This is an example of Kaiser Family Foundation and MedPage Today conforming to manufacture consent, by introducing the topic this way in a PR piece that is of course outrageous clickbait material.
MedPage Today – The COVID ‘Contrarians’ Are in Power. We Haven’t Hashed Out Whether They Were Right. — “This is an open question that needs to be confronted,” said a Princeton political scientist by Arthur Allen, KFF Health News February 22, 2025Now, the “contrarians” are seizing the reins: President Donald Trump has nominated Bhattacharya to lead the NIH and Johns Hopkins University surgeon Marty Makary, MD, MPH, to run the FDA. Yet the polarized disagreements about what worked and what didn’t in the fight against the biggest public health disaster in modern times have yet to be aired in a nonpartisan setting — and it seems unlikely they ever will be.
This is not an open question, it’s been confronted and confronted, over and over again throughout the pandemic and this was all hammered out pre-pandemic, over many decades by healthcare professionals and public health experts.
Then a bunch of right-wing anti-vaxxers and fellow travelers came along and politicized it all in order to advance their own interests.
Why would anyone ask a political scientist if pandemic deniers are right about public health and safety? Why would a political scientist have any say at all in my healthcare choices? I don’t want the pseudoscientists, eugenicists, or political hacks involved in my healthcare.
My letter to reps:
People who oppose public health & public safety have no business making decisions for me and my healthcare. The Musk-Trump administration has inserted pseudoscientists, eugenicists, and political hacks into government agencies against all sense and reason in order to advance their own interests. These people cannot be trusted. All of this needs huge oversight because we have a right not to have bonkers nonsense healthcare scams perpetrated upon us.