Category: Politics and Regulation

Large factory chimneys releasing thick smoke into the air, with industrial buildings and ships in the foreground under a cloudy sky, indicating heavy air pollution.

The Health Effects of Air Pollution

Air pollution remains a grave threat to human health, but MAHA is doing nothing about it.

/ January 28, 2026
Alfred E. Neuman. What, me worry?

RFK Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines (part 7): What, me worry (about polio and HPV)?

Last week was a hellscape for vaccines, with a RICO lawsuit against the AAP and the newly antivax CDC coming for your HPV and polio vaccines.

/ January 26, 2026
A man speaks at a podium with the presidential seal, surrounded by six people in formal attire, standing in a room with wooden doors and a large painting on the wall behind them.

MAHA Gave Us MAGA 2.0.  Remember the Enablers.

When the history of this sad era is written, MAHA doctors will be disgraced pariahs and cautionary tales.  Everyone else should be remembered based only on whether they tried to put the brakes on MAHA/MAGA however they could or whether they slammed the accelerator.

/ January 23, 2026
The World Health Organization logo features a blue globe with a staff and snake symbol, surrounded by olive branches, next to the blue text "World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization on Traditional Medicine

The World Health Organization updated their guidelines on "traditional medicine." Unfortunately, as has been the case in the past the WHO tends to be far too credulous about unproven and disproven treatments.

/ January 21, 2026
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.)

RFK Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines (part 6): Liability, ethics, and policy-based evidence making

As 2026 dawns, look for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ramp up his assault on vaccines using policy-based evidence making and altering Vaccine Court standards.

/ January 19, 2026
Charlton Heston as George Taylor in The Planet of the Apes.

It’s a madhouse! Public health under the heirs to Lysenko (and Dr. Zaius) in 2025

As 2025 barrels towards its depressing conclusion, I look back at the damage federal science and medicine have sustained thus far under Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. through the lens of a classic film. Truly, it's a madhouse, in which our federal science apparatus is run by Lysenko's heirs.

/ December 29, 2025
A syringe drawing liquid from a vial is shown in front of a blurred FDA logo on a blue background.

The FDA’s Proposed “Black Box” Warning for COVID-19 Vaccines

The real hazard is not the vaccines, but the warning itself

/ December 23, 2025

The FDA under MAHA control: Weakening the quack Miranda warning on supplements

The FDA sent a letter to the supplement industry assuring that it would make it easier for them to hide disclaimers (which we like to call "quack Miranda warnings") about unproven health claims for supplements. What does this tell us about MAHA?

/ December 15, 2025
Trump is antivax.

“Best practices”: The buzzword that the Trump administration will use to eliminate as many vaccines as RFK Jr. can

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week, eliminating the universal recommendation for the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. There was, however, a more insidious threat to vaccines in a White House press release after the meeting cloaked under the buzzword "best practices."

/ December 8, 2025
3D illustration of a coronavirus particle, highlighting its spike proteins and a cross-section revealing genetic material inside—often studied in gain of function research. Several similar particles float in the background.

“Gain of Function” Research Is Misunderstood – And That Is A Problem

Misplaced concerns or opposition could lead to overregulation or even banning

/ December 4, 2025