Attribution: Rhoda Baer (Photographer), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Geoff Carter
In the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds, two socially inept but brilliant—and dorky—misfits go to college and are immediately teased, tortured, and bullied by more popular students. They call them nerds. Denied admittance to any of the fraternities, the nerds, who by this time have collected some other nerds, decide to form their own frat. They find an old house, refurbish it, and obtain a fraternity charter, but all the while, they are constantly harassed and bullied by the mainstream fraternities, but, using their superior knowledge and mastery of technology, the nerds strike back against the bullies to establish themselves as legitimate members of their campus.
In the film, the other popular fraternities, including the Alpha Betas, are mean-spirited, violent, intimidating, and cruel, bullies who believe that they have the right to hurt others. And they’re not particularly smart. Sound like someone we know? It’s a very familiar story of the underdog fighting against overwhelming odds. In this case, the nerds—calling upon nerd support the world over—win.
In a similar but infinitely more serious parallel, real-life scientists, physicians, and epidemiologists are fighting an uphill battle against the forces of ignorance, hatred, and fear—forces which are threatening the health and well-being of the American people, forces led by a megalomaniacal president and his deluded warlock charlatan of a health secretary who, incidentally, has unapologetically taken his grandchildren swimming in sewage. This man, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and other members of the Trump administration are the bullies, the sadists, the thugs who are forcing their ignorance and hatred on the rest of us.
The scientists, doctors, and researchers—and the rest of us—are the nerds.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., notorious anti-vaccine conspiracist and all-around lunatic—after all, who severs a whale’s head and lashes it to his car roof or runs over a bear cub, throws it in his trunk and then deposits it in Central Part, talks about a brain worm infestation in his head, or takes his grandchildren swimming in Rock Creek, a Washington waterway that is routinely used for sewer runoff? What sort of health professional does these things? What sort of a sane human being does these things?
According to an NPR report, since being appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy has cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars of researching funding on mRNA vaccines. He has also instructed the FDA to limit COVID shots to people 65 and older and those who are at risk for health complications.
After Kennedy fired CDC head Susan Moranez for—according to her—refusing to rubberstamp Kennedy’s anti-vax policies, instead insisting on rigorous scientific review, a contentious Senate Finance committee raked Kennedy over the coals for the firing and for lying during his testimony at his confirmation hearing, where he promised Senator Bill Cassidy to “work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems” and to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes” (CAP), thereby gaining Cassidy’s vote.
That was just the tip of the iceberg. Almost immediately after his confirmation, Secretary Kennedy addressed the measles outbreak in Texas by endorsing “dubious” cures like cod liver oil and vitamin A—which in fact caused liver damage in some Texas patients—and was reluctant to support measles vaccines.
In June, Secretary Kennedy fired all seventeen members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing them with known vaccine skeptics and other idealogues aligned with his own beliefs.
The dumbing-down of leadership of these federal departments and the complete disregard for medical science has—and will endanger—vast swaths of the American public. In short, giving the leadership of our health system to a (to be generous) brain-wormed crackpot who has absolutely no medical training is little short of criminal. Kennedy’s policies will result in increased costs for those seeking vaccines, standard vaccines for polio, diphtheria, rubella, chickenpox, measles, and tetanus. Access to these vaccinations will most likely be restricted.
Following Kennedy’s lead, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a Republican, is already seeking to remove a state-wide mandate for all school-age children to be vaccinated, a move drawing harsh criticism from the medical community. In short, health protections provided by the federal government are at great risk—as are the American people. Access to COVID vaccines have been restricted to citizens over 65 and high-risk patients by Kennedy.
In other words, the science nerds, those brilliant doctors, scientists, and public servants are being metaphorically beaten up and beaten down by the powerful no-nothing bullies like Kennedy, Lapado, and dozens of others in the Trump Administration—including the orange menace himself.
But the people who believe in, practice, and apply science—the nerds—are fighting back. As a response to Kennedy’s dumbing down of the CDC Vaccine Board and his new restrictive policies, the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii have formed an alliance to ensure their citizens will be able to obtain vaccines. According to Axios, The Western State Alliance is collaborating “on developing their own vaccine guidelines, in response to what they called the politicization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” based on evidence-based “recommendations from national medical organizations”. (Axios)
Other states, like Massachusetts, are also taking measures to ensure that their citizens will be properly protected with vaccines. Governor Healy announced that the state will guarantee insurance for state-recommended vaccines. Colorado, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania are also taking steps to ensure the health and well-being of their people.
And the American people can see Kennedy for what he is. According to a CBS News Poll, fully 74% of respondents believe government health agencies should make vaccines more available. 70% of all respondents believe the government should encourage all children to receive the MMR vaccine. 77% believe COVID vaccines should be available to everyone who wants them. The majority of the American people trust their doctors, the medical authorities, and the researchers and scientists who work tirelessly to promote our health.
The science works. It’s worked for years. Polio was virtually wiped after Jonas Salk perfected the vaccine. Smallpox has been (for now) virtually eradicated. Measles was declared eradicated in 2000 (NPR). Over 1,288 cases have been reported since Trump took office and appointed Kennedy as his HHS Secretary.
During last week’s Senate hearings, after he had fired the head of the CDC (his own choice), there was a flurry of demands for Kennedy to resign. His inaccurate, untrue, and demented testimony is an embarrassment to our government and to the world. This man is nothing more than a witch doctor.
So. It’s simple, even if you’re not a nerd. When you have vaccines, no disease. When vaccines are disparaged, discouraged, and disregarded, disease spreads. People go to the hospital. People die.
Notes
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/us/politics/rfk-jr-rock-creek-bacteria.html
- https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/04/nx-s1-5528966/rfk-kennedy-hearing-covid-vaccines-cdc
- https://www.wsj.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-the-cdc-and-me-b4ca2eaa
- https://www.americanprogress.org/article/rfk-jr-is-systematically-undermining-vaccine-science-and-endangering-health/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/florida-surgeon-general-says-state-will-eliminate-vaccine-mandates-rcna228835
- https://www.axios.com/2025/09/03/cdc-vaccine-washington-california-oregon-guidelines-recommendations#
- https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/three-states-take-steps-ensure-covid-vaccine-access