💸Citing RFK Jr.’s tinfoil hat anti-vaccine ideology, Danielle Smith's UCP government wants to charge Albertans out of pocket for vaccines

Danielle Smith’s UCP Government quietly issued a news release late this past Friday afternoon announcing that most Albertans, including healthcare workers, will now be required to pay out of pocket for COVID-19 vaccines starting this Fall. The announcement cites new direction from US President Donald Trump-appointed “extreme” vaccine opponent and tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is now in charge of the US Federal Drug Administration as the primary basis for the Alberta Government’s decision.

Premier Danielle Smith’s press release makes reference to new direction from the US FDA, which recently came under the control of Trump-appointed extreme vaccine opponent and conspiracy theorist RFK Jr., as the basis for the decision to reduce access to COVID-19 vaccines.

🤡The madness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Canadian doctors and scientists recently expressed their concern about the US Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s firing of all members of the U.S. CDC vaccine panel. His new appointees include a board member of a group widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation and a blogger who claimed that millions of Americans were “hypnotized” into taking the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The “f–cking insane” nomination of RFK Jr. to US Secretary of Health and Human Services by President Donald Trump is a new chapter in the war on science and public healthcare in the United States. The full depths of RFK Jr.’s extremism may be less known to most Albertans, among numerous batshit crazy things, he has:

• compared anti-COVID public health measures to the Holocaust; 
• claimed that “a global elite led by the CIA had planned the pandemic to end democracy and impose totalitarian control on the entire world”; 
• falsely suggested that HIV did not cause aids;
• promoted the drinking of raw milk, which presents the risk of foodborne disease and the spread of avian flu;
• asserted that 5G wireless broadband service is being used to “control our behaviour”
• claimed that doctors found a dead worm in his brain that had eaten a portion of it and died ;
• collected hundreds of thousands of dollars off his anti-vaccine nonprofit. 

He is now threatening to ban US federal scientists from publishing in the world's leading medical journals. 

🚑3,031 people in Alberta hospitalized, 368 died with COVID-19 since August 2024

By taking their public health guidance from tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, raw milk-drinking RFK Jr., Danielle Smith and her UCP government are irresponsibly ignoring scientists, public health experts and Alberta’s own data on COVID-19 hospitalization. According to Alberta’s Respiratory Virus Dashboard, COVID-19 continues to inflict a toll on public health with 3,031 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 368 having died of COVID-19 in Alberta since August 25, 2024. 

💉95% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were not immunized with the latest recommended vaccine 

According to the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases April 2025 report, the majority of children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 had not received the most recently recommended COVID-19 vaccination.

Daniel Smith is creating a cruel financial barrier to vaccination that will undermine the greater cost savings of preventative healthcare. Not only will Albertans now be forced to pay out of pocket to be vaccinated against COVID-19, taxpayers will bear the costs of a higher number of hospitalizations.

Smith is breaking her election promise to Albertans that "under no circumstances will any Albertan ever have to pay out-of-pocket to see their family doctor or to get the medication treatment they need" and exposing her agenda to increasingly force Albertans to pay out of pocket for their healthcare.

🔎💰Alleged corruption in the Premier’s office over $100M’s in healthcare contracts

Image source: Globe and Mail

Danielle Smith’s government remains embroiled in controversy over allegations of misuse of $100’s of millions of public dollars while continuing to refuse a full public inquiry. The latest news includes:

• Revelations that Alberta’s Justice Minister Mickey Amery has a personal relationship with the man whose businesses are tied to the AHS investigation
• A report that the former chief of staff to Danielle Smith lived in a $1.6-million home owned by the sister of the man whose businesses are at the centre of the AHS investigation.
• The Auditor General’s criticism of Smith’s government for the irregular practice of directing staff to involve government lawyers if they are contacted by the auditor.

📣Take Action: Danielle Smith must scrap plans to make Albertans pay for basic vaccines

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