Newsroom | Defend Public Health

Hiltzik: Farewell to Peter Duesberg, a godfather of scientific disinformation

Columnist Michael Hiltzik draws a line straight from leading AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg, who died recently, to present-day health disinformation, with DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves commenting, "Peter Duesberg was an AIDS denialist. He is the precursor to contemporary denialists like RFK Jr., who brought AIDS denialism into the 21st century."

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK’s Upside Down Food Pyramid is a Cardiologist’s Nightmare

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans resurrected the defunct USDA food pyramid from the 1995-2000 guidelines and turned it upside down in order to highlight animal proteins and fats and de-emphase grains. The White House tweeted an ominous picture of RFK with the caption “We are ending the war on protein.” There was no war. Americans eat more than enough protein. It is a Whopper to claim, like Secretary Kennedy does, that we need to consume more meat or fat.

Alex Pretti was a nurse to the end

A nurse who's also a member of Defend Public Health writes about Alex Pretti and the role of nurses in the current crisis: "It matters that Pretti was a nurse: not because this makes his life more valuable than others, but because his final actions reflect the instinctive application of ethical principles of a profession charged with responding to harm."

Forbes

New CDC Vaccine Chair Prioritizes Personal Choice

In a podcast interview, Kirk Milhoan, new head of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, said that "science is what I observe," and suggested making all vaccines optional instead of recommended. That would lead to "a real-world experience of when unvaccinated people get measles. What is the new incidence of hospitalization? What’s the incidence of death?” In response, DPH Coordinating Committee member ElizabethJacobs called his statement "one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in my entire career.”

Vance announces aid restrictions for groups that promote diversity, transgender policies abroad

Vice President J.D. Vance announced a sweeping expansion of the "global gag rule" to now include a ban on U.S. foreign aid supporting diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as so-called "radical gender ideology." DPH is quoted pointing out the dangerous effects of the policy, noting, “This would effectively coerce [humanitarian groups] into denying that transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people exist.”

defend public health

New Restrictions on Foreign Aid Would Cost Lives

New foreign aid rules expected to be issued by the Trump administration that expand the “global gag rule,” also known as the Mexico City Policy, that prohibits organizations receiving U.S. funds from “promoting abortion as a method of family planning,” and also apply President Trump’s earlier executive orders on “gender ideology” and “DEI,” represent an assault on the lives, health, rights, and dignity of women, LGBTQ+ communities and children around the world, health experts with Defend Public Health said today.

The return of measles: how a once-vanquished disease is spreading again

The Guardian reports on the ongoing Measles outbreak in the United States, which originated in Texas but has now spread across the country and is exploding in other states, most notably South Carolina. The Guardian quotes experts including Defend Public Health Coordinating Committee member Dr. James Alwine on how the measles outbreak is leading indicator for the resurgence of many vaccine-preventable illnesses, and how Federal policy is fueling vaccine hesitancy.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK’s Obsession with Placebo Controlled Safety Trials is Dangerous

RFK has claimed for years that vaccines are not tested for safety, which is nonsense. Childhood vaccines are held to very high standards by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. For the Secretary of Health to badmouth his agencies’ work on safety is a dereliction of duty.

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.