oversight, n. - a failure to notice or do something
Physician-scientist, microbiologist, infectious diseases specialist, medical school professor. Opinions expressed are my own.
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oversight, n. - a failure to notice or do something
New comment Protecting the future of vaccine development amidst US funding withdrawal for #mRNA #vaccine research www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... #IDSky #ClinMicro #ViroSky #OpenAccess #OA
Yesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq
Maybe we just misunderstood what Cassidy meant by “oversight.”
To Bhattacharya, free speech is his right to express wrong opinions and publish flawed research without being criticized. But blocking research on anything the administration doesn't like and censoring public health officials is OK. hypocrite, n. - one who professes virtues that he does not respect
We used to see this quite a lot but not in the past several years as fentanyl has replaced heroin. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Thoughtful take from @labonnelab.bsky.social “The administration is moving to end independent research that threatens its ideological narratives and agendas…” www.statnews.com/2025/09/02/h...
"RFK Jr may not like me as much as I’d hoped,” Offit said.
Note to media: RFK Jr. i not a skeptic. He’s a radical vaccine opponent.
It might be. I wouldn’t be surprised if CNN decides to fire Kasie Hunt.
Brilliant piece Jay Bhattacharya, says Dr Rasmussen, has "consistently advanced White House policies that are explicitly political. He has enforced banned word lists. He has repeatedly stated his intent to discriminate against research & researchers that oppose the ruling party’s scientific views"
KASIE HUNT: Over the summer you said, “There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective”. Do you still believe that? RFK JR: “I never said that.” KASIE HUNT: “Play the clip.” RFK JR (clip): “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” (March 2024) ht: @cwebbonline.com
Hardly a surprise given that the authors were hand-picked for their climate skepticism, not their expertise. Taken from the same playbook as RFK Jr’s vaccine panel. The result is also the same— a devastating loss of credibility for US science officials.
The Trump regime’s mendacious climate report makes a mockery of science www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I’m conflicted, because I think the country would be better off if he never came to work.
This is an informative podcast on the legal aspects of “pocket rescissions.” Are they legal, and how do they impact the Constitutional balance of power?
The Administration wants to exploit loopholes in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. But this is possible because the Congress has failed to close the loopholes and assert its authority with regard to spending. Congress still has options if only it would use them. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawf...
From Adm. Brett Giroir, who helped lead Operation Warp Speed: "False assertions about mRNA technology by RFK Jr and the NIH Director could stifle American innovation and impair our ability to compete with economic rivals and defend ourselves from biothreats." www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
This is a perfect encapsulation of the MAHA philosophy: “Sink or Swim.”
A note to RFKJ- don’t cross the nurses. They’re tough as nails and get things done. We’re glad to have National Nurses United join the fight against unscientific nonsense.
Impressive how Sen. Marshall manages to display both bigotry and ignorance in a single sentence. Mpox can be spread by any close skin contact as well as by contact with contaminated objects, saliva, respiratory secretions or body fluids, animals, and from mother to fetus or newborn.
Sorry, was struck by a different resemblance.
So, kudos to both #Democrats & #Republicans in the House for their draft mark-up for next year's #budget, which maintains funding for #NIH (just like the Senate). This is rare, true #bipartisanship and should be praised. But #RussellVought will not be stopped by an appropriations bill. Why? 1/
House LHHC bill is out. Lots of hits to HHS, but the top line number for NIH is 1% decrease, mostly due to cuts ARPA-H. This seems like a huge rejection of the president's budget request.
"Investments by other countries in mRNA vaccines will be essential as the United States abandons its role as global leader in vaccine research and development— all in service of Kennedy’s personal, endless campaign against proven, effective, life-saving vaccines." thebulletin.org/2025/09/rfk-...
Everyone knows that if you want to hide something from Trump, the safest way is to put it in writing.
Concerns were raised that the drug concentrations required exceeded those clinically achievable. Nevertheless, clinical trials were performed and failed to show a benefit (Popp, Cochrane Rev, 2022). Unfortunately, some refuse to accept these results. Off-label use can result in neurotoxicity. 2/2
Early in the pandemic, when there were no vaccines or antivirals, there was interest in repurposing existing drugs to treat COVID. Ivermectin does have some antiviral activity and was reported to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in culture (Caly et al. Antiviral Res, 2020). 1/2
Diphtheria has become so uncommon that people can no longer recall how to spell it correctly.
Former CDC DIrectors: "What RFK Jr has done is unlike anything our country has experienced. It is time to rally to protect the health of every American. The men and women who joined CDC deserve an HHS secretary who stands up for health, supports science and has their back. So does our country."
US public health, global health sec, & science is facing unprecedented threats & intentional erosion. During COVID-19, I think so many of us felt that this horrific global event would bring us together - a pandemic requiring community partnership & trust in science. (1/5)
There is some information about the COVID vaccine and long COVID in children here... www.webmd.com/vaccines/cov...
When you hear RFK Jr rattling off health care stats, it's worth remembering what Steven Wright once said: "43.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot."
“Don’t trust the experts” is an absurd thing to say because we all have to trust experts in many aspects of daily life. The real questions are what defines an expert, how do you recognize them, how to distinguish them from crackpots, and what to do when expert opinions disagree.
Yes!
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...
Importan: it is not scientists that put science on one side of the partisan divide in America! The core issue is that the Republican Party has become a far-right authoritarian oligarchy party.
These items are just as important as the budget #. MYF (multiyear/upfront funding) is a way to cut the budget without cutting the budget. The current 50% requirement effectively halved our budget for R01s (ie - 50% cut). A 100% requirement would effectively quarter the budget (ie - 75% cut).
Oh, and one more thing-- At a Senate confirmation hearing, O'Neill said "Secretary Kennedy has not made it difficult nor discouraged people from taking vaccines.”
Possible exceptions are endocarditis and meningitis. These are conventionally considered to involve privileged sites in which bactericidal regimens exhibit greater efficacy. The Wald-Dickler review did not address endocarditis or meningitis because of a lack of RCT data.
“The grim reality is that the effects of this mass exodus are likely to reverberate in every corner of our nation's public health infrastructure and across every specialty in medicine. The evisceration of the CDC is a disaster for all of us.”
NEW: "Long the envy of the world…the CDC finds itself no longer able to advocate for what its scientists believe the best available research shows….The agency has since January shed literally centuries' worth of collective experience through a combination of firings, retirements, and resignations."
The new acting CDC director: a libertarian investor with no background in science or health care who says “CDC lost trust by manipulating health data to support a political narrative” and proof of efficacy shouldn't be required for new drugs. Another great pick! apnews.com/article/jim-...
"Trump hails Silicon Valley's wizards of tech but undermines the basic research that thrives on free thought. . . Despots want science that has practical results-- (but) they're afraid basic knowledge will expose their false claims." Sorry. You don't get one without the other.
"The cuts are justified," said a scholar at a libertarian think tank. "Decades of lavish funding have dulled America's exploratory edge." The same genius also claims government funding of research doesn't stimulate growth, despite data showing $2.56 in economic activity for each $1 invested by NIH.
Isaac Chotiner interviews Paul Offit about the implications of RFK Jr's changes to US vaccine policy. The situation is confusing, which seems to be the point. And he's not finished. The bottom line is, "we're screwed." www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
6/ Public trust isn't rebuilt by rewriting the record. It's rebuilt by telling the truth and letting experts do their jobs. (P.S. It's @CDCgov, not @CDC.)
This accusation is scurrilous and despicable.
1/ "Public health is a noble calling," says Jim O'Neill — a former tech investor with no training in medicine or health care now running the CDC. Let's fact-check his claims.
Great quote from @ianlmorgan.bsky.social on Bhattacharya’s disingenuous priority re: supporting early career researcher training: “…they're giving us this, like, shiny red apple… and as soon as you bite into it, you find that it's rotten to its core.” www.the-scientist.com/nih-s-priori...
New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them. States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.
Wow. I guess not caring what a bully says about you makes an impact on the people you respect and love. Thanks @firedbutfighting.bsky.social firedbutfighting.org/shop/p/daska...
If I don’t win, then I hope you do. 😀
The American Academy of Pediatrics: Infants ages 6 months to 2 years should get a COVID vaccination. A baby's first encounter should be with the vaccine, not the virus. npr.org/2025/08/20/n...
He also doesn’t understand that RNA viruses can evolve much faster than chickens and people.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give your statement an 8.
What RFK Jr doesn’t understand about autism: • the rise in prevalence is primarily due to increased recognition • genetics play a huge role • environmental factors are less important and exert their influence before birth • there is no relationship to vaccines
We are in agreement. Basic research (eg, 1970s discovery of cyclin-dependent kinases in yeast) can take decades to come to fruition, with unanticipated applications (CDK4/6 inhibitors in targeted therapy of breast cancer). Vannevar Bush understood this, but I'm concerned that Bhattacharya does not.
Unvaccinated citizens in the 50s
For us ID doctors, the CDC has been a rock. Data, guidelines, surveillance, travel advice -- all there, vetted by experts, referenced, reliable. Perfect? No. But watching its dismantling now breaks my heart. Some thoughts: blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-obser...
Science is not immune to the law of diminishing returns. That doesn’t mean you stop investing in science or that more breakthroughs aren’t out there. It just means you may have to invest more and work harder to find them.
SARAH PALIN: "There are going to be death panels!" RFK JR: "Technically, it's just me."
So what are RFK Jr & “ #MAHA moms” planning to do to the people who are not “healthy” in their opinion?
I think the DOJ paralegal has a good case. www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/u...
We simply cannot allow this to happen Children deserve better
“Has America run out of actual health practitioners with demonstrated experience improving public health outcomes?”
Your ability to get access to a COVID vaccine this fall is in jeopardy, whether or not you fit the new, restricted eligibility criteria. Please send a letter to your members of Congress today and help spread the word. actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...
“I never have seen an instance of an advanced affluent country with the finest scientific resources and leaders in the world be under assault, not from small pockets of the public but from the government itself. This has just been radically unprecedented.” www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
“Fire RFK Jr. now.” After a month of shocking removals, resignations, and a shooting at the CDC, Democrats are demanding that the secretary go. Meanwhile, the White House is defending Kennedy as its "crown jewel" admin leader.
It sounds like RFK Jr is coming after the hepatitis B and RSV vaccines next. He’s not going to stop there. CDC leaders sacrificed their careers to get the word out.
Classical HFMD is caused by enterovirus-A71 and Coxsackievirus-A16 in young children. However immunity is type specific, and outbreaks caused by other enteroviruses like Coxsackievirus-A6 are being increasingly seen, including in adolescents and young adults. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s assault may have dealt lasting damage to the CDC, experts fear, with harsh consequences for public health. (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/h...
There’s a book from political scientists Macedo and Lee that claims the COVID-19 pandemic was not as much of a threat to public health as was supposed, calling into question the role of expertise. Here, an excellent corrective to that erroneous position: joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/revisionis...
The sources of the NYC Legionnaires' disease outbreak turn out to be two city-run facilities: Harlem Hospital and a construction site for a public health laboratory. gothamist.com/news/2-city-...
If only he spent half this amount of effort doing his actual job.
Government lawyers have told NIH staff that the roughly 900 grants on topics such as transgender health, COVID-19, and health disparities should stay in place. https://scim.ag/4p4nvYE
Despite concern over turmoil at the CDC, the administration showed no sign of backing down. Karoline Leavitt criticized Dr. Daskalakis for using the term "pregnant people," saying, "that's not someone we want in this administration." He responded, "I don't care." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I’m so grateful that I have tenure and the academic freedom to call it like I see it. “Dr. Kathleen Bachynski, a professor of public health at Muhlenberg College, described Kennedy’s comments as “absolute gibberish” and slammed the HHS secretary as a “dangerous buffoon” who is “threatening us all.”
I know we’re all annoyed with Sen Cassidy for approving RFK Jr’s appointment, and rightfully so. But the important thing is he spoke with CDC Director Monarez and then called for indefinite postponement of the September vaccine panel meeting. He know something.
RFK Jr's vaccine panel meets Sept. 18-19 to review vaccines for COVID, HBV, MMRV & RSV. Kennedy has promised to reveal "interventions that are almost certainly causing autism" in September. Does anyone expect the panel to leave current vaccine schedules intact? www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
“RFK Jr. was never qualified to be secretary of HHS, and he never should have been allowed to set foot in the building. The longer we wait, the more lives we risk” - Rep Rosa DeLauro ctmirror.org/2025/08/28/r...
I have a message to the staff at CDC who have dedicated their careers to protecting Americans from health threats of all kinds: Thank you. Your courage and dedication have improved or saved the lives of people who may not even know it. We’re with you.
While he throws the CDC into chaos that may not be fixable, read @kieraevebutler.bsky.social and I on what else RFK Jr. is planning to do to vaccines, and remember the artificial September deadline he's set to "discover" the causes of autism: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
CDC Director Susan Monarez was reportedly ousted because she objected to changes based on dangerous falsehoods, including that vaccines are connected to autism. Americans are witnessing an unprecedented assault on our health protection agency.
CDC's Daskalakis provides important context for his resignation. RFK Jr has shut the CDC out of health policy decisions-- not consulting nor even informing them. "The American people should now be wary of advice from the agency tasked with keeping them safe." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/p...
Frankly, no one should eat raw oysters. And not just because of Vibrios; norovirus and HAV too. They are filter feeders— the “toilets of the sea.”
What a cursed sentence (gift link) “The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”
New, from me: The CDC shitshow is a microcosm of the mismanagement of the Trump era. It also demonstrates some extraordinary courage among principled public servants, who were willing to lose their jobs to draw attention to damage being done to public health donmoynihan.substack.com/p/your-gover...
Among the many revelations in this eloquent letter: Data analyses underlying changes in recommended vaccine schedules were never shared with CDC despite requests to HHS and other leadership. This is from the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Incredible.
A Columbia study shows that approximately 5% of mass shootings are related to severe mental illness-- but 100% are related to guns. www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/mass-sh...
Union representing CDC employees re: ousted leader Dr Susan Monarez: “We commend her, not just for doing the right thing, but for doing the hard thing by standing against disinformation. She chose science over politics. This is the leader that CDC needs & our nation deserves”
"A mural of the Statue of Liberty in shame" by JDL Street Ar in Lille , Roubaix France 🇫🇷
Yes, he is completely unqualified. But he also has a history of advocating bogus COVID treatments and, most importantly, is a known ally of RFK Jr who will simply do what he is told. CDC is essentially leaderless.
Former CDC Director Tom Friden: "This is unprecedented. There has, in the 80-year history of the CDC, never been a Director fired-- never a situation like this, where you have essentially a purge... We are all less safe." www.npr.org/2025/08/28/n...
It’s telling that Trump, who usually won’t shut up, has said nothing about his firing of the CDC director he had just appointed. No posts about it — not even a press availability where he might face questions on it. He knows it’s a loser for him.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC, revealed that RFK Jr. has NEVER been briefed by CDC experts on measles, flu, or Covid: “No one from my center has ever briefed him on any of those topics…He’s getting his information from somewhere”
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “It’s clear that the nation’s leading public health official does not have any real interest in — or possibly any real understanding of — public health,” Jeneen Interlandi writes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
CDC’s crisis marks a dark moment for public health, says Ashish Jha. The only way out is a new HHS secretary. www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...
just awful wapo.st/46aNJB0
Colorado, please call your terrible governor and tell him to stop supporting a sociopath who's trying to kill thousands of us by denying us COVID shots and SSRIs. Constituent Services Help Line: (303) 866-2885 Governor's Office, Front Desk: (303) 866-2471