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The Silent Epidemic: America’s Growing Anxiety Crisis
Anxiety—once dismissed as mere nerves or a passing phase—has become one of the most prevalent and debilitating public health issues facing Americans today. how did we get here—and what do we do now?
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U.S. Poll Finds Shifting Vaccine Trust Amid Health Agency Overhauls
Trust in vaccine information from government health agencies has shifted along partisan lines following health agency leadership changes and major agency restructuring under the Trump administration.
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Gain-of-Function Research Is More Than Just Tweaking Risky Viruses – It’s a Routine and Essential Tool in All Biology Research
Updates to current oversight are not unreasonable, but blanket bans or additional restrictions on gain-of-function research do not make society safer. Gain-of-function experiments are not inherently risky or the purview of mad scientists. In fact, gain-of-function approaches are a fundamental tool in biology. Misunderstanding the term “gain of function” as something nefarious comes at the cost of progress in human health.
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New Genetic Study Finds SARS-CoV-2 Originated in Wildlife Trade
There is no scientific consensus on the origins of COVID, but the Trump administration is treating the speculative lab leak theory as a given. The administration claims that the lab leak theory has been “confirmed,” even though it is no more than a mere conjecture. In fact, the most recent study, published Wednesday, lends support to the zoonotic spillover theory.
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Mass Layoffs, Sweeping Funding Cuts Threaten U.S. Public Health
The first 100 days of the Trump administration saw more than 20,000 jobs in the public health field terminated and billions of dollars in funding axed. The proposed 2026 budged calls for additional cuts of $40 billion to HHS budget.
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Trump’s NIH Axed Research Grants Even After a Judge Blocked the Cuts, Internal Records Show
Many of the canceled grants appear to have focused on subjects that the administration claims are unscientific or that the agency should no longer focus on under new priorities, such as gender identity, vaccine hesitancy and diversity, equity and inclusion.
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Measles Could Again Become Widespread as Cases Surge Worldwide
By intervening early in an outbreak with local health department support, measles outbreaks can be contained as long as 85% of the population is vaccinated against the disease. That, of course, requires ensured ongoing access to free and accessible childhood vaccinations and restoration of the public’s trust in measles vaccines.
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The MMR Vaccine Doesn’t Contain ‘Aborted Fetus Debris’, as RFK Jr. Has Claimed. Here’s the Science
The US is facing its worst measles outbreaks in years with nearly 900 cases across the country and active outbreaks in several states. At the same time, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, continues to erode trust in vaccines. The evidence does show, however, that vaccines like the MMR vaccine offer excellent protection against deadly and preventable diseases, and have saved millions of lives around the world.
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Administration Promotes Speculative Lab Leak SARS-CoV-2 Origin Theory
Visitors to the Covid.gov and Covidtests.gov websites are now being were websites directed to White House webpage dedicated to promoting the lab-leak theory of the origins of SAR-CoV-2. There is no direct scientific evidence to support this speculative theory, or any other Covid-origin theory.
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Experts Cast Doubt on State’s Report That Undocumented Immigrants Cost Texas Hospitals $122M in a Month
Texas hospitals incurred $121.8 million in health care costs in November from patients who were not “lawfully” permitted to be in the country, according to data released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Policy experts say undocumented immigrants’ cost to hospitals is a small fraction of the total cost from uninsured Texans.
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Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More
By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.
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What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
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Anti-Vaccine Advocates Battle Over Narrative in West Texas, Downplaying Role of Measles in Deaths
After Daisy Hildebrand died of measles, her death was made public first by Dr. Robert Malone, a vaccine skeptic who blamed the hospital for fumbling her care. Daisy’s father told The Texas Tribune he never to spoke to Malone.
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Combatting the Measles Threat Means Examining the Reasons for Declining Vaccination Rates
Measles was supposedly eradicated in Canada more than a quarter century ago. But today, measles is surging. The cause of this resurgence is declining vaccination rates.
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Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters
Climate experts expressed shock and dismay at the move. “It would be a bit like unplugging the equipment that monitors the vital signs of a patient that is critically ill,” one said.
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Combatting the Measles Threat Means Examining the Reasons for Declining Vaccination Rates
Measles was supposedly eradicated in Canada more than a quarter century ago. But today, measles is surging. The cause of this resurgence is declining vaccination rates.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.