RFK Jr. Hires Weird Anti-Vax Activist To 'Analyze' HHS Data On Autism
Mark Geier, left, and David Geier
The Department of Health and Human Services has hired anti-vaccine activist David Geier to analyze government data in search of thoroughly debunked links between immunizations and childhood autism.
Geier, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, has spent decades pushing discredited theories linking vaccines to autism. Geier and his father Mark Geier have long been known for peddling bad science, with the scientific journal Nature even naming them among the world’s top science deniers in 2010.
More than a decade ago, Geier was charged with practicing medicine without a license, while his father’s medical license was suspended for treating autistic children with the reckless “Lupron protocol,” which involves a drug used to treat prostate cancer and in chemical castration of sex offenders.
Geier’s new role within HHS signals another win for the anti-vaccine movement—and a loss for public health.
“This is a worst-case scenario for public health. It’s a slap in the face to the decades of actual credible research we have,” Jessica Steier, a public health researcher who leads the Science Literacy Lab, told the Washington Post.
Despite having his access to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revoked in 2004, Geier will now be given multiple sets of CDC data on vaccine safety.
During HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearings, Democratic lawmakers highlighted his inadequacy to lead the country’s public health agencies.
Now, his mismanagement of the ongoing measles outbreak, unconscionable reductions to the federal health services workforce, and hiring of Geier prove that he is a danger to public health.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
- Bobby Lied: Violating Senate Commitments, RFK Jr. Seeks To Thwart Vaccines ›
- Even When Bobby Kennedy Is Right, He's Totally Wrong ›
- 'Unfounded': Scientists Debunk RFK Jr. Claim That Chemicals Make Kids Gay ›
- Caroline Kennedy Warns Senate Against Confirming Her Cousin RFK Jr. ›
- RFK Jr to research unsupported link between vaccines and autism ... ›
- RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After ... ›
- Fact-checking Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on ... ›
- Autism community fears RFK Jr. would set back decades of progress ›
- R.F.K. Jr., in His Own Words: Flu, Diabetes, Autism and More - The ... ›
- RFK Jr. has questioned rising autism rates. Here's what experts say ... ›
