Category: Politics and Regulation

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
Great Barrington Declaration authors Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Sunetra Gupta in front of AIER headquarters in Great Barrington, MA.

Paul Thacker relitigates criticisms of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and the Great Barrington Declaration

"Journalist" Paul Thacker defends Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and the Great Barrington Declaration by rehashing the same old deceptive rhetoric that was easily debunked when it was first employed.

/ March 6, 2025
Image of a USAID notification announcing a reduction-in-force affecting 1,600 personnel. Starting February 23, 2025, all direct hire personnel will be on administrative leave, except for specific designations.

Indiscriminate, Cruel, and Wasteful: Abandoning USAID clinical trials

The chaos and cruelty of its abrupt deconstruction are self-evident and already demonstrable

/ February 25, 2025
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.)

How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will undermine and ultimately destroy US vaccination programs

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was nominated to be Secretary of Health & Human Services, I called him an "extinction-level threat" to public health. Here's how he will attempt to make vaccines extinct in the US.

/ February 24, 2025
So it begins: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacks

So it begins: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS Secretary and immediately starts dismantling US federal science infrastructure

The nightmare has come true. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed as HHS Secretary and didn't wait long to start dismantling federal science and health programs. The White House even formed a "MAHA commission" to draw up a battle plan.

/ February 17, 2025
National Institutes of Health (NIH).

DOGE vs. the NIH: Say goodbye to the greatest engine of biomedical research ever created

Friday, the Trump administration slashed indirect costs associated with NIH grants. What does this mean, and why could it be so disastrous for biomedical research?

/ February 10, 2025