Clear Thinking v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr

This is, after all, a philosophy blog. And of all the features of this historical moment that would seem to merit at least a brief cul-de-sac is, well, the unlikely ascension of America's most notorious vaccine skeptic to its highest public health office. None other than Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—environmental lawyer turned conspiracy theorist turned Health and Human Services Secretary.

In the pantheon of intellectual dishonesty, few positions are as morally bankrupt as vaccine denialism. It occupies a special category of dangerous nonsense—one that directly translates abstract misinformation into concrete suffering. When Kennedy orders a search for “new measles treatments” rather than forcefully advocating for the vaccine that prevents measles with 97% effectiveness, we are witnessing not just a policy failure but an ethical collapse.

Let's be absolutely clear about what's happening: Two young girls are dead. Hundreds are infected. And the Secretary of Health and Human Services is suggesting cod liver oil as a response while questioning the safety of one of the most thoroughly studied and demonstrably effective vaccines in human history.

This isn't just wrong. It's obscene.