Newsroom | Defend Public Health

The Hill

To restore trust in public health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must go

HHS Secretary Kennedy regularly claims he is working to "restore trust" in public health, but DPH Coordinating Committee members Elizabeth Jacobs and James Alwine spell out all the ways in which RFK Jr. has undermined that trust. The only way to restore trust in public health, they argue, is to remove him from an office he was never qualified to hold in the first place.

The Washington Post

RFK-backed infant vaccine study in Africa to proceed despite backlash, U.S. says

The clearly unethical U.S.-funded hepatitis B vaccine study in Guinea-Bissau seems to be going forward, despite earlier reports that it had been cancelled. DPH member Jessica Malaty Rivera tells the Washington Post that the trial is "a sham," adding, “No ethical board in the U.S. would ever approve of something like this.”

Forbes

Experts Call For N95s Over Surgical Masks As Flu, Covid Viruses Spread

Respiratory viruses like flu, RSV and COVID-19 are on the rise, but some organizations like WHO still give outdated advice about use of surgical masks. A group of experts, including DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves, say it's time for that advice to be updated. Respirators like N95s offer far better protection.

The nation

Trump's Death Eaters Are Coming for Our Kids

The Trump Administration's cuts to international aid have already cost many lives, and now that same brutal logic is being applied to the USA's domestic health system. DPH Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves reviews changes to policy and health administration that will harm the lives of Americans and discussed the need for holding accountable members of the administration who implemented these changes.

48hills

The US fails again to fix the real causes underlying poor health

The World Health Organization defines social determinants of health as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and people’s access to power, money and resources." DPH Coordinating Committee member Bruce Mirken explains the vital role they play, and how the Trump administration and HHS Secretary Kennedy do everything they can to ignore this critical fact.

defend public health

Senate Hearing on Medication Abortion Ignores Decades of Evidence & Safe Use

Starting with its original framing, today’s hearing on medication abortion ignored decades of rigorous research on the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs commonly used for medication abortion, and was designed to sow fear, fuel efforts to restrict access to abortion and spread misinformation, reproductive health experts from Defend Public Health said today.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: Lyme disease is Not a Bioweapon

RFK baselessly claimed that Lyme Disease “is highly likely to have been a military weapon,” adding, “we also know they were experimenting with diseases of the kind, like Lyme disease, at that lab [Plum Island], and putting them in ticks and then infecting people, testing them with bird vectors…" There is no evidence that Lyme disease was ever a research topic at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, let alone a bioweapon.

Medpage today

Experts Alarmed by USPSTF Work Slowdown

Trump Administration actions have drastically impeded work at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which plays a critical role in establishing which preventive services must be covered without cost-sharing, as required by the Affordable Care Act. Experts are alarmed, including DPH Coordinating Committee member Miranda Yaver, who calls the situation "a recipe for disaster."

What RFK Jr. Won’t Tell You About a Healthy Diet

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likes to style himself a champion of healthy eating, as seen in his recent rollout of new (and in places wildly unscientific) dietary guidelines. But there are a few things about maintaining a healthy diet that he’ll never tell you, because the Trump administration wants to pretend they don’t exist.

Elizabeth Jacobs interviewed on WCPT radio in Chicago

On "It's the Democracy Stupid" on WCPT radio in Chicago, Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs discussed the latest developments in RFK Jr.'s ongoing assault on public health and disease prevention.

California confirms first measles case for 2026 in San Mateo County as vaccination debates continue

As California confirms its first measles case of 2026, DPH Coordinating Committee member James Alwine warns, “Viruses and bacteria that were under control are being set free on our most vulnerable.”

The 6 biggest changes in the new dietary guidelines

This overview of the new federal diet guidelines addresses several controversial aspects, quoting DPH Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs: “The implications that butter and beef tallow are ‘healthy fats’ don’t have scientific support and are simply figments of RFK Jr.’s imagination.”