All Choked Up: New CDC Director and Mandatory Screening Proponent Robert Redfield Gives Tearful Oath of Fealty to “Data-Driven Science” and Vaccines
By Adriana Gamondes
Is it no longer enough to make loud public pledges of loyalty to the industry medical model these days? Do we now have to give weeping declarations?
From The Washington Post:
Robert Redfield Jr., the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a deeply personal agencywide address Thursday in which he repeatedly underscored the importance of science and data and said the CDC's most critical public health mission is to protect Americans “from that which we don't expect.”
The 66-year-old Redfield, a longtime AIDS researcher appointed to the job a week ago, was overcome by emotion twice during his brief remarks and a question-and-answer session. The University of Maryland medical professor had sought the top job at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health for more than a decade.
About 30 seconds into his address, he choked up and then regained his composure. He spoke of the honor of leading the best “science-based, data-driven agency in the world. I've dreamed of doing this for a long time.”
Redfield went on to discuss the subject of vaccination:
He also spoke of the importance of vaccines and recounted how as an Army doctor in the early 1980s, he helped persuade military leadership to vaccinate “every individual in the armed forces” against hepatitis B after a young soldier for whom Redfield had cared infected his wife and newborn child. “That's probably the most important thing I did in my life,” he said.
Robert Redfield may have been surprised by his appointment as the head of the CDC given his history: Redfield was investigated by the Pentagon in 1994 for overstating the effectiveness of the gp-160 AIDS vaccine—a vaccine which was tested in unethical human trials using child wards of the state in New York in 2004.
Was he crying from relief? The scandal originally broke while Redfield was leading an HIV vaccine study for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Redfield also drew public criticism for instituting mandated HIV screenings for military personnel and for segregating HIV-infected soldiers. But considering the CDC’s questionable ethical culture, rather than being a liability, Redfield’s near brush with charges of scientific fraud and willingness to employ draconian measures might have given him an edge.
Robert Redfield may be a man after the CDC’s own heart. It’s all a question of where the data is being “driven.” Redfield’s inconvenient data was “sloppily” misplaced and “inadvertently” misconstrued according to his defenders. CDC whistleblower William Thompson attests that the CDC’s data on a 340% increase in autism among black male infants receiving the MMR vaccine prior to 36 months found its way into a “large trash can.”
Redfield’s appointment at this critical juncture is particularly disconcerting considering what’s at stake in US vaccine policy—such as the 146 peer reviewed studies demonstrating a link between vaccines and autism and the current autism rate of 1:36; the status of the CDC whistleblower case, the politicized vaccine mandate campaign and loss of genuine informed consent at a time when there are several hundred vaccines in the approval pipeline.
In light of the stakes, it would be incautious to equate Redfield’s tears with a tender heart and humanitarian values. Nevertheless, he may be completely sincere in his passionate purpose, which could be the real problem. Worse than crocodile tears may be true believerism and grateful slavishness to power.
The danger that comes to mind has a name—something called “instrumentalism.” Instrumentalism has layered definitions and is tricky to evoke since it’s one of several earmarks of totalitarianism—a term which itself seems overused these days, though this is probably because it’s over-manifested. In any event, it’s only more disturbing that the campaign against medical rights is occurring within a wider context of general assaults on civil rights even according to mainstream sources like The Washington Post which has applauded incursions on medical freedom for years.
In 2012, WaPost’s Jonathan Turley highlights ten reasons why the United States is no longer the "land of the free,” citing the following expanded powers that have eroded rights and liberties post-9/11:
- Assassination of U.S. citizens
- Indefinite detention
- Arbitrary justice
- Warrantless searches
- Secret evidence
- War crimes
- Secret courts
- Immunity from judicial review
- Continual monitoring of citizens
- Extraordinary rendition
And all of the above could be explained very well by instrumentalism. One meaning of instrumentalism is that those who have unutilized technology at their disposal will have a tendency to find any way possible to use it—i.e., the Pentagon’s continuous bombing of Laos—a country that had nothing to do with the Vietnam war and had no military targets— from 1964 to roughly 1971 simply because unused bombs and planes were available. Or the current proliferation of SWAT assaults using armored tanks and military grade equipment because of a federal program that transfers military surplus to law-enforcement agencies across the country. Or the proliferation of warrantless searches due to the existence of surveillance technology.
Instrumentalism applied to public health has led to foisting drugs and biologics on the public simply because these products have been patented, not necessarily because they’re beneficial and harmless, and then potentially enforcing them via various other forms of instrumentality listed above.
Of course there’s also the profit motive which might be sufficient to explain avid contributions to injustice by those who have the most to gain, though only a psychological component could explain the avidity of those with less to gain or how most participants manage to live with themselves, retain the appearance of having human feelings, hug their dogs, relate to their families, etc. For that application, instrumentalism has another meaning as well regarding moral relativity—in other words, how those charged with carrying out unjust policies manage to justify their complicity.
In Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in Concentration Camps, the late French political historian Tzvetan Todorov wrote:
... the totalitarian power demands that its subjects restrict themselves in thought and deed to instrumentality and treat every action as if it were a means to something else rather than as an end in itself. In the realm of material production, the fulfillment of that demand does not yield particularly brilliant results, as expanding bureaucracies and the loss of personal initiative present formidable obstacles. In the domain of moral conduct, however, the demand is far more productive. The question is often asked how "ordinary people," "decent husbands and fathers" could have committed so many atrocities. Where was their conscience in all of this? The answer is by usurping social goals and restricting people to instrumentalist thinking, the totalitarian power manages to have its subjects accomplish whatever tasks they are assigned without its having to disturb the individual's moral structure at all. Guards who committed atrocities never stopped distinguishing between good and evil. Their moral faculty had not withered away. They simply believed the atrocity was in fact a "good thing," and thus not an atrocity at all—because the state, custodians of the standards of good and evil— told them so. The guards were not deprived of a moral sensibility but provided with a new one.
The idea is that some may still sleep well at night—and even wax tearfully sentimental—while simultaneously being sufficiently aware of doing harm to hide the evidence of it and yet not be clinically psychopathic. Also from the Washington Post article on Redfield’s appointment:
Too many people don't understand the importance of vaccination, he continued, mentioning the 130 children who have died this flu season. “We have got to get the American public to understand that vaccination is important and needs to be fully utilized.”
And:
Several [CDC] staff members noted [Redfield’s] strong embrace of science and said they were especially gratified to hear him say that if the CDC has evidence to support a public health intervention, the intervention should be applied.
When there’s a will (and the patented products, and the means of fabricating evidence, and the means of enforcing an intervention, and an elaborate system of rationalization) there’s a way.
Let’s hope Redfield choked up from sheer nerves, not fanaticism, otherwise the chokehold is on us.
Adriana Gamondes is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism and one of the blog’s social media administrators.
Grace as its said the old ones are the best..
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 28, 2018 at 08:11 AM
Thanks, Angus, you've given the Green household a good laugh! (I actually managed to repeat your joke without forgetting the punchline.)
Posted by: Grace Green | May 28, 2018 at 04:23 AM
Exactly John and I think this just sums up the CDC CEO position..
A man enters a pet shop and notices that there are three monkeys on display, each with different colored fur. He goes to the pet shop’s owner and asks how much they cost.
“Well,” the owner responds, “That brown one on the left costs $1,000.”
“$1,000!” the man exclaims.
“Yeah,” says the owner. “He knows how to use a computer.”
“I see,” the man says. “What about that grey one in the middle.”
“$2,000,” the owner tells him. “Not only can that one use a computer, he can code in HTML.”
“My goodness,” the man says. “What about that white one on the right?”
“Well, that one’s $10,000,” the owner says.
“$10,000!” cries the man. “What does that monkey do that could justify that price?”
“Well, he doesn’t really seem to do anything,” the owner says. “But those other two keep calling him ‘boss’…”
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 27, 2018 at 05:15 PM
I would honestly be surprised if running the CDC was only a 100k dollar job. Also, I would not in principle be opposed to top government offices being very well paid if it stopped their holders forming or having unholy alliances with industry. Of course, what one ought to pay for is competence and integrity. For what we are getting a dime is too much.
Posted by: John Stone | May 27, 2018 at 08:21 AM
Redfeld not doing it for the money, nope! obviously just the job satisfaction of killing and maiming millions..just as I thought.
https://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2018/05/09/cdc-boss-gets-165300-pay-cut-from-record-setting-salary/
CDC boss gets $165,300 pay cut from record-setting salary
By: The Associated Press May 9, 2018 0
The new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gotten a big salary reduction.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that Dr. Robert Redfield Jr.’s new salary will be $209,700, down from $375,000.
The previous figure was at least $150,000 more than any previous CDC director had received.
Last month, after The Associated Press reported that Redfield was making almost twice his predecessor, a U.S. senator opposed to his appointment wrote a letter to Azar asking why he was earning so much. HHS officials then said Redfield had asked for a pay reduction because the topic had become a distraction.
Redfield was a top HIV researcher who previously had no experience working in public health or managing a public health agency.
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 27, 2018 at 05:13 AM
Can psychology predict what happens to a man that in the past has done some bad things, got caught, punished, been through the fire, then given what appears to be a second chance. He is put in charge of some big, rich, prestigious organization that is doing the same thing he has been through the fire for doing?
Can that soft science predict?
Posted by: Benedetta | April 06, 2018 at 05:38 PM
Here’s a less-restrained headline illustrating other groups’ concerns about Redfield:
“Meet Trump’s New, Homophobic Public Health Quack”
“The Centers for Disease Control will soon be run by a military doctor with a long history of pushing discriminatory AIDS policies… Redfield… is someone whose track record in HIV research and public health policy has been a scientific and moral failure.”
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/23/meet-trumps-new-homophobic-public-health-quack/
Posted by: nhokkanen | April 04, 2018 at 01:38 PM
I see that close associate Robert Gallo is being called a "co-discoverer" of the AIDS virus. I guess that means that the guy who stole my car a few years ago was merely discovering it in my driveway. I feel better now.
See Science Fictions by John Crewdson.
Redfield was publishing with Gallo back then, I believe. What did he know and when did he know it?
Posted by: Carol | April 04, 2018 at 10:18 AM
Redfield sounds desperate and older to be top dog. I'm sure he will never question the holy vaccination schedule and support it with all the usual garbage studies and sleight of hand.
Posted by: False scientists harm children | April 04, 2018 at 12:01 AM
Very true. The process is rigged from the get-go. It does not encourage the collection of complete information and then access to the data is restricted.
I saw a very interesting talk by Dr. Theresa Deischer a few weeks ago. She has determined that the use of fetal tissue in vaccines is causing large increases in the rate of autism. To determine this, she identified "change points", where the epidemics began to accelerate (i.e. the slope increased) and correlated them with the rollout of vaccines made from fetal tissue. This is happening all over the world. In any event, she mentioned that the CDC is no longer collecting this type of data on an annual basis any more (the cohorts are now multi-year), so this type of analysis can no longer be done. But she saved the historical data that she used for her earlier studies.
Posted by: David Weiner | April 03, 2018 at 11:54 AM
"it's all about support, awareness, and acceptance"
Soon we won't even need that... because autism really isn't a problem right??? It is just a bit of quirkiness or sensitivity !!!
Invisible ! (Still)
Posted by: L Land | April 03, 2018 at 11:18 AM
John and David--The gate keepers won't let any independent scientists into the Vaccine Safety DATA Link (VSD), because there's DATA collected that has to guarded like its Ft. Knox. Data is just dots and last thing the medical industrial complex wants is for the public to have the ability to connect the dots, whether its SSRI's and shooting or the sacred unavoidably unsafe cow.
Posted by: michael | April 03, 2018 at 11:07 AM
David
Excellent point, but there is something else isn't there? If you have a culture which is fundamentally hostile to accepting vaccine damage it inhibits the reporting and collecting of it. In fact, the data machine only processes junk. 600,000 plus reports on VAERS (which may only be 1%) and none of it is data. Anyone who speaks up is trashed by the government machine and the mainstream media. This is not science - indeed it is the reverse - it is an ideology asserting itself albeit with a technocratic dressing (but Hitler and Stalin did that).
The message from the state to anyone reporting vaccine damage is "prove it" with everything raked against you.
John.
Posted by: John Stone | April 03, 2018 at 10:39 AM
I think that "data-driven" means that the government is not going to take into account the assessments of parents' experiences of their kids being harmed by vaccines. They are going to rely upon "experts" who can manipulate the numbers, via epidemiology, to come up with the story they want to tell. In other words, business as usual.
Posted by: David Weiner | April 03, 2018 at 10:19 AM
Very true Greg but the financial fix is in the budget is going to slowly choke the CDC and Pharma no point in constantly telling them they are being chocked let them appoint all the Psych`s they want as the head it will make no difference only the totally deluded pharmas psychos will take the job..We have a ship sinking anyone want to be captain!!
Better than the Obama Rain man speech 2016
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/01/presidential-proclamation-world-autism-awareness-day-2016
World Autism Awareness Day, 2016
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every person deserves the chance to reach for their highest hopes and fulfill their greatest potential. On World Autism Awareness Day, we reaffirm our dedication to ensuring that belief is a reality for all those who live on the autism spectrum ‑‑ including 1 in 68 children. And we uphold our obligation to help make sure every man, woman, and child, regardless of ability or background, is accepted for who they are and able to lead a life free from discrimination and filled with opportunity.
From home to school and in businesses and communities around the world, people living with autism spectrum disorder contribute in immeasurable ways to our society. They remind us each day that every person is born with unique talents and should be treated with respect, play an active role in planning for their futures, and feel empowered to fully participate in and contribute to their communities. When those with autism have access to equal opportunities, we all do better, and that begins with making sure our country lives up to its commitment to ensure all things are possible for all people.
Individuals with autism are just as deserving of the peace of mind that comes with having quality, affordable health insurance as anyone else. The Affordable Care Act helps ensure no person is prevented from obtaining health coverage simply because they live with a preexisting condition like autism, and it requires most plans to cover recommended preventive services ‑‑ including critical screenings that test for autism in children. My Administration is dedicated to ensuring educational opportunities for autistic students are worthy of their extraordinary potential and to providing Americans with autism the chance to earn good jobs and hone their skills and talents. We are working to break down barriers to competitive, integrated employment for people with disabilities, including people with autism. We are also promoting inclusivity for kids with autism in high-quality, early childhood education programs. In 2014, I signed the Autism CARES Act, which supports autism‑related research and helps us to better understand the particular challenges faced by students and young adults living on the autism spectrum. And this month marks 3 years since my Administration launched the BRAIN Initiative ‑‑ a collaborative effort by Federal agencies, philanthropies, universities, foundations, and others in the medical and scientific communities that aims to accelerate our work to solve some of the most intricate mysteries of human brain function and reveal new insights into conditions like autism. In my most recent budget proposal, I was proud to support increased funding for this important initiative.
Americans with autism play an important role in our national story, and in their daily lives they embody the belief at the heart of our founding: that in America, with hard work and equal access, all people can realize their aspirations. Today, and every day, let us reach for a future in which no person living on the autism spectrum is limited by anything but the size of their dreams ‑‑ one in which all people have the opportunity to live a life filled with a sense of identity, purpose, and self-determination.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2, 2016, as World Autism Awareness Day. I encourage all Americans to learn more about autism and what they can do to support individuals on the autism spectrum and their families, and to help shape a world in which all people, including those with autism, are accepted for who they are.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | April 03, 2018 at 06:01 AM
***So gone from his 2018 speech is talk of autism as a disorder, and finding causes and a cure for it. Now it's all about support, awareness, and acceptance. ***
support= more psych meds to make big pharma richer
awareness = it is treatable = more drugs
acceptance = there is nothing else we can do
Posted by: pharmster | April 03, 2018 at 05:59 AM
Posted by: Autism Investigated | April 02, 2018 at 03:47 PM
Jake , you know better than most that those number of flu deaths are wholly unreliable.
Posted by: Hans Litten | April 03, 2018 at 02:17 AM
Those here harborning any lingering doubts that Trump is truly done with us need only to compare his 2017 and 2018 Autism Awareness Day Proclamations. I have highlighted a few key words that are conspicuously missing in his 2018 speech.
2017.....
And now 2018....
So gone from his 2018 speech is talk of autism as a disorder, and finding causes and a cure for it. Now it's all about support, awareness, and acceptance. Is it Bob Moffit who states The Band Plays On?!
Posted by: Greg | April 02, 2018 at 11:22 PM
Welcome to the middle of Again.
Posted by: annie | April 02, 2018 at 08:46 PM
Yesterday CBS News Sunday Morning reported on a traveling museum exhibit about the post-WWII trial of Nazi SS colonel Adolf Eichmann.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-man-in-the-glass-booth-adolf-eichmann-and-operation-finale/
Despite documented evidence to the contrary, Eichmann insisted he was “a mere instrument” who only carried out others’ orders for the Final Solution mass murders, saying, “I was not a responsible leader and do not feel myself guilty.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/27/eichmann-claimed-he-was-a-mere-instrument-in-holocaust-appeal-reveals
Eichmann also professed an emotional response to the gassing of Jewish people: “I was horrified. My nerves aren’t strong enough. I can’t listen to such things—such things, without their affecting me… I was much too shaken." Yet he himself had coordinated government agencies to put the massive death machine in motion, such as procuring all those rail cars in a time of national shortage.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Eichmann
Compartmentalization, deflection and denial are essential parts of many governments’ PR management toolkit — along with arrogance and a presumption of superiority.
Chilling that the Washington Post could back-handedly endorse the corrupt CDC’s demonstrably fraudulent data-driven vaccine “science.”
Posted by: nhokkanen | April 02, 2018 at 08:45 PM
Betrayed??
Disappointed??
Really??
I don't get it
How can it be a surprise?
Posted by: L Land | April 02, 2018 at 08:45 PM
Michael...
Thank you for the insights. "Data-driven" is likely code for further loss of medical privacy and data-mining, Cambridge Analytica-style.
A few thoughts on why the number of PhDs among Nazi higher-ups is notable. Holocaust survivor and historian Elie Wiesel was founding chairman of the Holocaust Museum and it's likely he himself wanted the CVs of Nazis presented prominently as a reminder that no class of people can be granted unchecked power. This is what he wrote about the educational accomplishments of leading Nazis in the foreword to "The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code":
"It is not only medicine and human experimentation which is called into question: The areas of scholarship, learning, education and culture must also be reexamined in the light of what happened. That doctors participated in the planning, execution and justification of the concentration camp massacres is bad enough, but it went beyond medicine. Like a cancer of immorality, it spread into every area of spiritual, cultural, intellectual endeavor. Thus, the meaning of what happened transcended its own immediate limits…I couldn’t understand these men who had, after all, studied for 8,10,12 or 14 years in German universities, which then were the best on the Continent, if not in the world. Why did their education not shield them from evil? This question haunted me."
The fallacy that higher education confers greater morality is really part and parcel with "scientism"-- one of the other "earmarks of totalitarianism" listed along with instrumentalism and "legislating morality." According to various political analysts and historians like Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt and Todorov, totalitarian pseudoscience is drawn from the "new man" concept based on the rejected theory of progressive evolution-- the idea that humans become more evolved as time passes, specifically more morally evolved, which suggests that other human beings are "less evolved." Todorov calls this view an "existential religion of salvation," not science.
The fallacy is still alive and well today if you think about how commercial scientists (though not their scientific critics) are being propped up as some kind of transcendent, infallible class free from greed, criminal impulse, delusions, etc. The statement "The science is settled" is categorically "scientism" for example-- cult thinking.
Posted by: Adriana | April 02, 2018 at 07:11 PM
He thinks all 130 children who died of influenza this season could have been saved by vaccination. A quarter were vaccinated.
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/cdc-director-flu-vaccination/
Posted by: Autism Investigated | April 02, 2018 at 03:47 PM
@Michael --
Exactly! I was horrified reading IBM and the Holocaust, not only because of how everything went down in such extremely well organized fashion due to the Census, Hollerith punch cards, and data collection, but because a corporation that had the humble beginnings of making cash registers for businesses used unfathomably shady, sinister, and even illegal practices to evolve and grow into a corporation that ultimately facilitated the Holocaust -- using an abundance of deception -- all for lots and lots of money. Genocide for cash. It doesn't get plainer or clearer than that. Humanity at its rock bottom worst.
Posted by: Someone | April 02, 2018 at 03:45 PM
"The question is often asked how "ordinary people," "decent husbands and fathers" could have committed so many atrocities."
Adriana--I have visited the Holocaust memorial in DC a couple of times and couple of items have always caught my attention.
WHY was it so important to POINT OUT to visitors of the Holocaust memorial this fact:
January 20, 1942 a meeting took place with the purpose of "coordinating a Final Solution to the European Jewish Question.” More than half of the 15 Nazi's present held doctoral degrees. Adolph Eichmann took minutes. - The Wannsee Conference, 1942 A Final Solution
Why was it so important to mention that at least 8 of the 15 present were PhD's? Why was it so important to the understanding of the Holocaust that so many PhD's were the architects of the final solution? Is the Holocaust memorial suggesting there is something about PhD's that needs to be examined more carefully? Would the Holocaust Memorial have made a point if they all were butchers, bakers and candlestick makers? If "Never Again"; then what does this mean?
And this:
"We are recording the individual characteristics of every single member of the nation. We are proud that we can contribute to such a task that provides the physician of a German body politic with the material [the needs] for his examination, so that our physician can determine whether, from the standpoint of the nation's health, the data thus arrived at correlates in a harmonious, that is healthy, relationship--or whether diseased conditions must be cured by corrective interventions.... We have firm confidence in our physician and will follow his information blindly, for we know that he will lead our nation toward a great future. Heil to our German people and their leader!"
Willy Heidinger
Managing Director of DEHOMAG
January 8, 1934
DEHOMAG--Deutsche Hollerith Maschineu Gesellschaft, A subsidiary of IBM since 1922. The Hollerith machine played an integral part in tracking, who was Jewish, who had Jewish features, who was gypsy, who had gypsy features, who was black, who had black features, who had diseased conditions, retardation, handicapped, neurological disorders, homosexual, genetic or congenital defects...................................................the ultimate victims of the Holocaust.
Ultimately this was extremely "Data-Driven".
Posted by: michael | April 02, 2018 at 03:18 PM
At a loss for words in my disappointment.....I fear It would have been the same with Hillary though. They all love money more than American children or American citizens....
Posted by: Loraine Fishel | April 02, 2018 at 02:03 PM
Sounds like Trump choked once again with this appointment.
Just what we need: a tyrant to head up the rogue CDC.
Posted by: David Weiner | April 02, 2018 at 02:01 PM
I'm a bit perplexed by the corporate media's willingness to portray his history of turning out a study making a vaccine look better than it verifiably was in order to what?...prop up the portrayal of the Trump administration, Republicans maybe (I don't see Trump as a Republican personally or possibly I see him as more Republican than most that run the party at the national level, but still not one really) as "anti-science?" Or to set the stage for attacking anything he does they don't like as "anti-science?" I don't get the feeling they need to worry about that one (him doing something they don't like) if that's the case, but...what do they really gain overall by publicly attacking this guy's rather all-too-typical (from my vantage point at least) vaccine "science" history?
Are they all operating with various levels and manifestations of instrumentalism (new word for me--thank you for the introduction!--maybe I don't get how to apply it yet)? I certainly don't have enough perspective for the overall picture to make sense, if that's possible...I should be used to that by now maybe...but I'm not...
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | April 02, 2018 at 01:38 PM
Great article Adriana.
It would be interesting to take a behind the scenes look at how this appointment was made. I bet it would make a great movie. It wouldn't be a documentary. No doubt it would be a real life science fiction thriller.
Posted by: Linda1 | April 02, 2018 at 12:48 PM
Another John Boehner. I always wonder what would be said of these weepers if they were women. No doubt it would be speculated whether or not they had the emotional stability to hold such positions.
Posted by: annie | April 02, 2018 at 11:50 AM
I think Thorsen had a worthy C.V. good deputy material to Redfield....spoilt for choice! A tough decision well picked, couldn`t have picked a more suitable career proven pharma psycho ...
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | April 02, 2018 at 11:36 AM
@Gary -
I thought Trump was supposed to "drain the swamp" - seems all he's done is stocked it with new alligators.
And I wish the Republican chaired, Republican majority House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform would actually DO something. It's their job to oversee the government. Why aren't they doing their job? Why aren't Republicans holding them accountable for not doing their job?
I'm an independent, so they don't listen to me.
Posted by: Aimee Doyle | April 02, 2018 at 11:05 AM
Oh great, just what we need....another vaccine drama queen. Next thing you know, he'll be circulating a staged photo of himself looking all earnest while he holds that precious little Hep B-soldier-family naked in his arms, like the notorious (puke) Proffit photo.
Wouldn't you just kill for the luxury of having time to get all weepy? Instead, we have to just keep moving 90mph from one autism crisis to another.
(And lol, Maureen! I keep reading it as Robert Redford, too!)
Posted by: Pass me a tissue, please | April 02, 2018 at 10:55 AM
Sooo, how about those IQ test in school, and thus in the United States?
A few points being shaved off year after year.
Not exactly on the radar.
But it could be I suppose.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 02, 2018 at 10:38 AM
Soooo, we can guess what is going on behind the walls at the CDC as they prepare the new stats coming out - that have been delayed-- about just how much autism has increased, decreased , or remained the same.
One thing for sure; it will not be saying autism increased.
So, which will they go with of the other two remaining choices?
Decrease? Probably not cause it does not fit into the narrative of just better diagnoses now a days.
Staying the same, or rather the more fancy way they like to state it; no statistical difference.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 02, 2018 at 10:35 AM
These weeping declarations can be frighteningly effective in persuading audiences.
This emotional technique was used against me about 8 years ago in the Probate Court when my manipulative, "actor" ex-husband applied for Temporary Emergency Custody over our 19-year AS son who was at the time receiving long-term antibiotic treatment for chronic Lyme. The actor did not agree with this medical treatment and so took to court. (We have been divorced for 15 years.)
At one point in his melodramatic speech about my son's history and current status, he tearfully took off his glasses, wiped the tears from his cheeks, and choked out, "My son is dying." Then, I had an opportunity to tell the truth as I saw it, and my story was the 180-degree opposite. Our son had been living with me and slowly regaining his health following several months of IV antibiotics.
Well, that tear-jerker got the attention of the judge! The judge didn't know what to believe since our 19-year old son was so panicked about the court hearing that he did not want to come. Fortunately, all ended in our son's favor as my brilliant attorney was able to argue that I could take our son to his two treating doctors and have them (the experts) sign the court forms regarding his health and whether he could remain making his own decisions and whether his health was, in fact, improving. And that is exactly what happened to throw out the application for Emergency Guardianship.
If only this CDC tear-jerker were "put to the mat" by the audience demanding the scientific evidence behind the effectiveness and harmlessness of the HepB shot that Redfield so passionately supports. Who can respond to this latest CDC actor by showing the world the science that can tell us the number of SIDS deaths likely related to this vaccine? And who will stand up and summarize all of the other science, including Age of Autism book, The World Mercury Project, Dr. Tenpenny, Vaccines Revealed documentary, The Truth About Vaccines documentary, Vaxxed documentary, Injecting Aluminum documentary, Sacrificial Virgins documentary etc etc??
Posted by: Sharon Kistler | April 02, 2018 at 10:09 AM
Great article Adriana!
Can we shoot it on to the Twitter feed of El Presidente?
For that matter can we shoot it at lots of Twitter Feeds and Post on Home Pages of the Powers That Be..
Posted by: Jay M | April 02, 2018 at 10:04 AM
Everytime I see his name, I read Robert Redford. Oh, that it were Robert Redford.
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | April 02, 2018 at 08:43 AM
Betrayed we have been, indeed, once again, by our criminal government.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | April 02, 2018 at 08:13 AM
@Bob - "our community appears to have been betrayed"
I agree with you. Trump's appointments have been so disappointing - Tom Price and Alex Azar for HHS, Scott Gottlieb for FDA, Brenda Fitzgerald and Robert Redfield for CDC. All pro-vaxxers.
And meanwhile, the rate of autism in children goes up and up and up...
Posted by: Aimee Doyle | April 02, 2018 at 07:59 AM
I guess the guy once made the cardinal sin of being found out, but now he has been rehabilitated as emperor, sultan, king, of the bureaucracy of lies. And he chokes, his great ambition realised - his destiny - to be chief liar. But just possibly his appointment shows weakness.
Posted by: John Stone | April 02, 2018 at 07:33 AM
Very discouraging to read the comments .. and .. questionable past performance .. of newly appointed CDC Director .. Robert Redfield Jr .. in which we learn of the investigation by the Pentagon in 1994 for overstating the effectiveness of the gp-160 AIDS vaccine—a vaccine which was tested in unethical human trials using child wards of the state in New York in 2004 .. as well as his proud contribution to vaccinating US Military servicemen with HEP B .. a vaccine that remains highly controversial as to it's "need, effectiveness and safety".
It is positively frightening to read Redfield speak "of the importance of vaccines and recounted how as an Army doctor in the early 1980s, he helped persuade military leadership to vaccinate “every individual in the armed forces” against hepatitis B after a young soldier for whom Redfield had cared infected his wife and newborn child. “That's probably the most important thing I did in my life,” he said."
Really? One young soldier with HEP B helped Redfield persuade military leadership to vaccine "every individual in the armed forces" .. which he believes was "probably the most important thing I did in my life"?
In my humble opinion ... if Redfield is anything close to the man described in this Washington Post article .. our community appears to have been betrayed by our President .. who campaigned as someone who would be naturally opposed to someone with Redfield's career performance.
Posted by: bob moffit | April 02, 2018 at 06:52 AM