Newsroom | Defend Public Health

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. is Dead Wrong Babies Won't Get Hepatitis B

RFK Jr does not want the CDC to recommend newborns be vaccinated against the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV infection early in life, especially as a baby, puts a person at a high risk of developing a chronic lifelong liver infection, which in a quarter of cases can lead to fatal liver failure or cancer. The hepatitis B vaccine for newborns is safe and effective; and it gives durable lifelong protection against a serious infection that children can encounter during birth, and throughout their lifetime in their families and communities.

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Why Public Health Keeps Failing—and How to Fix It

DPH member Perry Halkitis reminds readers that important as science is, by itself science isn't enough, writing, "What would a more human public health look like? It would be one that recognizes that people act not only on what they know, but on what they feel. People must feel heard, not lectured, with interventions grounded in science and lived experience."

Trans Pride Flag

We Must Stand with Our Trans Neighbors

Most of us have some hobby or favorite activity we do to keep ourselves sane amid the pressures of daily living and the increasing political madness that is the USA. For me, it’s performing in community theater, and that’s where I met Perry (a pseudonym). At 17, Perry was the youngest transgender person I’d ever known. Today, he and every trans person in the U.S. is in danger.

48hills

RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine madness will make America sick again

DPH Coordinating Committee member Bruce Mirken writes, "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. keeps promising to 'make America healthy again,' but his summer-long anti-vaccine rampage made clear that his actual impact will be to make America sicker. A lot sicker. And, in too many cases, dead."

The Cruelty Is the Point: Pediatric Cancer trials eliminated

This week, Trump announced funding for AI-driven pediatric cancer research. But don't be fooled. He's already cancelled longstanding research efforts into pediatric cancers, leaving kids and their families in limbo. Mary Canales, PhD, RN, shares her thoughts on this cruelty.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Blames Tylenol Taken in Pregnancy for Autism

MAHA is bad for America's health

Citing example after example of RFK Jr. policies guaranteed to make America sick again, DPH members Donna Gaffney and Teri Mills write, "The 'Make America Healthy Again' (MAHA) agenda isn’t just unserious. It’s unsafe."

The Misdirection Magicians

DPH Member Elizabeth Jacobs shares some thoughts about misdirection and misinformation regarding
acetaminophen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and friends.

Vaccines Haven’t Been Tested? Let’s Clear That Up.

In a partnership with the Coalition for Health Resilience, Defend Public Health shares the facts about how vaccines are tested.

The nation

Trump and RFK Are Presiding Over a Massacre of the Innocents

DPH Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves discusses how recent moves from RFK Jr and the Trump Administration will exacerbate an existing crisis in US infant mortality.

RFK Jr.’s War Against Science Reaches New Dangerous Phase

DPH Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs discusses the Trump/RFK Jr. war on vaccines on this national radio show, calling "a disgrace... the chickens are going to come home to roost. There are going to be increases in infectious disease eventually. Unfortunately, the child of people who do believe in vaccines, but perhaps the child is too young to have gotten vaccines is going to become ill and there is no way that they will be able to hide at that point. "

What Do RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Moves Mean in NJ?

As New Jersey joins other states in efforts to protect vaccine access in the wake of RFK Jr.'s moves to limit it, DPH member Perry Halkitis tells the local PBS station about the harm RFK and company are doing: "In an attempt to appease a small segment of the population and in an attempt to uplift the beliefs of one particular administrator in the government, we’re putting the health of children and the health of families at risk”