• WAR ON VACCINESStates Go Their Own Way as RFK Jr. Shifts Federal Vaccine Policy

    By Tim Henderson

    In response to the new federal vaccine guidance, advanced by anti-vaxx activists now determining vaccine policy at HHS, many states have created formal alliances to share health information and formulate science-based policies for their residents. “The science is clear. Vaccines remain the best protection for keeping children and communities healthy,” the Northeast Public Health Collaborative said in a statement.

  • WAR ON VACCINESQuiet Dismantling: How “Shared Decision-Making” Weakens Vaccine Policy and Harms Kids

    By Jake Scott, MD

    Shared clinical decision-making was designed to acknowledge complexity where it exists. Using it to manufacture complexity where none exists is a betrayal of the concept and, ultimately, of the patients it was meant to serve.

  • TARGETING SCIENCETrump’s Second Term Is Reshaping U.S. Science with Unprecedented Cuts and Destabilizing Policy Changes

    By Kenneth M. Evans

    President Donald Trump is far from the first president to be deeply skeptical of the academic research community. But his relentless attempts to overhaul the federal support system for research and development have set a new precedent for the level of mutual distrust and its consequences for scientists.

  • NOSTRUMSSenator Endorses Discredited Doctor’s Book on a Chemical He Claims Treats Everything from Autism to Cancer

    By Megan O’Matz

    Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation. Now he’s giving credence to assertions about the therapeutic powers of chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant and deodorizer. “It is all lunacy,” one expert said.

  • TARGETING SCIENCECDC Advisers Drop Decades-Old Universal Hepatitis B Birth Dose Recommendation, Suggest Blood Testing After One Dose

    By Mary Van Beusekom, Laine Bergeson, Liz Szabo, and Chris Dall

    Scientists say that hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective, and that dropping the decades-old practice of a universal dose at birth will have only one result: hepatitis B rates and resulting liver cancer, cirrhosis, and premature death will rise among the unvaccinated or undervaccinated—whether in infancy or later in life, when unprotected adults will be vulnerable to infection.

  • TARGETING SCIENCEAluminum in Vaccines: Separating RFK Jr.’s Claims from Scientific Evidence

    By Antony Black

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s belief that aluminum in vaccines can cause health issues is contradicted by scientific evidence, a fact which RFK Jr. does not allow to interfere with his campaign against vaccination. What is incontrovertible is that increasing vaccine hesitancy and reduced vaccination rates lead to more vulnerable people and more infectious diseases, illnesses, and deaths. It is important to question medical interventions, but this questioning should be informed, rational, and open.

  • CLIMATE ADAPTATIONStudy Warns Past Heat Waves Would Be Far More Lethal Now

    The weather patterns behind Europe’s past extreme heat waves could cause tens of thousands more deaths in today’s hotter climate –unless countries rapidly scale up heat-adaptation efforts.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHSouth Carolina’s Measles Outbreak Shows Chilling Effect of Vaccine Misinformation

    By Lauren Sausser

    For the first time in more than two decades, the United States is poised to lose its measles elimination status, a designation indicating that outbreaks are rare and rapidly contained. The confluence of larger national trends —including historically low vaccination rates, skepticism fueled by the pandemic, misinformation, and “health freedom” ideologies promoted by conservative politicians —have put communities at risk for the reemergence of a preventable, potentially deadly virus.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHCDC’s New Deputy Director Is Vocal Critic of Vaccines, Advocated for Ivermectin

    By Stephanie Soucheray

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named a critic o COVID vaccines — and a promoter of a worthless alternative to such vaccines – as deputy director of CDC.

  • ASSAULT ON SCIENCEAfter Unprecedented Autism-Vaccine Messaging Change, Scientists, Advocates Say CDC No Longer Trustworthy

    By Liz Szabo and Laine Bergeson

    “Ideology has replaced science as the means for addressing life-saving research and best practices that save lives,” said CIDRAP director Michael T. Osterholm. The “propaganda machine for RFK Jr.’s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories” has triumphed at the CDC, said Paul Offit, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It’s not enough to push the snake oil. You have to discredit mainstream biomedical science and portray scientists as public enemies or cartoon villains, and that’s what Kennedy’s seeking to do,” said Peter Hotez, codirector of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

  • REFORMING CDCThe CDC’s Return to Autism Panic Is Exactly Why It Needs Reform

    By Jeffrey A. Singer

    Resurrecting a claim disproven countless times doesn’t protect public health—it undermines trust in the very institution meant to safeguard it. The controversy, however, makes the points I’ve made before even more urgent: The CDC should be restored to its original role —a dedicated partner that supports and coordinates disease-control efforts.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHCDC in Crisis: Mass Layoffs, Leadership Turmoil, and Vaccine Controversy

    By Carmen Shaw, Pandora Report

    Roughly 3,000 of CDC’s 13,000 staff received RIF (reduction-in-force) notices this year. Officials warn that these layoffs have left the CDC dangerously unprepared to protect Americans’ health and safety.

  • PUBLIC HEALTH New Poll Reflects Broad American Distrust in Health Agencies and Their Advice

    By Jim Wappes

    The manner in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has run HHS – the promotion of fringe theories as a substitute for scientific methods; the replacement of scientists in key positions with anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists, and more — has consequences: Americans’ trust in federal health agencies like the CDC and its childhood vaccine recommendations is declining, and more than twice as many people think the administration’s policies have made the country less healthy as those who think they have made the nation healthier.

  • H-1B VISASTrump’s New $100K Visa Fee Could Worsen State Doctor Shortages, Experts Say

    By Nada Hassanein

    Many immigrant physicians help fill gaps in rural communities’ health care systems thanks in part to the H-1B visa, which allows skilled foreign workers to come work in the U.S.

  • ASSAULT ON SCIENCECircumcision, Tylenol, and Autism? RFK Jr. Misses the Cut

    By Jeffrey A. Singer

    When public health officials use their platforms to promote pet theories instead of proven science, it’s not just sloppy—it’s dangerous. These pronouncements shape research priorities, regulatory decisions, and the information the public is allowed to hear. When science gets filtered through political agendas and personal crusades, public health becomes a tool of control rather than a source of trust. HHS officials wield enormous influence over Americans’ medical choices; that power demands humility and restraint—not speculation masquerading as science.