the COronavirus
On Wednesday, after consulting his horoscope and his favorite conspiracy subreddit, R.F.K. Jr. announced that the new F.D.A.-approved coronavirus vaccine will be available only to those either over the age of 64 or with high-risk medical conditions. (No word yet as to whether a dormant brain-eating worm qualifies as a high-risk condition.) This follows his decision in May to no longer recommend that pregnant women and children receive the vaccine. Think “women and children first,” but the opposite!
The c.D.C. FIRING
Also on Wednesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) director Susan Monarez—who was confirmed less than a month ago—was fired after clashing with R.F.K. Jr. over his aforementioned vaccination policies. Four senior C.D.C. officials have resigned in response, but Monarez, far from clearing out her desk, has refused to acknowledge her firing, claiming that as a confirmed Senate appointee she can be fired only by Trump himself. Escorting Monarez off the C.D.C. premises might give the National Guard a nice break from standing intimidatingly outside the Lincoln Memorial and re-mulching the Mall.
In an appearance on Thursday on MAGA’s favorite soapbox, Fox & Friends, R.F.K. Jr. declined to comment on Monarez’s firing, instead ranting about “malaise” within the health agency and making the false claim that the C.D.C. Web site lists abortion as one of the “10 greatest advances in medical science.” (The only two documents on the site that match that description are from 1999 and 2011, and neither mentions abortion directly but, rather, screening programs for inherited disease—something R.F.K. Jr.’s mom should have done before having him.)
The MEASLES
Doctors who had never seen a measles case in their careers are now confronting the largest national outbreak since 2000, when the U.S. declared the disease eliminated. We can thank yet another R.F.K. Jr.–foot–in–the–mouth moment, when he claimed the measles vaccine causes “deaths every year,” which he walked back a few months later. If only he could just as easily take back bear-carcass-gate.
the MINNESOTA SHOOTING
This week’s school shooting, the 44th this year, underscores the C.D.C.’s grim finding: firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents. Americans are split along familiar partisan lines over what to do. As for the shooter, her politics were incoherent at best. A trans woman (left!) who hated Muslim, Black, and Hispanic people (right!), despised Trump (left!), owned a rifle, pistol, and shotgun (right!), wrote the word “Skibidi” on her ammunition (Gen Z!), and hated the Jews (both!).
Carolina de Armas and Paulina Prosnitz are Junior Editors at Air Mail
