The Highwire with Del Bigtree - RFK JR. REWRITES THE ‘VACCINES SAVED MILLIONS’ NARRATIVE

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a new video challenging the standard “vaccines saved millions” narrative, offering data that paints a starkly different picture of the decline of disease in the US. Del also spotlights the appointment of longtime HighWire ally Mark Blaxill as senior advisor to the CDC’s autism program.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

There's so much to the issues that we're dealing with here. Here at the High Wire, we are delivering, you know, everything that we can, wherever we can find the truth, wherever, you know, there's information that you need to have, you're getting it here, you know you can trust it. I want to point out one of the things that many of you are excited about is the fact that we've been, you know, airing, you know, on the High Wire when you know that there's going to be a hearing on health, a health committee, or Robert Kennedy Jr., or against Robert Kennedy Jr., but about health. We have been streaming that live here on the high wire.

So you don't have to figure out what government agency was it, what's going on, how do I get there? Always the highwire. But look, you're running around. You may not recognize or know that today I was supposed to be looking out for it. So you wouldn't tune in. So one of the best things that we do here is we give you alerts. And you only get those alerts if we have your email, which is super easy. If you just go to the top of the screen where you're watching right now or the highwire.com, just roll down, scroll down to where you see Brave, Bold News. Type your email in there that makes a subscriber doesn't cost you a thing.

Or you can text 72022 just right in there. Dell. Like, hey, Dell, 72022, and we will give you that link so that you are always there, so that we will reach out to you, let you know, whatever's happening, whatever's streaming live on the highwire. So many of you are thankful. But as we've been watching this incredible work that Robert Kennedy Jr. has been doing. Some people like, oh, why was he standing there with Pfizer? Look, they're having to play

all sides of this. They're having to reach out to those Americans that do use drugs and say, we're going to make those cheaper for you. But my favorite thing that happened this last week with Robert Kennedy Jr. and is probably, I think, the most important statement that has ever been made by an HHS secretary was all about the history of vaccines and how they've saved the world. Well, he had a little bit of a difference been. Take a look at this. Hi, I'm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., your HHS secretary. And my recent Finance Committee hearing, Senator Cantwell showed us this chart to illustrate

the decline in infectious disease during the 20th century. The vaccine industry has long used this kind of chart as proof of the common claim that vaccines had saved hundreds of millions of American lives. The momentous 70% decline in mortality is in the United States. States and Western Europe from contagious diseases since 1900 marks one of the most monumental public health advances in all of human history. Was this really an achievement of mass vaccination programs as many people, including Senator Cantwell claim?

The most comprehensive evidence-based study that rigorously examines this issue is a CDC-funded study that was published in 2000 performed by a team of researchers from CDC. and Johns Hopkins University, and led by Dr. Bernard Geyer. The scientists meticulously examined 100 years of government infectious disease mortality data, and they concluded that nearly all the mortality reductions occurred before the introduction of vaccines, and that vaccinations could therefore claim little of the credit. For example, you can see from this graph that in 1900, some 13,000 Americans a year were dying of measles. By 1960, however, this number had dropped to a few hundred.

But the measles vaccine was not introduced until three years later. Therefore, almost all the measles mortality had disappeared before the vaccine. So the measles vaccine can't really claim the credit for saving all those lives. Let's look at pertussis, also known as Wooping cough. Again, we see the biggest drop in pertussis deaths occurred before the introduction of the protesis vaccine. The same is true for influenza. Massive flu mortalities had already disappeared by the 1960s, but the vaccine was not widely disseminated until the 1980s. So once again, the vaccine cannot claim the credit.

And look how tuberculosis deaths nearly disappeared along the exact same timeline as all those other infectious diseases. Even though there was no mass vaccination for TB in the United States, the mortalities disappeared without any help from a vaccine. Likewise, there was never a scurvy vaccine, but scurvy deaths also disappeared along the exact same timeline. The same is true for scarlet fever, which I had as a boy. Deaths from scarlet fever disappeared in lockstep alongside the drops and deaths from all those other contagions. So what actually did cause the decline in infectious disease mortality? A landmark 1977 study by McKinley and McKinley was required reading in most American medical schools, schools during the 1970s and early 1980s.

That study attributed the decline not to medical advances or innovations, but almost exclusively to agricultural and engineering innovations that improved nutrition. These included better roads, air transport, and refrigeration, and superior sanitation. This was the same period that flushed toilets and water chlorination became widespread. The McKinley's credited less than three-privacy. 3.5% of the mortality declines to all medical measures put together, including antibiotics, surgeries, and vaccines. And here, for example, you see the introduction of chlorination correlates pretty perfectly with the decline in infectious disease mortality.

Okay, so I have a question for you. Was that disinformation? It's the heart of all of these conversations. Was that Robert Kennedy Jr.'s opinion? Well, it's an opinion. It's an opinion. based on all of the different graphs that you could see were put out over the years by HHS, by real CDC numbers. And that is what we have done here on the high wire for years. It is also at the heart of when I made the documentary vaxed. From the moment I stepped into this conversation, everybody said you're going to be attacked.

You're going to be ridiculed. My friends in Hollywood, where I was an Emmy Award-winning producer, said, Dell, why would you do this? I don't care how good the movie is. You're going to destroy your film and television career. Why do that? And then those that I started working with as Vax was touring the country said, I love this film, Del, but you know, you're going to have to slow down a little bit. You know, these things move very slowly. There may be no change whatsoever. We've been at it for decades. Or in fact, I want to, you know, give a shout out to one of my really good friends, Mark Blacksall, who is one of the most eloquent writers and speakers on the subject. I've learned

so much for him. And Mark would say to me, you know, Adele, this is a marathon, not a sprint. And I remember saying to him, Mark, we don't have time to be in a marathon any longer. I have a sense that we're at the end of this marathon, and therefore I'm taking the last leg and I'm going to sprint with everything I have. Now, I get that we were able to do what. we've done with the highway. We've been able to do what we did with the documentary Vax because we stood on the shoulders of giants, really frankly, mostly parents who, you know, were dealing with their vaccine injured children at home. And instead of just whining about or complaining about it or, you know, thinking how unfair the universe is, they spent whatever little time

they had left to come out and shout to the rest of us, look out, this vaccine program is not as safe as they're telling you, you do not want to have to live. this life the way that I'm living. So I get where the fear, I get where the pessimism, and Mark is one of those brilliant parents that has done everything he could to make a difference. And so it is with just complete, you know, honor and joy that I get to say that he is now the head of autism. He helped build the anti-vaccic, this is the article written against him. He helped build the anti-vaccine movement. Arachian just hired him. neither a physician nor a scientist new CDC senior advisor Mark Blacksul claims without evidence that every child who takes vaccine is in some ways injured.

He's going to be running the autism program at CDC. There is no one better. There is not a better. First of all, he's been running businesses his whole life. So talented. But no one understands his subject better. You should check out his books, Age of Autism, Denial, Fantastic writer. Mark, we did.

And the other day when I called him to congratulate him, he said, I'm having a really good time. It's been, you know, nearly a decade. It was waiting to hear those words come from his mouth. So from Mark Blacksull's mouth to all of you, go ahead and celebrate the moment that we're in. Sure, the attacks are still coming. But look at how many things are happening. Look how things are moving. And recognize that those of us that have been a part of this and those that came before us,

We're here because we never gave up. Do not give up. Do not stand down. The truth is too important. The future of our species and the future of our children and their children and the future grandchildren of the world are counting on us right now. That is why I do what I do. That is why I thank every one of you that supports us and makes this possible.

This is why we were born. I'm going to continue to work and see it that way. see you next week on the high wire.