From the Fringe to Fox

Joe Passantino: “On Capitol Hill this week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. found himself under fire. The notorious anti-vaccine activist turned Health and Human Services secretary was grilled in a tense Senate Finance Committee hearing, where lawmakers from both parties accused him of peddling falsehoods about vaccines and undermining public health. At one point he exaggerated the number of childhood immunizations, downplayed Covid’s death toll, and suggested health officials were deliberately misleading the public.”

“That spectacle offered a snapshot of how far once-fringe claims have traveled. For years, Kennedy was considered a crank on the margins, hawking anti-vaccine conspiracy theories in wellness circles and on the talk-radio fringe. Now he is running the country’s health department. His views aren’t just tolerated, they are being injected directly into the bloodstream of government policy. And it didn’t get there by accident. Right-wing media has been the vehicle.”