Newsroom | Defend Public Health

The nation

If We Want to Save Public Health, We Need to Get Out of Our Bubble

DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves argues that attacks on public health can't be viewed or fought in isolation. They're part of a larger antidemocratic assault on freedom of thought and expression, including academic freedom. To successfully fight back, he writes, "we’re going to have to be part of a united democratic front with other groups working to oppose and fight democratic backsliding in the United States."

'Idiocy': Experts sound off on RFK's plan to blow up major vaccine program

Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs' social media post gets quoted in a news story about HHS Secretary Kennedy's latest attack on vaccines: "The end result of this idiocy could well be that vaccine manufacturers will stop making vaccines here."

13 million American kids are hungry. GOP just made it worse by cutting SNAP.

DPH members Teri Mills and Donna Gaffney discuss how cuts to SNAP counter Robert Kennedy's own statements on the importance of nutrition and push families further into food insecurity.

East Oregonian

Bentz’s vote to cut Medicaid hurts all Oregonians

DPH members Teri Mills and Dr. Wendy Hasson discuss Oregon district 2 Rep. Cliff Bentz's support for Medicaid cuts and their grave impact on constituents in his district.

RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine group sues him: “This is not the Bobby we know”

As the anti-vaccine group formerly headed by HHS Secretary Kennedy pushes him to move more aggressively, Coordinating Committee member Elizabeth Jacobs points out that, pre-RFK Jr., the CDC and FDA were well set-up to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

48hills

Are Trump and RFK Jr. inviting a new AIDS pandemic?

DPH Coordinating Committee member Bruce Mirken asks whether Trump and HHS Secretary Kennedy are inviting a new AIDS pandemic with their draconian cuts to research, prevention, treatment and foreign aid. His answer: It sure looks like they're trying.

The nation

RFK Jr. Has Been Handed a Very Dangerous Weapon

Could RFK Jr. do as much damage to a variety of preventive services (such as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV) as he as begun doing to vaccines? Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves argues that he could, and that the U.S. Supreme Court recently handed him the means with which to do it.

South Florida Sun Sentinel

Congress should restore and protect HIV funding

DPH members Teri Mills and Tim Holtz discuss the significant progress made in HIV treatment and prevention and the need to sustain US Federal funding for programs that save lives at home and abroad.

Republicans are trying to turn their attacks on Obamacare into self-fulfilling prophecies

DPH member Dr. Miranda Yaver shares her expertise on the topic of Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act.

Elizabeth Jacobs on "Issues on Ideas"

On this radio show and podcast, Coordinating Committee member and epidemiologist Elizabeth Jacobs discusses this year's measles outbreaks and how antivaccine ideology is destroying America's status as having eliminated this highly contagious viral disease.

Science should follow data. Doing so is not niche. It's also not political.

DPH member Lauren Forrest challenges the notion that research on minority health is "too niche" and discusses its critical importance in creating robust, accurate health science.

The nation

America Is Sliding Into the Abyss

DPH coordinating committee member Gregg Gonsalves surveys the grave impacts Trump administration policy have had on scientific research, health infrastructure, and disease control.