RFK, Jr.

Or, Middle Ages, here we come!

I’ve been staring at this formerly blank paper for several hours, trying to figure out how to address the travesty of the subcommittee’s vote to move RFK, Jrs’ nomination to the floor for a full vote without “getting personal.”

I’ve finally accepted the fact that I just can’t do it.

So let me be up front: although I had the Chem-Bio, Chem-Demil, and various health accounts while a PSM on the SASC (tutored there by the best of the best, including Dr Fauci!) and I have all the “street-cred” necessary to comment on this, I’m also qualified to comment simply because I’m a severe asthmatic.

I had my very first attack at age 34 (it’s called adult onset asthma) and had no idea what was happening. I seemed to have trouble taking a deep breath all that day, so I called my Doc (also a friend) and made an appointment to see him after work because I thought I might be developing pneumonia.

Dave took one look at me-ordered an ambulance, started an IV, slapped an oxygen mask on me, said, “we’ll talk later,” and sent me off to the ER. Thus began a 30+ year odyssey… figuring out how to adapt to, live with, and control my ability to breathe.

What wisdom does RFK, Jr provide? He tells me that my asthma is my fault and the fault of “big-pharma.” His first notion is that asthma is the result of using asthma inhalers. This, even though I literally had never even SEEN an asthma inhaler until after I had my first asthma attack. I never even knew anyone with asthma while I was growing up!!

His second revelation is that asthma is caused by the food we eat. -No problem, Bob. While, I agree with you that we have an unhealthy reliance on overprocessed food, I grew up in a household that didn’t eat it!

Everything we ate was cooked from scratch by my grandmother. We had milk delivered in glass bottles from a local dairy until I was about 15 when the local dairy closed (we also got our eggs and ice cream from them.) Meat and chicken came from local butchers who raised and slaughtered their own animals in the surrounding towns (again, until my mid-teens when they closed).

Frankly, if your Mom served Poptarts and Tang, I wanted -absolutely needed- to be your new best friend! My Mom handed out apples for snacks :-(

The very first time I ate at McDonalds, I was 16—and on my 2nd or 3rd date. My “boyfriend” asked me, as we exited the movie, where I wanted to go for a bite to eat: I said, “McDonalds!!! He was insulted! and said, “Well, we can go to Friendlys! (We’re still in touch, and laugh about it.)

We did, however, have dessert every night after dinner; (but again), pies, cakes, and brownies made from scratch. We ate no canned veggies-ever.

The point is—I don’t check any of the boxes that Kennedy insists cause chronic diseases (and, BTW- he “faults” the victim).

I will concede that my Dad-who died when I was four and a half, was a heavy smoker. -so I certainly inhaled my share of second-hand smoke for those few years. However, no one else in the house smoked, and I never hung out with friends that did- And I’ll admit to initially going crazy during my first semester of college -those vending machines and their endless supply of potato chips! My binge lasted about a month- Though I’ve always joked that while I might not have a sweet tooth, don’t ever get between me and a potato chip, I quickly realized that I didn’t need to eat a bag of them every night.

So, Bob, —-where did I err???

I agree with Jr. that the drugs that treat asthma basically…..suck. Did I hate being on steroids? Hell yes!! I gained an enormous amount of weight. I felt “icky.” I was grumpy. I used to warn students that I was “on drugs” and to wave their hands when I started to talk too quickly. It also meant- "don’t look at me funny- I’ll jump down your throat.” -To boyfriends it meant “don’t push me-I’ll cry for absolutely no reason at all.”

My asthma was really out of control during the time I was teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey CA. I used to joke that if I were eating and drinking my way through the fabulous restaurants and wineries in the area, I wouldn’t complain—but I was taking little white pills -and starving myself- yet I was the size of a house, as my grandmother would say.

I only got relief when I finally hooked up with an incredible pulmonologist -Dr Chad Metawa- who changed my life. I remember moaning and groaning about my weight. He said, “I’ll never nag you about that. You have low blood pressure/blood sugar-your cholesterol is less than mine (& he was a good 20 years younger than me and in great shape.) It’s the prednisone. Blood test numbers don’t lie- you’re not eating badly with those numbers.”

He took me off of one inhaler that I hated-(Avair), stabilized the asthma to the point I could have my deviated septum operated on, got me into an experimental chemo program to lower inflammation (basis of asthma)-and life changed. Weight dropped off— slowly but steadily, energy returned….and I felt like “me” again.

My point is that all of the progress I made is due to drugs -the experimental chemo-and the vaccines that have kept me protected from COVID, flu, pneumonia, RSV, and shingles —and the Dulera inhaler that keeps the inflammation under control and the rescue inhalers that open things up if my peak flow begins to drop— and the hated prednisone pills if things really get bad.

I am a food Nazi-avoid my allergens like the plague (ignore me while I gnaw my knuckles while you enjoy cheese, mushrooms, and wheat). Still, no matter what, I’m going to have that odd asthma attack. My life is devoted to not catching a mere cold-they’ve landed me in ICU due to the asthma.

But now Bobby K wants to take inhalers off the market to “study” them. Well guess what, Bubba….they’ve been around for 100+ years-and everyone knows they have BAD side effects. I know most of my meds are “black tagged,”-meaning they can kill the odd person or two. Any of us who rely on them will tell you that. Yet without them, I would have died 36 years ago….so.. with all things being relative, bring on those bad side effects.

There isn’t a drug or vaccine that is safe for everyone. The rule is that until it affects 3 % of folks, it’s legal.

I’ve lost contact with several great friends over the last few years over this. They’ve “done their own research” and decided the COVID vaccine is bad. They refuse to take it; I refused to hang out with them. Yet they got very upset with me when I responded, “Well, no more penicillin for you”-because I literally went into anaphylactic shock when I had it for the second time in the mid-1990s.

Let me be clear: in no way, shape, or form would I deny any drug to anyone. My point again is simply that there isn’t one drug, vaccine, or treatment on the market that doesn’t negatively affect ONE person.

If the rule of thumb (and it was Bobby’s until he got the nod for this job) is if it has a negative effect on one person, you can’t market it, then we’re back in the Middle Ages—and we’re all dead.

I’m pretty aggravated with DOCTOR Senator Bill Cassidy for voting to advance RFK Jr as Sec HHS. Kennedy has built his reputation and his fortune on conspiracy theories and vaccine denial. (Yet his own kids are vaccinated.)

I’m frankly afraid of what will happen if he follows through on his call to “remove” these drugs from the market to “study“ them. Rescue inhalers can short-circuit an asthma attack, so you don’t have to go to an ER.

Even with great insurance coverage (which I’ve always been lucky enough to have), the co-pay for an ER visit can top $4-5,000 -and that’s if they send you home vs. admitting you to the hospital. The “rescue” inhalers also do just that- “rescue” you. They stop/slow the asthma attack for long enough for you to get to the ER—and you don’t die.

In fairness, Bobby has said that he would “never” take an existing drug off of the market. However, Aaron Siri, a lawyer who is advising Mr. Kennedy during the transition and hearing process, has filed petitions on behalf of a nonprofit to revoke federal approval of the stand-alone polio vaccine, known as IPOL, as well as a vaccine for hepatitis B, and to pause distribution of 13 other shots, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A.

Much of Mr. Siri’s work — including the polio petition filed in 2022 — has been on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit whose founder is a close ally of Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Siri also represented Mr. Kennedy during his presidential campaign.

Additionally, Siri joined RFK at the Trump transition headquarters in Florida, where both men interviewed candidates for top health positions. According to a source for a series of NYT articles on the issue, they asked candidates about their views on vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy has privately expressed interest in having Mr. Siri serve as HHS’s general counsel, the top legal job in the department. However, Mr. Siri has suggested he may have more influence outside the administration. “Somebody on the outside needs to be petitioning them,” he said on a podcast in late November.

So call me a cynic, but I trust Bobby about as far as I can throw him.

Doesn’t the old saw say, “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you, you?” And, of course, I’m the first to admit I’m biased—but for pretty good reasons, I’d posit. If he pulls/suspends the distribution of these inhalers, I’m probably looking at a severely shortened life span.

And as for DOCTOR Bill Cassidy… he managed to break two oaths with one vote. He clearly doesn’t understand the Hippocratic Oath he swore to so many years ago. Someone needs to remind him that it’s named after the Greek physician who penned it. The Hippocratic Oath doesn’t require him to be a hypocrite!!