let’s hit pause here. rfk jr. wasn’t picked until november 14, 2024. most folks in politics thought it wouldn’t happen, while public health was ringing alarm bells many former cdc directors spoke out against him before before everyone else realized he was a serious threat
Lol...did anyone say he was absolutely the very best/most qualified? He was politically expedient & the means to an ends. Many realized what he would be from the moment his name was mentioned as a possibility. Dr. Cassidy (Sen. Finance Comm vote) should have known better - "Physician DO NO HARM."
We’ve been shouting about this guy being a public health menace from all corners of the Global for well over a decade now. People kept down playing the threat. And here we are. 😔🤦♀️🤬
I clearly remember public health experts raising the alarm when they saw RFKJ palling around with Trump, months before the election. Probably because they suspected that even if he only had a say in who'd be heading HHS, that would be scary enough.
We were worried before 🍊 ever won
pretty much every former cdc director spoke out stronger than most media commentators, with the exception of the guy who’s name is also missing on this piece.
most media commentators went immediately into compromise mode, because they like him
A lot of people just weren’t paying attention because they didn’t think it would effect them….
i do, however, remember political party leadership doing essentially nothing to counter rfk jr.’s media blitz over the winter holidays when they needed to be countering that messaging. no one really cared about that outside public health
with all this being said, i’m much more interested in who is willing to fight with us today than the blame game. right now, we all have urgent work to do
Almost every single public health account/prof/figure I follow has been publicly appalled by his nomination; the problem here is no one really cares about public health or how it works until the wheels fall off. Which in the US, is right now.
Yes, I think this gets at the issue. Also, there’s been a widespread delegitimization of expertise & the work of thought. Hucksterism has become normalized in a way that feels new & has been hard to counter effectively.
This was October 27, 2024. www.nbcnews.com/video/-trump...
This was October 31. abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk...
Dr. Bill Cassidy's vote in Senate Finance Comm - w/the VP's "honest counsel" - is what sealed the deal. Wonder if he thinks differently now... "Cassidy said he will meet or speak with Kennedy multiple times a month, and will consult on hiring decisions at HHS." Lol. abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk...