Robert F. Kennedy’s Point Is, He’s a Believer in Bodily Autonomy
Back when he was auditioning for his current role at the FDA and had to fluff RFK Jr., Dr. Vinay Prasad recorded a video extolling the right of people to drink raw milk. The risks were “very low”, he said. The 7 in 100,000 risk was “on par with risks we allow people to take every single day.” At least when it comes to raw milk and vaccine-refusal, RFK Jr is a believer in “bodily autonomy,” Dr. Prasad said. Raw milk lovers needed no justification for beyond liking the taste.
Top F.D.A. Official Overrode Scientists on Covid Shots
Dr. Prasad’s gave a compelling performance and landed the role. Today, however, Dr. Prasad no longer believes in bodily autonomy, at least for those of us who want COVID vaccines. On his own, in memos that he didn’t share with the American public, Dr. Prasad made that decision on his own. According to the article Top F.D.A. Official Overrode Scientists on Covid Shots:
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official rejected broad uses of two Covid vaccines, citing unknown risks or injuries despite assurances of safety from dozens of staff experts, newly released documents show.
The decisions by the official, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the agency’s new chief medical and scientific officer, stunned agency veterans. Records show that the F.D.A.’s vaccine staff members had signed off on approving the Novavax vaccine, an alternative to mRNA shots and weeks later on the next-generation of the mRNA Covid shot by Moderna for anyone 12 and older.
Dr. Prasad overruled those recommendations by the end of May and instead advised restricting the use of both Covid vaccines…
“Even rare vaccination-related harms, both known and unknown, now have a higher chance of outweighing potential benefits in non-high-risk populations,” he wrote in the documents overriding the staff members on the Novavax shot…
About 30 staff scientists at the F.D.A. signed off on giving approval to the Novavax vaccine for anyone 12 or older on March 28, according to the newly released documents. Records show that they reviewed several studies, including a clinical trial of the vaccine involving 30,000 people, and a safety database with 45,000 adults and adolescents who got the vaccine.
In the large study, there were three cases of myocarditis within two weeks of the second dose, compared with one case in the placebo group.
In a video explaining his decision to use his power to limit vaccines for millions of Americans, Dr. Prasad cited a rate of vaccine-myocarditis of 8 per 1,000,000 overall and 27 per 1,000,000 for males age 12-24. This equates to a 1 in 37,000 risk for this population, though Dr. Prasad expressed great concern about late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac MRI and its potential harms in the future. I guess he feels we know everything about repeat COVID infections and have no reason to at all worry about them.
Setting The Record Straight: There Is No ‘Covid Heart
Notably Dr. Prasad had previously discussed this late gadolinium enhancement in his article Setting The Record Straight: There Is No ‘Covid Heart’. Would you be surprised to learn, he was unconcerned about it? When it came to COVID, he said:
Even in the sickest of the sick, Covid-19’s effect on the heart appears to be modest. A London-based team reported on a series of 148 patients who had recovered from severe Covid-19. Cardiac magnetic resonance scans done during convalescence showed that nearly half of the individuals had no major heart abnormalities, and 9 out of 10 had normal heart function. These researchers coined a new phrase for myocarditis seen on cardiac magnetic resonance scans: they called it a myocarditis-like pattern because “we do not know what is causing this.”
To sum up: The issue of Covid-19 induced cardiac problems was massively overblown.
“People who have recovered from Covid-19 have no special reason to worry about their hearts,” he concluded.
In reality, COVID myocarditis killed some young men, in contrast to the vaccine, though COVID’s risks were never limited to myocarditis. However, while Dr. Prasad was very worried about an MRI finding in people who feel fine with the vaccine, he was quick to dismiss literal death from COVID as “rare anecdotes”. According to our medical establishment, worrying about dead children is “breathless,” while worrying about MRI abnormalities is “evidence-based.” This is a continuation of a pattern I discussed previously where Dr. Prasad expressed much more concern about abnormal lab values after vaccination than actual death from COVID.
“Don’t Trust the Old FDA, Trust Us”
So let’s be clear what is happening here. When it comes to the COVID vaccine, Dr. Prasad feels cardiac MRI abnormalities are “not a benign clinical finding”. With COVID, he said these exact same MRI abnormalities are “massively overblown.” With raw milk, Dr. Prasad feels people have the right to bodily autonomy, and that a risk of 70 per 1,000,000 is “very low.” With the COVID vaccine, a risk of myocarditis of 27 per 1,000,000 only for young males, is enough for him to ban the vaccine for every healthy person under age 65. These people do not have the right to bodily autonomy. Even though the only risk I face from a vaccine is a sore arm, the government, specifically Dr. Prasad, feels entitled to impose his will on my medical freedom.
This is what it looks like when disinformation doctors pretend to value data and science to further their true objective, MAHA politics. At least this is is obvious to everyone to everyone now. On social media, podcasts, and readers’ comments, Dr. Prasad is rightly getting roasted by respected doctors- those who actually treat sick children- for his unscientific, medical authoritarianism. As Dr. Paul Offit wrote in his article “Don’t Trust the Old FDA, Trust Us”:
By limiting use of the Covid vaccine to only those less than 65 who are in high-risk groups, Makary and Prasad will make Covid vaccines less likely to be insured and, therefore, less available for young people who have legitimate reasons for receiving the vaccine. By requiring placebo-controlled trials before licensure, they will likely make Covid vaccines more expensive. And by insisting that both Pfizer and Moderna include a new, broader warning about myocarditis on their label, they will make the vaccine more feared. This new warning comes without the context that myocarditis following vaccination—in addition to being self-limited, transient, and generally benign—has virtually disappeared. Makary and Prasad are solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
Dr. Prasad has picked up some new fans however. The makers of the movie Plandemic are thrilled with his performance. That’s his tribe now and will be for the rest of his career.
