RFK Jr. Conveniently Forgets to Tell Key Group About Vaccine Overhaul

The health secretary neglected to inform a critical group of individuals when he decided to overhaul the child vaccination schedule: his own staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vaccine experts at the agency were “blindsided” by Robert F. Kennedy Jr’.s brisk efforts Monday to radically narrow the parameters for which vaccines the government would recommend for children, current and former CDC staff told The Washington Post.

That revamp included stripping recommendations for immunizations against influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A, and meningococcal diseases that result in meningitis. Instead, those vaccines will only be recommended to children considered at “high risk” of contracting the illness or if a doctor recommends it.

The decision was not informed by emerging scientific evidence and did not undergo a typical review process, but nonetheless went into effect immediately.

“The abrupt replacement of the immunization schedule by one designed for another context and healthcare system has been done with no scientific justification,” Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the agency’s center on immunization and respiratory diseases, told the Post.

Private and federal health insurance plans have signaled that they would continue to cover the cost of childhood vaccines through 2026, though several major insurers did not elaborate on how they would manage the Health Department’s shifting guidance in subsequent years.

Prior to Kennedy’s meddling, the schedule included 17 immunizations that were universally recommended for all children. The new schedule shrinks that pool to 11 vaccines.

Top officials within the Department of Health and Human Services released a memo regarding the changes Monday, declaring that the switch-up was in no small part due to public mistrust of vaccines and national public health initiatives in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kennedy, a virulent vaccine skeptic, told the American public before he was confirmed that he would not let his personal feelings about immunizations shape the nation’s public health policy. In an April interview with CBS News, Kennedy reaffirmed that he was “not going to take people’s vaccines away from them.”

But that’s exactly what he’s done.

Since Kennedy took the reins at HHS, he has replaced independent medical experts on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel with a hodgepodge of vaccine skeptics. He warned against the use of the MMR vaccine during Texas’s historic measles outbreak, recommending that suffering patients instead take vitamins. And he founded his new directive for America’s health policy—the “Make America Healthy Again” report—on studies generated by AI that never existed in the real world.

The 71-year-old has a lot to gain from pushing disinformation about the jab: The more doubt and division that Kennedy sows, the more money he’ll make. Ahead of his appointment, Kennedy disclosed that he made roughly $10 million in 2024 from speaking fees and dividends from his vaccine lawsuits. He’s also made cash from merchandising handled by his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, which bungled its response to a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa so badly that it resulted in the deaths of at least 83 people, the majority of whom were children under the age of 5.

As a reminder: Since their invention, vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. The medical shots are so effective at preventing illness that they have effectively eradicated some of the worst diseases from our collective culture, from rabies to polio and smallpox—a fact that has possibly fooled some into believing that the viruses and their complications aren’t a significant threat to the average, health-conscious individual.

Meanwhile, Kennedy is running DHS with practically zero relevant experience. He has not worked in medicine, public health, or the government—instead, he is guided only by a pocketful of conspiracies that America’s foremost health experts have already thoroughly debunked.

President Donald Trump was desperate Wednesday to justify a federal immigration officer shooting a U.S. citizen multiple times—but video footage of the incident showed just how indefensible it really was.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared a “horrible” news clip that showed a federal immigration officer shooting a driver who’d blocked traffic on a suburban street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The video, taken from a distance, was slowed down to isolate the sound of three gunshots, audible above a witness screaming, “No!”

“The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump wrote.

“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” he wrote, referring to the officer. The video Trump shared, however, does not appear to show anyone being hit by the victim’s car, and the federal officers are not visible.

Another video taken from a closer angle showed the officer who fired his weapon standing, seemingly completely unharmed as the car initially drove away. A photograph of the officer showed him feet away from the car when he fired. It is not hard to believe that the officer is still alive; it’s not entirely clear that he was ever in danger. The driver, however, a U.S. citizen and apparent legal observer, is reportedly deceased, though the president did not bother to mention it.

“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” Trump wrote. “They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”

Members of the Trump administration have already leapt to declare the shooting as a thwarted attempt at “domestic terrorism.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had a baffling excuse Wednesday for a federal agent shooting a U.S. citizen protesting an ICE operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Speaking from Brownsville, Texas, Noem claimed that the officer had been responding to “an act of domestic terrorism.”

The secretary claimed that the victim had “attacked” a group of federal officers whose vehicle was stuck in the snow, attempting to “run them over and ram them with her vehicle.” An officer had “defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him” and killed the woman, Noem said.

Witnesses reported seeing something entirely different.

Emily Heller, a Minneapolis resident, claimed that the woman had been blocking traffic with her car as part of the protest earlier Wednesday. When the woman tried to turn her car around, an ICE agent standing in front of her car leaned over the hood and shot her in the face at least three times.

Another resident, Aidan Perzana, told Fox9 that he’d seen three ICE agents attempt to detain the driver. When the vehicle suddenly reversed and then pulled away from the officers, one of the agents shot through the driver’s side window three times.

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar indicated that the deceased victim was not only a U.S. citizen, but a legal observer.

A video of the incident appeared to show that the woman’s car did not move toward the ICE officers, but away from them.

Despite these stories, it seems that the Trump administration intends to run with its claim that the victim was a so-called “domestic terrorist.”

White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also claimed that the victim had committed a federal crime. “Democrats continue to lend aid and comfort to domestic terrorism,” Miller wrote on X, responding to Minnesota Senator Tina Smith’s plea for ICE to leave Minneapolis following the incident.

Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who has spent the last several months spinning blatant lies about immigration officers’ violent interactions with civilians, described the victim as a “violent rioter” who was attempting to kill the federal agents.

“This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement,” McLaughlin wrote on X.

Even the White House press secretary can’t seem to defend Donald Trump’s incessant warmongering.

Karoline Leavitt couldn’t muster a logical explanation for the president’s escalating fixation on Greenland during a press conference Wednesday, vaguely suggesting that acquiring the Danish-controlled territory would be beneficial for national security purposes.

“I’m curious if you could just spell out for the American public what specifically would the U.S. gain by taking control of Greenland that the U.S. doesn’t already have access to right now?” asked a reporter, highlighting myriad existing treaties that effectively give the United States unfettered access to Greenland as a military base.

“Um—more control over the Arctic region,” Leavitt stuttered. “And ensuring that China and Russia and our adversaries cannot continue their aggression in this very important and strategic region. And there would be many other benefits as well that, again, the president and his national security team are currently talking about.”

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s bombardment of Venezuela for oil, America’s European allies have weighed whether the U.S. president’s jabs at annexing Greenland—another major international oil resource—actually carried weight. Of particular concern were repeat comments made by the president in which Trump declared he would use “military force” to secure the Arctic island for U.S. interests.

Fears about Trump’s militaristic dreams for Greenland were, in part, rejuvenated by Leavitt herself during the same press briefing, when she refused to rule out the possibility of using U.S. troops to seize the island.

“Past presidents and past leaders have often ruled things out, they’ve often been very open about ruling things in and basically broadcasting their foreign policy strategy to the rest of the world. Not just to our allies but, most egregiously, to our adversaries,” Leavitt said. “That’s not something our president does.

“But I will just say that the president’s first option, always, has been diplomacy,” Leavitt continued, before pointing her finger to the situation in Venezuela. “And look at what happened.”

Federal agents shot a woman in the face multiple times in Minneapolis on Wednesday, according to witness statements reported by MPR News.

Resident Emily Heller told MPR she woke up to loud noise outside of her home, and saw a car blocking traffic as part of a protest against the 2,000 law enforcement officers that have recently descended upon the Twin Cities.

“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in—like, his midriff was on her bumper—and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” said Heller, going on to say that the woman then drove forward for about 100 feet before running into a utility pole. She was seen unresponsive in the vehicle. Her status is unknown at this time. 

“I am aware of a shooting involving an ICE agent at 34th Street & Portland. The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote on X shortly after the shooting. “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.” In a press conference held Wednesday afternoon Frey told ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem insisted that the shooting was justified and that the victim was a “domestic terrorist” who endangered officers’ lives. Videos of the incident that have circulated on social media suggest that was not the case—which Frey also noted in his first public remarks about the shooting. 

ICE is indistinguishable from an independent hired militia, and has been for some time. More information about the shooting will come as the situation develops.  

This piece has been updated. 

It seems like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is using his new food pyramid to make sure we don’t have any fat troops in the military when China invades. 

“Seventy-seven percent of military-age Americans are ineligible for military service because of diet-related conditions,” RFK Jr. said during press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s MAHA-themed press briefing on Wednesday afternoon. The health secretary introduced a new “upside-down” food pyramid, in which he prioritized red meat and whole milk.  

 “If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children, to cripple our economy, to weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to addict us to ultra-processed foods.” 

This reeks of the same rhetoric Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has employed in past months, stating at his emergency military meeting in September that “it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.… It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.” 

Framing dietary health within the realm of military service and invasion—all while standing in front of a new, upside-down food pyramid—is emblematic of where this administration’s priorities lie.

The great minds behind “Make America Healthy Again” just unveiled the product of a year’s work: an upside-down food pyramid and the slogan “Eat Real Food.” If only President Donald Trump would help people actually afford it.

During a White House press briefing Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled new dietary guidelines and a new food pyramid that looked eerily familiar. “It’s upside down, a lot of you will say,” Kennedy conceded to the press. “But it was actually upside down before, and we actually just righted it.”

The “new” diagram is essentially the same pyramid that many are familiar with, but flipped. Now grains occupy the pyramid’s point at the bottom of the image, while “vegetables and fruits” sit at the top, accompanied by “protein, dairy, and healthy fats.”

The original food pyramid was introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1991, and was later replaced in 2011 by My Plate, a circle portioned into grains, protein, vegetables, fruits, and dairy. The government has never really pushed consuming “ultra-processed” foods or added sugar—but you wouldn’t know that based on Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’s remarks.

“Federal incentives have promoted low-quality, highly processed foods and pharmaceutical interventions instead of prevention,” Rollins claimed Wednesday.

“Thankfully, the solution is simple and should be noncontroversial: Eat real food,” she continued. “This is the main message of the new dietary guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030, which encourage households and schools to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods.”

Easier said than done. Despite Trump’s lifeless promises to lower the price of groceries, healthy whole foods still remain out of reach for average Americans.

For example, beef is currently 15 percent more expensive than it was this time last year, and experts say it will only get worse next year, an issue that may take years more to fix. That could prove problematic for the government’s recommendation to eat way more protein. While previous guidelines recommended a daily serving of 13 to 56 grams of protein, the new rules advise that protein consumption should be proportional to body weight. A 150-pound person should apparently eat between 81.6 and 109 grams a day, nearly twice as much as previously recommended.

Additionally, Trump’s disastrous tariffs and environmental factors have also taken turns making imported fruits and vegetables more expensive. A weakening job market, soaring inflation, and the rising costs of childcare and housing haven’t helped Americans at the checkout line, either. But the government wants Americans to “prioritize” oils with “essential fatty acids,” such as often-pricey beef tallow, a favorite among anti-vaxxers.

Rollins revealed that she and her team had been working on adjusting the government’s dietary guidelines “since almost day one.” Clearly, a year well spent.

The American public may still have the opportunity to hear former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump.

Smith developed two cases against Trump: one into the MAGA leader’s alleged retention of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021, and another into Trump’s involvement in the January 6 riots. But both were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election, on the basis of a long-standing Justice Department policy that prevents the prosecution of a sitting president.

The investigator was invited by Republican Representative Jim Jordan for a closed-door session before Congress last month, giving Smith a platform that top Democrats surprisingly claim was the most advantageous to eventually charge Trump.

“Yeah, well, I left that closed-door deposition of Jack Smith, and I said that Chairman Jordan’s decision to do it behind closed doors was the best decision he ever made in his life, because it was absolutely devastating for Donald Trump and for those who still want to try to pretend as if he wasn’t guilty of these things, he was clearly guilty of these things,” Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin told MS NOW on Tuesday.

Raskin went on to argue that Trump had not evaded his charges because of “any kind of innocence.”

“What’s allowed him to escape, you know, Houdini-like, is the Roberts court and the fact that he’s been able to manipulate the levers of power to keep himself going,” Raskin said. “I mean, if he put, you know, a fraction of that energy into trying to actually do something for the American people, we might be in a different position in America today.

“But the economy, the society are basically in ruins because of the guy,” he continued. “But he has been able to stay afloat, even as it’s overwhelmingly clear that he engaged in an attempt to defraud the United States, disrupt this federal proceeding, and massively violate the voting rights of all Americans by stealing an election. He wasn’t trying to stop election fraud. He was trying to commit election fraud for several months.”

Last week, Raskin told reporters that it would have been “devastating” for Trump if the public heard the extent of Smith’s testimony, which involved “schooling the Judiciary Committee on the professional responsibilities of a prosecutor and the ethical duties of a prosecutor.”

In the midst of rants about seizing Venezuelan oil and threatening to leave NATO, President Donald Trump gave a shout-out to one of his favorite supporters—recently fired Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh.

Harbaugh, who coached the Ravens for 18 years, was fired after a tumultuous season that ended in heartbreaking fashion—a missed field goal in the last seconds of a game against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers that sent the Ravens home packing, dashing any hopes of making the postseason, much less the Super Bowl.

While some see Harbaugh’s firing as a long time coming, President Trump surprisingly chimed in to defend him.

“HIRE JOHN HARBAUGH, FAST. HE, AND HIS BROTHER, ARE TOTAL WINNERS!!! President DJT,” he wrote in all caps.

While Trump might just be tapped in, it’s worth mentioning that Harbaugh had a friendly visit with the president at the White House this summer—something many fans brought up in jest when discussing what went wrong for the Ravens this season.

Last summer, Harbaugh, his brother Jim—the current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers—and their mother made a trip to the White House, even as President Trump had described Baltimore as a disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live” back in 2019.

“It was amazing. It was awesome. And I promise you I root for our president,” Harbaugh said. “I want our president to be successful just like I want my quarterback to be successful and I want my team to be successful, and it was an amazing experience.”

If support for Trump is any indication, Jim’s Chargers might be in trouble this weekend against the Patriots.

President Trump spent a large part of his Wednesday morning ranting on Truth Social, with one of those rants concerning how helpless NATO is without him, how he ended eight wars, and how he still deserves the Nobel Peace Prize—even though he swears he doesn’t really care.

“Remember, for all of those big NATO fans, they were at 2% GDP, and most weren’t paying their bills, UNTIL I CAME ALONG. The USA was, foolishly, paying for them! I, respectfully, got them to 5% GDP, AND THEY PAY, immediately,” he wrote. “Everyone said that couldn’t be done, but it could, because, beyond all else, they are all my friends. Without my involvement, Russia would have ALL OF UKRAINE right now.”

While this is par for the course for Trump—he’s been railing against NATO for years—this recent installment comes with Trump’s threatened military annexation of Greenland hanging overhead. That kind of escalation could end NATO as we know it, and our European allies are far from thrilled.

“I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week. “But I will also make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”

Trump could care less about this, as he’s more concerned with what NATO has done for him lately, and vice versa.

“Remember, also, I single-handedly ENDED 8 WARS, and Norway, a NATO Member, foolishly chose not to give me the Noble Peace Prize,” he continued, misspelling “Nobel” while repeating his “ended 8 wars” lie. “But that doesn’t matter! What does matter is that I saved Millions of Lives. RUSSIA AND CHINA HAVE ZERO FEAR OF NATO WITHOUT THE UNITED STATES, AND I DOUBT NATO WOULD BE THERE FOR US IF WE REALLY NEEDED THEM. EVERYONE IS LUCKY THAT I REBUILT OUR MILITARY IN MY FIRST TERM, AND CONTINUE TO DO SO. We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us. The only Nation that China and Russia fear and respect is the DJT REBUILT U.S.A.”

Is Trump about to invade a country and destroy NATO all because he didn’t win the “Noble” Peace Prize? It sure seems like it.