“Abolish the NIH”? Dr. Scott Atlas gives the antiscience game away
Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the right wing think tank Hoover Institution who came to prominence as a COVID contrarian, recently wrote an op-ed advocating the elimination of the National Institutes of health and leaving the funding biomedical research to the "free market." These are the "ideas" animating this administration's science policy.
Lysenkoism 2.0 in action: Dismantling peer review at NIH
A recent report in Nature describes how the Trump administration is weakening peer review in favor of ideology-based grant approval at NIH. Lysenkoism 2.0 is in full swing and getting worse.
Lysenkoism 2.0 in action: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abuses his power to bully journal editors over a retraction
A journal editor decided to retract and remove a bad study by an antivaxxer named Neil Z. Miller. RFK Jr. publicly demanded to know why. This is Lysenkoism 2.0 in action in 2026.
Antivaxxers vs. the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Here in Michigan, antivaxxers have scored a couple of political victories that are less than is being claimed. What do they mean for public health in the state?
Will NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya stand up for scientists censored by the American Diabetes Association?
Last Friday, the American Diabetes Association censored diabetes researchers at its annual meeting who opposed the Trump administration's NIH policies. Will "Flame of Freedom" winner Jay Bhattcharya speak up?
The Lysenko-ization of federal science takes a big step forward
From the beginning, Trump science policy has been Lysenko 2.0, in which ideology, not scientific promise and rigor, dictates federal grantmaking. OMB Director Russell Vought's proposed rules de-emphasizing peer review and placing political appointees in charge of final grantmaking decisions do Lysenko proud.
How Unbekoming! The central delusion of MAHA
What do vitamin K shots, vaccines, MTHFR variants, and statins have in common? The answer is what I call the central delusion behind MAHA, which was inadvertently revealed by a blogger with the 'nym Unbekoming.
A blast from the past: The “interstitium,” the inspiration for that recent awful NYT acupuncture article
I'm on vacation this week and decided to repost a 2018 article that I had written for my other blog (but never published on SBM) that's oddly relevant to the SBM post last week about that awful NYT acupuncture article. Meet the introduction of the "interstitium" in acupuncture, complete with a major Deepak Chopra connection!
More credulous nonsense about acupuncture, this time from National Geographic
PNAS recently published credulous nonsense about acupuncture so bad that I thought it couldn't be topped. "Hold my beer!" cried National Geographic, as it proceeded to top PNAS.
MAHA vs. the FDA: Dredging up old anti-regulation revisionist history
Recently, I've noticed articles from outlets aligned with MAHA calling for the elimination of the FDA. It's all recycled "health freedom" revisionist history and ahistorical nonsense.