Tag: Jay Bhattacharya

RFK Jr. fail

One year of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary: The Lancet reacts, and so do I

Editors of The Lancet published an op-ed decrying RFK Jr.'s one year of failure at HHS. They're correct about RFK Jr, but they are not blameless in what has happened.

/ March 2, 2026

MAHA: Everything old is new again, except this time antiscience cranks (like Stanislaw Burzynski) are in charge

Returning from my hiatus, I couldn't decide on a specific new topic, mainly because so much bad stuff happened in my absence. So, in this post I back up a bit to reflect on how RFK Jr.'s "make America healthy again" is nothing new. What is new is that the antiscience-cranks are in charge.

/ February 23, 2026
Jayanta Bhattacharya (Podcast Jay) being interviewed by Ross Douthat.

Lysenkoism 2.0 continues: Podcast Jay wants to turn NIH into the “research arm” of MAHA

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has recently said that he wants to transform the NIH into the "research arm of MAHA" and a "central driver of the MAHA agenda." Lysenkoism 2.0 continues apace at NIH.

/ February 2, 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
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
A sunlit brick alley is lined with ivy-covered buildings, potted plants, and leafy trees, creating a peaceful, green atmosphere on a clear day.

The Murray Hill Declaration

It's the responsibility of our medical establishment to protect the vulnerable and keep schools open.

/ January 1, 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
Graffiti art of a man wearing a judge's wig and crown, holding a scepter and a briefcase, striding confidently. The mural is painted on a wall next to wooden boards and stones.

Read the Comments: “Just Do the Opposite of Whatever This Administration Recommends!”

It's obviously not good that people have lost trust in the FDA, NIH, and CDC. However, since those once vulnerable institutions are now lead by naked emperors, it's good that the American public, at least those that read the news, has uniformly recognized they have no clothes.

/ November 29, 2025
Aluminum hydroxide

RFK Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines, part 4: Aluminum edition (or: Everything old is new again…again)

Last week, news stories reported that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had convened an "aluminum working group." Among the "scientists" there are antivax scientists about whom I've been writing for over a decade. Everything old antivax is new again.

/ October 13, 2025
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.)