Malcolm Gladwell

And this is the vaccine that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hates. I have to confess that I knew very little about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he ran for president in 2024. But as he loomed larger and larger in the news, I realized I had his most recent book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.

And this is the vaccine that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hates. I have to confess that I knew very little about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he ran for president in 2024. But as he loomed larger and larger in the news, I realized I had his most recent book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.

His publicist must have sent me a review copy when it came out in 2021. I found it in a big pile of books on the porch. So I decided to read it. All 492 pages. And it was there in Chapter 3 that I discovered the particular loathing that RFK Jr. has for the rotavirus vaccines. I couldn't make head nor tails of it, which is why I had to call my friend Safi Bakal up.

His publicist must have sent me a review copy when it came out in 2021. I found it in a big pile of books on the porch. So I decided to read it. All 492 pages. And it was there in Chapter 3 that I discovered the particular loathing that RFK Jr. has for the rotavirus vaccines. I couldn't make head nor tails of it, which is why I had to call my friend Safi Bakal up.

We were going over the package insert, which you thought was clean as a whistle. Yeah. Right? And so I was trying to figure out why, if it was as clean as a whistle, does Kennedy have such a problem with rototech and rotavirus vaccines in general?

We were going over the package insert, which you thought was clean as a whistle. Yeah. Right? And so I was trying to figure out why, if it was as clean as a whistle, does Kennedy have such a problem with rototech and rotavirus vaccines in general?

And I want to read to you the key paragraph in his book, which, and we're going to try and solve this puzzle together because I have a vague idea, but I think I'm, I can't, my idea is so, reflects so poorly on him that I, part of me thinks it can't be the right idea. This is the key paragraph. Reported adverse reactions from Dr. Offit's Rotatec vaccine range from 953 to 1,689 per year.

And I want to read to you the key paragraph in his book, which, and we're going to try and solve this puzzle together because I have a vague idea, but I think I'm, I can't, my idea is so, reflects so poorly on him that I, part of me thinks it can't be the right idea. This is the key paragraph. Reported adverse reactions from Dr. Offit's Rotatec vaccine range from 953 to 1,689 per year.

These included fever, diarrhea, vomiting, irritability, intussusception, SIDS, severe combined immunodeficiency. Kennedy lists 20 different really bad things he thinks are associated with Rotatec, ending with gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and death.

These included fever, diarrhea, vomiting, irritability, intussusception, SIDS, severe combined immunodeficiency. Kennedy lists 20 different really bad things he thinks are associated with Rotatec, ending with gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and death.

Then he writes the paragraph that I read to Safi at the beginning of this episode, that the list of adverse reactions is so long that Rotatech, quote, almost certainly kills and injures more children in the United States than the rotavirus disease killed and injured prior to the vaccine's introduction.

Then he writes the paragraph that I read to Safi at the beginning of this episode, that the list of adverse reactions is so long that Rotatech, quote, almost certainly kills and injures more children in the United States than the rotavirus disease killed and injured prior to the vaccine's introduction.

Now, I have to say that at this point, things get deeply confusing, because I couldn't figure out where that number, 953 to 1,689 adverse reactions a year, comes from. In the real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy lists as his source the package insert, but those numbers aren't in the package insert.

Now, I have to say that at this point, things get deeply confusing, because I couldn't figure out where that number, 953 to 1,689 adverse reactions a year, comes from. In the real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy lists as his source the package insert, but those numbers aren't in the package insert.

We hired a fact checker with a PhD in biology, and she couldn't figure out where Kennedy's numbers come from either. Then we thought, oh, he got the numbers from VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is the government-run database where anyone can report a side effect that they think is associated with a vaccine. Keyword, think. But VAERS isn't Kennedy's source either.

We hired a fact checker with a PhD in biology, and she couldn't figure out where Kennedy's numbers come from either. Then we thought, oh, he got the numbers from VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is the government-run database where anyone can report a side effect that they think is associated with a vaccine. Keyword, think. But VAERS isn't Kennedy's source either.

We found the numbers. VAERS only has 344 reports of side effects over 15 years for all rotavirus vaccines, of which only 32 are serious, which is like miles and miles away from the massive number of problems that Kennedy's talking about.

We found the numbers. VAERS only has 344 reports of side effects over 15 years for all rotavirus vaccines, of which only 32 are serious, which is like miles and miles away from the massive number of problems that Kennedy's talking about.

And even if he just made a typo and read the numbers wrong, it still doesn't prove his case because, as the CDC says, quote, a report to VAERS does not mean a vaccine caused an adverse event, end quote. So just because a baby vomited after getting his Rotatec doesn't mean Rotatec caused the vomiting. Babies vomit all the time.

And even if he just made a typo and read the numbers wrong, it still doesn't prove his case because, as the CDC says, quote, a report to VAERS does not mean a vaccine caused an adverse event, end quote. So just because a baby vomited after getting his Rotatec doesn't mean Rotatec caused the vomiting. Babies vomit all the time.