Tag: Martin Makary

confirmation hearing

Suggested questions for Donald Trump’s health nominees during confirmation hearings

It won't be long before we're treated to the spectacle of Senators grilling antivax nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS) and Dr. Dave Weldon (CDC). We exist to serve, which is why I'm suggesting some questions for Senators to ask all of Trump's health picks.

/ December 2, 2024
RFK Jr. and Donald Trump's health picks vs. vaccination

Antivaxxers, grifters, and quacks: RFK Jr.’s MAHA takes over federal health agencies

President-Elect Donald Trump has now announced most of picks to lead critical federal health agencies. These picks predictably prioritize grift, quackery, and antivax ideology.

/ November 25, 2024
Trump at Madison Square Garden

Donald Trump won. Now what for science-based federal health policy?

Last week, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris and will return to the White House in January. What does this mean for science-based federal health policy? Hint: Nothing good. Just like the rest of the government, the worst people are likely to be in charge of health and science policy.

/ November 11, 2024

Robert Kennedy Jr. & His Doctor Friends May Just Be Getting Started

Doctors who are concerned about members of our profession enabling powerful anti-vaxx disinformation agents should speak up before it's too late. But its probably too late already.

/ November 8, 2024
Extinction-level event. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

RFK Jr. is now an extinction-level threat to federal public health programs and science-based health policy

A week ago, Donald Trump said that, if elected, he would let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "go wild" on healthcare. RFK Jr. has said that he'd immediately remove fluoride from drinking water, while surrogates say he'd work to prove vaccines unsafe. This is why a Trump Presidency could represent an extinction-level event for science-based federal health policy.

/ November 4, 2024
Controlled opposition running limited hangouts

Antivax as ideology: “Limited hangouts” run by “controlled opposition”

Antivax is more ideology and conspiracy than science. The recent accusation that antivax influencers are running "limited hangouts" as part of "controlled opposition helps illustrate this characteristic, in which the insufficiently radical are portrayed as useful idiots for the enemy or even heretics.

/ October 7, 2024
Chart titled "At a Glance" showing estimated new cancer cases in 2024 as 2,001,140 and deaths as 656,870. Graph shows decreasing trends in both cancer incidence and death rates from 1992 to 2022. Mantaring note: the 5-year relative survival rate for 2014-2020 is at an encouraging 69.2%.

Quoth Myrna Mantaring: “US government data” confirms a “143,233% increase in cancer cases due to COVID vaccination”? I answer with a plea for math-based reality checks.

Myrna Mattaring, a retired scientist who worked in diagnostic labs, claims that COVID-19 vaccines caused a 1432% increase in cancer cases, a clearly impossible claim. Here I make a plea for examining such claims, including a much more famous and accepted one, with basic math.

/ September 3, 2024
Stanford: The Usual Suspects

Stanford University will host a conference on pandemic planning featuring the usual (COVID-19) suspects

This week, Stanford University announced a conference on pandemic policy that features several of the usual suspects who spread misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Truly, Stanford has become the "respectable" academic face of efforts to undermine public health.

/ August 26, 2024

Dr. Marty Makary: “We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April” & “It’s Okay To Have an Incorrect Scientific Hypothesis. But When New Data Proves It Wrong, You Have To Adapt.”

Part 1: Doctors who said the pandemic ended 3-years ago now have the audacity to lament the "damaged public trust in the medical profession."

/ March 31, 2024

Science Based Satire: What I Would Have Done

A man who experienced the pandemic entirely from his laptop, explains what he would have done had he actually done anything.

/ February 4, 2024