rfk chimes in about gold standard science frequently, thus science circa 1900, roughly 125 years ago.
miasma theory goes back to the time of hippocrates outdoing the gold standard.
if rfk really wants to get it right we should be allieviating disease states with body paint, and exhaustive dancing about the firepit in the deeper reccesses of the tribal cave.
the only thing better would be to consult the pleistocene cave paintings, surely the evil spirits and animal totems persist, and have greater efficacy than pharmaceuticals.
i wonder what is to be done about the miasma in the oval office, and the mar-a-lago, perhaps some febreeze will help.
Let's not forget the mysterious but very real placebo effect though! Most of the supplement industry ($50 billion in the US annually dome say) - which you could look at as a waste of money, or a relatively safe and inexpensive way to feel better.
Of course the WH is said to have a Dr Feelgood on its staff, and those items are clearly not placebos, but maybe we are seeing the side effects play out on the world stage ;-)
"The [traditional] pandemic preparedness playbook [that RFK is trying to remove] entails three basic steps.
First, catalog every existing pathogen by sending scientists to every remote place (bat caves in China, and the like), take biological samples of wildlife there, and bring them back to labs. ...
Second, evaluate the risk of each pathogen infecting humans by testing its ability to penetrate human cells—and sometimes even genetically modifying it to make this more likely. The latter practice is now called dangerous gain-of-function (dGOF) research. ... . The idea is to estimate the likelihood that the infectious pathogen will mutate in a way that could conceivably threaten humans.
Third, having identified which few of the countless pathogens studied pose the greatest risk, develop vaccines and therapeutics before they leap into human populations. Crucially, this step involves awarding large contracts to pharmaceutical manufacturers to develop and stockpile the countermeasures."
RFK proposes:
1) to strike these above goals from NIH pandemic preparedness playbook
2) Focus on "getting everyone to eat better and exercise," since healthy people have better outcomes in infectious outbreaks.
[1] https://www.city-journal.org/article/nih-jay-bhattacharya-co...
voxadam•1h ago