by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
In what is probably its most ignorant and abhorrent move to date, the Trump administration has canceled a $700 million contract with drug maker Moderna to develop a vaccine that would protect the American public against a deadly bird flu pandemic. Bird flu in the United States alone has already infected 70 humans, most of them farm workers, and has spread aggressively among poultry and cattle. The massive numbers of chickens that had to be killed to combat the disease was the primary cause of the recent steep rise in egg prices, something on which Trump campaigned.
Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, has a long history of being a vaccine skeptic. His agency issued a statement saying that after a "comprehensive" internal review it determined that the Moderna project did not meet "the scientific standards or safety expectations required for continued federal investment." So far HHS has not backed up that word salad topped with malarky dressing with specific information or allegations.
Secretary Kennedy seems more focused on finding the root cause of deadly bird flu rather than worrying about its spread among humans. He recently suggested during a television interview that poultry farmers should let the disease spread unchecked among their flocks in order that scientists could study the birds which survived.
Yesterday Secretary Kennedy announced that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is no longer recommending COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children. The CDC had previously called for COVID booster shots for everyone six months and older. (Parents who choose to disregard that bird-brained guidance from Kennedy and the CDC may soon find that since the booster shots are no longer officially recommended, insurance companies will stop paying for them.)
Under Kennedy's leadership, the government seems to be rapidly turning its back on sound and proven health care practices. Trump's proposed new US Surgeon General, a position also under the control of the Department of Health and Human Services, is an unlicensed physician who is a "wellness influencer" and has an affinity for magic mushrooms. Seriously.
We live in interesting (and deadly) times.
"This is the dawning of the age of malarious!"
"Quack, quack, quack!" says Joe the Duck who is in hiding and trying to avoid the bird flu.
"word salad topped with malarky dressing" I like that turn of phrase.
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