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RFK Jr. says he may bar government scientists from publishing their work in medical journals [1]

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Date: 2025-05-28

For readers interested in how totalitarian governments approach science, the Wikipedia page on Lysenkoism is instructive. Here are the first two paragraphs:

The reader should bear that in mind when considering HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest attack on the medical establishment. Today, on the " Ultimate Human "* podcast RFK. Jr. said:

"We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they're all corrupt."

That's a sweeping accusation to make while offering zero evidence for your proposition. If everyone is corrupt, there should be so much evidence you would need semi-trucks to transport it. Where is it?

There was more to this miserable and unscientific zealot's anti-science campaign. The Washington Post reports:

Kennedy also accused several agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services — including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — of being "sock puppets" for the pharmaceutical industry.

I do not doubt that the pharmaceutical industry would love to "own" all the doctors. And have them prescribe a smorgasbord of expensive and unnecessary drugs. But it is despicable for Kennedy to say that doctors, as a class, are ready to sacrifice their patients on the altar of profit.

The government is bifurcated. There are political appointees who change from administration to administration. And there are a far larger number of career civil servants who spend a lifetime serving the citizenry.

RFK Jr. must assume that medical researchers are similarly motivated to his boss. But just because you work for someone who would throw America under a bus to make a buck — and just because you belong to the paranoid wing of the MAGA party — that doesn't mean the practitioners of a 4,500-year-old profession, which has done more than most to improve the length and quality of people's lives, are like-minded.

Besides, if these people were motivated by money, they would work for these deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies, or elsewhere in the private sector. The government offers some attractive benefits, but it does not compensate professionals at a rate commensurate with what they can command in the private market.

(Note: The accusation that scientists are greedy bastards is also leveled against climatologists whose research shows global warming is real and manmade. But I guarantee that any leading climatologist could make significantly more coin working for a climate denial organization or a fossil fuel company.

Kennedy then turns to the Stalinesque model of scientific research. WaPo adds:

On his plans for the department to create its own journals, Kennedy said they would "become the preeminent journals, because if you get [NIH] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist."

In essence, Kennedy is saying, "Trust me." Is that a winning bet? Are politicians known for their honesty? I wouldn't trust non-medical personnel in any administration to make medical funding decisions.

But you would have to be nuts to think this administration makes decisions based on what's good for people. Dear God, these sadists deport US citizen children with cancer, without due process or warning, in the middle of their cancer treatments.

RFK Jr has already shown the quality of research he subscribes to. WaPo adds:

Last week, the administration released what it called "The MAHA Report," which challenged mainstream medical consensus on issues such as vaccines. Medical experts said some of the report's suggestions stretched the limits of science, The Washington Post reported, while several sections of the report offered misleading representations of findings in scientific papers.

American life expectancy already lags in 48th place globally , right behind Albania. If RFK realizes his fever dream, we will soon struggle to maintain that dismal ranking. Back in the day Republicans wanted to destroy the Soviet Union, now they want to emulate its horror.

*Note: the Ultimate Human website is the creation of Gary Brecka . It appears to be a mashup of New Age drivel and snake oil marketing. Brecka himself has a biology degree from Frostburg University and is a graduate of the National University of Health Sciences , which offers professional degrees in chiropractic and naturopathic medicine , master's degrees in acupuncture and Oriental medicine , a bachelor's degree in biomedical science, and a certificate or associate degree in massage therapy.

Not everything the University offers is pseudoscience, but it is light on rigorous medical science.

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