Headline: New York Times, 12/13/2024
Yet Mr. Siri’s ascent is concerning to some doctors, who note that it comes at a time of falling vaccination rates in the United States and a rise in cases of measles and whooping cough. His detractors say he twists snippets of science to make questionable claims that will deepen vaccine hesitancy, threatening the system of childhood vaccines that is credited with saving millions of lives.
One critic is Dr. Stanley Plotkin, who in the 1960s invented the vaccine that eliminated rubella, a disease that killed thousands of newborns. Dr. Plotkin, who was subjected to a nine-hour deposition as an expert witness in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Siri, said having Mr. Siri in a position of influence “would be a disaster.” He added: “I find him laughable in many ways — except, of course, that he’s a danger to public health.”
Related reading:
NPR, 3/12/2024
In 1955, the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk and his colleagues became an essential tool to fight the feared disease — and one for which Salk never sought a patent. It ended years of panic and fear. "The first known polio outbreak in the United States was in Vermont in 1894," according to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
By the time Lillard and Alexander got sick in the early 1950s, polio epidemics had been growing worse and worse, with tens of thousands of new cases reported each year, often in the summer. Different people experienced differing symptoms, from a flu-like condition to a spreading paralysis.
"Communities reacted with dread because no one understood how or why people got it, and because children were the most frequently affected," the museum said, posting images showing closed playgrounds and signs barring children under age 16 from entering cities. [emphasis added]
According to H. L. Mencken, Americans will get the kind of health care they deserve, "good and hard", under Donald Trump. (11/15/2024)
Donald Trump on vaccines. (7/16/2024)
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