Kennedy’s hearing signifies how close a man with medically racist beliefs is to becoming the US’s leading health official
Is it really too much to ask for Secretaries to at least have some experience or education in the industries they are the head of?
It’s apparently too much to ask for Secretaries to not be super fucking racist.
Or super fucking rapists
shhh, DEI is the real source of unqualified positions
Poe’s law, ffs. Is this sarcasm? Then use the label
It’s pretty obvious sarcasm with the “shhhh” part.
thanks, “shhh” or “wait, i thought” already presents it as sarcasm without diluting the joke as much as “/s”
It’s all in Project 2025. They’re purging everyone. Qualifications don’t matter, as long as you’re a Trump bootlicker.
It’s much more important that they are loyal to the orange dickhead and his agenda of destroying America.
This is what is known as scientific racism. The US has always been the world’s #1 producer or it
Sickle Cell Anemia: This is more common in individuals of African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian descent. The condition is caused by an inherited defect in hemoglobin, which affects red blood cells and can cause pain and other serious complications.
Cystic Fibrosis: This genetic disorder is more common in people of European descent, especially those with Northern or Central European ancestry. It affects the lungs, digestive system, and other organs.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure): Hypertension is more prevalent in Black Americans than in other racial groups. The reasons for this are multifactorial, including genetics, socioeconomic status, and environmental factors. African Americans are also at higher risk for complications from hypertension, such as stroke and kidney disease.
Type 2 Diabetes: This is more common in Native American, Hispanic, and African American populations. Genetic factors play a role, along with lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity levels.
Lactose Intolerance: People of East Asian, West African, Native American, and Mediterranean descent are more likely to be lactose intolerant, meaning they have difficulty digesting lactose, a sugar found in dairy products. This is due to lower levels of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose.
Breast Cancer: While breast cancer affects women of all races, African American women are more likely to develop certain aggressive forms of breast cancer, such as triple-negative breast cancer, which tends to have a poorer prognosis. On the other hand, white women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at an earlier age.
Prostate Cancer: Prostate cancer is more common in Black men, who are also more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age and experience more aggressive forms of the disease.
Asthma: Asthma is more prevalent among Black and Hispanic children in the United States. Environmental factors, such as exposure to air pollution, and socioeconomic factors, like access to healthcare, contribute to these disparities.
Skin Cancer (Melanoma): While melanoma is more common in people with lighter skin, such as those of European descent, it tends to be diagnosed at a later stage in people with darker skin, such as Black and Hispanic individuals, due to lower awareness and delayed diagnosis.
Thalassemia: A blood disorder more common in individuals of Mediterranean, African, or Southeast Asian descent. It involves the body making an abnormal form of hemoglobin, leading to anemia.
Tay-Sachs Disease: This genetic disorder, which leads to the progressive destruction of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, is more common in Ashkenazi Jewish individuals but also affects people of French-Canadian, Cajun, or certain Eastern European origins.
That’s a nice list of red herrings. Those are all facts supported by evidence gathered through research. The point of the article is that RFK Jr has made, and continues to make, claims of fact that have no evidentiary basis, and in many cases directly contradict the available evidence.
Then why did Hobbes_Dent complain the list didn’t have enough examples of Caucasian issues?
Then why did Hobbes_Dent complain the list didn’t have enough examples of Caucasian issues?
I don’t care, and neither should anyone else. The fact that there are genetic propensities for disease that are more prevalent among ethnic groups is not relevant to the substance of the article.
What’s your point? If you read the article, the point is that the data doesn’t support his claim. Nobody us claiming that race can’t have an affect on how people respond to diseases. Honestly tho, you’re more likely to see differences from individual to individual. This is why we do double blind studies with placebo.
I think their point is not to conflate scientific racism with the actual medical needs of different ethnic backgrounds. Nor to conflate either with scientific misinterpretation, or plain immorality, which is more what Kennedy is advocating for.
The author of the study sums it up quite nicely: the results of this study so not support inequitable vaccination. If we just claim Kennedy is trying to sort humans into different subspecies, that’s just going to muddy the argument that his stance is wrong and immoral.
From Wikipedia:
Before the mid-20th century, scientific racism was accepted throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically separate groups, along with the assignment of particular physical and mental characteristics to these groups through constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, is referred to as racialism, racial realism, race realism, or race science by those who support these ideas. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.
Scientific racism misapplies, misconstrues, or distorts anthropology (notably physical anthropology), craniometry, evolutionary biology, and other disciplines or pseudo-disciplines through proposing anthropological typologies to classify human populations into physically discrete human races, some of which might be asserted to be superior or inferior to others.
From the article:
African Americans have a long history of mistrust in the medical system, rooted in legacies of abuse and mistreatment, including unethical experiments on Black people. Examples include the Tuskegee syphilis study, the gynecology malpractice of J Marion Sims on enslaved Black women and the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks for cancer treatment, all which violated the principles of research ethics. The basis of these events stemmed from exploitation upheld by the idea that race is biological. In 2003, the Human Genome Project found that there is no genetic basis for race and that the term “race” is not biologically meaningful, meaning statements like Kennedy’s are not only outdated, but also false.
Throughout history, two enduring physiological myths – that Black people have a higher pain tolerance and weak lungs that could be strengthened through hard labor – have circulated within the medical community and continue to influence modern medical education and practice. Research has shown that many American physicians, medical students and residents hold incorrect beliefs about biological differences between races, which contribute to racial bias and disparities in pain perception and treatment recommendations. A 2016 survey revealed that of 222 white American medical students and residents, nearly 60% thought Black people’s skin is thicker than white peoples, and 12% thought Black people’s nerve endings were less sensitive than those of white people. Neither is true.
“Spreading false rhetoric that Black people have stronger immune systems recalls this notion of a super-humanization bias, which claims that Black people’s bodies function and endure pain differently,” said Zoé Samudzi, a visiting assistant professor at Clark University. Samudzi, who holds a PhD in medical sociology, fears the rise in misinformation will roll back recent progress across health fields. “Race-based medicine should not be the means of addressing the disparities in health outcomes that fall on the lines of race,” she said.
Not at all what the article or Wikipedia is referring to, but you do you.
And what, pray tell, is the use case for this information
So nothing regarding RFK’s ideas about black people and immune response or pain sensitivity?
How dare you come in here with your facts. These people need to be angry about scientific racism!
Next you’re gonna tell me that because I have blue eyes that I am much more sensitive to bright lights than someone with darker colored eyes. You’re just eye racist!
Where are the facts about Caucasian propensities for disease and genetic issues in the list? Partial points for the light skin point.
Incomplete facts. Science huh.
Anything to justify it.
Cystic Fibrosis was listed.
There are genetic diseases more common in each (previously isolated) population. It’s a fact which can be used to target screenings in a way that minimizes residual risks.
Many things in the list are different for socioeconomic reasons as well as genetic reasons. That doesn’t mean the genetic differences don’t exist or that scientific racism is behind them.
Racism is when you treat individuals not according to their own characteristics, but the characteristics (correctly assessed or not) attributed to their race. But public health efforts are not about individuals and often need to use racial background to help provide the care most likely to succeed.
Personal genomics will help us move to more individualized medicine, but it’s not ready or affordable enough to apply to every case at the moment.
And if you think the gaggle of idiots running the country right now (up to and including RFK Jr.) has any intent to make personal genomics affordable to anyone but themselves, I’ve got a fucking bridge to sell you.
I do not. I don’t trust RFK Jr to do anything right except possibly by accident.
Just reinforcing the point that there are legitimate and non-racist uses of race information in medicine.
Edit: Keep in mind that the comment I replied too seemed to take issue with a list of conditions related to genetics that have different propensities in different races. There are racists like Kennedy on the one side and then there are idiots on the other who think that any credence given to nature over nurture is indicative of racism and could not possibly be backed by objective facts.
Trump doesn’t give a shit about this fool. RFK jr withdrew from the race and he’s lucky that trump even nominated him rather throwing him aside like a burger wrapper.
I mean, he already said covid was engineered not to be as bad for Jewish people. We knew who he was.