Dan Freedman, DO

An Open Letter to Senator William Cassidy (R, La) RFK Jr. is scheduled to testify in front of Senator Cassidy’s HELP Committee on May 14. Here is the letter I sent to him on May 1, 2025.

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi...
RFK Jr. will likely be called to testify before Senator Cassidy's HELP committee on May 14th.

How Kennedy is already weakening America's childhood vaccine system The Department of Health and Human Services cut $2 billion from a program that supports vaccines for vulnerable children, forcing public health departments to lay off staff and cancel clinics.

New: HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. said he wouldn’t take away childhood vaccines.
Then he cut $2 billion from state health programs that helps get them to kids.
Clinics canceled. Nurses fired. Immunizations stalled—all amid a measles outbreak.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Senator Cassidy: Please Save Our Children! RFK Jr.’s reign of terror on vaccines is just beginning. The recent death of a six-year-old from measles is a glimpse of what lies ahead.

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi...
"They were small and could not hope for help. And no help came." W.H. Auden

Marks was also instrumental in bringing together Operation Warp Speed that enabled COVID vaccines to be produced <1 yr after the pandemic. These vaccines saved millions of lives worldwide. He was forced out of his longstanding role spanning three administrations because of RFK.

This leap forward has changed neurology & all of healthcare. If it wasn't for the SMA gene therapy trials and Dr Mark's approval, we would not be developing gene therapies for hundreds of diseases now. The next breakthrough could be for a disease that affects someone you love. 2/

Huge loss. Peter Marks' approvals for gene therapy led to a revolution in medicine. Children with a terrible disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) used to die of respiratory failure early in life before they could walk. Now these kids live, breathe, & most walk. 1/

How the anti-vaccine movement weaponized a 6-year-old's measles death Anti-vaccine influencers see the child’s death as proof — not of the danger of measles, but of their own debunked theories.

Parents of the child who died of measles have joined RFK-founded Children's Health Defense. Anti-vaccine groups excel at swooping in for tragedy, offering parents a cause.

“Don’t do the shots,” her mother said, measles is “not as bad as they’re making it out to be.”
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Scoop: White House pulls CDC director nomination The nomination will be withdrawn the same day he was scheduled to testify at a confirmation hearing.

Sort of bleakly funny that RFK of all people is rumored to have said Weldon “wasn’t ready” www.axios.com/2025/03/13/w...

About Weldon: he wasn't just an anti-vaxx sympathizer—he was an important ally to the movement before Kennedy. The most interesting is how he helped anti-vaxx researchers access CDC vaccine data—a move that provided some of the earliest (and sloppiest) anti-vaxx science.

No one:

Dave Weldon: The story of me being pushed out of CDC begins with my deep affinity for Andrew Wakefield.

Remembering a lot of people saying stuff like “I don’t agree with RFK Jr. on everything but at least he’s going to do something about the food that’s making us sick”

lol this could’ve been copy from a Vaccinate California social media post circa 2015, following the Disneyland measles outbreak, when this pest of a man showed up in CA to rail ab how MMR was causing autism.

Welcome to the team, Bobby!

The antivaxxers must be losing their minds. “THEY” got to him!

CDC Statement on Measles Outbreak CDC is in close communication with Texas health authorities over the recent measles outbreak.

1. #CDC was finally allowed to issue a statement on the Texas #measles outbreak, though it wasn't sent to the press distribution list or posted on its homepage. They tweeted it in the other place at 8:29 pm EST.
Communication by whisper. www.cdc.gov/media/releas...

New measles cases tied to N.J. patient who visited 3 health facilities The New Jersey Department of Health confirmed an initial measles case on Feb. 14 in an unvaccinated individual, and by Feb. 20, two additional cases were identified in people who had close contact wit...

An unvaccinated NJ traveler who returned to the US infected with #measles went to 3 health facilities earlier this month seeking care before being diagnosed. Not surprisingly, additional cases are now being detected.
Measles will spread if we give it the chance. www.nj.com/healthfit/20...

RFK Jr., America’s Leading Advocate for Getting Measles Contrary to what the health secretary says, the outbreak of disease in Texas is, in fact, unusual.

RFK Jr., America’s Leading Advocate for Getting Measles

www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

In contrast to RFK's nonexistent response, his antivaccine nonprofit has claimed that measles is healthy & the vaccine caused this outbreak, despite the overwhelming # of unvaccinated kids that have been infected & genotyping showing the outbreak is caused by a wild type virus

As Texas measles outbreak grows, parents are choosing to vaccinate kids At least 124 people, mostly babies, children and teens, have been infected. Eighteen people have been hospitalized.

As Texas measles outbreak grows, parents are choosing to vaccinate kids www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... via @nbcnews.com @erikaedwards.bsky.social

On the morning of the first reported measles death in a decade, HHS Secretary Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine org Children's Health Defense hosts disgraced scientist Andrew Wakefield. He's urging parents to let their kids catch measles "naturally."

First measles death is reported in the West Texas outbreak that's infected more than 120 people A person who was hospitalized with measles has died from measles in West Texas. It's the first since the outbreak began late last month.

The Texas measles outbreak has reported its first death.

This was completely avoidable and it is infuriating that we choose to allow this disease to persist.

After the first measles death of a child HHS Secretary Kennedy seemed to downplay the Texas outbreak saying outbreaks were "not unusual," and the 18 kids hospitalized were "mainly for quarantine." A pediatrician on the ground said they couldn't breathe. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Texas DOH confirms genomic testing shows no vaccine strain in its collected measles samples. Measles vaccine shedding is an antivaccine lie that has been used for years. The measles vaccine does not cause measles outbreaks. It stops them.

Update for the purveyors of this most recent conspiracy theory: Texas DOH confirms genomic testing shows no vaccine strain in its collected measles samples. www.nbcnews.com/news/texas-m...

If you don't follow @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social, you should. She has been covering the antivaccine movement for years and has seen this all before.

Measles Outbreak in Texas and New Mexico Sickens Nearly 100 People (Gift Article) Texas reported 90 cases this week, while New Mexico reported nine. A majority of the cases have been in a Texas county where vaccination rates have lagged behind the rest of the state.

1st: vaccines work

2nd: social media companies developed their OG vaccine policies in response to *outbreaks like this* in Samoa & Bklyn. Not COVID! They boosted good info. They labeled false claims.

That got redefined as “censorship” by ppl who profit from lies.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/u...

Behind Kennedy’s Vow to ‘Follow the Science’ on Vaccines Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited a disputed study from a close network of fellow vaccine skeptics during his confirmation hearings. His critics say it is part of a pattern that raises concerns about whose ...

NEW: RFK Jr. said a new study linked vaccines to autism in his confirmation hearing. We found that the study's author had a hard time getting it published.

Then he got help from Andrew Wakefield, who is famous for the first debunked study linking the the two.

GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Well that’s interesting

www.reuters.com/world/us/fda...

I agree. The antivaccine movement wants it both ways: decline vaccines and then blame someone else when an outbreak inevitably hits.

4) the west Texas outbreak is concentrated around an undervaccinated Mennonite community. When vaccination rates fall below 90%, measles outbreaks can occur. Gaines County has a 14% vaccine exemption rate & this does not include homeschooled children

apnews.com/article/meas...

Assessment of the role of international travel and unauthorized immigration on measles importation to the United States† Abstract. Background: Concerns have been raised about unauthorized immigrants importing measles to the United States (US). This potential risk has not been

3) And finally, the overwhelming majority of measles outbreaks in the US have started with an unvaccinated citizen that traveled to a country where measles was occurring and brought the virus home. This has literally been studied.

academic.oup.com/jtm/article-...

Seeing many false claims about immigration as the source of measles outbreaks. Here are some facts:

1) the west Texas outbreak started in a county with 1 of the highest vaccine exemption rates in the state
2) the Americas are the only WHO region that is free of endemic measles