Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville condemned Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine strategy, cautioning that the Health and Human Services Secretary’s policies could have dire outcomes for the nation, including a body count.
In an appearance on The Will Cain Show on Fox News, Carville warned: “Bobby Kennedy is going to kill more people than any Cabinet secretary, maybe in history, with his idiotic vaccine policy.”
He added that vaccines are “the greatest public health intervention in the history of the world,” blasting Kennedy for what he described as fostering distrust in vaccines.
“He has expressed vaccine skepticism at every point,” Carville continued. “Every notable public health person thinks that vaccines are the greatest public health innovation in the history of the world.”
“What he’s doing is going to kill people,” he said, underlining his point.
There has been widespread criticism of Kennedy’s decision to purge all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, citing “historical corruption.”
He then replaced them with a hand-picked panel of eight, whom he said were “committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,” and who wouldn’t be “ideological anti-vaxxers.”
In announcing the new panel, Kennedy noted that each of them has committed to “demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations” and that the committee would review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule.
However, the moves have been concerning to experts, who noted that several members have been critical of vaccines.
The fired panel members have said that their ousting signaled that scientific expertise was “no longer of use” under Kennedy and that that decision would “undermine public trust in the vaccine process,” at a time when vaccine hesitancy has led to the spread of measles and other diseases.
The new members are set to meet on June 25 to review safety and efficacy data for the current immunization schedule.
