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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

No matter how much he tries, RFK Jr. can’t hide his antivax nature

A week ago Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote speech at the second annual meeting of his antivax organization, Children’s Health Defense. Once again, he demonstrated that not only is he still antivax as hell, but that his proposals are even more bizarre than before. Truly, it was a homecoming for him.

I realize that I’ve written about just how antivaccine environmental activist turned antivaccine crusader turned independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is, but the more attention he gets the more I feel the need to periodically remind everyone just how antivaccine he is. What prompted me to post yet another in this series of posts about RFK Jr. was his appearance a week ago at a conference in Georgia run by his own antivaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense (CHD). Usually, what periodically prompts me to feel obligated to address RFK Jr.’s antivaccine misinformation is seeing someone, either a blogger or in the press, trying desperately to argue that RFK Jr. isn’t antivaccine—and especially when I see a formerly respected physician start saying that RFK Jr. “makes fair points.” This time, around, it was something about RFK Jr.’s message to his fellow antivaxxers plus the setting of the antivax gathering itself that inspired me to discuss him yet again. Specifically, it was what RFK Jr. said in this news story about the conference:

At an anti-vaccine conference in Georgia on Friday, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.confirmed his commitment to the cause and spoke to his base about how he, as president, would serve the movement he built.

“I feel like I’ve come home today,” he said to a standing ovation, crediting the assembled audience with his candidacy.

He then laid out his vision for a Kennedy presidency, which would include telling the National Institutes of Health to take “a break” from studying infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and measles, and pivoting the agency to the study of chronic diseases, like diabetes and obesity. Kennedy has suggested without evidence that researchers and pharmaceutical companies are driven by profit to neglect such chronic conditions and invest in ineffective and even harmful treatments; he includes vaccines among them.

“I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all,” Kennedy said. “Thank you for public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

You have to admire the false confidence in RFK Jr.’s statement, namely the assumption that he will not only be elected in 2024 but will serve two terms. Of course, most Presidential candidates express similar confidence, whether justified or not, but coming from him it is a bit more jarring than the usual candidate blather. More importantly, the biggest “WTF?” moment was RFK Jr.’s promise to institute an eight year “pause” in research into infectious diseases like measles and COVID-19 because supposedly pharmaceutical companies have been “neglecting” chronic diseases because infectious diseases and vaccines are supposedly so much more profitable for them.

My first thought was: Seriously, man. Get your story straight. You might recall that before the pandemic one of the most common tropes in the antivaccine movement was that “managing” chronic diseases with medications that people have to take for the rest of their lives is so much more profitable than “curing” those diseases. According to antivaxxers, that was supposedly why there was so little appetite for truly “revolutionary” approaches to diseases like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease or, more commonly, why “natural treatments” that could supposedly reverse these diseases were ignored by physicians, who supposedly profited from the supposed big pharma gravy train. Like all good conspiracy theories, this concept seemed convincing to many because there was a grain of truth at its core. There can be an incentive to produce drugs that people have to take for long periods of time—or even the rest of their lives. Where antivaxxers like RFK Jr. and CHD dive deeply into conspiracy theories is in their claims that, not only is big pharma incentivized to produce medications that require lifelong usage, but they are creating the very chronic diseases that require them, as was argued in CHD multiple times, for instance here, where Nate Doromal contrasted chronic health conditions to COVID-19:

Clinicians have been aware of the rise of chronic illnesses in children, yet they cannot explain why. If doctors do not fully understand these chronic illnesses, they cannot prevent them. Nor does the practice of medicine deal with the underlying causes of these illnesses.

Instead, medicine focuses on the short-term treatment of symptoms. Children with diabetes are given insulin for the rest of their lives, asthma patients are given inhalers, children with severe food allergies carry around EpiPens and many others take a cornucopia of pharmaceutical drugs.

Medicine is not hurrying to change the status quo. There is no accompanying public health mobilization to find permanent solutions to chronic illness as there was with COVID-19. Instead, things are fine and dandy as clinicians prescribe short-term remedies while passing the buck on dealing with root causes.

Elsewhere, CHD claims that pharma is happy about the epidemic of obesity in children because they can market weight loss drugs to kids, which are also supposedly linked to heart disease and cancer. You get the idea behind the conspiracy theory: Medicine ignores what creates chronic diseases but medicine and pharma are only too happy to profit from long term treatment of chronic illnesses. Before I get to RFK Jr.’s message about infectious diseases and vaccines and why it’s so at odds with reality, let’s take a look at the meeting itself.

RFK Jr.'s Rise and Resist
“Rise and resist”?

“Rise and Resist”: CHD’s 2nd Annual Conference

The first thing I did after seeing Brandy Zadrozny’s news report on the CHD conference and its keynote speaker, founder RFK Jr., was to wander over to its website. Contrary to RFK Jr.’s attempts to claim that he is “not antivaccine”—or even that he is “fiercely provaccine”—the speaker lineup proved to be a veritable rogues’ gallery of antivax grifters, headlined by RFK Jr. himself. Here is a decent sampling of the lineup:

Andrew Wakefield? RFK Jr.? Suzanne Humprhries? Brian Hooker? It doesn’t get much more antivax than this!
RFK Jr.'s Rise and Resist
I’m only familiar with two of these, Mary Holland and Christina Parks. Unfortunately, the latter is from my state.
RFK Jr.'s Rise and Resist
Because of course James Lyons-Weiler is there!
RFK Jr.'s Rise and Resist
Oh, look! Mark Skidmore is a speaker there. So much for his claims that he’s “not antivax.” Also, the above images aren’t even all of the antivax speakers at the CHD conference.

Admittedly, I hadn’t heard of some of these people, but most of them I am very familiar with, having written about them many times. Obviously, there’s RFK Jr., whom I’ve been writing about for over 18 years ever since he first wrote Deadly Immunity, which posited a vast conspiracy that the CDC “knew” that mercury in vaccines caused autism but covered it up. Not content to have arguably the most famous antivaxxer on its lineup, CHD also invited the granddaddy of the 21st century antivax movement, Andrew Wakefield. Seeing Wakefield in the lineup, I half wondered: Where’s Del Bigtree, given that Wakefield and Bigtree produced what was arguably the most influential antivax pseudodocumentary of the prepandemic era, VAXXED, but Brian Hooker likely fills in ably given that he was the one who first found the “CDC whistleblower” at the heart of the antivax conspiracy theory woven in the film. Then, of course, there’s Aseem Malhotra, a UK cardiologist turned antivax conspiracy theorist and propagandist who is one of the more famous faces of the anti-COVID-19 movement in the UK. Suzanne Humphries is, of course, a blast from the past, a longstanding antivax activist going way back, who has written a book about polio that has to be seen to be believed.

Among all the rest, I can’t help but notice that Christina Parks has moved up in the antivax world. She used to be a regular at local Michigan antivax and anti-“lockdown” protests early in the pandemic, as well as having spewed antivax talking points during testimony to the Michigan legislature against vaccine mandates, but now apparently she rates an invitation to the big time, which CHD definitely is in the antivax world. I note that Parks is not a professor, researcher, or academic, having apparently abandoned such pursuits long ago, even though to my embarrassment at having to admit it she did get her PhD at my alma mater, the University of Michigan. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with her being a teacher. It’d be great if more PhD scientists went into teaching science, as it is indeed a noble calling. However, whenever I encounter Parks, I also can’t help but point out for my readers that she and CHD are clearly using her PhD to imply that she is still a molecular biology researcher. So she was—over twenty years ago—and she apparently isn’t even a teacher any more, having left her job to do homeschooling, while more recently she appears to have founded an educational consulting business. Basically, hers is an appeal to false authority. Does her training two decades ago make her more knowledgeable than the average Joe about molecular biology and science? Sure. However, her knowledge is likely highly out of date if she hasn’t been in the field keeping up. She’s also clearly gone woo:

Thus, Dr. Parks brings a wealth of knowledge about how vaccines affect the immune system. Dr. Parks has spent many years studying the biochemistry of how pharmaceuticals and natural substances that enter our bodies affect the expression of genes and biochemical pathways that are essential to our health and well-being. Dr. Parks focuses on supporting the body in activating its natural detoxification and healing pathways by bringing signaling pathways back into balance.

Ah, “natural detoxification and healing”! Also, get a load of the panels that she’s on:

I realize that readers might have wondered why I devoted an so much verbiage to Dr. Parks. It’s simply because she’s from my home state and alma mater, as well as because her speaking at this conference signals to me how much she’s moved up in the antivax world. In addition, I had to note how Mark Skidmore, whose unbelievably awful “survey” claimed to have found that COVID-19 vaccines killed over a quarter million people in 2021, is also moving up in the antivax world. His paper, of course, was retracted and then laundered through James Lyons-Weiler’s fake journal. Let me just say this: If you appear at a CHD conference, you lose all plausible deniability when it comes to charges of being antivaccine. Also, if you actually work for CHD as a director, “scientist,” legal advisor, or whatever, similarly, you also lose all plausible deniability about being antivax. The same is true if you appear on a CHD video with longtime antivax activist Leslie ManookianRemember her? Now there’s a blast from the past!

As for the rest, many are likely so familiar to our readers, such as antivax pediatrician Paul Thomas and Andrew Wakefield’s buddy Polly Tommey (not pictured above) that I don’t feel the need to recount just how antivax all of them are. I was, however, curious about Brad Skistimas and his Five Times August act; so I looked him up and, well, his music is basically what you might expect, folk/folk-rock antivax:

What is it with all these antivax musicians?

Anyway, whether the act was any good before going antivax during the pandemic, Five Times August now sounds like the folkie version of the Refusers (remember them?), a hilariously bad antivax rock group whose heyday in the antivax world was a decade ago, although these days Eric Clapton and Van Morrison have been sounding more and more like the Refusers. (Maybe Five Times August will be opening for Eric Clapton and Van Morrison the next time they tour.) Also, let’s just say that his Instagram account is…something else. I suspect that Tom Morello would not appreciate this:

In any event, I think I’ve made my point about the CHD conference being totally antivax, although in fairness it also features quacks who are luminaries in the anti-5G fear mongering movement, as well as that all purpose defender of quacks and antivaxxers everywhere who was formerly cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski’s lawyer until Burzynski stiffed him for a $250,000 legal bill, Rick Jaffe. If I haven’t just peruse the advertised topics:

  • Propaganda
  • The Ominous History of the Vaccine Program
  • What You’re Not Told about the Vaccine Schedule
  • Cover-Ups, Censorship & Persecutions
  • The Truth About Vaccine Injury
  • The Financial System Crisis & What You Can Do
  • CHD.TV from Savannah
  • How to Reestablish Scientific Integrity
  • Functional Assessments: A Better Approach to Healthcare
  • Environmental Contaminants: Proper and Improper Mitigation Strategies
  • Threats to Our Food Supply and Solutions
  • Wireless Technology & EMR: Solutions To Protect Your Home & Your Community
  • The Legal Battles: The Wins, The Losses & Our Next Steps
  • The CHD Bus — Vax-Unvax: The People’s Study

You get the idea. But what about RFK Jr.’s speech? Let’s take a look.

RFK Jr: Still antivax after all these years

Since he first announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President before eventually figuring out that he has no chance of winning the nomination and pivoting to run for President as an independent, RFK Jr. has been trying to convince people that he’s not antivaccine. For example, this news story from Zadrozny published in June noted:

But Kennedy doesn’t want to talk about vaccines — at least not from the campaign trail.

In a 108-minute speech in Boston in April announcing his run, Kennedy never brought up vaccines — alluding only once to some mystery cause for all childhood ailments. It was a striking omission for the founder of Children’s Health Defense, the country’s largest anti-vaccine organization, which describes itself as a “child health protection and advocacy group.” The organization’s employees sell Kennedy’s buttons and bumper stickers and its on-leave president is now the campaign’s director of volunteers.

Full-page newspaper ads supporting Kennedy make no mention of vaccines. The super PAC that paid for them — an anti-pharmaceutical industry organization that pivoted to supporting Kennedy’s candidacy — is run by John Gilmore, the president of Children’s Health Defense’s New York chapter. A main funder, Wall Street trader Mark Gorton, is also a major donor to Children’s Health Defense.

Kennedy also doesn’t discuss vaccines in the 8-minute promotional video posted on his social platforms in June. Titled “Running on Truth,” the video features heroes of the anti-vaccine movement who similarly skate past any talk of vaccines.

And Del Bigtree, founder of the second-best-funded anti-vaccine nonprofit (after Kennedy’s) who acts as Kennedy’s hype man at fundraisers, only winked at the reason for his endorsement, tweeting, “I just donated $100. If you know why I did it then join me.”

Bigtree’s response immediately brings to mind a famous Monty Python sketch. More recently, this weekend there appeared a puff piece on RFK Jr.’s campaign in the Deseret News. Curiously, it only mentions vaccines briefly and in passing:

An environmental lawyer, he spent decades litigating to protect waterways. He was also involved in several controversial issues, founding Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that has advocated against vaccines for children, claiming links to autism. He’s shared a number of controversial theories relating to school shootings and COVID-19 vaccines. In more recent interviews, however, he’s taken a more measured approach. “All I’m saying,” he told Bill Maher, “is let’s test (vaccines) the way we test other medicines. That does not seem unreasonable.”

“Controversial”? I think the correct description is “bonkers conspiracy theories about vaccines.” It also reports something that is out-and-out false:

But Kennedy knows Trump, too — at Trump’s invitation, Kennedy served on a vaccine safety commission during the Trump administration.

Not exactly. Then President-Elect Trump did invite RFK Jr. to meet with him during the transition in 2017, ostensibly to discuss the possibility of his chairing a “vaccine safety commission.” However, the commission never came to be; so RFK Jr. never chaired it, even though the meeting did fire up antivaxxers to flood the transition team with anecdotes about “vaccine injury.” I repeat, though: The commission never happened, even though Donald Trump himself had had a long history of credulity about antivax pseudoscience claiming that vaccines cause autism and had met with Andrew Wakefield himself during the 2016 Presidential campaign.

Normally, whenever I see a speech like RFK Jr.’s CHD speech hyped, I look to the antivax crankosphere to find video of the whole thing, or at least more quotes, either video or documented, then I could find in Zadrozny’s report. Oddly enough, I was unable to find video or a transcript of RFK Jr.’s speech, despite searching rather vigorously on his website. RFK Jr. doesn’t mention it on his own X/Twitter feed, nor can I find it on any social media feeds. It’s almost as though RFK Jr. and his antivax supporters don’t want the full speech to be easily findable, and I can see why from Zadrozny’s account. First, let’s look at some of the other things RFK Jr. was reported to have said, and then I’ll circle back to his “break” from infectious disease research:

A representative for Children’s Health Defense declined my request to attend the conference in person, citing my record of “reporting on CHD’s themes and activities.” NBC News paid $275 for a virtual ticket and watched the conference via a livestream provided to remote attendees.

On second thought, it’s not necessary to attribute to malice what can be attributed to grift. Perhaps the reason that the video is nowhere to be found online is because CHD doesn’t want anything to prevent it from profiting from its conference. But let’s continue:

In the hourlong speech, Kennedy covered well-worn subjects, railing against the evils of pharmaceutical companies, warning against researchers who he said improperly frame scientific findings for profit, and expounding on conspiracy theories around Covid measures, including what he called the “totalitarian regime” that controls public health and censorship of dissenting voices. Referring to vaccines, he said to the mothers in the audience: “You have a duty to do research when you’re giving your child a medical intervention.”

In addition to his proposed moves at NIH, Kennedy said that as president, he’d appoint a like-minded attorney general, “maybe Aaron Siri,” he said. Siri is a lawyer who has done millions of dollars of work for leading anti-vaccination groups, including a recent case that opened up religious exemptions for childhood vaccines in Mississippi. The crowd erupted in applause.

He said he would use the power of that attorney general to threaten editors of medical journals and force them to publish studies that had been retracted (he often cites the retracted studies saying ivermectin, a parasite drug, is an effective treatment for Covid). “We’re gonna say we’re fixing to file some racketeering lawsuits if you don’t start telling the truth in your journals.”

I always love how these “free speech warriors” have no problem imposing their beliefs on what speech should be published and amplified on journals, websites, and other privately-owned entities when they don’t like the editorial policies of those entities. Basically, it’s “unlimited free speech for me, but not for thee.” After all, free speech rights involve not being forced to publish something that you do not agree with or just plain don’t want to publish, but RFK Jr., showing his authoritarian bent, would happily force journals to publish crappy studies because he doesn’t like the peer review process that excluded them from being published. When he accuses his enemies of being a “totalitarian regime,” it’s pure projection.

As for Aaron Siri, you might remember that he is a master propagandist, the man apparently behind the antivax trope that childhood vaccines aren’t tested against saline placeboes. It’s a trope that RFK Jr. has repeated for years and years now, and, as I’ve discussed, it rests upon an obvious failure (or lack of desire) to understand clinical trial ethics and design. I won’t go into detail here, as I’ve discussed this trope and why it’s so deceptive a number of times, while Susan Oliver recently posted an excellent video describing why it’s nonsense.

Seriously, antivaxxers. This isn’t a new trope! Whenever I see it, I like to say: “Tell me you don’t understand clinical trial ethics and design without telling me you don’t understand clinical trial ethics and design.”

Infectious diseases versus chronic diseases: A false dilemma

I’ll conclude this post by circling back to RFK Jr.’s proposal for an eight-year “break” in infectious disease research. I must admit that when I heard that I was amazed that someone trying to sound reasonable would make such a proposal. If I were an antivaxxer trying to appear reasonable to the vast majority of the public who is not antivax, I might propose shifting some emphasis from infectious disease and vaccine research to research on chronic diseases, but I wouldn’t propose stopping funding infectious disease research at the NIH altogether for eight years—or even at all. After all, if anything, the pandemic should have taught us how underfunded and understudied infectious diseases were before the pandemic, with whole disciplines (e.g., parasitology) described as “largely empty” fields. It’s true that funding had been increasing before the pandemic with the recognition of the toll of infectious diseases, particularly in the developing world, but funding for tropical diseases, for instance, remained stagnant.

Another piece of evidence that, far from being flush with cash, infectious disease research has generally been underfunded comes from the observation of how few new antibiotics have been brought to market, in part because venture capitalists fund far fewer funds to support the development and testing of new antibiotics than they do for many other classes of drugs. Indeed, the fight against resistant bacteria has been termed by some as the “underfunded pandemic.” Indeed, shortly before the pandemic the World Health Organization was warning that the lack of new antibiotics was threatening global efforts to contain drug-resistant infections. If anything, arguably more funding, not less, should be directed towards infectious diseases, antibiotics and vaccines, because, contrary to RFK Jr.’s claim, infectious diseases are not a particularly profitable area of research, aside from the COVID-19 vaccines, which are becoming a lot less profitable as the pandemic recedes and people are less interested in getting them.

It’s difficult not to wonder whether this particularly stupid gem of a proposal from RFK Jr. arose because of his personal enmity towards Anthony Fauci, who ran the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for four decades before retiring last year, because even in the antivax worldview this proposal is off, particularly given the longstanding embrace of quackery involving “chronic Lyme disease” by antivaxxers. Then there’s long COVID, which, while not yet well understood, many antivaxxers still accept as a syndrome that requires treatment, as evidenced by all the quackery sold on antivax websites for “long COVID” along with the quackery for “vaccine injury.” Moreover, as I said before, even the messaging is off. Sure, antivaxxers have long claimed that vaccines are insanely profitable, even though they generally are not and liability concerns were so bad forty years ago as to force Congress to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 that created the “no-fault” compensation system for vaccine injury and a Vaccine Court to hear cases, lest the last vaccine manufacturers abandon the US market. Then, as I mentioned above, antivaxxers and quacks have long claimed that “treating” as opposed to “curing” chronic diseases is what is really insanely profitable.

The bottom line, of course, is that RFK Jr. has been antivax for at least 18 years. He remains antivax. He will likely continue to be antivax for however long he lives. Zadrozny’s characterization of his speech at CHD on Friday was spot on: RFK Jr. was indeed coming home. I only wonder if he used any Holocaust analogies. Perhaps I should ask Zadrozny.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

155 replies on “No matter how much he tries, RFK Jr. can’t hide his antivax nature”

“I do not believe that infectious disease is an enormous threat to human health.”
– RFK Junior, June 27, 2023

“The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country. Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”
– Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Hon. Joseph P. Kennedy II, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

Let me know how can RFK possibly do worse than your Biden?

With two escalating wars starting and still going on during his term. Or by playing Santa Claus with mega inflation as a result and further bringing the entire world into financial abyss.
Isn’t Biden the biggest foulish and corrupt clown of your history of presidents?

Self reflect, Mark. You’re laughable.

It depends on what Trump expects to win with a prolongation against the risks.
Trump is a businessman and is not into some leftist idealism.
I can be wrong, but I guess he will trade the US out of the war soon if he would be president.

Trump is a failed businessman, a racist, bigot, misogynist, authoritarian, supporter of neo-nazis and white supremacists, has a history of sexual assault — it’s clear why you support him. “Trade the US out of the war” — you are more of an idiot than you’ve let on if you think that is a thing.

He can just stop aid to Ukraine (if Congress approves). If he tries to trade Putin to stop attacks he is into a great suprise.

Bobby Junior wants to destroy public health in this country. That was made clear when “He then laid out his vision for a Kennedy presidency, which would include telling the National Institutes of Health to take “a break” from studying infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and measles,”

Only an idiot or a sadist who loves seeing kids suffer from infectious diseases with a high chance of permanent harm (including death) would think this is a good idea.

Wait? Is Ukraine and Gaza all Biden’s fault? Are there American troops in Ukraine and Israel?

I tell you what else Is Biden’s fault. Winter! Trump would have made it summer by now. How else would be see his daughter in a bikini?

Exactly. Biden started all the wars they said Trump would start. Not a fan of Trump’s demeanor. But the comparison between Biden and Trump in terms of results is plain.

Russia started a war by attacking Ukraine and Hamas stared another by attacking Israel. Simple is it no ?

Sorry Biden’s been delaying your deliveries of fentanyl, Lucas.

Today’s inflation rate is 3.2% – if that’s mega-inflation, you must be very young indeed, which is why you expect a US president to be a superhero who can stop wars with his bare hands. Sure, by walking down a ramp without someone to hold his hand and holding a glass of water in one hand, Biden seems superhuman – but that’s only by contrast with the previous guy.

There can be an incentive to produce drugs that people have to take for long periods of time

As I mentioned elsewhere, it’s basic economics, and hence, orphan illnesses on one end of the spectrum, and men’s troubles on the other end. During development, a little pill with the potential of millions of repeat customers is likely to get priority over another pill whose customer base is much narrow.
Although some niche pharma may still be interested.
And to be fair, it also depends on what is available for development. Big Pharma cannot produce and sell a cure for diabetes, etc. if that cure has not been found. Basic research is not the purview of the private sector. They may do a bit, but not all of it, and most of Pharma R&D is actually the D part.
And like autism, like cancer, the “root cause” of most chronic illnesses may not be one, but a plethora of causes, including genetics.

Also, of note, there are cheap (relatively), used only a few times, products proposed by Big Pharma to effectively prevent nasty diseases. They are called vaccines.

One of those drugs works really well for BPH, which most men either have or will have, so they’re not just “vanity” drugs. This is often presented this way, as if men should just “deal” with problems and I find it really unhelpful. It makes it easier for the likes of Igor to win converts: “See! They HATE men!! Buy my subscription.”

We can talk about crappy pharma research practices without bringing viagra into it. There are WAY worse examples of stupid drug research focus.

Sildenafil was developed as a treatment for hypertension and angina pectoris anyway. Something the usual “eevil big pharma” windbags tend to gloss over.

Crazy idea: not all vaccines are the same. Not all vaccines are of the same safety and efficacy profile. The risk-reward is case-by-case. Imagine.

Which is why some are standard and some are only recommended in particular circumstances.

Imagine, if you will, that there isn’t a single thing relating to vaccines, that you can think of, that hasn’t already been thought of.

This is generally true of all science deniers. They think of something, some objection, to the science they deny and think that they’re the first to have thought of it. It virtually always turns out that scientists had thought of that objection long before, done investigations to see if there was anything to the objection, and concluded that there was not.

“not all vaccines are the same.”

Tell that to RFKjr and his pals.
They are unable to cite a single vaccine in the current schedule which they would approve as sufficiently safe and efficient.

Crazy idea: Unlike what antivaxxers say, vaccine advocates never claim that “all vaccines are of the same safety and efficacy profile.” Antivaxxers, on the other hand, do. They frequently claim, either implicitly or explicitly, that all vaccines are more or less equally dangerous and ineffective.

Is RFK jr cluelessly engineering the perfect (shit) storm?

Before I start, be reminded that he was encouraged to run for president by Steve Bannon, chaos agent extraordinaire ( Daily Beast, NBC).
Siri has been using his formidable verbal skills to undercut vaccine laws around the US even as the pandemic continued.
Del and RFK jr have been funded by Big BIG money to do their magic.

RIGHT NOW, the US is involved in two wars and various international crises as a presidential election looms and the economy slowly recovers. Recent polls show that RFK jr might significantly affect election results although it’s not clear whom he would hurt more. One candidate is facing court dates for insurrection-related crimes, election interference as well as business fraud and defamation as he threatens revenge when he wins. The other is involved in touchy negotiations with adversaries across the globe and tricky economic issues at home.

RFK jr parades himself as an actor on the international stage but I fear that he may actually have deleterious effects he didn’t bargain on.

@ Lucas

You write: “With two escalating wars starting and still going on during his term. Or by playing Santa Claus with mega inflation as a result and further bringing the entire world into financial abyss. Isn’t Biden the biggest foulish and corrupt clown of your history of presidents?”

First, Biden wasn’t my first choice; but I voted for him as far better than Trump. As for “mega inflation”, just how stupid are you? Current inflation is not close to “mega” and was mainly because of subsidies from government because of pandemic, people being laid off from jobs, etc.. As for “Isn’t Biden the biggest foulish and corrupt clown of your history of presidents?” Are you incapable of reasoned comments or are you the “foolish and corrupt clown” who grossly exaggerates in your comments. Actually, what you wrote applies much better to Trump, though still grossly exaggerated.

Orac writes excellent articles with clear balanced statements, including sometimes links, and so do the vast majority of commenters. I do in some ways like your comments as they remind me why this nation is in trouble, because of people like you who are incapable of normal reasoning.

@Joel

“As for “mega inflation”, just how stupid are you? Current inflation is not close to “mega” and was mainly because of subsidies from government because of pandemic, people being laid off from jobs, etc..”

I wrote mega, not hyper. And indeed, we do have a very high level of inflation. Similar to like we had in the 70’s. Be alert and look into what’s in your inflation numbers and what’s left out. How about f.e. energy, how about the price of a house? Real inflation is seriously high. Have you any idea what your purchasing power will be as a pensionado in five or in ten years with the current trend?
And btw, be prepared for stagflation, even worse.
Yup, your governments made some serious mistakes with this free money. Isolating everyone turned out wrong too.

“As for “Isn’t Biden the biggest foulish and corrupt clown of your history of presidents?” Are you incapable of reasoned comments or are you the “foolish and corrupt clown” who grossly exaggerates in your comments. Actually, what you wrote applies much better to Trump, though still grossly exaggerated.”
I like to summarize, Joel. What’s wrong with that?
Too bad you voted for him, it makes you partly responsible for his inhuman actions.
So I grossly exaggerate?
I wouldn’t play down, Joel. We watch these conflicts, the corruption, the hate, climate change, the division, a monstrous debt piled up. Judge Biden on these issues, his track record shows catastrophy.
We cannot go on like this. In my crystal ball I see more of a snowball crisis, I see a mixture of threats that will lead to culmination, Joel. And I even wrote this here before these wars started. It looks dark and as you already have, you will experience more I’m right about it.

In my crystal ball…

your ‘predictions’ are as accurate as the stereotype “psychic” who uses a crystal ball: that is to say, they’re never right and are always based on pure BS.

@ Lucas

You write: “Let me know how can RFK possibly do worse than your Biden?”

I’ve followed RFK for many years. His environmental works are great; e.g., against water pollution and based on sound science. However, his position on vaccines is INSANE. Even his family have disagreed. His position on vaccines has been torn to shreds by Orac and on other webpages. Yet, he refuses to budge. I don’t understand given his previous science-based positions on water pollution. And if as President he actually sabotaged government vaccine programs we could see additional suffering among literally millions of people, huge increase in hospitalizations, kids missing school, and even disabilities and deaths. So, yep, many of his programs even he were President I agree with; but his antivax position could cause such tremendous harm that it outweighs everything else.

his position on vaccines is INSANE. […] I don’t understand given his previous science-based positions on water pollution.

I was recently playing armchair psychologist about that.
It stuck me that RFKjr has taken his previous fight against water pollution, and seems to have copy-pasted his rhetoric from that time to the topic of vaccines.
He must had to use a hammer to fit a few square pegs into round holes.

He is the first to remind everybody how he has been fighting against “soulless money-grabbing giant corporations” responsible for environmental pollution. He was saying so at AutismOne in 2019, during the HPV sub-conference.
In that context of pollution by pesticides and other chemicals, some human-made substances are the universal cause, the “root cause” of a number of deleterious effects on humans, human habitat, and the whole planet.
And RFKjr was not asking for remediation, “curing” pollution, but for stopping it.
I feel that Kennedy is re-applying the same discourse, the same mindset, but with pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, and applied solely to human health.
The difference is, of course, that science was mostly on his side with the former topic. Not so much with the latter one.
He may have started believing he has evidence. He recounted once how he met an antivax woman who trusted him with her stack of scientific articles demonstrating the evilness of vaccines, and that’s how he was convinced and found his new hobbyhorse.
Then it went downhill from there.

Tl;dr: RFKjr was looking for an encore, a new quest for a knight in a shining armor. And coming upon vaccines, he decided that would be it.
Any later evidence to the contrary be damned.

Exactly. I haven’t heard anything about him in respect of environmental law for many years. It seems as if the combined effect of his lawsuits along with work by the EPA and government restrictions on pollution and dumping pretty much got the rivers cleaned up about as well as they could be (aside from counterfeiters ref: Reacher season 1 /s)

So he may have been looking around for a new horse to ride when he heard about mothers thinking their child developed autism from a vaccine. He jumped on that horse and has been riding it ever since.

I rather suspect half of his motivation in running for president was to expand his grift base a la Trump by pitching for political contributions which he could funnel somewhat as he chooses.

Can’t really tell at this point, but time will tell.

@Joel

It consider it a waste of time, but I once worked for a provincial government and did the preparatory work (environmental sector) for the politician in power. I feel confident to say that everyone in politics gets dirty hands.
This is one reason I try hard to stay away from politics and not choose side.

Nevertheless, just like you, I feel sympathy for one person and don’t like the other. I cannot say I dislike RFK, he seems authentic and of good will; nor did I dislike Trump, he’s a business man. He may have had a big mouth, but I don’t think he had a war mentality.
I guess that Biden has been much more attracted by lobbyists as was Trump. This will be the reason we have now wars going on; I doubt we would have seen this during Trump’s term.

Wars seem to come in cycles and they have always shown up when there was a challenging power and a dominating power in decline (The Netherlands where I live was once no exception). Plus the US seem to have a solution for (serious) domestic economic issues: war. It’s disturbing.

I wouldn’t know why RFK would sabotage vaccine programs. Not that I’m tightly following him, but seems just not to keen on mRNA vaccines against covid.

“I wouldn’t know why RFK would sabotage vaccine programs. Not that I’m tightly following him, but seems just not to keen on mRNA vaccines against covid.”

You are so very behind with the insanity of RFK, jr: http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/06/saloncom-flushes-its-credibility-down.html

The article that is being discussed is Bobby, jr claiming thimerosal is bad, and vaccines with them should not be used. This was five years after thimerosal was removed from pediatric vaccines in the USA.

By the way, did you actually read the above article? Biden is not even mentioned, so you blathering about him is a bit off topic.

Be more concrete. Speak about Russia’s war against Ukraine and Hamas’ war against Israel.

May I please put on my tinfoil hat (I brought out a fresh roll for this actually so I’m very excited to compose this bit of fiction) and play pretend?

If I were a conspiracy theorist I would say that his anti vaccine stance ties perfectly into his being spot on as an environmentalist (I’m trying to use the same logic here that people use to claim that Bill Gates wants to depopulate the planet).

His (evil) plan is to discourage people who are least likely to take measures to help/protect the environment from vaccinating themselves and their children, increasing the odds of them dying sooner, therefore polluting less and doing less to harm the environment. On the flip side, those most likely to get vaccinated are also the most environmentally conscious.

Either way you look at it, it’s a win for the planet! Get rid of people who will harm it while benefiting those who will help it.

So, what do you all think, do I have a chance of making money from a substack and winning the adoration of all the Cosco milfs?

Respectfully, RFK Junior’s views on pollution aren’t that great either. Not as bananas as his attacks on public health, but he’s promoting “free market” approaches to pollution that are great for polluters but not for clean water and clean air. Greenwashing.

@ Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH:

I’ve always wondered about his mostly science-based positions on the environment vs his loony-bin anti-vax et al
and can only venture that he used better sources/ advisors for the first and crap on the second. I don’t imagine that he did any investigation into the details for either one. He accepted Wakefield and Hooker. Why didn’t he consult with SBM researchers/ scientists? Did he excessively fear The Establishment so much?

I once had an opportunity to meet him at a soiree at a Georgian mansion as a fundraiser for a river/ estuary museum/ foundation but didn’t go because I didn’t want to say something that would get me kicked out.

His abilities have probably devolved since his earlier work. The CHD website absolutely reeks of CTs and contamination fear mongering. His X account ( nitter.net Robert Kennedy Jr) recently had an entry about the war saying that if he were in charge he would make peace. Just like that. Anyone can say that.

@ Everyone

Slightly off topic; but Ukrainian war. Russia’s attack is a war crime, especially targeting civilians; but the US bears greatest responsibility. When Gorbachev was dismantling the Soviet Union and freeing Eastern European nations he was promised not once; but six times that NATO would not move East. NATO was created as counter to Warsaw Pact, so with demise of Warsaw Pact . . . Yet NATO has moved East and if Ukraine joined, would totally surround Russia. Actually in 2014 a Ukrainian election favored closer ties with Russia; but CIA sabotaged it. The US didn’t want CUBA, an ally of Soviet Union to be communist. We wouldn’t want all nations around us to be allied with China, for instance. So, why did NATO move East? Because US doesn’t support freedom, democracy, etc. around the world; but wants world dominance! ! ! And after fall of Soviet Union, Russia experienced period of shortages of medicines, food, etc. and US didn’t help much, so millions of Russians suffered.

And we are NOT a democracy. States with 600,000 have two senators as do states with 40 million. We have only two parties, so if one wins by few votes, since two parties represent quite different politics, all or none. Democracy would have ticket of, for instance, five parties; e.g., Libertarian, Green, Social Democrat, Democrats, and Republicans. Instead of voting for individuals, we would vote for a party and they would get number of representatives by percentage of votes. Result would be often coalitions needed to govern, so not all or none; but compromise. And, as far as I have learned, no other Western advanced democracy allows one person, President, to have so much power. Party coalition would choose “President”. Congress can override; but historically hasn’t. So, whether Biden, Trump, etc. far too much power for one individual. And thanks to Supreme Court, we are only nation that spends 100s of million of dollars on elections. Democracy based on informed consent of governed; but unfortunately many American vote based on 30 second soundbites, etc.

You still think that it is perfectly right that US and Russia decide other countries foreign policy. You could tell were this is in writing (one case in writing is obviously enough).
Budapest memorandum is in writing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum
Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons got security assurances in return.

@Chris

“Bobby Junior wants to destroy public health in this country. That was made clear when “He then laid out his vision for a Kennedy presidency, which would include telling the National Institutes of Health to take “a break” from studying infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and measles,”
Only an idiot or a sadist who loves seeing kids suffer from infectious diseases with a high chance of permanent harm (including death) would think this is a good idea.”

Is RFK against vaccines for kids or mRNA vaccines against covid for kids?

“Is RFK against vaccines for kids or mRNA vaccines against covid for kids?”

The answer is written in the above article. Try actually reading it. Because there were no mRNA vaccines in 2005.

Silly troll. RFK Jr. has been against vaccines for kids since 2005 (at least). I’ve long documented his antivax bleatings, and long before the pandemic he was likening vaccines and autism to the Holocaust.

Here is my most recent recounting of RFK Jr.’s antivax proclamations:

https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/06/19/rfk-jr-in-his-own-words-fiercely-antivax/

I have many more posts going back to 2005 documenting just how antivax RFK Jr. has been and still is, but I doubt you’ll pay attention.

@Chris

“By the way, did you actually read the above article? Biden is not even mentioned, so you blathering about him is a bit off topic.”

If you change the name ‘Biden’ into ‘Trump’, would you have mentioned my ‘blathering about him as a bit off topic’ as well?
Biden disappoints you and you don’t like to be confronted?

So you did not read the above article. Which is why you are blathering on about presidents of the USA, and not Kennedy’s delusional ideas. Good to know.

By the way the 2005 article I mentioned was also mentioned above in the article.

@ldw56old

“Trump is a failed businessman, a racist, bigot, misogynist, authoritarian, supporter of neo-nazis and white supremacists, has a history of sexual assault — it’s clear why you support him. “Trade the US out of the war” — you are more of an idiot than you’ve let on if you think that is a thing.”

If we judge a doctor by the many patients he cured, we judge a businessman by the money he made. Wikipedia: “Forbes estimates it at $2.6 billion for Trump as of 2023 (with him making much higher claims). At least $2,6 bn does not seem much ‘failed’ to me.

And well, he was your president, you’ll know him better. Here in The Netherlands I’m already a racist when I say this is an over crowded country. What made Trump your racist?

Didn’t I just repeat I’m not into politics? So not supporting any politician? And certainly not one that calls for lower , instead of higher, interest rates in times like these. With Trump it was politics before economics as well. I’m not too keen on short term thinking only.

Since you do not have the mentality of a business man at all, who are you to judge what will be the likely steps from reelected Trump?

We can judge what Trump’s likely actions will be if he is elected again by a very simple thing. He’s been telling us for several months what he’ll do if elected President again, and what he will do is very much fascist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/us/politics/trump-vermin-rhetoric-fascists.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/13/how-trumps-rhetoric-compares-hitlers/

Those who dismiss his his plans to use the federal government to seek revenge on his enemies and his talk of extrajudicial executions, mass deportations, etc. as hyperbole are making a big mistake. He means it.

As for Trump’s business acumen, I lived in NJ in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and we used to joke there back then that only Donald Trump can run casinos—which are basically a license to print money—into bankruptcy.

Since Trump has already been found liable of fraud in a summary judgement, and the current trial is simply to determine the penalty, a portion of that $2.6 billion is essentially the proceeds of fraud. Trump is a success at business as much as Andrew Wakefield was a success at medical research.

The oft-repeated talking point about the trial only now being about the penalty is false. Trump et al are facing several related counts, and only one of those was subject to the summary judgement: that the documents they submitted were indeed fraudulent. The other counts relate IIRC to what roles and responsibilities various people had in creating the fraud, other conditions involved and so on. My understanding is that the total possible penalty will be dependent on how many of these additional counts the judge finds for the State. That is, the count already adjudicated could not on it’s own justify the total penalties the State has requested. Thus while it is true there has been a judgement of fraud, and the total penalty for the defendants is still st issue, it is not ONLY the penalty that is at issue.

“What made Trump your racist?”

His continued push for imprisonment of 5 men who were accused, and then cleared, of raping a woman in Central park. He never stopped doing that.

In 1973 discrimination lawsuit was brought by the Justice Department for trump’s refusal, along with his father’s, to rent apartments in buildings predominantly leased to whites to black tenants. The trumps routinely marked applications filed by black apartment seekers with a “C’’ for “colored.” A settlement that ended the lawsuit did not require the Trumps to explicitly acknowledge that discrimination had occurred — but the government’s description of the settlement said Trump and his father had “failed and neglected” to comply with the Fair Housing Act.

His repeated harping on “Obama was not born in the US”.

I’m not surprised you’re too lazy to look for facts since you don’t have any use for them, and I’m not surprised you admit, with no shame, to being a racist yourself. Your repeated dismissal of historical and scientific fact mark as someone more concerned with your built in biases than anything to do with data or facts: your racism is simply a social presentation of your overall ignorance.

Yup. Trump is obviously racist af, and anyone who doesn’t see that is also likely also racist, which is why they don’t see or acknowledge his obvious racism.

Note that discrimination lawsuit was brought by the NIXON administration (that President was very racist, according to the tapes he had made of Oval Office conversations).

@Chris

““Is RFK against vaccines for kids or mRNA vaccines against covid for kids?”
The answer is written in the above article. Try actually reading it. Because there were no mRNA vaccines in 2005.”

In the 90’s I went to Russia and the organisor of this trip / convention advised everyone to get some particular vaccines. In those days I worked for the government and the colleague I shared a room with – a graduate in medicine – asked me for what reason a healthy young guy would need those vaccines.
I’m sure you and your fact checkers out there would have blacklisted him as a dangerous anti-vaxxer. I don’t know RFK well, but I guess he probably has some working brain; probably it’s similar cherry picking with regards to RFK.

Foolish troll, RFK has a very long history of saying very antivax things and supporting measures to demonize vaccines and discourage parents from vaccinating, dating back to 15 years (at least) before the pandemic hit.

I’ve been reviewing RFK jr’s history on vaccines-autism and realised something interesting:
his followers make much of his vaunted abilities as an investigator. As Orac notes, Kennedy’s involvement goes back to at least 2005 – do you know what also goes back to 2005 ( and beyond)?
Extremely detailed research into the origins of autism: genetics, neurodevelopment and pre-natal studies about autistic brains.

Well known researchers have even counted numbers of cells, layers and their connections and how they depart from average! They discuss pre-natal development, trimester by trimester, and what affects it. Anyone with a computer can find this research and it consists of volumes of studies in diverse areas of inquiry that converge to present a unified picture. Other studies show how very early signs of autism are apparent to observers before vaccines.

How did these brilliant anti-vax investigators- be they lawyers, scientists, tech bros or concerned parents- miss all that?
Anyone who accepts vaccines-cause-autism has problems with thinking.

When shown to be wrong about something you are deeply invested in, you can admit you’re wrong or double down. We know what RFK, Jr. chose. Just like every other narcissist who knows better than the experts.

@ Matt G:
(One of Orac’s followers wrote a lot about narcissism a while ago)

A few psychologists ( Douglas, Hornsey, Stea) address narcissistic features ( not necessarily dx) and what the mental states of anti-vaxxers, denialists, contrarians resemble. Others advise people how to deal with “difficult” people like them in RL.

I ask how does someone come to believe that their own take is superior to that of experts? Most of those I survey have minimal education/ experience in MOST of the areas they pontificate about:
nutritionists forecasting economic trends and war scenarios; language PhDs advising medical care ( Margulis) or writing sociological evaluations about people who live in lock-down vs “free” states ( Naomi Wolf/ Substack Thanksgiving Gathering)

RFK jr’s arrogance of ignorance surpasses most of those I regularly survey: he would become the leader of a powerful country whose decisions vastly affect most of the world and overhaul its system of oversight on scientific, security and economic issues – cutting research on infectious disease/ creating very low mortgage rates/ stopping support of allies/ trying government officials he disagrees with.
I can understand how he must be unhappy living in the shadows of his late father and uncle but he goes far beyond normalcy when he cavalierly states that he would ‘bring peace’ to Gaza.

Of course, I wouldn’t dx anyone but let’s just say, he’s not someone I would want to interact with in any way.

I gave an example of his investigative naivete concerning the vaccines-cause-autism paradigm:
anyone with mild computer skills can find SBM studies about this topic which has been studied and evaluated for over 40 years and is VAST. How did he miss all that? Even if he hired researchers, didn’t he choose bad ones? Most of those on CHD apply motivated reasoning and align closely with him, not reality.

He showcases himself as an outdoorsman and explorer to offset his privileged origins although he relies upon his name grandiosely and displays his wealth. He tries to convince us of his sincerity and pure motives but usually fails. He has no experience in governing but parades that fact as a qualifying attribute… the US already had a president like that recently.

Decades ago an anonymous “graduate in medicine” allegedly expressed doubt to Lucas concerning the need for vaccines when visiting Russia.

Well, that settles it then. 🙂

Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, all the vaccine-preventable diseases found in Russia – you’re magically immune to them if you’re a healthy young person. Why, we proved that with influenza, not just with H1N1 flu but as far back as 1918.

http://history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence

Any “graduate in medicine” who is against preventative medicine has never dealt with the consequences of forgoing it in a clinical setting. I just put another “But but but I took ivermectin” 50’s male on a vent. I can’t believe this bs is still happening!!

Who cares what you claim you did? You are commenting on a article that you did not bother to read. That is clearly obvious with your off topic blathering.

@Orac

“Silly troll. RFK Jr. has been against vaccines for kids since 2005 (at least).”

What’s the relation between the troll and RFK being against vaccines?
Fine for RFK, so what. Nevertheless, there are physicians enough as well that are by no means proponents for the at random vaccination of children. Perhaps they are right.
As far as I’m aware your country is the only one left vaccinating infants against covid? Perhaps RFK is of the opinion it is criminal to give them some hazardous shot(s) they don’t need in the first place. I guess that’s why we stopped injecting our infants against covid here in Europe.

“”I’ve long documented his antivax bleatings, and long before the pandemic he was likening vaccines and autism to the Holocaust.”
Here is my most recent recounting of RFK Jr.’s antivax proclamations:
RFK Jr. “in his own words”: Fiercely antivax
I have many more posts going back to 2005 documenting just how antivax RFK Jr. has been and still is, but I doubt you’ll pay attention.”

I’m sorry, I wasn’t around until a couple of years ago. But I cannot imagine RFK did not have his children vaccinated against polio.
Regarding mRNA vaccines against covid, perhaps the batches aren’t the same and pose less of a threat in your country as they do in mine. To repeat myself, there are two women I have known for half a century having miserable side effects immediatly after vaccination: one ending up with a double double pulmonary embolism and the other ending up in a wheelchair (couldn’t stand up anymore). From other sources around me I’ve heard enough scary stories (I wrote them all down before here in detail) to decide that in case I had young children, I would not let them have this vaccine you’re promoting here ceaselessly. In my opinion it is criminal to pose your children to danger for something they don’t need in the first place (with some exceptions, fine). How can a physician be so blinded?

To repeat myself, there are two women I have known for half a century having miserable side effects immediatly after vaccination: one ending up with a double double pulmonary embolism and the other ending up in a wheelchair (couldn’t stand up anymore).

So now you’re borrowing igor’s brand of bullshit, crap that is so unbelievable it’s laughable.

@Orac

“We can judge what Trump’s likely actions will be if he is elected again by a very simple thing. He’s been telling us for several months what he’ll do if elected President again, and what he will do is very much fascist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/

Unfortunately I’m not allowed to read that article in the Washingtonpost; but won’t this be more of the same defaming we’ve been reading for years? You’ve had Trump as your president for some years, in what way did he turn out to be this Hitler (clichéd) or Mussolini (clichéd) I saw mentioned in the title of your article? Not that I’m going to defend politicians, but wasn’t Trump that guy who even arranged peace with Kim Jong-un?

“Those who dismiss his his plans to use the federal government to seek revenge on his enemies and his talk of extrajudicial executions, mass deportations, etc. as hyperbole are making a big mistake. He means it.”

Has he changed that much in those four years?

“As for Trump’s business acumen, I lived in NJ from 1999-2008, and we used to joke that only Trump could run a casino—which is basically a license to print money—into bankruptcy.”

So Forbes is wrong.
Now that you mention money printing, to try and put this to a halt is what Trump should have used his influence for. In the end it’s just a game of transfer of wealth.

“Those who dismiss his his plans to use the federal government to seek revenge on his enemies and his talk of extrajudicial executions, mass deportations, etc. as hyperbole are making a big mistake. He means it.”

Has he changed that much in those four years?

His personality hasn’t changed. He’s always been driven by grievance and has always done his damnedest to seek revenge against those who he thinks have wronged him. What has changed since 2016 is that his sense of grievance and persecution has gone through the roof as a result of his second impeachment and all the criminal and civil cases against him, all of which he paranoidly views as being completely politically motivated.

Seriously, dude. His people are plotting right now how to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies after he’s elected President again as well as to eliminate the professional civil service and replace it with the spoils system so that he can fire anyone who opposes him and replace them with loyalists.

That’s not even counting all the times he’s more or less paraphrased Hitler in recent speeches, especially the one he gave on Saturday.

@Dangerous Bacon

“Decades ago an anonymous “graduate in medicine” allegedly expressed doubt to Lucas concerning the need for vaccines when visiting Russia.”

If I told you that this afternoon 50 meters away from the apartment I’m staying, someone probably in his or her twenties jumped out of a window of the apartment complex for young professionals and even though I saw rescuers give this person large amounts of blood, he or she probably not survived the event, would you believe the story?
What you’ve got to learn Bacon, is that even if you consider things unlikely to have happened – aside from if you don’t like to hear it – the level of detail alone makes it likely true. So alledgedly – indeed, like all personal experiences. Anonymous – yes, would you care for his name?

“Well, that settles it then. 🙂”

Indeed, since decades even medical professionals have been warning for the use of vaccines when according to them, they do not outweigh the risks. Your RFK isn’t the only one.

“Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, all the vaccine-preventable diseases found in Russia – you’re magically immune to them if you’re a healthy young person. Why, we proved that with influenza, not just with H1N1 flu but as far back as 1918.”

Hepatitus was one of three vaccines indeed.
Not necessary to tell me, I took the shots.

“would you believe the story?”
No. 1) You have shown yourself to be a highly unreliable narrator. 2) Your “details” are what makes it more obviously false.

Why do you feel the need to make up and share upsetting stories?

@Chris

“Who cares what you claim you did? You are commenting on a article that you did not bother to read. That is clearly obvious with your off topic blathering.”

You still don’t get it, fine.
It saves time not to read when you already know the content.

@KeithB

@Joel “As for “mega inflation”, just how stupid are you? Current inflation is not close to “mega” and was mainly because of subsidies from government because of pandemic, people being laid off from jobs, etc..” I wrote mega, not hyper. And indeed, we do have a very high level of inflation. Similar to like we… Continue reading Untitled

When interest rates get to 18% you can compare now to the seventies!

What I said was that (real) inflation now and then is comparable and this is sadly true. It is the mega (I didn’t say hyper) inflation I warned about in september 2019. It’s just that Paul Volcker back then had the possibility and courage to fight inflation by pursuing a tight money policy of high interest rates, while up to now this dynamic has lacked. Any idea what would happen if the interest rate was set to 18% this time? God forbid and thus inflation will be a keeper.
Nevertheless we’re still in the process of rising interest rates, markets will self correct sooner or later anyway.
What we would normally need is restricted lending and investment, raised unemployment and temporarily reduced economic growth (btw, we need stagnation in order to achieve environmental objectives as well). But as you know we are dealing with monstruous debt traps, meanwhile all over the world. Which means that the last thing we could wish for is stagnating economies. This is not just unfortunate – it means inflation is here to stay – in fact it means the system is unsustainable, it will come to an end. And this may not be the best period to live in.
What you will experience not too far from now IMO is a combination of inflation and stagnation (stagflation). Which implies that life will become harder for most and if you do not invest in the right assets you will be financially stripped further and further. It is just these shockwaves I hope we will avoid, but I’m not so reassured. How about you?

@ Lucas

Maybe short period with interest rates you gave; but currently in US less than 8%

@NumberWang

“Wait? Is Ukraine and Gaza all Biden’s fault? Are there American troops in Ukraine and Israel?”

Have you read Joel’s recent post on the background of the conflict in Ukraine? Do so.
And may I remind you that Biden is president of the world dominating power? What have his efforts been to end the conflicts?
No NumerWang, the US is an aggressor. And this time it has resulted in war in Ukraine.

@ Lucas

We seem to agree on political issues; e.g., US aggression, etc. which is your specialty area; but when it comes to infectious diseases, vaccines, etc. not only not your specialty area; but you give NO indication you have tried to really study infectious diseases, vaccines, etc. You even made STUPID claim that children mainly safe from COVID, ignoring overwhelming data they are getting sick, missing school, being hospitalized, and developing long COVID & it isn’t just a few children.

Why don’t you stick to your specialty area and stop making a fool of yourself?

So, why can I write about political issues when infectious diseases, etc my area of specialty? Simple. Undergraduate degree in Political Science, minor Social Psychology & living alone with dog, I do lots of reading, and even found free lectures and courses on YouTube.

I have also bookmarked online newspapers/magazines & check them out every day:

Counterpunch
Alternet
Propublica
Mother Jones
Nation of Change
The Conversation
Covert Action Magazine
few others

There is no way to reason with this troll. He has not bothered to read the above article, so there is no way he will read anything that is suggested for him.

“No NumerWang, the US is an aggressor. And this time it has resulted in war in Ukraine.”

Ah? It really seemed like you were blaming Biden directly. Glad to see the you’re not unaware of the decades of foreign policy and funding choices that play a huge role.

Joel was wrong, and Biden was not president then. I hope that he can show an actual treaty against Nato expansion

@Matt G

“Just like every other narcissist who knows better than the experts.”

Wise remark, but does this apply to Orac as well?

@TBruse

“Since Trump has already been found liable of fraud in a summary judgement, and the current trial is simply to determine the penalty, a portion of that $2.6 billion is essentially the proceeds of fraud. Trump is a success at business as much as Andrew Wakefield was a success at medical research.”

As if fraud in business is so unusual.
Success in business is measured by money and money only. It’s sad, but it doesn’t matter how you get there.

Success in business is measured by money and money only. It’s sad, but it doesn’t matter how you get there.

I can easily see you defending and excusing the behavior of drug lords that way, and there would be no surprise if someone of your ilk did so.

So perhaps you consider Bul Super and Hiep Hieper in the Marten Toonder books as great businessmen.

Probably Carlos Escobar was a successfull businessman in your eyes.

@ Lucas

Read: Hospitalizations Associated with COVID-19 Among Children and Adolescents — COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1, 2020–August 14, 2021

First, good chance you are lying; but even if true, anecdotal. Though vaccine quite safe, no medical intervention is without some risk, so some individuals will suffer adverse events & such events, though very low probabilities, by chance could cluster. I look at the scientific evidence, which is not based on claims such as yours. Children are suffering from COVID, being hospitalized, and, I won’t bother giving reference; but many suffer LONG COVID. You ignore that mRNA research goes back to 1960s with close to 100,000 papers & mRNA vaccine research goes back over 30 years. And the current mRNA COVID vaccines went through ALL phases of clinical trials & CDC, FDA, WHO, and other health organizations have collected large follow-up data sets. You’ve made it clear from your comments that you don’t understand science, don’t understand immunology, which vaccines are based on & don’t really research the available data. You are just one more STUPID ANTIVAXXER posting on this blog.

Looks like Lucas isn’t an isolated example of antivax nuttery in the Netherlands.

“COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is giving rise to threatening comments and discussions online as well as increasing the risk of detrimental public health outcomes offline. In the Netherlands, protests against COVID-19 restrictions and evening curfews have generated anger and hostility, resulting in riots, as well as a small explosion and arson attacks on vaccination centers in January and March.”

“In the online world, conspiracies and misinformation are commonly used to downplay the severity of the coronavirus, undermine nationwide efforts to tackle its spread and promote anxieties about the vaccine.”

http://isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-monitor-the-netherlands/

@Orac

“No doubt the “experts” to which you refer are people like Peter McCullough and Robert Malone.😂”

I have no gurus. More in general I ment vaccinologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, whomever that has specific knowledge related to this subject. Not generalists like, well, like you in this case; trap of a generalist is he or she may think to have all the relevant knowledge, but this will not be true. Simply because of the missing theoretic background and years of missing experience.

I have no gurus. More in general I ment vaccinologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, whomever that has specific knowledge related to this subject. Not generalists like, well, like you in this case; trap of a generalist is he or she may think to have all the relevant knowledge, but this will not be true. Simply because of the missing theoretic background and years of missing experience.

I’m not as much of a generalist as you think. I have extensive molecular biology training and experience. I am a cancer surgeon. So when I see antivaxxers go on and on about “turbo cancer” I recognize bullshit when I see it. Indeed, I know enough to take on James Lyons-Weiler’s bullshit about SV40 promoter sequences in the plasmid used to generate the mRNA for the Pfizer vaccine.

As for your “experts,” I rather suspect that you cherry pick pseudoexperts who say things that you agree with.

@ldw56old

Success in business is measured by money and money only. It’s sad, but it doesn’t matter how you get there.

I can easily see you defending and excusing the behavior of drug lords that way, and there would be no surprise if someone of your ilk did so.

Not at all. You don’t know me, ldw56.
And as for me, the money I made has been legal. You won’t even ever find us invest in companies like f.e. Raytheon or Pfizer, that would be immoral.
In my philosophy all that you do will sooner or later return like a boomerang, be it good or bad.

Give it a break lucas. You’ve made yourself pretty clear: you have no qualms lying about the dangers of covid and the vaccines even though you have no training in medicine or statistics. You’re perfectly happy lying about historical fact to suit your world view of educational conspiracy (which is also bullshit). You have no qualms lying about what you believe to be the bad actions of Biden while being content to ignore the real history about trump — you couldn’t even be bothered to read an article posted for you to examine, probably because you knew it would contradict your false view of things.

So spare us your “I have standards” bullshit. You’ve shown yourself to be fine spewing falsehoods right and left: you’ve got no standing to now say “I have principles” — unless, of course, you actually say your principles require you to be a fountain of disinformation and reality free rants.

@Joel

Under ‘Abstract’ at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34499627/ I read this statement: “Although COVID-19-associated hospitalizations and deaths have occurred more frequently in adults,† COVID-19 can also lead to severe outcomes in children and adolescents”. Which sounds rather meaningless to me because a vital evaluation is missing: the risks of the vaccine on the short and long term in relation to the proven benefits.

Then your article is based on the more dangerous B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of SARS-CoV-2; that variant is long gone. You should have brought up recent material.
Then the mentioned COVID-19-associated hospitalizations (49.7 per 100,000) concern children AND adolescents. I did not mention adolescents. So how about infants only?
One out of 2012 adolescents ended up in hospital. That’s not fine, but it’s not the same as deaths and fortunately we tend to recover. How many deaths due to – not with – covid amongst infants? Please share with me THAT info.

Joel, I have spent about a full year in hospitals during the last 10,5 years (it ended in august 2022); what I noticed is that some physicians / specialists choose for the ‘just to make sure’ approach quickly, while others go for a more pro – contra balanced approach. I have always prefered the latter and without a doubt is the reason for said long term. Believe me when I say we have delt with extremely complex situations, where specialists as well as first aid workers often more or less let us decide (= what do we want in relation to uncertainties and risks).

“First, good chance you are lying; but even if true, anecdotal.”

Out of principe I do not lie, at least I try not to. Some two years ago I described cases of possible vaccine related harm at this forum that crossed my path (mostly in the area of Amsterdam where I was then). And I invited the physicians here (Medical Yeti was one of them) to get in contact with those people through email, in order to judge for themselves if the described harm was vaccine related or not and then give us feedback here. No one showed any interest.
About the two women described, I’ve seen it first hand; no question about that. Call it anecdotal or a lie, that’s your problem.

So Joel, either these vaccines aren’t save at all or there is something going on that I can’t put my finger on!
I have tried to obtain the data from my country regarding vaccination status and death (GGD, CBS or RIVM) – didn’t work out.

“I look at the scientific evidence” – fine, but only if unbiased. Joel, I prefer, and in fact it’s all I need, data, I’m not waiting for propaganda or research that in the basis isn’t solid.

So, what was I to do, listen to you as a specialist or listen to a similar one with an opposite opinion? I’ve done my own medical research and read a lot of BS as well.
And still, I saw what I saw (your anecdotal part). I decided for myself not to take this vaccine. I have never given any advice to anyone, which brings me to the question, what exactly is your problem?

@Dangerous Bacon

“Looks like Lucas isn’t an isolated example of antivax nuttery in the Netherlands.
“COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is giving rise to threatening comments and discussions online as well as increasing the risk of detrimental public health outcomes offline. In the Netherlands, protests against COVID-19 restrictions and evening curfews have generated anger and hostility, resulting in riots, as well as a small explosion and arson attacks on vaccination centers in January and March.”
“In the online world, conspiracies and misinformation are commonly used to downplay the severity of the coronavirus, undermine nationwide efforts to tackle its spread and promote anxieties about the vaccine.”
http://isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-monitor-the-netherlands/

Shall I give you some context DB?
I haven’t seen the article, but first of all what you quote must go back to at least two years ago. Right?
Then, in what way are ‘protests against restrictions and evening curfews’ antivax nuttery? What’s the connection you make?

The ‘generated anger and hostility’ was nothing else then Morocco scum in Amsterdam-West. It saw a chance to riot; since this scum hates western values, it looks for such possibilities. It has nothing to do with antivax nuttery, DB, nothing at all.

At the Museumplein in the city center (that’s near the Rijksmuseum) I saw lots of ME (the knock you down kind of guys) that were every weekend there, doing completely nothing; I once asked one of these guys what they were there for while nothing happens. Our leftist major here put them there as a kind of symbol, but never ever did anything happen. You think you know it better, DB?

Be more careful when you parrot our tendentious media. You just made yourself a bit of a fool here.

Just a sidenote, I think real protests against restrictions would have been useful. People got sick of covid anyway.
But the problem we have now is many depressed young people. Like I wrote here, yesterday afternoon one of them jumped out of a window from the 7th floor of a building right across the street from where I’m staying. A victim of your supported measures?

@TBruce

“Well then, here’s a list of “successful businessmen”. Of course, a certain Donald Trump is on this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fraudsters

I don’t see any of the Bidens on that list?

“Nick Leeson, English trader whose unsupervised speculative trading caused the collapse of Barings Bank” Ha, this asshole called me recently, he’s on the list as well, I see there. I think I still have his number, in case you’re interested.

Look TBruce, you all seem to tend to the wrong conclusion here. Though this world adores them, I do not support such ‘successful businessmen’ in any way. I do not support any politician either, they’re dirty by defintion as well. No Trump, no Biden, no Putin, no Rutte, none.

You may not believe it yet, but none (or as good as none) of these corrupt people will be alive far from now. Be wise, so that you won’t join them.

@ldw56old

“your ‘predictions’ are as accurate as the stereotype “psychic” who uses a crystal ball: that is to say, they’re never right and are always based on pure BS.”

Read back and get a drug for the amnesia.

@Renate

“Probably Carlos Escobar was a successfull businessman in your eyes.”

I wrote: “Success in business is measured by money and money only. It’s sad, but it doesn’t matter how you get there.”
The “It’s sad” part implies that however such success may be measured by money only, I don’t agree with or endorse it.
These people don’t realise that one day they pay the highest price for such success: their lives. I’d rather save mine.

@Joel

“So, why can I write about political issues when infectious diseases, etc my area of specialty? Simple. Undergraduate degree in Political Science, minor Social Psychology & living alone with dog, I do lots of reading, and even found free lectures and courses on YouTube.”

No degree here in Political Science, but got wise in practice (provincial politics); four years of Sociology and Psychology next to Commercial Economics during specialisation (Marketing Management). Don’t live alone but often go where I’m alone. Live with stubborn cat and read and design, next to my life behind screens.

No degree here in Political Science, but got wise in practice (provincial politics); four years of Sociology and Psychology next to Commercial Economics during specialisation (Marketing Management).

And yet, even if we believe that, it simply shows you didn’t learn shit.

@NumberWang

“Ah? It really seemed like you were blaming Biden directly. Glad to see the you’re not unaware of the decades of foreign policy and funding choices that play a huge role.”

I see Biden as a straw man who is better employable than Trump was. That does however not discharge him from responsibility for his signatures.

@Orac

“As for your “experts,” I rather suspect that you cherry pick pseudoexperts who say things that you agree with.”

You all seem to have no more then an on or off switch. And not just here. Given the dichotomy in your country – hard to find to that extent elsewhere – this black or white view seems a common trait among US residents. Why?
In this case one is either the “antivaxxer that goes on and on about “turbo cancer”” or joins the pro community that beforehand ignores any sign that may indicate whatever that’s out of the believe system.

I’m not here to prove that vaccines harm. I suppose they do, but to what extent I cannot tell, since I lack relevant data. Smokescreens, inaccessibility or missing parts of a puzzle isn’t of much use either. It would be great though if you’re right about vaccine safety, but I doubt it. Based on what I’ve seen first hand and heard second hand, excess mortality that’s significantly higher then just covid, climate change or suicide related, too many sporters with heart related problems… weird phenomenons that do not exactly reassure.

@JustaTech

““would you believe the story?”
No. 1) You have shown yourself to be a highly unreliable narrator. 2) Your “details” are what makes it more obviously false.
Why do you feel the need to make up and share upsetting stories?”

Not much time to answer posts now, but since I can cut short. I don’t know JustaT., I don’t feel the need, it’s simply that for some reason I happen to come across unexpected (positive and negative) occasions; this one was shocking, as it happened about right next door.
Since this Corona crises so many more young people need mental help than before; many more sadly take their lives as well and since it seems related to the measurements (lock downs, however I’m sure there is more going on) that are apparently turning out to be catastrophic, I thought I mentioned it here, as it may be relevant.
I pay attention to people, wherever I am. So many youngsters are down-ish. Why is this in your opinion? Or is The Netherlands the exception?

Further I’d like to invite you to underpin your claim of the highly unreliable narrator. Because ldw56 says so? What’s the lie, what’s the BS? Where? What proof do you need?

And explain to me, wasn’t it idiocy to rob so much valuable time and freedom of young people who seem to get lost as a result; and for what? So that the spread of the disease was somewhat delayed? Where is the evidence this has saved so many lives anyway? Anyway, go tell the parents of this boy (or girl), that who knows is just another victim.
Btw, this part of Amsterdam has always been a step ahead in crime and death. And it’s due to left wing policy. Thanks.
Not that I’m right, but surely left equals lunatic.

Another reason to mention such a shocking event of loss of live is due to my frustration that so many – here is no exception – simply seem to accept, perhaps even welcome – the wars that were mentioned here before and that as usual your government is involved in. Any idea what it means in real life to have (young) people – be it Russian, Ukrainian, Palestine or Israeli – shot to pieces by the thousands? If not, it’s time to try and feel that.
We all let this shit happen just like that. Weird, isn’t it?

Here’s the notification of the incident before ldw56 starts his usual blather:
https://alarmeringen.nl/noord-holland/amsterdam-amstelland/amsterdam/47038802/p2000-ambulance-met-spoed-naar-osdorpplein-in-amsterdam.html

“So many youngsters are down-ish. Why is this in your opinion?”
Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because the world is literally on fire and the people in charge don’t seem to care and aren’t fixing anything? That’s enough to get anyone down.

As to why I say you’re an unreliable narrator – I’m not new here. I’ve seen your misleading and false statements before, and there’s a basic falsehood in your original post. I don’t need anyone else to tell me you’re unreliable, you’ve told me yourself.
What’s the BS? No one gives blood at the scene. Blood transfusions happen in hospitals, not on the street. Don’t be absurd.

Take your ghoulish lies and buzz off.

Susanne Craig wrote about how RFK jr earns his money ( NYT, yesterday)- read the article for free if you google/ bing RFKjr Susanne Craig Yahoo News.

@ldw56old

“lucas, if you don’t like being identified as a congenital liar — stop lying. It’s very simple — but I doubt stopping is in your character.”

And this is how you try and influence others, JustaTech as an example. Just blame, who knows what it’s good for. Fact is you’re not able to point at any particular lie, so you just wrap yourself in vagueness, never calling heads and tales. It seems to work here.

@Aarno Syvänen

“Again us inflation rates:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=US
13.8 comparable with 3.2 ?”

I posted this text in another thread as I was unable to do this here (buggy software?). Anyway, here we go again.

You’re being one dimensional, Aarno. I have a better idea of determining whether or not inflation is high and focus on buying power. Example: for years I used to buy 1 kilogram bananas for €0,99 (being the lowest priced ones here @ Albert Heyn); this was before inflation went up since about a year after the pandemic started. At this moment I pay €1,49 for the same product (apart from being tricked with combs of 800 grams now, instead of the usual 1 kg). Next year I expect to pay at least the same, but likely more. Suppose a year later these bananas cost €1,55. What you’ll be showing me by then – probably since your government publishes it – is 4% inflation in the bananas; that’s 2% above target, why the issue? Here’s why; since this price increase is a relative young phenomenon, is cumulativ, will be here to stay and you’re not compensated, inflation is 56,7% in this good. You still don’t think that matters?

Next to this masking of price increase, you tend to forget the effect of seasonal influences; you also don’t perhaps realise that it is your government that calculates inflation. What you might do is find out what parameters used to be in these calculations longer ago and what has changed since. Inflation measured the way it used to be done (that’s more like the real inflation you deal with) is seriously higher then your government makes you believe.
It might well be that your parents were more rich at your age than you are now. Where has all the money gone?

Is inflation here to stay? Definately so Aarno, central banks have cornered themselves and deal with an absurd debt trap. Since we cannot deploy the necessary policy (mentioned in my previous post) there’s no way out here and we’ll keep the inflationary scenario. Worse, we’re heading for stagflation.
There’s more to say about inflation, some economists even specialised in the subject. I would get wise Aarno if I were you, inflation will definately strip you financially in case you stay in cash. I warned you (and Orac if I remember it well) for this two years ago and you will have already lost substantial buying power if you didn’t follow up what I told you is wise: seek for the right assets and diversify well.
I would avoid to have more and more of your wealth transferred to the rich, so play their game.

Inflation is general rise of prices. If price of bananas rise,it does not mean that all prices rise.Chang
Goverment measured inflation during oil crisis, too. Rate change is intersting.

@Aarno Syvänen

“Plular of anecdotes is not data, even if anecdotes themselves are factual.”

Not sure what you mean, but by I guess by “data” I ment the relevant data from instances that have records of deaths (RIVM or CBS) and vaccination status (GGD). I think the answer on vaccine safety is in excess mortality. I have no access to the data.

@Aarno Syvänen

“You will notice that inflation is coming down. High interest rates usually do that.
Citing price of a specific product is no way to measure inflatiion. It is just another anecdot.”

You should read more careful Aarno, you missed the point. I used the example to show you where you go wrong in order to determine if inflation is high or not. Look at the arguments that follow and feel free to attack them.
A 4% inflation after two years of excessive inflation is so much different than after a period of low inflation. I guess I made clear that it is about the effect inflation has on your buying power. You bring up some number but seem to forget inflation is cumulativ, the example makes clear that inflation even with a 4% after the period we had is seriously high. I don’t know from what country you are, but give me an estimation of the price of an average house, the fuel for your car, energy in general and the bananas (why not) now vs two years ago. What has happened to your cost of medical insurance? What about white goods etc.
Perhaps you lost a 20% buying power (equals what your government taxed you). Add inflation to follow to it, instead of looking at just some number that’s not even real (by previous standards it isn’t anyway).

“Inflation is coming down”, please motivate by what percentage, when and how (the underlying mechanism). You might first look up what causes inflation, cause I’m not sure you know this.

Medical costs are going up everywhere, but house prices go down when interest go up.
Inflation is general rise of prices, not just some of them.
Historical inflation data:
https://www.multpl.com/inflation
It is zero inflation that is really unsual.

@JustaTech

““So many youngsters are down-ish. Why is this in your opinion?”
Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because the world is literally on fire and the people in charge don’t seem to care and aren’t fixing anything? That’s enough to get anyone down.”

I posted this text in another thread as I was unable to do this here (buggy software?). Anyway, here we go again.

So you think it’s wars going on? We lived through five years of WW2 over here; even then youngsters didn’t commit suicide amidst the suppression, the risks, the violence, the poverty and often the hunger. So why would some distant wars make youngsters end their lives now in non conflict zones?

Since covid we see these problems, likely there’s the correlation? Perhaps these lockdowns weren’t that smart after all and these demonstrators (that I guess you disguise) were perhaps right. What do you think?
But there’s probably more to it that causes hopelessness. With my background of years in psychology (consumer behaviour, as part of post study Marketing Management) I’m even not sure what is responsible. It is some negative sensation and lot’s of people experience it, perhaps you too; as if they sense something that makes them fearful and down, but don’t know what it is. What’s your take?

“As to why I say you’re an unreliable narrator – I’m not new here. I’ve seen your misleading and false statements before, and there’s a basic falsehood in your original post. I don’t need anyone else to tell me you’re unreliable, you’ve told me yourself.”

I asked you what lies? You gave no answer. Why you’re being coarse, JustaTech? There are no lies, otherwise tell us this time.
Btw, now you talk about “misleading and false statements”, which are not necessarily lies (like f.e. something that you saw but appears not be real can be misleading and false, but it doesn’t make it a lie. So again, what are the misleading statements and falsehoods?

Perhaps I get it, indeed I’ve been saying since I’m here what to expect in the not too distant future and it’s awful. That isn’t turning out as a lie at all, it is showing to be more accurate with each month passing – even you now write that “the world is literally on fire”. You’ll remember this wasn’t the situation when I started mentioning this slow dive into chaos, wars etc. and what unexpected scenario you’ll see next. You may not like that, think I’m nuts, whatever. But what does this have to do with “falsehood”, “unreliable”?
So stop your silly anger if annoyance (LDW56 suffers from this btw and calls anyone a liar he doesn’t like) is perhaps your problem, I’m just a messenger of what I read.

“What’s the BS? No one gives blood at the scene. Blood transfusions happen in hospitals, not on the street. Don’t be absurd.
Take your ghoulish lies and buzz off.”

Stupid reaction, JustaTech. First of all you have to admit that your supposed lie wasn’t a lie at all. So this time you choose a detail that in your view cannot be true. Just so you that were right after all, JustaTech?

Well, ask MedicalYeti about this. Perhaps he can imagine there’s a protocol that if someone is internally bleeding (no blood on the street visible btw, another detail to fight about) and does so heavily, an immediate blood transfusion is what can save a person. You’ve seen in that link that a trauma helicopter came to the rescue. On these helicopters (from the VU hospital in this case) there’s always a specialised trauma physician (unfortunately I even met her in the hospital, if it’s her still doing the same job) on board. This may well be the reason help was immediatly given? MedicalYeti will read along, when he does not respond, or Orac doesn’t, you know I’m right. And in case they deny, I’m right as well since I saw what happened, period. And who would come up with such a detail anyway if it isn’t true? And for what reason? Stupid.

Again no lies here. Don’t you meanwhile agree that your statements were myopic?

1) Who are you? I was talking to Lucas.
2) Who said anything about wars? When I said to Lucas the world is literally on fire I wasn’t talking about wars, I was talking about climate change. But sure, go on about how no one was depressed during WWII.
3) What link? I saw no link about Lucas’s jumper story.
4) Do ambulances really drive around with units of blood in them, risking wasting the blood by not having in the appropriate storage conditions? Do they carry a unit of every kind of blood? How do the EMTs know the patient’s blood type?

I don’t know if you’re Lucas who can’t be bother to get their name to display properly or if you’re Lucas’s sock puppet, but you have utterly failed to convince me that Lucas has never lied on any comment on this blog.

And it is still ghoulish to be dragging some poor person’s traumatic death into a conversation about something else entirely. Have some respect for the dead.

(All opinions are my own and not made at the behest of ldw56old.)

@JustaTech; with the blood given to this patient on the spot it will be clear I ment: not in the hospital. Patient was carried into an ambulance and here the big bag of blood was attached. The ambulance stayed on the spot for a long time right there.

@ldw56old

“That’s obvious, since your anecdotes are as asinine as igor’s, as are your assertions about the covid vaccines and vague, hand-wavy, hints of concern about some others — especially those with quotes from “graduates in medicine”.”

The ‘assertions’ sound vague to you. This makes sense ldw56, since you’re not a physician and clearly lack the skills to understand what it’s about.
The graduate in medicine was indeed a colleague. If I told you he had a beautiful blond haired, brown eyed daughter, would you believe it? He was what we call here alternative; should I say … left-wing? If so for sure the better of that ugly species.
No kidding, why does this sound so strange to you? Like with his background he was the only one not being keen on all vaccines?

“Between your conspiracies, your fact-free crap about vaccines, and your circus-level “seer with crystal ball” predictions, and the other BS you toss around, you’ve demonstrated that nothing you say should be taken seriously.”

No conspiracies here at all. Just a basis that explains such things as wars, this pandemic and more. It has to happen, something wouldn’t be right if not.
Please don’t take that crystal ball too serious. Since you’re American I should have mentioned this, excusé.
Ldw56, you’re in the dark; but life is better if you know what to expect.
JustaTech happened to describe the current situation as “the world is literally on fire”. That’s exactly what I’ve been telling you would happen since we met here. See now, ldw56old?
It will get worse from here. You will wake up to that reality, be it too late in your case, I’m afraid. That’s stupid.

@NumberWang

Gonna look pretty foolish if it came to light that the death was due to an accident, drugs, abuse, bullying, depression over a failed relationship or death of a close acquaintance or murder or……

Not at all. Why?

Much easier to assume a death is due to whatever confirms your current rant.

No ranting. Just stupid to deny what I saw happening here. Like all other issues I wrote about, no reason to assume nonsense; no agenda.
Am I informed on this particular cause? I’m not and it wasn’t the point. Nonetheless lots of suicide, waiting list for a shrink here is over a year.
Tell me why.

“And that, Lucas, is why you are unreliable. I don’t think you’ll ever understand that.”

Indeed I don’t. Do you?

@Silex

“Young athletes never dropped dead from injuries because there were no vaccines to injure them.”

Manipulation, Silex.
Are young athletes dropping dead significantly more then before the vacc. rollout or is this not the case?

@ldw56old

“Because of your habitual dishonesty.”

Thanks. Being honest while everyone thinks the opposite is worth a compliment.

@All

Have a look, Greta Thunberg, Museumplein, Amsterdam, during Climate March a week ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V47pejk0CLc

Look at how Greta is cross-linking climate rhetoric with polical issues.
You then watch this annoyed Dutchman grab Greta’s mic, saying: “I come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view”. Did you notice the reaction of the (leftist) demonstrators?

Greta is a leftist pur sang.
With her “No climate justice on occupied land”, she clearly shows to be pro Palestine. This is the choice of leftist Europe(ans), leftist politicians by no means an exception. And just using Greta as a ‘commercial project’ according to one of the comments.
In the US there’s more of a Jewish lobby compared to Europe and since your president has always shown a pro Israel face (lot’s of interests in that region and thus pro Israel), I guess most of you will perhaps think alike (you seem to cover Biden’s behind no matter what, I noticed). Is this indeed the case?
Why do you consider this wise?

To stay neutral in (such) political issues, is definately worth considering IMO. Since support brings moral responsibility and there is always unjustifiable bloodshed on both sides of such conflicts, I would personally not take side (same goes for proxy war in Ukraine). With less division in your country as a bonus. Neutral, no left, no right.
What do you think?

With her “No climate justice on occupied land”, she clearly shows to be pro Palestine.

If you aren’t lucas you’re certainly his equal in stupidity.

@Renate

“My dad died before the Covid vaccine and not from Covid.”

Losing a family member can be plain terrible. My condolences.

@JustaTech

1) Who are you? I was talking to Lucas.
– You still are, I mentioned before that the software seems buggy. I did not change name.

2) Who said anything about wars? When I said to Lucas the world is literally on fire I wasn’t talking about wars, I was talking about climate change. But sure, go on about how no one was depressed during WWII.
– Question was why now; this isn’t an answer.
The world is on fire because of climate change? You might add a clarification next time. Not that I don’t agree with you.

3) What link? I saw no link about Lucas’s jumper story.
– See link underneath my post of November 16, 2023 at 8:01 pm. Both helicopter and ambulance called in at the same time. You read: “Een ambulance is dinsdag 14 november met spoed uitgereden naar Amsterdam voor een medisch incident aan het Osdorpplein. Ook is er een traumahelikopter gealarmeerd. De melding werd om 14:23 via het P2000-netwerk verzonden naar een dienstdoende ambulance behorend bij de 112 veiligheidsregio Amsterdam-Amstelland.”
Use Dutch – English translator if you still think it’s a lie.
Btw, liars tend to think of others as liars.

4) Do ambulances really drive around with units of blood in them, risking wasting the blood by not having in the appropriate storage conditions? Do they carry a unit of every kind of blood? How do the EMTs know the patient’s blood type?
– I don’t know what ambulances drive around with, I did see the big bag of blood. I already told you that at these helicopters there’s always a trauma physician on board. I told you I guess this physician took the blood from VUmc hospital.
The patient’s blood type? The tests I had to perform myself in the past showed the result of the blood group pretty fast; no problem here.
I guess there are several bloodgroups on board. Does this all sound so strange to you? What kind of work do / did you do related to the subject? If it’s related I think you should know about this, no need to doubt or ask me.
I will nevertheless look into it for you and come back to you.

“I don’t know if you’re Lucas who can’t be bother to get their name to display properly or if you’re Lucas’s sock puppet, but you have utterly failed to convince me that Lucas has never lied on any comment on this blog.”
– I guess you skipped / missed some of my posts, otherwise this is silly.

“And it is still ghoulish to be dragging some poor person’s traumatic death into a conversation about something else entirely. Have some respect for the dead.”
– I didn’t make it a subject for discussion at all; you did that by doubting some remark.
Respect for the dead is good, respect for the living is better. The latter is what we seem to be losing.

“(All opinions are my own and not made at the behest of ldw56old.)”
– Let’s hope so.

@JustaTech

Here you already have your answer: https://nursestation.nl/blogs/bloedtransfusies-op-de-traumahelikopter/
Title of the article is: “Bloedtransfusies op de traumahelikopter”.
The text says this: “Daarvoor hebben we zakjes bloed aan boord in een speciaal koelboxje. Dit wordt om de andere dag door de bloedbank in het ziekenhuis klaargemaakt en met een koerier naar de heli basis gebracht, waar we het omruilen met het ‘oude’ bloed.”
So yes, on board the helicopter there’s different bags of blood in a coolbox. That will be the blood I saw used in the ambulance.
Like I said, no need to lie and here’s just another proof. You cannot have found any proof of a any lie in any of my posts, JustaTech. Really.

@Aarno Syvänen

“That I do not agree her in he case of Hamas.”
– She has always been a puppet of left-wing politics. What you saw will not be an action without backup.
Question: why does the left in Europe support Hamas and the left in the US support Israel?

@AarnoSyvänen

“Medical costs are going up everywhere, but house prices go down when interest go up.
Inflation is general rise of prices, not just some of them.
Historical inflation data:
https://www.multpl.com/inflation
It is zero inflation that is really unsual.”

“House prices go down when interest go up” – think about in what countries you(ve) see(n) the exception to this rule and why that is. Could this apply to the US as well?
Have you heard of a ‘crash up’ in financial markets and may there be a relation with the housing market?

Another question I asked before was when you wrote to expect “Inflation is coming down”, to motivate by what percentage, when and how (the underlying mechanism). Tell me the mechanism, Aarno.

Another question for you, how much buying power do you think you have lost on your cash since the pandemic? Are you being compensated? Will deflation set in? If not, what’s your opinion on a supposed extra 4% inflation this year, another 4% the next etc.
Motivate for what reason we may not see the wished for 2% inflation rate we used to any longer.

About zero percent inflation used to be normal during hundreds of years in my country, like many other European countries. Then the productive idea to finance wars was found (let off the gold standard). Tell me what’s the value of money now?

I said that house prices comes down when interest goes up. This is because buyers think thier monthly payments.
I know subprime crisis. How many subprime mortgages are around now ?
I said that inflation comes down because interest rates are going up. Did you not notice that ?
No one is ever compensated for inflation, but problem is worse if you hold lots of cash
If could predict interest rates, I would be a billlionaire. But Fed inflation target is 2
Do you know Spanish inflation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

@Aarno Syvänen

“Perhaps explanation is that you think everythingg is going bad.”

As for the vital parts (social, cultural, economical, environmental), I know it is.
‘Everything’ is a big word, there will always be ‘something’ going the right direction.

Three thoughts.
A. Just sharing a conference with Andrew Wakefield is enough to show you’re anti-vaccine.

B. I wonder if featuring Kennedy talking about his work as a President is a violation of the prohibition for non-profits like CHD to promote candidates. Might be worth flagging to IRS, even though they had a quack legal-Miranda when presenting him.

C. Kennedy might find himself running into the same courts that blocked government efforts to regulate misinformation when he tries to force private companies to carry his views. The First Amendment should protect them, not him, if he’s ever (God Forbid) elected President.

@ldw56old

““I know it is.”
Statements like that are the ones that mark you as an idiot and nothing more.”

No Buffy, it marks you as to how deep you stuck your head in the sandbox.

@AarnoSyvänen

“Left of US does not support Israel, though most right (by wide margin) do-”

The younger leftists partly. But why do you respond and all them Yankees here do not? How about this hero president of yours?

Comrade ellestgarbageletters: It’s funny how data that totally demolishes the pro-disease possible is “unusable” – almost as if Upton Sinclair was right that “It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It.” So who’s paying you? Is it by the word, the post or the corpse?

@AaroSyvänen

“I said that house prices comes down when interest goes up. This is because buyers think thier monthly payments.
I know subprime crisis. How many subprime mortgages are around now ?
I said that inflation comes down because interest rates are going up. Did you not notice that ?”

Yes Aarno, we all know the relation between price and interest when we buy a house. But I asked you for the exception to this rule and why.
You might read about what exactly happened in countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe and the like. What broke the relation between higher interest rates and lower prices there?
These countries showed prices crashing up. And they’ve shown so in a less extreme way in our countries recently too. So again Aarno, what exactly happened (explain the mechanism)?
And if you understand that, why is it unlikely that inflation will return to the desired level in our countries?

“No one is ever compensated for inflation, but problem is worse if you hold lots of cash”

Yes and no. I guess you’ve heard of a ‘wage-price spiral’, which is such compensation. No in the sence that the loss of buying power over your savings is permanent and no government compensates for your damage – it just causes it.
Tell me, by how much has your government taxed your savings (inflation)? What’s left of your 1 mln dollar measured in buying power since the pandemic in your country? $750.000 perhaps? Or even less?
And none of you seem to be aware (or care) how their wealth is transferred to their governments and to the rich (their wealth almost doubled during the period you lost).
As a side note, history shows that a large gap between rich and poor is the perfect soil for social unrest.
If you must involve yourself in politics (I wouldn’t if I were you), why don’t you vote for a president that taxes the rich by let’s say 99% of their wealth to start with? Might definately save some problems.

“If could predict interest rates, I would be a billlionaire. But Fed inflation target is 2
Do you know Spanish inflation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

About Spanish inflation Wiki says: ” This level of inflation amounts to 1.2% per year compounded, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century”. Like I said, there has been hardly any inflation during the middle ages in most European countries. What we experience now is plain absurd.

You could have become a billionair already, Aarno. Let’s go back to when the pandemic started and hit the stock exchange severely in China, but not yet in the West. We knew for a fact that when the virus would come to shore in Europe the stock exchanges here would come into freefall. So we went short.
Why didn’t you see that bell ring, Aarno? You must have known that this time the virus would spread over the entire globe. So why didn’t you act?
What would happen to the price of oil immediatly after was no surprise either (a sharp drop of course) and since traders always exaggerate, a recovery afterwards. You could have made serious money here too, Aarno.

No Aarno, usually forecasting what will happen at the economic front isn’t too complicated if you have the relevant knowledge, but the timing is. And since trading is timing, it’s not always easy.
In general, if you want to become a bln-air in financial products you need to have a profound knowledge of financial markets, macro economics, psychology, a good intuition and nerves of steel. If you miss one of these, don’t go there.

No Aarno, usually forecasting what will happen at the economic front isn’t too complicated

It’s impossible to laugh any harder at the asinine crap you post — but this is a doozy.

Thanks. Being honest while everyone thinks the opposite is worth a compliment.

Wow — in addition to most everything else you’re ignorant of, you have no idea of the meaning of the word “honest”. You’re the polar opposite of that.

Data are unusable.

By that you mean two things: you have no effing clue about how to work with data, but you realize it doesn’t support your lies so you couldn’t use it if you did have a clue.

Even your habitual trolling behavior is sad.

Wages indeed were once tied to inflation. Result was indeed wage price spiral . So,no compensation any more.
It is typical that you can get prediction right one time, but not multiple times:
https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/17liud9/ysk_a_chimpanzee_that_was_taught_to_pick_stocks/?rdt=65136
Reason:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis
You could have very well lost your COVID bet, There was political risk.
Goverments (or central banks) try to minimize inflation. According to you, zero the tax.
There were hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, which generally mess up everything.
There is a story about a Rothschildt and a communist who want to distribute his wealth among French. He gave him few francs. what would be his share.

@Aarno

“Wages indeed were once tied to inflation. Result was indeed wage price spiral . So,no compensation any more.”

Not at all. And the more so with these staff shortages in many sectors, we are in the middle of another wage price spiral.

“It is typical that you can get prediction right one time, but not multiple times:”
“You could have very well lost your COVID bet, There was political risk.”

Please tell me what this political risk would have been.

Not that we are always right, but we’re not in a casino, Aarno.
Can you remember a while back, after the stock market went in a week or so of decline, that you said this would be temporary and we would see higher price levels continue? I did not agree with you on that and remember saying something like “you’re more certain than I am”. This wasn’t some dice roll, Aarno. Again we bet against the index then with puts. In fact these are the moments we’re waiting for.

“Goverments (or central banks) try to minimize inflation. According to you, zero the tax.’

No, Aarno. I said inflation is a tax. You combat inflation by putting a brake on the economy.
Raising taxes and not putting that money into circulation would be deflationary as well; but I have to be a bit careful with this remark.

“There were hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, which generally mess up everything.”

Still you didn’t tell me what was the cause of inflation in that country. What happened and how did the government respond?

@Just Me

“Comrade ellestgarbageletters”

If you finish highschool first we might have a conversation.

My dude: I have two post-graduate degrees in technical fields (I received them back when your grandparents were in high school). You have a way of avoiding answering questions about your paymasters. I know which one of us is likely still working on a GED, and it isn’t me.

But as the wise man once said:

“Arguing with anonymous antivaxxers on the Internet is a sucker’s game because they almost always turn out to be – or to be indistinguishable from – self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time, and no sense of ethics at all” (if that sentence is too complicated for you, perhaps your care-giver can help you out)

But at least while you’re typing here, you’re probably not pestering your little sister, so there’s that.

@Just Me

Now that you took that bait, feel free to explain your uber childishness.

So with your two degrees in technical fields (mind sharing what fields?) I guess you’re an intelligent guy. Good for you.
Nevertheless, technicians in general have to work hard for the money. And compared to what they contribute to society, I consider them underpaid. Am I right or not?

“You have a way of avoiding answering questions about your paymasters. I know which one of us is likely still working on a GED, and it isn’t me.”

My paymasters? A.o. it’s people like you who invest some cash and then loose it.
It’s not done here (The Netherlands) to talk about the money one makes, if that’s what you’re asking. And if you must know, it’s hard to say since it fluctuates.
Perhaps the answer would be ‘enough’. Or ‘never enough’. Or 150 times what guys like our oncologist here make during an entire career.

“Arguing with anonymous antivaxxers”

Just another silly remark.

“is a sucker’s game because they almost always turn out to be – or to be indistinguishable from – self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time and no sense of ethics at all”

You’re not the best psychologist.
And yeah, there’s not much that shake things up at the moment.

“(if that sentence is too complicated for you, perhaps your care-giver can help you out)”

You are funny.

“But at least while you’re typing here, you’re probably not pestering your little sister, so there’s that.”

So what’s your business here?

It’s me again. Every year I give to VaccinateYourFamily.org (https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/05/19/cdc-whistleblower-conspiracy-theory-resurrected-by-new-school-antivaxxers/#comment-475753) , in honour of the daftest antivaxxer around. Last year it was Ginny Stoner – this year the winner is “Lucas”! Congratulations Lucas. You’ve inspired a live-saving donation to the cause of vaccination.

P.S. I urge other folks to decide for themselves who deserves to inspire their own donation.

@SilverLining

“It’s me again.”

It’s him again.

“Every year I give to VaccinateYourFamily.org (https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/05/19/cdc-whistleblower-conspiracy-theory-resurrected-by-new-school-antivaxxers/#comment-475753) , in honour of the daftest antivaxxer around. Last year it was Ginny Stoner”

Have you seen her work? I would consider it an honor if to be permitted some of her time if I wasn’t able to even hold a brush in my hands. Can you?

“this year the winner is “Lucas”! Congratulations Lucas. You’ve inspired a live-saving donation to the cause of vaccination.”
Donations are always welcome for the greater good.

@ldw56old

“”No Aarno, usually forecasting what will happen at the economic front isn’t too complicated.”
It’s impossible to laugh any harder at the asinine crap you post — but this is a doozy.”

Why so, Buffy?
Perhaps because you’re no Economist, have no clue about the subject and thus what to expect you think is just guesswork? Wrong, as usual.

“Wow — in addition to most everything else you’re ignorant of, you have no idea of the meaning of the word “honest”. You’re the polar opposite of that.”

You mean just like JustaTech thought I was recently?
Well, I’m open for debate.

“”Data are unusable.”
By that you mean two things: you have no effing clue about how to work with data, but you realize it doesn’t support your lies so you couldn’t use it if you did have a clue.”

Uhm, no, by ‘that’ I mean that what I said: those data are not usable. Just read back for the discussion, I explained the reasons in detail.

“Even your habitual trolling behavior is sad.”

We all know you’re the troll here. And since you lack the slightest trace of creativity, ad infinitum we read the same remarks that we are supposed to laugh about. Come on Buffy, spice things up, bring some flavor. Since you’re an empty formula, give us something to smile in return.

@AarnoSyvänen

““It is typical that you can get prediction right one time, but not multiple times:”
“You could have very well lost your COVID bet, There was political risk.”

Not that we are always right, but we’re not in a casino, Aarno.
Can you remember a while back, after the stock market went in a week or so of decline, that you said this would be temporary and we would see higher price levels continue?”

I just looked this up Aarno and it goes back to a post @you from 26/1/2022. You read: “Indeed the S&P 500 has performed badly lately. I hear you say that the hype will continue; based on what would you say so? You are more positive then I am, Aarno.”

My prediction was based on several so called ‘indicators’. We got really ‘nervous’ in december 2021 and at the end of the month we shorted the market with put options. In january of 2022 the markets were in decline; you thought the dip was temporary and the hype would continue. But that didn’t happen.
Have a look here: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-news-today-sp500-ends-year-down-20-percent-2022-12?op=1

You read this:
“US stocks fell on the last trading day of 2022, ending what has been a tough year for investors.
The S&P 500 closed out its worst year since 2008, falling 20%.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 9% in 2022, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 33%.”

This could have been a good chance for you to earn serious money again, Aarno. Especially in tech, since the gains had been so high.
To close the discussion about inflation and financial products, with cash you hardly have another option but to invest it (and do so diversified!); I warned for mega inflation in september 2019 and since you already lost at least 25% over your cash- if not much more – in terms of buying power; iow: your money is gone, is taken from you.
This trend of inflation (expect stagflation) will continue, because the tools to combat inflation can only be used partially.
In case you want to protect yourself from further erosion of your hard earned cash, I would learn about macro economics, take a good investing course and start with paper trading first. Don’t have some bank employee advise you, if he was that good, he wouldn’t be working there.

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