And with that, any ounce of credibility @DrMakaryFDA may have had is out the window
We here at Science Based Medicine will be keeping close tabs on our new Medical Establishment for as long as they are in power. We won’t be the only ones, however. Though they have an entirely different agenda, anti-vaxxers and crackpots of all sorts will be watching too, and their power and influence has grown mightily over the past 5 years. Mainstream doctors relentlessly shared their beliefs and talking points. In so doing, they validated and normalized anti-vaccine thought, rhetoric, and techniques. Chief of these was spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Dr. Marty Makary, for example, spent the past 4 years making common causes with such cranks and encouraging their mistrust of the Medical Establishment. In one particularly noxious speech, seated next to his fellow misinformation superspreader Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Makary said, “that the greatest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic has been the United States government.” He was upset that his predecessors didn’t join him in glorifying “natural immunity” and treating vaccine side-effects as a fate worse than death.
Thanks in part to doctors like Dr. Makary, many people no longer trust the Medical Establishment, and unsurprisingly the leopards that he validated and enabled are already coming for his face. They are demanding that he remove all COVID vaccines, and though he seems inclined to do so, this will appease them for only so long. RFK Jr. is hiring cranks like David Geier to “discover” bad things about vaccines. Their next targets will be the MMR, HPV, and other routine vaccines. They’ll never be satisfied, and they’ll turn on him Dr. Makary a heartbeat if he lets them down. The same will likely be true for Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Vinay Prasad. By pretending to take a “nuanced” and “evidence-based” approach, they’ll end up pleasing no one and infuriating everyone.
“It’s been a tough period, absolutely, and especially … for me.”
Already, the fragile coalition that brought our current Medical Establishment to power is starting to fissure and fray. Today the headlines read: MAHA Infighting Threatens to Derail RFK Jr.’s Health Revolution, Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Pits MAGA Vs. MAHA, MAHA at War: RFK Jr’s Inner Circle Accusing Each Other of Leaking False Info in Expletive-Ridden Phone Call, Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Exposes Cracks in MAHA Movement, MAHA Civil War Erupts As Wellness CEO Makes Bombshell Accusation Against Top RFK Jr. Adviser , and Wellness CEO Files Ethics Complaint Against Top RFK Jr. Adviser. According to that last article:
In a formal complaint to the Office of the Special Counsel and other agencies filed Saturday and obtained by POLITICO, Gillooly accuses Calley Means of abusing his position at HHS and violating the law prohibiting conflict of interest in government services by threatening to involve Kennedy and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya in the dispute.
“If one more thing happens, I’m going to go to Jay Bhattacharya and Bobby and tell him that you and your cadre of Peter McCullough and Kelly Victory are spreading lies and trying to fuck with him and hurt his administration,” Means said, naming two members of the company’s medical board, in a recording of a Saturday morning call between him and Gillooly obtained by POLITICO.
I’m glad I won’t have to spend the next 4 years dealing with middle school drama like this. However, this is what our current Medical Establishment signed up for. This is what their future holds. They’d better not upset Laura Loomer. They cannot contract their boss, who is an anti-vaxx loon.
Dr. Bhattacharya at least seems to grasp that he is largely at the mercy of forces beyond his control. His recent interview with Science reeked of impotence. “Those decisions are not up to me… I had nothing to do with it… It’s not me personally,” he said. “It’s been a tough period, absolutely, and especially … for me“, he said about having to purge scientists and other dedicated NIH employees. “I don’t want to get in the middle of that negotiation,” he said in another interview regarding potentially devastating cuts to the NIH, as if he were a passive observer of the agency he purportedly leads.
Some of us have been paying close attention to anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, and we’ve seen this story before. We could have warned these doctors that hitching their wagon to these characters was a dangerous game that wasn’t going to end well for them. As Dr. Mark Hoofnagle said in response to these headlines:
But this is the natural progression of cranks! First comes the magnetism, then the repulsion. Almost all crank movements will eventually devolve to sectarian strife, especially after the loss or humiliation of a figurehead. It’s the only upside of watching these idiots is knowing this fate. But think of any crank community or movement, from 9/11 to 4chan.
It starts with bonding over mutual hates and love of being outside pissing in, then, they inevitably they figure out people who think this way are intensely unpleasant, narcissistic, rotten people so they turn on each other. Eventually crank repulsion will destroy almost any movement and a few decades will go by before some new crank comes along and picks up the pieces anew, then they’re like Rife machines! Let’s cure space-aids with electricity! The circle of life.
There’s not going to be much to cheer about for the next 4 years. But watching MAHA turn on itself and the doctors they empowered will provide an opportunity to kick back, pull out the popcorn, and enjoy the circular firing squad.
