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An historical footnote to RFK Jr's recent comments on vitamins and vaccination [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-05
Robert F Kennedy Junior published an interesting opinion piece as it were the other day, in which he offered up nutritional advice and glancing mention of historical statistic as they relate to measles specifically and an ongoing outbreak in Texas.
To add some general context to Mr. RFK Jr's comments regarding diet and the pre-vaccine world let us consider that In 1850's Indiana, child mortality rates of 1 in 3 were not uncommon. In our old country cemeteries you may observe instances where multiple young people in a family had passed within a week. Surely, it's easy to believe that these folks hoped and prayed for a better way.
In regards to nutrition, the truth is that this community didn't consume fast food, fountain sodas or microwave meals. Instead their food came from crops planted in rich soil, fish from (relatively) clean rivers, and organic livestock. Hey it’s hard to get more nutritious than 100% natural, right?
Nearer to the end of the 1800's, advancements in sanitation practice began to improve the child mortality rate, but there are certain communicable diseases that no ordinary level of cleanliness (or ivermectin for that matter) can stop. Indeed, the improved sanitation of the Edwardian era gave rise to regular large outbreaks of one particular affliction that was later eradicated with vaccine.
If you're of a certain age, you may bear a scar from receiving the smallpox vaccine, and perhaps even remember a world where people caught variola and poliomyelitis.
As a loose equivalent, we could imagine if there had been a polio outbreak instead, and Mr. Kennedy Jr. suggested going back to using outhouses as a "best defense".
Say, do you think people would jump on that bandwagon quicker than they did on hydroxychloroquine?
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