Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health policies stem from the idea that the past holds the secret to health and happiness. But especially with respect to infectious disease, this “is a fantasy with potentially lethal ramifications,” Elizabeth Bruenig argues. theatln.tc/CIYLhPtV
Kennedy “is quick to point out the relative rarity of chronic conditions such as childhood diabetes and autoimmune disorders in the past,” Bruenig writes. “But he is apparently hesitant to acknowledge that mid-century America came with its own share of serious health problems, including a high rate of cigarette smoking and horrifying infant mortality rates compared with the present.”
Preventable childhood illnesses such as measles once routinely killed hundreds annually. So far this year, only three people in the United States have died of measles, and that was, Bruenig writes, “largely the result of an outbreak of the disease caused in part by declining vaccination rates.”
At the center of the MAHA crusade “is a high degree of trust in the wisdom of nature,” Bruenig argues. But this belief, she writes, has “fostered a false sense of security, and a naive assessment of the natural world.” Read more at the link in our bio.
🎨: Akshita Chandra/ The Atlantic. Sources: The New York Historical / Getty; GHI / Universal History Archive / Getty; Bettmann / Getty.
The Atlantic
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health policies stem from the idea that the past holds the secret to health and happiness. But especially with respect to infectious disease, this “is a fantasy with potentially lethal ramifications,” Elizabeth Bruenig argues. theatln.tc/CIYLhPtV
Kennedy “is quick to point out the relative rarity of chronic conditions such as childhood diabetes and autoimmune disorders in the past,” Bruenig writes. “But he is apparently hesitant to acknowledge that mid-century America came with its own share of serious health problems, including a high rate of cigarette smoking and horrifying infant mortality rates compared with the present.”
Preventable childhood illnesses such as measles once routinely killed hundreds annually. So far this year, only three people in the United States have died of measles, and that was, Bruenig writes, “largely the result of an outbreak of the disease caused in part by declining vaccination rates.”
At the center of the MAHA crusade “is a high degree of trust in the wisdom of nature,” Bruenig argues. But this belief, she writes, has “fostered a false sense of security, and a naive assessment of the natural world.”
Read more at the link in our bio.
🎨: Akshita Chandra/ The Atlantic. Sources: The New York Historical / Getty; GHI / Universal History Archive / Getty; Bettmann / Getty.
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