this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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What's wrong with that answer?
It was at literally the very end as all the senators were running out of the room to try and get to a confirmation vote and the chairman was trying to get whoever it was who asked to yield since her time was up. So it was sort of glossed over, and of course Kennedy’s gonna say yes, he’s not gonna go to his confirmation hearing and say he doesn’t believe in germs. It wasn’t dug into at all, and the senator said well I have more that I’d like to submit to the record, specifically she was talking about shit from his book where he lays out his sort of softcore terrain theory where he doesn’t necessarily reject germ theory but laments that it’s the prevailing view in medicine and lays out his beliefs that germs aren’t actually that big a deal.
Sorry that’s what I meant. Too much that I didn’t want to type. I wish they had dug into it more but instead it was some throwaway question at the very end that why the hell would Kennedy answer anything but yes.
This book?
Not trying to grill you.
I'm just curious about his unhingedness.
Yeah lol that’s the one.
I mean, it’s really not the worst possible belief system one can have. He’s essentially just laser focused on improving Americans’ diet and lifestyles to become healthier. Which…isn’t a bad thing. And he’s right that things like diet and exercise will keep the body strong to fight disease.
But he leans on this understanding of the immune system where it is literally the only thing that decides whether one gets sick or not. To the point where germs don’t matter - which is where the logic behind that video going around where he’s wants the NIH to stop studying infectious diseases comes from. Why study infectious diseases if they don’t actually make you sick? It really all depends on the strength of your immune system. And therefore, why put resources towards public health if all we really need is stronger immune systems?
And so then we get to what I think is the most dangerous part of this, which is that he’s essentially individualized disease. When you get sick, it’s your own fault. Like we saw during Covid, it’s the fault of underlying disease, obesity, age. If someone is young and healthy, then we blame diet, processed foods. Maybe they used drugs or used to, or they’re a former smoker. Anything but Covid itself. And so if you die, or get disabled, hey it’s a tragedy, but you brought it upon yourself because of some personal failing or inherent imperfection. Eugenicist thinking.
And private healthcare loves this since it gives them any number of reasons to deny coverage. Kennedy went on an on today about “putting people in charge of their own healthcare.” I totally agree with lifestyle changes so that people can be healthier, but first of all we haven’t created a world amenable to healthy lifestyles, and second of all we don’t need to flirt with germ theory denial to live healthier.
Sorry went off a little there lol
If germs aren't a concern then why would the immune system, which exists to fight germs, be important?