Newsroom | Defend Public Health

common dreams

Politics Should Never Decide Who Gets Care

With new OMB rules threatening to politicize federal funding for science, health and much more, nurses and DPH members Donna A. Gaffney and Teri Mills look at the potentially dire consequences for the mental health field.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr.’s Diet Cure for Diabetes Is Too Simplistic

RFK Jr. told Native American tribal leaders that Type 2 diabetes is curable through diet. His message of personal responsibility is overly simplistic and disregards the social determinants of health and diet and the critical importance of access to healthcare in preventing and treating diabetes.

defend public health

House Budget Bill Threatens Public Health, Defend Public Health Says

The FY 2027 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, passed recently by the House Appropriations Committee, poses a serious threat to public health, members of Defend Public Health said today, and deserves to quickly die in the Senate. i

Scientists, higher ed alarmed by federal 'power grab' over research funding

As controversy grows over proposed rules that would exert political control over federal research funding and other grants, the western Massachusetts NPR affiliate quotes DPH member and Harvard researcher Nancy Krieger: “This will stifle American science and ingenuity. It will stifle American scholarship. It will affect Americans’ health. It will affect the well-being of communities. It is a recipe for disaster.”

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Is Silent as Trump Demotes Graduate Health Degrees

RFK Jr has been silent as the Trump administration dismantles the federal loan programs which, for decades, ensured Americans could pursue careers in health. A better Secretary of Health would have fought to ensure the country has a vibrant and well-trained health care workforce.

Voting is Paramount for a Healthy Population

Mary K. Canales shares the critical link between voting and health.

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Confessions of a scientist: Science education needs communication training

Dr. Aimee Pugh Bernard delivers a critical talk about why training in communication is critical to science education.

Newsweek

Health Insurers Are Saving Children From MAHA

In this analysis piece about insurers' decision to keep paying for vaccines, Newsweek editors note, "in this fight, it’s the cynicism of the marketplace that leads to vaccination." Along the way, they quote Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs on how insurance companies have crunched the numbers and know that vaccination reduces illness -- and thus, their costs.

US insurers’ move to back vaccines sends ‘powerful’ message about safety of shots, experts say

U.S. health insurers announce they'll continue covering routine childhood vaccinations through 2027, and DPH Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs comments, “They understand that there is a benefit there to people being vaccinated, especially kids, and I’m sure they’ve run the numbers and they know that it will cost them a heck of a lot more to treat kids with measles who are hospitalized than it is to pay for vaccines.”

The nation

What a Week in the Hospital Showed Me About Our Broken Healthcare System

A week in the hospital taught DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves that American healthcare is "fundamentally broken," forcing patients to scramble and fight for what they need. And amid all this dysfunction, "no one in power pays any attention to these deep structural flaws in our system." (And don't worry, Gregg is out of the hospital and doing fine.)

For Juneteenth, Remember: Voting Rights = Healthy Communities

In a shortened version of a piece originally written for our website, DPH member Mary K. Canales connects the dots between voting rights and public health, and why communities with more control over their own futures tend to be healthier.

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Slanders Immigrants, Blaming Them for Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Decades of research show no link between modern migration and the spread of infectious disease to host populations, but that didn't stop RFK Jr from blaming immigrants for communicable diseases in his testimony to Congress. His falsehoods increase stigma, discrimination and healthcare barriers faced by immigrants and refugees.