Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Paul Farhi Profile picture
@farhip
Nov 15 • 10 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Your future guardian of America’s health, a short story:

The outbreak of measles in Samoa starting in September 2019 created a panic. Schools closed, Christmas events were cancelled, lockdowns ensued. More…
People stayed inside their houses, and the unvaccinated hung red flags or red clothing in their front yards both as a warning and to signal to emergency health workers they wanted to be vaccinated. 

The U.S. and other countries rushed in medical teams and vaccines…
Even with draconian measures, by early January, about 3 percent of the island’s entire population had been infected, and 83 people died, most of them infants and children.

How did it happen?
Health officials said the island’s immunization rate had fallen dramatically in the years preceding the outbreak, and anti-vax misinformation was rife. 

The latter got so bad that an anti-vaccination activist, Edwin Tamasese, was arrested and charged with "incitement…
…against a government order" after he said the vaccines were dangerous and encouraged people not to get them.

Crazy, eh?

Well, another guy had a part in all this, too…
A few months before the measles outbreak, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to Samoa. During his trip, Kennedy met with and publicly supported leading anti-vaxxers, putting whatever credibility he had behind those encouraging people not to seek immunization.
Kennedy later acknowledged his trip to Samoa had been arranged by…Edwin Tamasese, the guy later arrested by the government for incitement (the charges against Tamasese were later dropped). Kennedy later wrote a blog post describing Tamasese as a “medical freedom hero.”
Kennedy had all manner of disclaimers about his trip to Samoa. But it’s what he *didn’t* do that’s worth noting: Encourage people to save their lives and the lives of their babies by getting vaccinated. 

Anyway, that’s the guy who’ll be in charge of America’s health.
Post-script: The Samoan outbreak subsided in January, 2020, and hasn’t returned. How? The crash government vaccination program managed to reach 90 percent of the population, a level considered herd immunity for a highly infectious disease like measles.
Some light reading about Kennedy and Samoa:

telegraph.co.uk/news/measles-i…

apnews.com/article/rfk-ke…

motherjones.com/politics/2024/…
End.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Paul Farhi

Paul Farhi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @farhip

Paul Farhi Profile picture
Oct 14
Except, of course, he did:

—Tried to break up AT&T-Time Warner merger to punish TW-owned CNN.

—Sought to deny Amazon a federal contract to punish WaPo owner Jeff Bezos.

—Repeatedly talked about yanking TV licenses of networks he didn’t like. More…
—Discussed having the IRS audit two FBI officials who investigated his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia.

—Proposed IRS audits of Hillary Clinton, Bezos and former CIA director John Brennan.
—Launched an antitrust investigation into auto companies that opposed his proposed re-write of fuel-efficiency standards.

More from @crampell: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Read 4 tweets
Paul Farhi Profile picture
Jun 8
Frightening story. Made all the more so by the euphemisms employed throughout. Possible interpretations:

“Radical constitutionalism” = violating the Constitution. 

“Deploy the military to quash civil unrest” = Use lethal force against Americans. More…
washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…
“Assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations” = do as we please with your money. 

[Trump] “will surround himself with loyalists eager to carry out his wishes, even if they violate traditional norms against executive overreach” = break the law….
“Bucking the Justice Department’s tradition of political independence” = turn the Justice Department into an instrument of political retribution. 

“Other Cabinet officials balked at breaching what they viewed as ethical and legal boundaries” = stopped before breaking the law…
Read 7 tweets
Paul Farhi Profile picture
Jun 3
FWIW, here’s the memo from @washingtonpost publisher William Lewis to staff tonight on the changes at the paper: (1/6): Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
Paul Farhi Profile picture
Apr 8
Under the radar but interesting (and maybe important): NewsGuard, which (quite fairly) rates news organizations for credibility and quality, has downgraded the @nytimes for the first time. It said it did so because…More: dropbox.com/scl/fi/nmem5n9…
…the Times failed on one key measure (among the nine it uses to assess journalistic quality): Separating news and opinion.
NewsGuard said the Times “often” presents opinion pieces in its news columns without labeling them as analysis, commentary or opinion. It said “an impression of partisanship lingers, especially among conservatives.”
Read 8 tweets
Paul Farhi Profile picture
Feb 29
Okay, kids, here’s today’s civics lesson:

The Supreme Court will decide whether a former president, who appointed three of the court’s nine members, is immune from prosecution by a special counsel appointed by a man who was nominated to the Supreme Court…More…
…but didn’t get a hearing because it was blocked by the former president’s party, enabling the former president to appoint all those justices….
The guy who appointed the special counsel was himself appointed by the president, who defeated the former president in the last election. And those two presidents are running against each other in the next election to be president again. 

America!
Read 4 tweets
Paul Farhi Profile picture
May 24, 2023
DeSantis, in last two months, has signed bills that:

—Make abortions illegal after six weeks.

—Enable permitless concealed- firearms carry.

—Eliminate unanimous jury verdicts in death-penalty cases. More… cnn.com/2023/05/05/pol…
—Makes child rapists eligible for the death penalty. 

—Increases prison sentences for transporting undocumented individuals. 

—Bans TikTok on govt/public school devices, prohibits China and “other foreign countries of concern” from buying land w/in 10 miles of military sites…
—Restricts gender-affirming treatments for minors, drag shows, public bathroom use, and pronoun use by teachers, administrators and students in schools. Law also affirms that sexual orientation and gender identity can’t be taught up to eighth grade….
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(