In 2018 two nurses in Samoa prepared what should have been routine measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccines with an expired anesthetic instead of water, and administered them to two infants, who died. The Samoan government suspended vaccinations for 10 months, and the nation was bombarded with anti-vaccination messages, including from RFK Jr. and his nonprofit Children’s Health Defense. That year only 31% of Samoan children received the MMR vaccine, leading to nearly 3,000 infections in the nation of 200,000, and 39 deaths by November 2019. Kate O’Brien, head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) immunization department at the time, told the Guardian that the effect of misinformation about vaccine safety was “being measured in the lives of children who had died” in the course of the outbreak. By January 2020 5,700 people had been infected, resulting in 83 deaths, with most of the victims under 5 years old.

Kennedy was an independent candidate for the presidency in 2024, but suspended his campaign August 23 throwing his support behind Donald Trump. On November 14, 2024 Trump announced that RFK Jr. would serve as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, contradicting then-Trump-spokesman Howard Lutnick’s denial to CNN that Kennedy would have a role in a Trump HHS department.

On Tuesday, August 5, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for files from the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.. The committee also issued subpoenas to former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and eight former law enforcement officials. Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes; when Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 Trump declared himself “not a fan” and claimed he had not spoken to Epstein since 2004.

Reporting by the Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal suggests that the supposed falling out may have occurred not in 2004, but three years later. A Mar-a-Lago member told reporters that Trump shut Epstein out of the club after he “harassed the daughter of a member.” According to this account Trump was concerned that the prevalence of such behavior at his property would damage the Trump brand.

Today we start with a review of policies and procedures that are at cross purposes in the Trump administration. That leads to a discussion of a more general conflict between the beliefs underlying pronatalist policies on the one hand, which promote more babies, and the public health contrarianism of RFK Jr and his minions, which seem to want only people with certain traits to survive. We review some research on natalism and misogyny, and their connection to insecure masculinity, and then take a quick look at some of the influences on Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr. growing up. Finally we suggest what may connect the divergent views of population.