Tag: politics

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
National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The attack on the NIH has begun

Donald Trump has been sworn in, and his new administration has immediately turned its sights on the NIH. The danger to US biomedical research has never been more acute.

/ January 27, 2025
RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is NOT a “vaccine skeptic.” He is antivax. Period.

I wish I didn't have to write this post, but the press won't stop referring to RFK Jr. as a "vaccine skeptic." He is not. He is antivax.

/ December 23, 2024
RFK Jr. on CNN

RFK Jr. and his “I’m not anti-vaccine” rejoinder to being confronted with his past antivax statements: A primer

On Friday, CNN host Kasie Hunt interviewed antivax presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Although she did better than most journalists confronting him for his past antivax statements in that she played a clip of one of his antivax statements, she clearly hadn't anticipated his response, which should have been very predictable given that he's been using it for at least 15...

/ December 18, 2023

Columbia University finally cuts ties with America’s Quack Dr. Oz

Decades after Dr. Oz pioneered "integrating" quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University appears finally to have had enough and has quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?

/ May 2, 2022
Florida "COVID theater"

Old antivax tropes never die: “COVID theater,” “Urgency of Normal,” and the Great Barrington Declaration

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a roundtable calling to "end COVID-19 theater" that brought together the Great Barrington Declaration and "Urgency of Normal," a movement to end mask mandates and other COVID-19 mitigations in schools. The arguments used long predate the pandemic and echo a dark side of the history of American medicine.

/ March 14, 2022

The AMA’s Guide to Politically Correct Language: Advancing Health Equity

The AMA urges us to promote health equity by adding progressive political language to what were once simple statements of fact.

/ November 2, 2021

The Mask Ask: Understanding and Addressing Mask Resistance

The wearing of masks has become contentious on scientific and ideological grounds. Why is that, and how can we communicate with people who don't follow the scientific guidelines?

/ October 16, 2020
Donald Trump heading to Walter Reed Medical Center

Science-based medical lessons from President Trump’s case of COVID-19 (thus far)

We learned early Friday morning that President Trump has COVID-19. As the story evolved, it was hard not to take a look at potential science-based lessons in medicine that this story provides.

/ October 5, 2020

Shiva Ayyadurai: Antivaxxer for Senate

Did Shiva Ayyadurai invent e-mail? Should he represent the Republican Party? Read below to find out!

/ October 25, 2019