Standing in the lobby of Trump Tower on January 10, 2017, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was asked about his just-concluded meeting with then President-elect Trump, and had this exchange, in part, with a reporter:

Kennedy:  “He asked me to chair a commission on vaccine safety.”
Reporter:  “Vaccine safety?”
Kennedy:  “Yeah. And scientific integrity.”

You can see a video of this here:

and read the associated article here: [ 1 ].  The article notes:

“The announcement was met with alarm from health professionals who say that putting a proponent of a conspiracy theory in a position of authority on the issue is dangerous.”

and quotes Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, as saying, “That’s very frightening; it’s difficult to imagine anyone less qualified to serve on a commission for vaccine science.”

I, too, was appalled by the prospect of such a commission and at the time wrote the article you can see below. I didn’t publish the piece then, as I was waiting for the commission to be formally announced. Thankfully, it never was. Nonetheless, in light of Kennedy’s present candidacy and stated positions, and those of Donald Trump, I’m releasing it now.

Nearly eight years later, Trump is still interested in forming a commission, but this time he has broadened its proposed remit beyond investigating vaccines to the catch-all “chronic childhood illness,” including “autism, auto-immune disorders, obesity, infertility, serious allergies, and respiratory challenges.” [ 2 ] He says:

“I will establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds who are not bought and paid for by Big Pharma, and I will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.” [ 3 ]

Kennedy, too, is now focused on chronic disease, including “autoimmune disease, diabetes, ADD and ADHD, autism, obesity, asthma, food allergies, and other chronic health conditions” ––a list strikingly similar to Trump’s. [ 4 ] As a candidate, Kennedy now proposes in effect, skipping a Trump-style commission alltogether and instead dictating a total reordering of NIH’s research priorities.

Words (like commission), and sometimes even names (like Kennedy), are freighted with meaning. Sometimes they can motivate, inspire, and give hope. At other times, in different contexts, they can mislead, discourage, and even endanger, as is the case here, and as used by Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Along with freeddom of expression comes both responsibility and accountability.

Here is that earlier article:

What Does the Vaccine Commission Communicate?
February 1, 2017

The Trump administration plans to announce the formation of a Commission on Vaccine Safety and Scientific Integrity. Since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. first met with Trump and Kellyanne Conway in January to discuss the idea, it has been roundly and widely criticized as unnecessary, misleading, and dangerous.

Even though the Commission's name does not explicitly reference autism, it is clear from the president's statements both before and after the election that that is indeed the condition on which he is most ardently focused and that he sees vaccines as its cause.

The efficacy and safety of vaccines have long been established and any connection to autism thoroughly debunked, so I'm not going to discuss that here. Instead, I want to look at what establishing such a commission communicates. Whatever the commission says or does, just the fact that it exists says a great deal:

Credibility Equilibrium.  When two topics are joined, one well-known and one far less so, there tends to be a form of credibility equilibrium taking place, where the less-well-known idea gains in credibility and the more-well-known one slips. In this case, establishment of the commission will cause people to question vaccinations which are unquestionably helpful and at the same time give standing to an idea on the cause of autism that has already been shown to be untrue. 

Commission.  The word commission itself has serious connotations. We think of Truth Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, or the 911 Commission. In every case, the commission was established because there was a concern that the full truth was not known.

Scientific Integrity.  By including the phrase scientific integrity in the Commission's title, the impression is left that the validity of science itself is in question. This is equivalent to opening a commission on the validity of facts; not entirely surprising given the administration's earlier invocation of 'alternative facts.' And the word "integrity" suggests that there is a strong suspicion on the Commission's behalf that some one or some groups have been less than honest in the past.

Scientific Integrity - 2. This is subtle, but instead of simply calling into question the concept of scientific fact, it also takes aim at the overall practice of science itself –reliance on the scientific method– which neatly tees up the Administration to question the science behind climate change or whether fracking causes earthquakes or any number of other convenient targets.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  As a well-known proponent of the idea that vaccination can cause autism, Mr. Kennedy's selection as Chairman of the Commission is anything but unbiased and suggests that the panel's conclusions are all but known already.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - 2.  Kennedy's name alone is weighted with connotations. His father was a compassionate and beloved figure. His daughter, Kerry, now runs the well-known Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation. Mr. Kennedy, and by association the Commission, draw credibility from this connection.

So let's review: Before a single meeting is convened or hearing held, we are giving credibility to a discredited idea, calling into question decades of scientific research and evidence, suggesting that the truth is not only unknown but has somehow been suppressed, impugning science generally, using the seriousness of a commission to investigate, which is led by an anti-vaccine proponent who benefits from the reflected integrity of his father. All of that communicates a lot, and none of it is good.

It also communicates one more idea, more insidious and dangerous than all the rest; it says to parents that they should be suspicious of vaccines and justified in refusing to protect their own children and justified in putting at risk the health and safety of the children of others. There's only one word to describe that and it is "shameful."

Notes

[ 1 ]
The link for the video is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wiam6ui88E and for the article, here:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-meet-with-proponent-of-debunked-tie-between-vaccines-and-autism/2017/01/10/4a5d03c0-d752-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html

See also this interview with Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-qa-robert-f-kennedy-jr-trumps-proposed-vaccine-commission

David Alexrod recently interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci who described a meeting he had with Kennedy following the January 10, 2017 meeting. Listen between the 47 and 51 minute marks here: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/347dcb80-89a5-494c-8a6a-763993f72a3f/episodes/6c87b725-eafd-4237-bb9e-09cffc5dcecf/the-axe-files-with-david-axelrod-ep-585-—-dr-anthony-fauci

[ 2 ]
Not exactly sure how infertility can be a childhood illness.

[ 3 ]
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-addressing-rise-of-chronic-childhood-illnesses

[ 4 ]
https://www.kennedy24.com/end-chronic-disease

Side Note

In researching this article I looked at the campaign websites of all three of the major candidates (Biden, Trump, and Kennedy) and none of those sites had a Search function. Providing that capability is really Communications 101, and I don’t understand why such a feature isn’t and integral part of each of these sites.