Pre-COVID, being anti-vax was a leftwing position. It was part and parcel of the hippie handbag: holistic treatments, crystal therapy, eschewing Western medicine, and other New Age nonsense. Which can have horrific results: Steve Jobs would probably be alive today if he hadn’t insisted on “alternative treatments” — such as acupuncture, dietary supplements, and juicing — for his pancreatic cancer.
Most conservatives “followed the science” and understood that vaccines weren’t devoid of risk, but they were a helluva lot better than the alternative. (Go grab a Ouija board and ask your Great-Great Grandmother: Smallpox ain’t a whole lot of fun.)
Neither is Polio.
Somewhere in the 1990s, the idea that vaccines are responsible for autism went quasi-mainstream. Jenny McCarthy, arguably the most brilliant scientific genius of our age, yapped about it constantly.
Conservatives wisely ignored her.
But then came COVID. And that’s when everything began to change.
There were broken promises: “Take this vaccine or you’ll KILL people!” (That’s the one I fell for: I have older relatives and didn’t wanna find out if I’m in their will just yet.) Exaggerated claims about the risks and efficacy. Hidden data. And while this was all going on, our politicians were cutting backroom deals with the pharmaceutical giants, giving ‘em gobs of money and shielding ‘em from liability.
And, of course, there were mandatory COVID vaccinations for millions of Americans.
Had I known all the facts, I wouldn’t have taken the COVID vaccine. My mortality risk was infinitesimally small; the vaccine didn’t prevent transmissions anyway, and it’s impossible to foresee the long-term consequences of an experimental vaccine. But because my government lied to me — and because I was stupid enough to believe ’em — I didn’t make an informed decision.
However, COVID alone didn’t get us where we are today, where a Republican-controlled state like Florida would be first-in-the-nation to ban vaccine mandates for schoolchildren — a development the left will happily turn into a PR disaster for them. And since other red states could soon follow Florida’s lead, conservatives had better explain our side ASAP.
COVID was simply the first shoe to drop.
The second shoe was RFK Jr.
It was a political alliance of convenience and opportunity: After the Democrats rigged the rules to prevent RFK Jr. (or anyone else) from challenging President Autopen Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a lifelong liberal Democrat — split from the Donkeys and hopped aboard the Trump Train. Both sides benefited, and although Trump would’ve likely prevailed anyway, RFK Jr.’s endorsement was valuable.
It’d be revisionist history to suggest otherwise.
RFK Jr. delivered on the campaign trail, so after Election Day, Trump delivered by nominating him as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Some of Kennedy’s ideas have merit: We are a nation of bloated fat-arses who need to exercise more. (No offense.) Lots of our dietary staples are highly processed garbage. The pharmaceutical giants do “cook the books.” And besides, just going by aesthetics, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that RFK Jr. looks slightly more competent to tackle health and fitness issues than President Biden’s assistant secretary for health, the lovely and talented Rachel Levine.
This is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A 70-year-old politician who is more jacked than 95% of 20-year-olds.
Here are the Top 5 fitness & life-longevity hacks we can steal from him.
[ A THREAD🧵] pic.twitter.com/VieWElNNZ5
— Stefan Smulders (@SmuldersStefan) December 20, 2024
(Fun fact: Rachel Levine is actually younger than RFK Jr., but if a fight broke out, yeah, my money’s on the old guy. It’d go down like Charlie Daniels’ “Uneasy Rider ’88.”)
So I’m not here to bash Kennedy. I wholeheartedly support much of his agenda. Rattling off 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups in just 10 minutes at 71 years old is insanely inspiring! Hopefully, more Americans will follow his example.
And I’ll even concede that it could be unfair to lump Kennedy in with the hardcore anti-vaxxers. In his own words, he denies it:
“Saying I’m anti-vaccine is like saying I’m anti-medicine,” Kennedy said, arguing he just wants more research to look into possible risks. “It doesn’t mean that I’m, you know, anti-vax. It just means I’m pro-science.”
Unfortunately, politics isn’t a game of nuance, but a battle of perceptions. Some perceive RFK Jr. to be pushing the U.S. in an anti-vax direction, and the Trump administration’s impulse to protect a loyal cabinet member from outside attacks will only reinforce that impression.
Secretary @RobertKennedyJr is taking flak because he’s over the target.
The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in government, and championing gold-standard science.
Only the Democrats could attack that commonsense effort.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 4, 2025
And that’s fine. A good movement ought to take care of its own. And a loyal soldier like Kennedy deserves to be protected from the liberal mob.
But he’s still the kind of guy we’ve gotta keep on a leash.
RFK Jr. didn’t join the Trump Train because his beliefs changed; what changed was his opportunity. And there’s nothing wrong with that: Self-interest makes the world go around.
It’s part of politics, part of life.
Related: Why Can’t We End the War on Drugs?
But the Republican Party would be making a strategic error if it allowed the left to paint it with the anti-vax brush. Rejecting great scientific advances in disease prevention is not a stance it needs to be associated with.
It’s anti-family, anti-life, and anti-common sense.
And that’s not who we are.
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