The House of Public Health Is On Fire
We Must Stop Junior from Burning it Down
My Speech from the Rally for the Public’s Health
The house of public health is on fire.
The man who lit that fire tells us we didn’t need the house anyway.
It was poorly built —we’re better off without it.
He insists that the cool, outdoor air makes us healthier.
And there’s a bonus, with no house, think what we’ll save on utilities.
Apparently, the winter of infectious disease
Is a thing of the past — and even if it comes again,
He assures us we won’t feel the cold.
Because he broke the thermometer.
We must put out the fire.
We will need to rebuild the house.
But first, we need to get rid of the arsonist.
If we want to protect public health. RFK Jr. has got to go.
One of Junior’s first acts was to put out the MAHA Report on Children’s Health.
If he truly cared about children’s health,
he’d worry more about bullets in their heads than the coloring in their Skittles.
If he cared, he’d be reminding us that vaccines prevent infections, birth defects, chronic diseases, and cancer — not inventing risks that don’t exist.
If he cared about toxic chemicals, he’d have objected when the EPA shut down its research office.
If he cared about social media’s harm, he’d be calling out the tech moguls who profit from it.
If he cared about children’s nutrition he’d be fighting for SNAP and school lunches, not eating McDonald’s with his boss.
If we want to protect children’s health, RFK has got to go.
That MAHA report begins with a graph that shows
Americans die six years younger
but spend an average of 70 percent more on health care than residents of 20 economic peer countries.
But the report never mentions that those countries all have universal health care.
That none of their citizens goes bankrupt paying medical bills.
That none of their politicians would dare suggest taking health care away.
Yet as this administration shuts down the government to ensure they can cut coverage and give billionaires another tax break,
Junior says nothing.
If we want to ensure Americans have health care, RFK. has got to go.
Junior and his team are rewriting history and undermining the future of public health,
They insist with no proof that COVID was both a deadly lab leak and an overblown flu. They killed research on the Nobel Prize winning MRNA technology that saved millions of lives during the pandemic.
At the same time, their drastic funding cuts are driving experienced researchers out of public health.
And shutting down the pipeline for new talent.
While visa restrictions and ICE raids are cutting off access to international research talent.
If we want science based public health, RFK has got to go.
Junior boasts about gold-standard science,
but what he gives us is gold-plated bullshit.
After making unfounded claims about Tylenol in pregnancy, he said,
“We’re doing the studies to make the proof.”
That’s not science. That’s the opposite of science.
He picks advisers for their conclusions, not their expertise.
He packed the CDC and its advisory panels with anti-vaxxers.
He says nothing as universities are attacked,
funding is cut and research is censored by politics.
If we want the tools to face the challenges ahead, RFK has got to go.
Sixty-five years ago, his uncle stood on the Capitol steps and called us to action:
“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
That was patriotism.
Today, Junior works for and echoes a man who mocks that patriotism —
a man who only asks what this country can do for him.
His uncle and his father believed in service.
If we want to honor that belief, RFK has got to go.
To make America healthy, we need:
A war on ignorance and lies — not a war on science and truth.
A war on cancer — not a war on cancer research.
A war on gun violence — not a war on gun safety
Affordable health care for everyone— not more handouts for the rich.
To make America healthy, RFK has got to go.
Twenty major organizations have declared him unfit for his job —
including the APHA, the American College of Physicians,
the American Academy of Family Physicians,
and six former Surgeons General.
I’m here today on behalf of a coalition of 15 organizations, 7 of which have gathered petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures —
from members of the medical, nursing, science, and public health communities,
and from people who simply care about truth and health.
After this rally, we will march to HHS to deliver those petitions.
Every one of those signatures carries the same unmistakable message:
RFK has got to go.
This speech was delivered at the Rally for the Public’s Health.
https://www.911forhealthandscience.org