CNN: Paul Offit vs Calley Means on RFK, Jr. at HHS

"The entire coverage of Bobby Kennedy is around measles"

On February 19th the UK Daily Mail published a story that included a video clip from CNN.

The headline read, CNN anchor fumes at RFK Jr aide who tries to hijack interview in ugly exchange.

The “ugly exchange” during this six minute interview was between health advocate Calley Means and Dr. Paul Offit, vaccine developer.

VIDEO:

CNN’s Pamela Brown talked to Means and Offit about Kennedy’s role at HHS. Brown, an anchor/chief investigative correspondent, didn’t seem really focused on the chronic disease crisis. It appeared more like CNN was giving Offit a platform to go after Kennedy as anti-vaccine.

What really stood out to me in this interview was the attitude of Calley Means. He was aggressive and on the offensive. He went after the bias news coverage out there and the fact that during Robert Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, senators were not interested in what he had to say about the health of Americans. Instead they defended vaccines as if that was the only thing they were concerned about.

Means:

Pamela, with respect, why aren’t you asking me about the fact that 50 percent of teens have obesity?

. . .Day after day after day, it’s breathless coverage of five measles cases.

Why aren’t we asking why 16 percent of COVID deaths worldwide were Americans, when we’re only four percent of the world’s population?

Because the CDC said our immune—no, it is related, and let me say why.

Because the entire coverage of Bobby Kennedy is around measles. The Democrats said the word measles 25 times in the first hearing and said the words obesity, diabetes and chronic disease zero times.

The HHS priority document on under President Biden said the word equity 25 times, said the word vaccines countless times, did not say the word obesity or diabetes.

. . .We are focused on a very small subset that’s important. We need good infectious disease management.

Bobby Kennedy has said one thing about vaccines and one thing only: that they should be studied like any other product.

Dr. Offit, on the ACIP committee, has recommended vaccines that have ended up being recalled for causing mass issues to kids.

Bobby Kennedy has written multiple books, not about being anti-vax, but about having good science. And Dr. Offit is calling him anti-vaccine for literally just saying we need studies.

Bobby Kennedy is not concerned with measles. He wants good policies with measles.

He wants to attack the 92 percent of deaths in the United States which is from chronic conditions.

Pamela Brown described Kennedy as a “vaccine skeptic.” Means countered calling him “a pro-science advocate.”

Brown brought up the food stamp program or SNAP that is used to buy a lot of sugary products and other unhealthy food.

Offit agreed that the nutrition in this country is bad and that we don’t have good health outcomes because of it, but vaccines are not part of the problem. He avoided any mention of the autism epidemic, a critical issue closely tied to vaccines.

Offit:

What worries me about RFK, Jr., which is why he shouldn’t be the head of HHS, is he has been a virulent anti-vaccine activist for the last 20 years.

And when he stands in front of the HHS a couple of days ago, what did he talk about?

He talked about childhood vaccines, number 1. He talked about electromagnetic radiation, number two. He talked about pesticides. He didn’t talk about the things that Calley’s talking about here, which is things like obesity or over-medicating children or sugar drinks.

I’m all for . . .

Means:

This is what Bobby Kennedy’s fighting against, Dr. Offit.

As you know, you were the chair at the Children’s Hospital, the Merck Chair. It was like the NASCAR drivers wearing their sponsors. Merck paid your $1.5 million salary.

Sick care, not health care

And this is what Bobby’s saying, is that fundamentally, pharma can create good innovations, but they’re foundationally incentivized for children to be sick.

Pharma doesn’t make money when children are healthy. The hospitals don’t make money when the beds are empty. Chronic disease—just as a demonstrable statement of economic fact—is a great economic invention for the health industry, which demonstrably makes money when patients are sick.

And that’s an incentive that Bobby Kennedy is going hard after. . . .

I think the problem is that the public health community, the Merck shares of pediatricians, that is insane. Merck does not have children’s interests at heart. Merck itself has settled billions of dollars in criminal penalties for misleading and falsifying data in the past 10 years.

Brown said that Means used to be a pharma rep, and he corrected her saying he was a lobbyist.

Offit was asked to respond to claims about his ties to Merck. Instead, he attacked Kennedy and Means.

What he does is what RFK Jr. does, which what all personal injury lawyer types do, which is when the data aren’t on their side, then they attack the person.

. . .I do not have a conflict of interest. The Merck Chair is defined by Penn. There is no quid pro quo. . . .

Because there aren’t the data on their side regarding vaccines, they do what all personal injury lawyer types do, which is attack the witness. I’m not RFK Jr.’s problem.

The science has continually showed he’s wrong about vaccines.

Means:

You didn’t make millions from royalties from vaccine makers while sitting on ACIP?

What always amazes me is the fact that so often when the topic of vaccine safety comes up in the news, there’s Dr. Offit. Most of the time his huge personal income from his rotavirus vaccine isn’t even brought up, and if it is, it’s not relevant.

But here Calley Means made it an issue. Offit is an industry insider. Why should we accept his word as legitimate? Offit referred to the “science” on vaccines, as if there was no disputing vaccine safety claims. It may be beyond the scope of Brown’s coverage, but most of us questioning vaccines know how conflicted all that science really is. Just like having Offit defend vaccines, there are just too many pharma ties.

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