Can We Stop Supporting Sociopathic Leaders?

A Saturday Prompt

The man leading public health in Donald Trump’s America. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski via Getty Images)

I’m not a scientist—and neither is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But while I don’t presume that my medical judgements are sufficiently educated to tell people how to stay alive, this 71-year-old without medical training—who boasts that he picks up and eats roadkill, literally suffered a worm eating part of his brain and overcame a 14-year heroin addiction—thinks he should decide for an entire country what vaccines are not needed.

This week Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, who was confirmed for this powerful public health position by 52 Republican senators, announced that the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is ending 22 contracts worth $500 million with university researchers and private companies to develop new uses for mRNA technology. This is the technology that created widely used COVID-19 vaccines and saved millions of lives.

Note the slippery way Kennedy describes this decision. “Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Kennedy said in a video. “That's why we're moving beyond the limitations of mRNA vaccines for respiratory viruses and investing in better solutions.”

It sounds like he’s there to protect Americans, right? Note what an actual epidemiologist with decades of experience studying and responding to infectious diseases and pandemics told NPR. “This may be the most dangerous public health judgment that I've seen in my 50 years in this business,” said Michael Osterholm, who runs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It is baseless, and we will pay a tremendous price in terms of illnesses and deaths. I'm extremely worried about it.”

He’s far from alone. A wide variety of experts have feared the consequences of this decision not only for public health and future pandemics, but also national security since this technology represents a significant defense against bioterrorism.

Note that BARDA is specifically responsible for developing public health responses to the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) accidents, incidents and attacks, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases. Kennedy’s intention is to pursue older technologies that rely on whole killed viruses and can produce “natural immunity.” Why? The “mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits against these respiratory viruses,” insisted Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer who has called the COVID shot “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Listen to the assessment of Rick Bright, who ran BARDA during the first Trump administration. “It is irresponsible to strip funding from future technologies with great potential and shift it towards outdated old-fashioned technologies,” Bright said. “We're taking our country from 2025 back to 1940, and we all know that's a recipe for disaster and failure.”

I suspect this topic is personal for most of us. In my own case, I remember both my deep gratitude during the COVID pandemic when I was able to get vaccinated and the deaths of far too many family friends. This followed an all-out effort within the scientific and medical communities to find an answer to the rapidly spreading virus.

Even Trump—who repeatedly lied about the actual nature of the disease, recklessly touted foolish antidotes and failed to save more lives with an effective system for vaccinating—acknowledged the successful development of the mRNA vaccine and initiated “Operation Warp Speed” during his first term. “Operation Warp Speed was, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” he said Wednesday when asked by a reporter about the vaccines.

I thought about titling this prompt “What’s Wrong With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.” But it strikes me that the problem runs deeper than this one man dangerously enabled to run the nation’s public health agencies. Again and again, we see sociopathic personalities rising into positions of leadership—in politics and business—despite the fact that they frequently exhibit shamelessness, a lack of empathy, bullying and a powerful impulse to manipulate others, indifference toward the pain they cause others, as well as disregard for norms and laws. Such characteristics of sociopathy obviously capture Donald Trump and others in his cruel regime such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, just to name a few.

But not only did over 77 million Americans choose to let Trump retake the levers of power, nearly every Republican senator rubber-stamped Trump’s sociopathic selections for key leadership positions. In the case of Kennedy, most of them knew well his dangerous views, but advanced him anyway.

So here’s the question: Can we stop supporting sociopathic leaders? Isn’t it possible to recognize these qualities as dangerous warning signs of unfitness rather than expressions of strength? What does it say about our body politic that so many Americans are drawn to these types of people? Is this attraction a dangerous affliction found in every society? Should there be psychological tests as one guardrail against their continuing success?

As always, I look forward to reading your observations and the opportunity for this community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks. Trolling will not be tolerated.

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