The BBC and RFK Jr

The BBC World Service is an unreliable den of woke box thinkers.

Driving to his dig site in the morning, Tom listens to the BBC World Service. It’s the usual mix of news, views, and old podcasts. Tom half slumbers when he hears stuff he has no interest in, but the other morning, he sat bolt upright as he heard in the folds of the Trump victory story a mention of Bobby Kennedy Jr. (RFK) as somebody who “espouses disinformation on vaccines.” 

We have previously written about the BBC's sad decline in politics and factionalism and its propensity to jump to conclusions without doing the necessary homework first. 

Tom wondered if this was more of the same. So he visited the Library of Character Assassinations (Wikipedia bios) and reviewed RFK’s write-up.

Before going any further, we need to make it clear that we are not partisans of this and that, and we have never met RFK. So we do not really give two Hancocks about the political claptrap or RFK’s personal life, of which there is quite a lot in his Wikipedia entry, perhaps true, perhaps not, perhaps selectively picked by unknown character assassins.

We have also written about Wikipedia, urging people to interpret the bios carefully.

So when he got home, Tom looked up the Wikipedia summary charge sheet against RFK Jr.

He is an “antivaccine activist” - no examples given.

He is a conspiracy theorist - again, no example given.

He apparently promoted the causal link between vaccines (note the plural) and autism - we have seen no objective evidence of such a link, but with a rise in cases of autism and vaccine coverage, is it not legitimate to ask questions?

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has emerged as a leading proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in the United States.^[13][1] Many of his often false public health claims have targeted prominent figures such as Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and Joe Biden.”

Well, please go back and read the exchanges between Morens, Folkers and Fauci here

https://open.substack.com/pub/trusttheevidence/p/connecting-more-dots?r=1lcx51&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

If the emails do not show the extent of the CDC’s false claims on influenza and by reflection on the Covid burden, what does? Oh, and the cover-up by NIH in defence of its sister agency, CDC.

A while ago, Tom read a statement by RFK. He told reporters that none of the childhood vaccines recommended by the CDC or in the US schedule have been tested against placebo, making the statements about heir harms profiles unreliable.

Well, that is not disinformation; it is fact. Here’s a quote on his stance on all vaccines:

And here is the basis for RFK’s claim, work done by a prochoice organisation, which has pride of place in Wikipedia list of assassinations.

Ican Reply December 31, 2018

1.69MB ∙ PDF file

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We have no idea what role (if any) RFK will have in the Trump administration, but apparently, pharmaceutical and health officials are very worried. Perhaps they have good cause to be, as he wants folk to be informed and have a choice in their health care decisions. They certainly do.   

 

This post was written by two old geezers who have been the object of fact-checking, censorship, and Wikipedia entries. Tom discloses that he shares RFK’s admiration for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.