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Bard Joseph's avatar

If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

Mark Brody's avatar

Points well taken, and for those celebrating Trump's E.O., these points should lead many who have expressed exuberance about it to measurably sober up. Nonetheless, I believe the E.O. is an indication of a peripety in the ongoing saga of childhood vaccination. This has been the first time any American president or major American political figure other than Kennedy has been willing to speak about the downside of vaccines. Simply opening up the conversation to debate is an important shift. While the E.O. provided no absolute change immediately or in the imminent future to the vaccine schedule, as you say, it has created another chink in the "safe and effective" propaganda armor vaccines have been hiding behind. It has introduced a small additional measure of doubt into the minds of many who may have been wondering in the past about the safety of vaccines, but can't be troubled to take the time to read any of the dozens of books or thousands of scientific articles attesting to their problematic safety record. Surely this E.O. will be politicized and most liberals will take it as further evidence that Trump is a madman, because they have already decided that he is a madman and therefore no sensible words can issue forth from him. Those who are conservative or moderates however, who have been on the fence, or reluctant to accept the notion that they are begin lied to about vaccines in much the same way they were lied to about COVID will be more likely to ask further questions. In some ways this is a green light to Kennedy to bring forth the science around vaccination. While the E.O. is not a game-ending political maneuver, it may be a game-changing one. In fact it may have been prompted by Trump's belated recognition that the number of Americans having reservations about vaccine safety has been rising rapidly for the past 4 years, and is now at all time highs. In short, the Trump E.O. may be more the product of vaccine hesitancy amongst the perceptive than it will be a cause of it.

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