist.

He is a former environmental lawyer and long-time anti-vaccine activist. Yet, somehow, he is our Health and Human Services director.

Recently, Kennedy claimed clairvoyance when he said, “I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, from their lack of social connection. And I know that that’s not how children are supposed to look.”

I am a doctor. I have been a physician for over 30 years. I have no idea what “mitochondrial challenges” are supposed to be. The phrase has no meaning. I do know that on the Right, there have been several influencers who have been throwing around the words “mitochondria” and “inflammation” for the past six to 12 months.

Mitochondria are small organelles that live within each cell. They generate energy through the dreaded (we all had to memorize this in both high school, college, and medical school) Krebs cycle. Mitochondria have nothing to do with inflammation. Also, how do you look at a person or a child and tell how their mitochondria are functioning? This can’t be done. This is just nonsense. Gobbledygook.

Public Health

Making America healthy is a laudable goal. We must understand where we have been to figure out where we are going. What exactly is public health? Public health encompasses the prevention of disease, prolongation of life, and promotion of health. So what have we done to improve the health of Americans over the last century or so?

In the 1850s, the average life expectancy was just a little over 40 years.

We’ve been doing something right in the United States for life expectancy to increase the average from just over 40 years to now just under 80 years. So what did we do?

There’s an old saying, still in use, that someone is “blind drunk.” Where, exactly, did that originate? Well, it comes from drinking whiskey that was not distilled properly. It came primarily from methanol in cheap whiskey—moonshine or home brew. Methanol damages the optic nerve, so by drinking that stuff, you could actually go blind.

In “olden days,” drinking beer was safer than drinking water. Why? Primarily because the brewing process involves boiling the water, which kills most harmful bacteria and pathogens. And alcohol’s inherent antiseptic properties can inhibit the growth of bacteria and other microorganisms. In fact, before the US Public Health Service set our first national drinking water standards in 1914, we had few ways to purify water—especially if it came from community wells and streams.

Over the decades, the United States enacted several laws to improve its food supply. We enacted safety standards. We want clean water and food that is not contaminated with Salmonella or E. coli. We initiated vaccination campaigns, which eradicated deadly diseases such as polio and smallpox. Sanitation is also critically important. We are not living in filth.

In 1900, childbirth carried a significant mortality rate for both the mother and child. Advances in medicine and prenatal care have improved the mortality rate from 850 deaths per 100,000 live births to today, where we see 18 deaths per 100,000 live births. That’s a 98% reduction!

Antibiotics allow us to treat skin infections, pneumonia, and even tuberculosis. Since the 1960s, Americans have decreased their tobacco usage. This has enabled us to live longer and healthier lives. We’ve also made significant advances in the treatment of heart attacks and strokes. Finally, we’ve made the workplace a lot safer.

I know that Robert Kennedy, Jr., keeps talking about chronic diseases. The way to prevent chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, heart attack) has little or nothing to do with selling you a supplement, but has everything to do with individuals changing their lifestyles.

As a nation, we need to exercise more. We need to eat fewer calories per day. We need more protein and fewer carbohydrates and fats. We need to focus on eating healthy, which has nothing to do with changing the dyes that are in our food. Instead, it’s about us eating more vegetables and fruits. It would also be beneficial if we ate vegetables and fruits that were locally grown and therefore not stored for days or weeks, and not frozen.

There is no giant mystery as to why Americans have chronic diseases. Heck, driving home from the hospital, I probably pass eight to 10 fast food restaurants. I can get a burger and fries at the snap of the finger, yet getting a healthy salad, which is better for my health, takes some effort.

Smallpox

It is important for us to remember how deadly smallpox was/is. It is estimated that smallpox killed between 300 and 500 million people worldwide in the 20th century. Let that sink in just for a second: 300 to 500 million people.

Smallpox is a virus, transmitted through the air or through direct contact. Smallpox begins as a flu-like illness. An infected person can have high fever, severe headaches, and back aches. They can have nausea and vomiting. They can develop abdominal pain. Approximately two to four days after symptoms appear, a rash develops. The rash usually starts on the face and progresses throughout the body.

There is no treatment for smallpox. Smallpox has a mortality rate of approximately 30%. This means that nearly one in three people who developed smallpox would die. There were different variants of smallpox, like hemorrhagic smallpox, which carried a one-hundred-percent mortality rate.

In the United States and around the world, mandatory vaccination programs were implemented. Our last major outbreak in the US was in 1949. By 1972, the Centers for Disease Control told Americans that compulsory vaccination was no longer necessary. By 1977, the last case of smallpox was seen in Somalia. Smallpox has been eliminated. Today, it lives on only in a couple of labs around the world. This was a huge public health victory. Oh, by the way, we also eliminated polio—by using the polio vaccines. So when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, begins to talk about the dangers of vaccines, understand that his argument is laughable.

Covid-19

It was late December 2020 when an article appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine titled “Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine.” This was a huge, well-designed study. It included almost 44,000 participants. (Most studies in the medical literature have a few hundred patients; a few may have a couple of thousand.)

Half the participants got a placebo (probably saline or something similar), and the other half received the actual vaccine. The vaccine was shown to decrease the incidence of severe Covid-19. Only one patient in the vaccine group developed severe Covid-19, while nine patients in the placebo group developed severe Covid-19 during the observation period. The vaccine was found to be 94.6% effective at preventing a Covid-19 infection.

Adverse side effects? Let’s focus on these. There were two deaths in the vaccine group. One patient died of atherosclerosis and another of a cardiac arrest. Neither of these deaths was thought to be secondary to the vaccine. One patient developed enlarged lymph nodes in their armpit (axilla), one patient developed a cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart rhythm), one patient developed a shoulder injury secondary to administration of the vaccine, and finally one patient developed numbness of his/her leg.

Interestingly, in the placebo group, there were four deaths. The majority of side effects were thought to be mild; these included injection site pain, fatigue, and headache.

This is the data. We can argue whether the data is valid or not, but this is the data. What this and subsequent studies have shown is that the vaccine is really very, very safe and effective.

Wrong Again

RFK, Jr. said that he really wants vaccines that function like the “natural immune system.” What is that old saying from Mark Twain? “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” Kennedy has removed all doubt from my mind. He is a lying idiot. His statement underscores his complete lack of understanding of how vaccines work.

The job of a vaccine is to introduce your body to a harmless portion of a virus. Your body reacts to that harmless portion as if it were the real, full-blown pathogen. Your—wait for it—“natural immune system” takes that harmless portion of the virus and presents it to specialized cells, which then activate T-cells and B-cells (these are types of white blood cells). These cells “kill” the harmless virus, and then produce memory cells. This way, when you are infected with the harmful virus, your body is ready to fight it off. Your immune system is preprogrammed, if you will, to fight off the offending virus.

Vaccines already “function like the natural immune system!” But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., doesn’t even have the sense to recognize that fundamental reality.

The Militarization of Our Country

Trump is assaulting us with our own military. Whether it is military parades on his birthday or the National Guard in our streets, the military is now everywhere. We don’t need the National Guard in Chicago, New Orleans, or Los Angeles. DC needs funding, not tanks.

Sending the military to fix crime demonstrates a complete lack of understanding regarding the causes of crime. We know from studies that the Right will not read—and certainly won’t believe—the fact that more police does not equal less crime. We have attempted to hire more police officers numerous times, only to see crime statistics remain the same or worsen.

We also know that a good economy does equal less crime. Give young people an education and good job opportunities, and crime goes down. Oh, by the way, crime is dropping around the country, in large part as a result of Biden’s good economy.

The Economy

Have you seen the latest job numbers? Trump has killed Biden’s economy. Over 97,000 federal workers have lost their jobs through DOGE. The August jobs report revealed that the economy added only 22,000 jobs. This is far below the estimates. What did we expect with Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs?

Israel

Israel is committing genocide and war crimes. I wish that they weren’t, but they are. It is sad and heartbreaking to see. The fact that the Trump administration is simply sitting back and allowing Israel to kill journalists, men, women, and children without comment is telling. My God, the starvation! Simultaneously, Trump is actively campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize. If you are allowing genocide on your watch, no Nobel for you.

Long Road Ahead

We have a lot of work to do to fix our country. We must stay strong. We have to pace ourselves. We must be focused on the 2026 election. We must fortify ourselves with prayer and community. We know they will try to steal the 2026 election. We don’t need to cry wolf. We need to wait, as they will be obvious.

But in this waiting period, we need to organize. We need to educate ourselves and our neighbors. We need to save and restore our democracy.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.