Well this is just a damn disgrace – Robert Kennedy Junior wants to show Oregon state senators a movie about mercury-containing preservative in some vaccines. Why? Because

He plans to urge them to vote against a bill that — with an amendment — would eliminate nonmedical exemptions from Oregon’s school immunization law.

The invitation came via emails to senators on Monday. Sens. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton, and Tim Knopp, R-Bend, confirmed to the Statesman Journal that they were invited to the screening.

Knopp said on Tuesday that Kennedy reached out to him on Sunday — presumably because Knopp is leading the opposition against Senate Bill 442 — and said he was interested in talking with the senators about the bill.

During a measles outbreak in Oregon, he plans to do this. It’s a disgrace.

“He’s very concerned about parental consent on this issue,” Knopp said. “He’s opposed to the bill with the amendments and wanted to talk to some senators.”

In the email that was obtained by the Statesman Journal, Kennedy writes that lawmakers and their staffers are invited to the screening of the documentary “Trace Amounts” at Cinebarre in downtown Salem and that he plans to hold a question-and-answer session afterward.

“I consider this issue so important not just for Oregon but for the entire country that I wanted to make the trip to Salem to further educate lawmakers,” the email reads.

He considers it so important to persuade legislators to let parents continue to put their children and everyone else at risk of a preventable disease. How public-spirited of him.

Kennedy wrote a book published last year about thimerosal, which has been phased out of most vaccines, except for flu shots. He argues that thimerosal is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there’s no evidence of that.

Well Robert Kennedy Junior doesn’t need evidence; he’s a Kennedy.

Oregon has the nation’s highest nonmedical vaccine exemption rate for kindergarteners, at about 7 percent. However, there are numerous enclaves in local communities where the exemption rates reach double digits. That has been alarming for public health and medical professionals, who say a certain level of community immunization rates need to be maintained to prevent against disease outbreaks.

Ah but Robert Kennedy Junior knows better; he’s a Kennedy.