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RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: Kennedy's “Unbiased” Vaccine Panel is actually packed with Anti-vaxxers

ACIP will meet in December and is considering some major changes to childhood vaccines. In June Secretary Kennedy fired the panel of experts and installed a group of vaccine cynics. To justify this change, RFK claimed that ACIP was rife with conflicts of interest and corruption. The meeting in December is a test of whether his of advisors will rubber stamp his anti-vaccine policies.

Challenging The Administration’s Weaponized And Lethal “Gold Standard Science”

Earlier this year, President Trump issued an executive order titled "Restoring Gold Standard Science." The reality, writes DPH member Nancy Krieger, "is that federal agencies under this current administration are brandishing this 'gold standard science' as a cudgel, to make data, people, and problems disappear. In doing so, they are following the age-old autocratic tactic of 'no data, no problem.'”

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK, Jr. says he gets fan mail from scientists and doctors, the letters sent to Congress actually ask for his resignation

Physicians and scientists across the country warned Congress that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was unfit to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who has no medical or scientific training, told Senators in September that he has broad support from doctors and scientists, but thousands of letters condemning his actions as Secretary of Health prove that is not true. His supporters are a fringe minority, not the medical consensus.

Propaganda, Rather than Pandemic Policies, Caused the War on Public Health

This analysis of the war on public health debunks claims of public health "overreach" when COVID-19 struck and quotes DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves: “Public health is the least funded, least well-resourced part of any state or local government. The idea that there are these martinets with power and resources telling people what to do is just absolutely insane.”

Trump’s new plan for Obamacare leaves Americans to fend for themselves

DPH Coordinating Committee Member Dr. Miranda Yaver writes about the many, many limitations of Trump's musings on healthcare.

The nation

Public Health Was a Place for Warriors Once. It Needs to Be Again.

In this adaptation of a speech he gave at a recent meeting of the American Public Health Association, DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves calls on the public health field to reclaim its former identity as a social and political movement. "We became scientists and clinicians first, and made our solutions technocratic," he writes, but the events of recent years show that public health must organize to grapple with the larger social and economic issues that shape how -- and even whether -- we live and stay healthy.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Wants to Remove Aluminum from Vaccines and Endanger Americans' Health

Aluminum, found naturally in many foods, is sometimes added as a salt in tiny quantities to vaccines as an immune booster. For years, Robert F. Kennedy has said that aluminum-containing vaccines cause autism, allergies, asthma and other health issues and as Secretary of HHS, Kennedy wants to ban aluminum from vaccines. But banning aluminum would “wipe out about half the nation’s supply of childhood inoculations” for dangerous diseases like whooping cough, polio and the flu and would result in no additional health benefits for children.

Beyond emergency relief: The role of U.S. foreign health assistance amid growing displacement and climate change

The current administration drastically cut U.S. foreign aid, but DPH member Timothy Holtz and colleagues write, "U.S. global health assistance is an urgent humanitarian priority, particularly amid rapidly growing displacement and climate-induced crises. Continued deprioritization will ultimately result in lives lost. Critical to averting deaths and promoting global health security, U.S. technical capacity in global health should be reinvigorated through synergies with the private sector, international actors, and local institutions."

Cruelty is the Point: Veterans are the latest target

With Veterans Day 2025 approaching, Dr. Mary K. Canales shares her thoughts on the damage being caused by the Trump administration to the veterans of the United States.

Health care workers under 65 must be vaccinated against Covid

DPH member Judith Feinberg and cooauthor Judy Stone explain that while the discussion around HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to Covid vaccine recommendations have focused on the exclusion of pregnant women and infants and the restrictions on anyone under age 65 without an underlying condition getting the vaccine, this conversation has left out a key group: health care workers under 65.

The nation

John Roberts Is a Threat to the Health of Every American

Trump administration health officials have received much criticism, and deserved it. But, as DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves points out, the man who has enabled all this -- the termination of research grants, mass firings at CDC, NIH and other agencies, and more -- is Chief Justice John Roberts, who has acted to empower the administration in its most destructive acts.

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Senate Must Reject Casey Means as Surgeon General, Defend Public Health Says

With her confirmation hearing scheduled for this morning, Defend Public Health is urging the Senate to reject the nomination of Casey Means as U.S. Surgeon General. Means is a “health influencer” without discernible qualifications to be Surgeon General and who seems to make most of her living peddling unproven products and tests sold by companies led by herself and her brother, Calley Means.