The third horseman of the apocalypse is Republican

The third horseman being plague.

“The Trump administration’s pause on foreign aid has hobbled programs that prevent and snuff out outbreaks around the world, scientists say, leaving people everywhere more vulnerable to threatening viruses and bacteria. That includes Americans. Outbreaks that begin overseas can travel quickly.”

“RFK is an utter charlatan and fraud, and the whole key to his schtick is that Americans “used to be” healthy but now they’re not — hence the current “epidemic of chronic disease” — because of Big Pharma and Big Food and not enough fresh air and exercise”

“RFK Jr., a man who has never had any real-world responsibility for anything, is now in charge of the health of 73 million American children. He promised that he would make them healthy, and it’s not good optics when they get sick and die of measles, as is happening in Texas. Now that it’s his job to stop children from dying, RFK Jr. can’t blame vaccines or claim the outbreak is fabricated, as he did with in far-away Samoa.” Except he is blaming vaccines as much as he can, and suggesting cod-liver oil as a cure for measles.

“A little child is dead. From measles. In the United States. In 2025. They were unvaccinated and otherwise healthy, making it the first casualty of the West Texas measles outbreak—and the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade. One death from a preventable disease is one too many.” In another post, the same blogger notes “We’ve seen two deaths so far, yet only 228 cases have been reported. Measles typically kills 1 in 1,000 unvaccinated individuals. They were either extremely unlucky, or there are more cases than reported.”

“While it is true that mortality from measles had plummeted in the decades before the vaccine due to better medical care and nutrition, every year there were still 400-500 people dying of measles, a number that antivaxxers appear to consider unimportant and want to see again” — a look at myths propagated by anti-vaxxers, updated to add that fussing about measles vaccines is just a way to attack RFK.

And revisiting a settled question — no, vaccines do not cause autism — will only give the anti-vaxxers more ammo, especially if Kennedy rigs the game to get the desired results.

Oh, and remember how the price of eggs was supposedly a sign of the terrible incompetence of President Biden’s four years? I don’t think RFK’s suggestion chicken farmers should just let birds with bird flu die is going to help.

“They were ready to enroll,” said Alanna Caffas, the chief executive of the Veterans Health Foundation, which administers the trials. “They had the lab kits on site. They had the drug to dispense. But they couldn’t get the clinical research coordinator renewed.” — from an article on how DOGE is taking a wrecking ball to veterans’ healthcare.

“The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at USDA in the foreseeable future.” Neither, it seems, is HIV prevention. And despite all the talk of chronic disease, the administration has cut grants dealing with diabetes.

mRNA vaccines might be effective against cancer. But as they were part of the furor against covid vaccines (mRNA will rewrite your genes!) so now they’re research non grata.

The Felon also wants to eliminate federal funding for schools with vax mandates.

“HHS could now change Medicaid requirements with no notice or change federal research grants without input from the research community—something the Trump administration has already tried to do before it was put on hold by a federal judge.”

“Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration are attempting to repeal the Biden administration’s groundbreaking rules that require all the country’s lead pipes to be replaced over the next 13 years and lower the limit on lead in water.

Environmentalists expressed alarm about the moves, which, if successful, would in effect prohibit the government from ever requiring lead line replacement in the future, or lowering lead limits.”

Vaccinating against HPV has led to massive drops in cervical precancer rates. Many religious conservatives have opposed getting vaccinated on the grounds some girls might feel it’s safe to have sex.