Tag: National Institutes of Health

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
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
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.)
Trojan Horse

Jay Bhattacharya’s “plan to drive Gold Standard Science”: A Trojan horse for Lysenko-izing the NIH

Last week, the NIH published a plan to "drive Gold Standard Science." The plan cunningly wraps what are obvious Lysenkoist ideological purity tests disguised as "academic freedom" and "unbiased peer review" in seemingly reasonable proposals.

/ August 25, 2025
Two prescription pill bottles labeled Eltroxin (100 mcg) and Synthroid (88 mcg), both containing levothyroxine tablets, are placed side by side on a gray surface.

What do mRNA vaccines, Synthroid, and pharmaceuticals have in common (according to MAHA)?

If you want to understand why Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has halted $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development, look no further than Synthroid and herbal medicines.

/ August 18, 2025
Mehmet Oz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Marty Makary, Jay Bhattacharya, Vinay Prasad

Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad embrace a “more fluid concept of evidence” at the FDA

Last Thursday during a roundtable on stem cell therapies, new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary referred to EBM levels of evidence as an artificial and dogmatic construct. Apparently Dr. David Katz's "more fluid concept of evidence" now reigns at the FDA—selectively.

/ June 9, 2025
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
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