Daniel Engber

coming to this fresh that, well, that person is going to have so much power and control. Their word is going to be so influential. So you would expect their vaccination rates, COVID vaccination rates in Florida to fall off a cliff. They didn't. And age-adjusted COVID mortality rates did not increase.

coming to this fresh that, well, that person is going to have so much power and control. Their word is going to be so influential. So you would expect their vaccination rates, COVID vaccination rates in Florida to fall off a cliff. They didn't. And age-adjusted COVID mortality rates did not increase.

under Latipo, it was just kind of hard to find evidence for that Latipo effect that I was looking for, which I, again, was sort of imagining as this is what happens when you put someone who's suspicious of vaccines in charge.

under Latipo, it was just kind of hard to find evidence for that Latipo effect that I was looking for, which I, again, was sort of imagining as this is what happens when you put someone who's suspicious of vaccines in charge.

under Latipo, it was just kind of hard to find evidence for that Latipo effect that I was looking for, which I, again, was sort of imagining as this is what happens when you put someone who's suspicious of vaccines in charge.

Yeah, I mean, it just sort of supports my general belief that there's a lot of inertia in the system and, you know, people are going to behave the way they're going to behave by and large. It's not as easy to push parents as a giant group of people in the United States to suddenly stop vaccinating their kids, right?

Yeah, I mean, it just sort of supports my general belief that there's a lot of inertia in the system and, you know, people are going to behave the way they're going to behave by and large. It's not as easy to push parents as a giant group of people in the United States to suddenly stop vaccinating their kids, right?

Yeah, I mean, it just sort of supports my general belief that there's a lot of inertia in the system and, you know, people are going to behave the way they're going to behave by and large. It's not as easy to push parents as a giant group of people in the United States to suddenly stop vaccinating their kids, right?

So that's kind of my baseline expectation is that it is hard to budge this system. But again, I've never, you know, in my life seen people like RFK and Dave Weldon standing, you know, on the bridge, right? So this is just something that we haven't seen before. So it's not really analogous to Latipo in Florida, who's just one state surgeon general saying, don't get your COVID booster. Right.

So that's kind of my baseline expectation is that it is hard to budge this system. But again, I've never, you know, in my life seen people like RFK and Dave Weldon standing, you know, on the bridge, right? So this is just something that we haven't seen before. So it's not really analogous to Latipo in Florida, who's just one state surgeon general saying, don't get your COVID booster. Right.

So that's kind of my baseline expectation is that it is hard to budge this system. But again, I've never, you know, in my life seen people like RFK and Dave Weldon standing, you know, on the bridge, right? So this is just something that we haven't seen before. So it's not really analogous to Latipo in Florida, who's just one state surgeon general saying, don't get your COVID booster. Right.

You know, a worst-case scenario is there's some dramatic shift in policy at the CDC. There could be dramatic shifts at the FDA, which approves new vaccines. You know, they could choose not to approve them. Or there could be new safety requirements for vaccines, which— just slow things down.

You know, a worst-case scenario is there's some dramatic shift in policy at the CDC. There could be dramatic shifts at the FDA, which approves new vaccines. You know, they could choose not to approve them. Or there could be new safety requirements for vaccines, which— just slow things down.

You know, a worst-case scenario is there's some dramatic shift in policy at the CDC. There could be dramatic shifts at the FDA, which approves new vaccines. You know, they could choose not to approve them. Or there could be new safety requirements for vaccines, which— just slow things down.

I mean, that's another bad scenario that, you know, it's not like vaccines are banned or taken away, but just the release of new vaccines is slowed dramatically. I mean, we could have another pandemic in the next few years, H5N1, bird flu, right? And so if we have RFK and Dave Weldon in charge, like, how fast is the next Operation Warp Speed? That's very unclear to me, and that strikes...

I mean, that's another bad scenario that, you know, it's not like vaccines are banned or taken away, but just the release of new vaccines is slowed dramatically. I mean, we could have another pandemic in the next few years, H5N1, bird flu, right? And so if we have RFK and Dave Weldon in charge, like, how fast is the next Operation Warp Speed? That's very unclear to me, and that strikes...

I mean, that's another bad scenario that, you know, it's not like vaccines are banned or taken away, but just the release of new vaccines is slowed dramatically. I mean, we could have another pandemic in the next few years, H5N1, bird flu, right? And so if we have RFK and Dave Weldon in charge, like, how fast is the next Operation Warp Speed? That's very unclear to me, and that strikes...

me as a potential terrible scenario. What RFK could do, what someone in a position of power could do, is just create obstacles, right? If the big dramatic success of national vaccination over the past 30 years has been providing access to children who didn't have that access before, if that's what brought the measles vaccination rate up from 80-something percent to 90%,

me as a potential terrible scenario. What RFK could do, what someone in a position of power could do, is just create obstacles, right? If the big dramatic success of national vaccination over the past 30 years has been providing access to children who didn't have that access before, if that's what brought the measles vaccination rate up from 80-something percent to 90%,

me as a potential terrible scenario. What RFK could do, what someone in a position of power could do, is just create obstacles, right? If the big dramatic success of national vaccination over the past 30 years has been providing access to children who didn't have that access before, if that's what brought the measles vaccination rate up from 80-something percent to 90%,