RFK Jr.'s Favorite Measles Doc Heroically Kept Treating Children While Infected Himself
Wait, no, that seems like a bad idea.
As of last week, there have been 800 measles cases in the US this year, higher than at any point since 2019, when there were 1,274 cases — that, itself, being the highest number of cases since 1994. If things keep going the way they’re going, we’re going to end up with the highest number of measles cases in 30 years.
And few physicians are as committed to helping the United States beat that record as Dr. Ben Edwards, recently praised by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an “extraordinary healer” for the bang-up job he is doing, loading measles-infected Texas children up with cod liver oil and medications designed for afflictions other than measles.
A video posted March 31 by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group notable for their association with Secretary Kennedy, shows the doctor treating children while in the midst of an infection himself.
Look at the splotchy man go!
Perhaps ironically, the video started getting attention after it was posted to Facebook by an anti-vaxxer who thought it was a real gotcha that the doctor had contracted measles despite having received the MMR vaccine as a child.
It totally would be, save for the fact that experts have been very clear about the fact that breakthrough cases do happen, especially when it’s been a long time since someone had the vaccine. That’s why we keep vaccinating, because herd immunity. It’s not actually that hard.
Edwards very clearly states in the video that he just started getting the rash the day before, which means he was still contagious while swanning around maskless in his office and who knows where else. Measles is contagious for four days before and four days after the measles appear — which is why it is sometimes called the “nine day measles.”
In an email to the Associated Press, Edwards said that he “interacted with zero patients that were not already infected with measles” and that “Therefore, obviously, there were no patients that were put in danger of acquiring measles since they already had measles.” Except he had to go to the clinic and he had to walk through the clinic, where people who ostensibly do not have measles were, or where they might be for the next two hours. The measles virus can stay suspended in the air in a room for two hours after someone who has it has left. He was also being filmed by people who probably weren’t infected (at that time).
Whoops.
Edwards, by the way, owns Veritas Wellness, where members can pay $35 a month for access to a list of home remedies, a wellness community, education from the not-so-good doctor himself on unnamed topics, as well as discounts on “peace consultations,” “movement consultations,” wellness consultations, IV drips and, naturally, cod liver oil.
According to the website, “a divine appointment in 2011 opened his eyes to the fact that U.S. medical schools only teach a very narrow way of disease and symptom management with pharmaceuticals instead of disease and symptom resolution by addressing root causes. Veritas Medical was established in 2012 to try and truly help people by addressing root causes."
So basically he saw God and God was like “fuuuuuuuuuck actual medicine” and then he opened his own scammy clinic a year later. Makes sense.
But wait, it gets better/worse, in a way that actually explains why Edwards was not worried about anyone catching his germs — because he does not believe in them. He believes in “terrain theory,” a strain of pseudoscience nonsense that became especially popular among quacks and conspiracy theorists during the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
The website explains:
Germs and Genes are not the cause of disease, any more than flies cause garbage. We must not fear or focus on germs and genes. You are not a helpless victim. You have power to control your internal terrain. A clean, well stewarded, highly functional internal terrain will keep the “bad” genes turned off, the “good” genes turned on, and the trillions of microbes that live in you and on you (including staph and strep), in a robust and healthy balance.
Cells must create energy and clear exhaust. When you have an efficient cellular carburetor (aka mitochondria) your cells will make robust energy and be able to effectively clear the minimal exhaust. This internal environment is not a hospitable place for germs to thrive and keeps cancer genes turned off. You are not a victim of germs or genes. You, not your doctor or your pharmacist, have power and control over the state of your internal environment.
Just to be clear, absolutely none of this means anything. Also, if he’s so fabulously in control of his internal environment, then how did he catch measles in the first place?
This man has been operating this clinic since 2012, which means it is very likely that Kennedy was well aware of his inane theories. This is what we are dealing with. People who can hear someone say “I’ve met God and God told me that germs aren’t real” and be like “Yes, this a human person we should listen to about science. What an extraordinary healer!” instead of having them committed.
What could possibly go wrong?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
>>> Cells must create energy and clear exhaust. When you have an efficient cellular carburetor (aka mitochondria) your cells will make robust energy and be able to effectively clear the minimal exhaust. This internal environment is not a hospitable place for germs to thrive and keeps cancer genes turned off. You are not a victim of germs or genes. You, not your doctor or your pharmacist, have power and control over the state of your internal environment.<<<
Take. His. License.
Cuddling up with this crackpot movement definitely ensures that (absent Hic!Seth or President Klan Robe blundering us into a tactical nuclear exchange), Grimy Wormtongue is going to have the highest death toll of all of this horrific maladministration. It's not even going to be close, especially with the generational damage. We have lost a century—maybe more—of progress in public health, and what's even worse is this batshit crank also uses Lysenkoism as his lodestar.
He's got his sights set on people on the autism spectrum as well, and he's crammed full of bullshit suppositions about them. Grimy even wants to create a 'national registry.'
Do everything you can to resist and don't let them take you quietly. And of course, prioritize survival. Whatever you can do defensively health-wise (whatever doesn't get prohibited at least), try to do. The more of us survive, the more the dream of freedom is assured of remaining.