Category: Politics and Regulation

National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Lysenkoism 2.0 and the dismantling of the NIH

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "make America healthy again" is basically Lysenko 2.0. It's come to the NIH and is destroying the crown jewel of US biomedical research with ideology and cronyism.

/ May 12, 2025
Two men in suits, identified as Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier, appear on a Fox 19 news broadcast. Both are seated indoors in front of a wooden cabinet and bookshelves, with name labels shown at the bottom.

David Geier, Mail Order Pharmacist

David Geier was in the drug business. What was he selling before the FDA stepped in?

/ May 10, 2025
EBM hierarchy

HHS is weaponizing evidence-based medicine to falsely portray vaccines as unsafe

Last week, HHS announced that all "new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials." Sounds good? Not so fast. This is really a deceptive weaponization of evidence-based medicine to undermine confidence in vaccines and eliminate at least some of them.

/ May 5, 2025
Measles virus

Hello measles, my old friend: The return of previously vanquished vaccine-preventable diseases

A study published last week suggests that, if vaccine uptake continues to decline, measles will soon be endemic again in the US. It's just part of how RFK Jr. is making America sicker again.

/ April 28, 2025
A man wearing a green cap with the words “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN” adjusts the brim while standing outdoors, with blurred trees and grass in the background.

MAHA and “soft eugenics” revisited: The “autism tsunami,” Dr. Oz, and your “patriotic duty” to stay healthy

Two weeks ago, I referred to the "soft eugenics" of RFK Jr. and MAHA. This week, he and Dr. Oz provide new examples, one about autism, the other about public health.

/ April 21, 2025
Extinction-level event. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

How bad is it? RFK Jr.’s extinction-level threat to science-based federal health policy and public health is here

Five months ago, I called RFK Jr. an "extinction-level" threat to US biomedical science and public health. That extinction is under way.

/ April 14, 2025
A man wearing a green cap with the words “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN” adjusts the brim while standing outdoors, with blurred trees and grass in the background.

Measles, MAHA, and “soft eugenics”

I've long said that the antivax movement is borderline eugenicist (or at least social Darwinist) in nature. Now that a second child has died of measles, it's time for me to take a look at the "soft eugenics" of the antivax movement and, more generally, the MAHA movement.

/ April 7, 2025
Trofim Lysenko

“Make America Healthy Again”: The new Lysenkoism

Trofim Lysenko was a Soviet scientist whose dogmatic science denialism led to mass famine when his ideas were applied to agriculture. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a lot like Lysenko in his science denial. Will his results be as disastrous?

/ March 31, 2025
Hyperbaric oxygen chamber

Quackery (still) kills: A five-year-old boy dies in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber

Even as quacks and antivaxxers take over our federal government's health apparatus, let's not forget why we need stronger, not laxer, regulation of "unconventional" medical practices.

/ March 17, 2025
informed consent vs. misinformed refusal

Misinformed refusal: What antivaxxers are really promoting when they invoke “informed consent”

Our new Secretary of Health and Human Services wants to change CDC messaging about vaccines to emphasize "informed consent." What he really means is misinformed refusal.

/ March 10, 2025