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What do you think of the medical claims of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an American environmental attorney and activist, has recently announced his candidacy for the presidency and appeared on the Jordan B Peterson Podcast, where I encountered him for the first time. He makes the, um, interesting claim that endocrine disruptors are "everywhere to be found" in our daily lives, and that because they can sexually feminize frogs, they must be responsible for the apparent explosion of gender dysphoria and transgender identity that has taken place over the last 5-10 years.
Some more claims I did a double-take on, having never heard them before: He claims also that a Cochraine collaboration report has declared Pharma drugs are the third leading cause of death in the US after cancer and heart attacks, and that masks are entirely ineffective in preventing the transmission of COVID-19? 70% of advertising on the news is from pharmaceutical companies? Big Pharma gives twice as much as the next biggest industry to congress in lobbying efforts? Most drug research has been corrupted by bad incentives and cannot be trusted?
If you don't know Kennedy, Chat GPT summarizes his "distinctive policy positions and views" as:
Environmental Advocacy: Kennedy is well-known for his advocacy and activism on environmental issues. He has been a strong proponent of environmental conservation, fighting against pollution, climate change, and the use of harmful chemicals. He has advocated for sustainable energy solutions, conservation of natural resources, and protection of ecosystems.
Vaccine Safety Concerns: Kennedy has been vocal about his concerns regarding vaccine safety, particularly the potential risks associated with certain vaccine ingredients. He has criticized the vaccine industry and called for further research into the safety and efficacy of vaccines, emphasizing the importance of informed consent and transparency.
Opposition to Industrial Agriculture: Kennedy has expressed opposition to industrial agriculture practices and the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). He has advocated for organic farming methods, sustainable agriculture, and the promotion of healthier food options.
Corporate Influence in Politics: Kennedy has been critical of the influence of corporations on politics and policy-making. He has highlighted the need for campaign finance reform and has called for increased transparency in political donations to reduce the impact of corporate interests on policy decisions.
Energy Policy and Fossil Fuels: Kennedy has been a strong advocate for renewable energy sources and a critic of fossil fuel dependence. He has supported the development and implementation of clean energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
Civil Liberties and Privacy: Kennedy has expressed concerns about the erosion of civil liberties and privacy rights. He has opposed government surveillance programs and the infringement of individual rights in the name of national security.
He has a lot of "big if true" claims and I would be grateful to know if there is any substance to them or what I need to say in order to efficiently discredit him in the future to anyone who may believe what he says.
By the best standards of evidence available, masks do nothing for covid-19. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6
Some people caveat this by saying the evidence against is weak. My response to this is that if you're going to force billions of people to do so, you should have strong evidence in favour, not weak evidence against it. The default position for medical interventions should be that they don't work until proven otherwise. Others argue against the findings on the basis that masks necessarily must work because physics, on the grounds you don't need to do a scientific study to determine if a parachute works. This is called unfalsifiability, and is the classic sign of pseudoscience. Regardless if we did do a study on parachutes and got a null result that would actually be very good evidence against parachutes.
Stuff like this means we need to caveat any claim that Kennedy has wacky beliefs / conspiracy theories with the fact that his political opponents hold the similarly wacky (but in practice far more destructive) belief / conspiracy theory that masks work for covid.
The physics argument is also wrong. It would be akin to saying that a chain link fence can stop a mosquito. Once we understood that aerosol transmission was how covid spread and not droplets the logic for masking was over.
Also, masking was not low cost but high cost. It retarded development in kids, caused psychological issues for all who wore them (ie reinforced the idea one should panic), and seemed to create build up of CO2.
It is also funny because masks have been studied in a lot of other situations and they routinely don’t demonstrate efficacy. Thus the prior should’ve heavily been “masks don’t work.”
This is not how N95 masks work. Their filtering efficiency is better for very small and very large particles than for medium ones. This is why people wear N95s (or better) when dealing with much more serious diseases than covid.
Cloth and surgical masks were always dubious though.
Yeah but they're wearing them with utmost attention to hygiene, regular replacements and full mask discipline for short periods of time
It's important to not spread made up facts to counter made up facts. It's true both that some masks work and that most mask wearing is theater.
Some masks work*
Yep, you need a phd to wear an n95, it's not like blue collar workers manage it on a day to day basis.
You don't need a PhD to wear it, but it looks like - according to the current research - you need something like a PhD to wear it in a way that protects you from covid by a measurable degree. Either we say "experimental evidence is king, we are rationalists rooted in reality" and then recognize the fact that whatever the reasons are, mass masking is not doing what it promised to do, or we go "we should do it anyway because that sends a message and makes people feel blah blah blah" and then stop pretending we are following The Science (TM) and The Experts (TM) and recognize we just had one more weird social ritual among many weird social rituals we used to have over the history and stop trying to rationalize it.
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