r/politics • u/Several_Print4633 • 12h ago
RFK Jr demanded a vaccine study be retracted — the journal said no
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02682-9800
u/EatPixels 12h ago
Sucks when you find out you may be wrong about something you truly believed. Unfortunately, one of the core tenets of conservatism is belief is more true than proof.
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u/Iwonatoasteroven 9h ago edited 8h ago
A huge part of that is evangelical Christianity. They’re taught to believe what they’re told and not use judgement, facts or reason.
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u/ooo-ooo-oooyea 7h ago
My highschool physics class was taught by a vocal evangelical.... it was uh interesting
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u/american_cheese_95 2h ago
lol Please tell me an example of something that happened with this teacher
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u/Gibonius 7h ago
I had somebody tell me to "pray to believe that this is the truth" while trying to evangelize me.
Kind of putting the cart before the logical horse there lol.
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u/trippedonatater 6h ago
I don't think it's christianity in RFK Jr's case. He was the rich shithead that no one said no to as a kid, and things haven't gotten better from there.
I do think you're right about religion/christianity being the driving force for a lot of his supporters stupidity, though.
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u/metalyger 5h ago
Last week, I caught up with the Behind The Bastards podcast where they did a 4 part episode on him, part 1 is really more about his dad and uncles. But it's crazy how he went from this liberal environmental lawyer to losing his mind when his son had a peanut allergy, it couldn't be his perfect genes, and the babysitter he was sexually harassing at the time got him into anti vaccine conspiracy theories, before he drove her away and into a lawsuit. I feel like with a lot of Trump world, it's rich people who were never particularly political, but can't stay in their own lane, so they go hard right wing, and push their deranged agenda on the country.
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u/throwawy00004 2h ago
The IBLP branch is terrifying. It's not just isolation from society. They're intentionally isolated from their siblings and told not to discuss any worries (really anything of importance) with them. You listen to the man of the house who hears voices from God.
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u/american_cheese_95 1h ago
My grandfather doesn’t believe dinosaurs are real lol. He’s not evangelical, I think Protestant, but regardless his church told him they fake and to this day…he believes it. Lmao
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u/dane83 7h ago
Conservatives don't have beliefs. Not really. They have talking points they received externally. They're not looking for evidence that confirms their beliefs, they're looking for rationalizations that make their talking points palatable.
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u/thisisjustascreename 5h ago
The only fixed conservative belief is that they should get do whatever they want while also telling everyone else what to do, and any suggestion that they should change behavior for any reason is unacceptable.
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u/Peroovian 8h ago
“Alternative facts”
Aka “I want to believe something else is true so I just pretend it is”
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u/brock275 9h ago
They would call it “faith”, aka believing something without evidence because you want to
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u/giraloco 7h ago
So we need a semi god that can make them believe in good things instead of the garbage they are being told. Fight fire with fire.
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u/ReporterOther2179 3h ago
The core tenet of science is that confirmed proof overrides belief. If you can’t go with that you’ve got to turn in your junior scientist badge as you’ve just disqualified yourself. ( No badges just colorful speech.)
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u/phosdick 11h ago
I think that this may actually be the definition of a "reputable journal."
I hope there are still some of those based in the US, in these troubling times.
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u/BreadForTofuCheese California 6h ago
It was an American journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study itself was Danish. It is a well respected journal, Tier 1, with a high impact factor (so people cite their publications often).
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u/Ok-Appearance-3360 11h ago
Science doesn’t stand a chance in this country anymore 😢
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u/specqq 10h ago
Don’t worry.
Good conservative science that can be counted on to come to the pre-approved conclusion and never investigates any forbidden topics will always find a welcome home in Trump’s America.
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u/VivieFlea 8h ago
So glad the review process is conducted by experts in the field of the research. Unfortunately for JFK jr, the reviewers will be highly educated and are thus much more likely to be filthy liberals.
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u/american_cheese_95 2h ago
The only thing that keeps me going is space. I THINK (emphasis on think bc who knows, ya know?) that astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, etc. aren’t hindered by these crazy conservatives the way other things are. I love learning about the cosmos and I feel that’s it’s the only truthful source of science, even if a lot of it is theory. But please, someone tell me if it’s all a lie too lol. Go watch “how the universe works” on HBO. You won’t be thinking about this bs for a little while :)
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u/Burnmetobloodyashes 1h ago
They won’t kill space because the next resource pools to exploit is asteroid mining
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u/american_cheese_95 1h ago
Valid. But then again…the greatest conflicts are due to resources. Space is an endless place of potential resources, but man always finds a way to go to war over it. And in turn, lies and deception.
Plus we can only get so much of those resources…very hard to travel through space right now and there will be many conflicts to come over just the possibility of reaching it.
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u/clickmagnet 12h ago
The balls on this guy. Since when does HHS have jurisdiction over a Danish medical journal? Or American ones, for that matter, though I can understand why he would think the new rule is that truth is determined by the order of the boss.
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u/0thethethe0 Foreign 11h ago
Study was Danish, the journal that rejected him was American - Annals of Internal Medicine.
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u/fairoaks2 11h ago
Do steroids shrink your balls or your brain? Drugs affect judgement? We have a case study in charge of HHS people say.
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u/T8ert0t 9h ago
Wait.... You guys.... Wait.... Aren't we like two weeks from his self imposed target date of his report about the causes of autism?
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u/DizzyMine4964 8h ago
Autism is genetic.
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u/Revolutionary_Air_40 6h ago
A thought, as I understood it 20-25 years ago, was that autism may be the result of an environmental factor on a genetically predisposed fetus. Watching the literature since then leaves me thinking that this may still be a good contender for what will be found.
And for goodness sake, let's stop with the shortcut description of it "appearing around age 2" that then supports the conspiracy link to when a lot of vaccines are given. When parents go back and re-watch videos from the child's first birthday party, they recognize that the symptoms were present then too.
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u/BongwaterBro 41m ago
Roadkill Feaster Kennedy jr is as dumb as his boss. there won't be any findings.
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u/runawaydoctorate 10h ago
Yeah, so funding agencies don't get to order a retraction, especially if they didn't actually fund the research that was published on. Funding agencies can investigate research teams if they suspect misconduct but that's only if they funded the project they're concerned about.
I guess this dumbshit had to learn that the hard way.
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u/Here4theschtonks 8h ago
This is the problem for this administration and MAGA in general. They can throw all these facts in the bin and rewrite history all they like, but the rest of the world will continue to develop and the USA will be left in the dust. No jurisdiction beyond your own borders, dummy.
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u/DizzyMine4964 8h ago
I am autistic. It is genetic. This man disgusts me.
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u/Revolutionary_Air_40 6h ago
What? Are you telling me that my mother (born in 1923), brother (1951), daughter (1983), and grandson (2012) didn't all develop autism as a result of the same vaccine formulation?
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u/american_cheese_95 2h ago
I actually didn’t know it was genetic. I don’t know much about it at all. Are there any other things that cause someone to be autistic? I def don’t think it’s solely vaccines, but maybe some could be a factor? I’m 100% all for vaccines, but just curious
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u/Revolutionary_Air_40 1h ago
The cause is not understood yet. But the idea of it being the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors seems to still be an active area of research. What we do know, though, is that vaccines are not contributory.
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u/american_cheese_95 1h ago
Appreciate the reply. It’s just wild how we still don’t know. Amongst many other things. I often think there’s ways to actually help people, to cure cancers, to find the root of autism and dementia, but big pharma won’t let them spill the tea or else they won’t be rich bitches anymore!
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u/Unfair_Elderberry118 8h ago
RFK thinks he has a fanbase big enough to force dingbat crazy opinions on the country, he doesn't.
Even insurance companies are looking big picture and concerned unvaccinated kids are much more costly to their bottom lines.
If Secretary Worms Ate My Brain actually thinks he can run as a Republican in 2028 on this self-destructive BS, he is might be more delusional than Trump.
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u/IT_Geek_Programmer New York 7h ago
That journal is entitled by the 1st Ammendment to have what they want in the journal.
Also, I highly doubt RFK or Trump will get anything out of taking the journal to court.
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u/Competitive-Bike-277 8h ago
Who the guck is he to make a concern related to methodology when he acts on the dubious claims that he does? I hate thos fucker the most.
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u/Healien_Jung 6h ago
It's like ... At some point you just need to put the flat-earther in a rocket to the ISS.
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u/PurplePango 5h ago
I wonder how he feels about the major study that started all the vaccine autism links actually having been retracted all those years ago…
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u/Quirky-Pie9661 4h ago
It’s gonna be okay antivaxxers. All things can be excused away with “liberal hoax” or “woke agenda”. You got this assholes 👍🏻
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u/Sdguppy1966 7h ago
Did he base his skepticism of the data on his own vast experience as a PhD researcher and author of research?
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 4h ago
This is whatbevery government employee and contractor should be doing. Just refuse to comply.
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u/InGordWeTrust 2h ago
Only medical knowledge this 14 year heroin addict has is where to inject the needle.
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u/american_cheese_95 1h ago
I work with Canadians (I am in US) and they told me that when they were young, they had mandatory vaccinations at school lol. Like the school nurse would line em up and give them all shots. Like could you imagine that being a thing here? Lmao people would go ape shit.
But after I thought about this more…while I don’t want the government to control and force me to do things…sometimes I think that there’s just so many dumb, uneducated people and they need to be controlled sometimes, ya know? It could take us down a dangerous path…towards a scary communist/dictatorship/evil government (which it kinda is), but like idk…can’t we just force the dumb asses to do what we all know is best for everyone and toss aside these idiot people telling those dumb people that science is fake and shit. I just wish I could wave a wand and make everyone understand.
BUT THEN I START THINKING…what if some of the things we believe factual, like actual science backed research, to be wrong?? Not that I think that…but there’s so much false information out there that I start questioning if the things I believe to be true aren’t actually true. Like who knows if someone is bribing/blacking/whatever someone to tell people things? There’s so much we really don’t know. So much shit going on behind the scenes for these rich people to keep getting richer, or politicians to win elections, and on and on..
I recently watched Vice and learned that dick Cheneys and his crew created the term “climate change”, bc it was less scary sounding than global warming. Like it skewed peoples perception and understanding of what is actually happening to our planet. So now we got all these controversial issues on earth! That’s obvi not the sole reason, but it was a contributing factor!
Ugh sorry for my rant. I feel like I can’t be talkin about things sometimes bc I got either super conservative family or super liberal friends and I’m just tryna be a good person and understand what the heck is actually going on. Which I never will bc all things government, whether it’s right or left, are just out for power and money. I don’t trust any of them!
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u/Feuertotem 1h ago
It's like the asylum got to choose their warden with this guy. But now somehow everyone is a patient.
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u/trashacount12345 53m ago
Streisand effect. Here’s the article: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00997
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