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After Trump's election, Wall Street CEOs had "a big grin on their face about where markets were going" — until Trump nominated Matt Gaetz for AG, reports
@andrewrsorkin
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"The shift in tone [went] from 'Wow, we're gonna have a great economy'...to, 'Okay, maybe now I have to worry.'"
Paul Farhi
@farhip
19h • 10 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Your future guardian of America’s health, a short story:
The outbreak of measles in Samoa starting in September 2019 created a panic. Schools closed, Christmas events were cancelled, lockdowns ensued. More…
People stayed inside their houses, and the unvaccinated hung red flags or red clothing in their front yards both as a warning and to signal to emergency health workers they wanted to be vaccinated.
The U.S. and other countries rushed in medical teams and vaccines…
Even with draconian measures, by early January, about 3 percent of the island’s entire population had been infected, and 83 people died, most of them infants and children.
How did it happen?
Health officials said the island’s immunization rate had fallen dramatically in the years preceding the outbreak, and anti-vax misinformation was rife.
The latter got so bad that an anti-vaccination activist, Edwin Tamasese, was arrested and charged with "incitement…
…against a government order" after he said the vaccines were dangerous and encouraged people not to get them.
Crazy, eh?
Well, another guy had a part in all this, too…
A few months before the measles outbreak, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to Samoa. During his trip, Kennedy met with and publicly supported leading anti-vaxxers, putting whatever credibility he had behind those encouraging people not to seek immunization.
Kennedy later acknowledged his trip to Samoa had been arranged by…Edwin Tamasese, the guy later arrested by the government for incitement (the charges against Tamasese were later dropped). Kennedy later wrote a blog post describing Tamasese as a “medical freedom hero.”
Kennedy had all manner of disclaimers about his trip to Samoa. But it’s what he *didn’t* do that’s worth noting: Encourage people to save their lives and the lives of their babies by getting vaccinated.
Anyway, that’s the guy who’ll be in charge of America’s health.
Post-script: The Samoan outbreak subsided in January, 2020, and hasn’t returned. How? The crash government vaccination program managed to reach 90 percent of the population, a level considered herd immunity for a highly infectious disease like measles.
Some light reading about Kennedy and Samoa:
telegraph.co.uk/news/measles-i…
apnews.com/article/rfk-ke…
motherjones.com/politics/2024/…
End.
