Smidge In my home we have a unit of measure called a smidge. It is an ephemeral unit varying in size by the user (Smidgee) and the substance being smidged. For example, a smidge of whipped cream could be a dollop, or two or three, depending on the smidgee. Whereas a smidge of salt

I would love it if we would all focus on one issue that is threatening our futures in the US. Focus dispite the fire hose of atrocities and diversions being blasted at us by the adminstration. My focus is stopping Robert F Kennedy Jr. and his anti-vaccine misinformation which endangers the lives 

Defend Public Health’s amicus brief for American Academy of Pediatrics et al. vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can be read at the link below if you have any interest. Shout out to the incredible @doritreiss.bsky.social and all of the public health lawyers who are fighting for all of us.

Oh my God it just keeps getting worse. This #RFK sponsored #hepatitis vaccine trial in #Guinea-Bissau is being run by people whose research methods have been totally discredited. This isn’t research, it’s gun-for-hire antivax nonsense. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Like many others, I’ve been trying to figure out how the team that RFK Jr. just funded to do a randomized, controlled trial of HepB vaccine in Guinea-Bissau is going to get ethics approval. In this thread, I share what I think they will do to alleviate ethical concerns. bsky.app/profile/eliz...

An evil, unethical and inhumane study has been funded by the Pershing Square Foundation, the Bluebell Foundation and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the bidding of RFKJr. Researchers at the Bandim Health Project will initiate a randomized 

It's Whopper Wednesday! This week, we take on RFK's claim that food allergies might be caused by aluminum adjuvants in vaccines. (News flash, aluminum salt adjuvants in vaccines are safe. Removing them will decrease vaccine effectiveness, leaving our children vulnerable to infectious disease.)

The media needs to stop writing headlines like “The CDC changes course on vaccines and autism” and “The CDC defends measles response”. NONE of this is coming from legitimate scientists at the CDC. ALL of it is coming from RFK Jr. Every such headline is causing further harm to public health.

Let’s be clear. This is about cronyism and patronage. The authoritarian and his minions get to decide what science is and who gets to do it. Everything is Lysenkoism now. And it will end in the same way: human suffering and the fall of a nation’s science. Tragedy All around.

Hear from our very own Miriam Rabkin & David Perlman on “Look to the States to Lead on Public Health” Like, share, & join us to Defend Public Health!

Viral infections can leave you permanently damaged in greater or lesser ways. Maybe it’s lasting lung damage, a persistent cough, continual fatigue, loss of cognitive function, liver damage, cancer, loss of immunity, MS, long COVID, paralysis, shingles…the list

No, RFKJr, antidepressants do not cause mass shootings. www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...

It gets worse every day. RFKJr’s deepening threat the health of all Americans. An OpEd by @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social and me. progressive.org/latest/rfk-j...

What RFKJr and Trump are doing to vaccine availability in the US is a criminal attack on children who will be damaged and die from preventable diseases. As if that’s not horrible enough, Kennedy’s denial on infectious diseases is endangering us all. While other countries are planning

The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices meeting has been an epidemiological crime scene. Once ACIP was a respected scientific body, but under RFKJr it has decayed into a platform of anti-vaccine lies and deception. They want to deprive the US of safe vaccines and good

The Advisory Comittee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet 12/4-5. The committee used to be a stellar group of scientists and vaccine specialists. Now it is a cabal of RFKJr anti-vax cronies. It is likely they will fulfill Kenendy’s desire to further disable vaccinations in the US. I will

RFKJr continues to show his ignorance of health, science and infectious diseased. He endangers all of us. www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...

“Waning Immunity and Falling Vaccination Rates Fuel Pertussis (whooping cough) Outbreaks.” As I have written before the rise the US is seeing in measles is a bellwether foretelling that other vaccine-preventable diseases will rise. So here we have the rise in whooping cough. Picture a wee child

NYT article reporting that Canada is about to lose its status of eliminating measles. It says Canada has reported 5000 cases and the US 1700. But we can be certain that the US number is a gross underestimate, it’s probably 5 times higher at the least. This is because RFKJr has

RFKJr again and again endangers the health of all Americans www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...

Science is not a popularity contest. The leader of the United States Government’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Martin Kulldorff, should understand this. Instead, he thinks that because RFK Jr. has “many supporters”, scientists should listen to him.

BELLWETHER. Bellwether is a word I’ve always liked. Originally bellwether is the name for the leading sheep of a flock, with a bell on its neck ( BTW, a wether is a castrated male sheep). But its meaning of being a lead

In the next presidential election I want a candidate who commits to demolishing the ball room and restoring the White House to its former beauty, this includes the rose garden. Even better if it’s all done with donated funds. The restoration might also require an exorcist.

7,000,000 came out all over the US to protest Trump. That’s 2% of the US population. And that’s not counting the many who were sympathetic but couldn’t come out. There were large protests in deep red areas. And 2,000,000 more came out in countries across the world. One

Prince Andrew surrendered his Duke of York title because of his ties with Jeffery Epstein. I can think of someone who should surrender their presidential title for the same reason

The speaker of the house has said that the naked bicycle riders in Portland were a threat to police and ICE. Like the terrifying frogs. It would be laughable if it weren’t the case that 30-50% of Americans will believe this, will believe the lies about riots in Portland…will believe every lie

Mass CDC Firings, Confusion Will Cost Lives; Congress Must Act. www.defendpublichealth.org/press-releas...

So the Trump administration is saying that the firing of hundreds of CDC staff was a mistake, a "coding error", and then hired them back. Well I think the "mistake" excuse is BS. The firings were designed to cause chaos, anxiety and to kill morale. Another in a long 

Your health safety is in danger. Even if you are healthy and think you have good health care you are in danger. Why? Because Trump’s retaliatory firings over the past two days have decimated government health institutions especially the CDC. All of the monitoring

Are you in Ohio? Know someone who is? Step up. Let Senator Jon Husted hear from you!

An important and personal, heartfelt op-ed from @defendpublichealth.bsky.social's @brucemirken.mas.to.ap.brid.gy We Must Stand with Our #Trans Neighbors. www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/we-m... I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Bruce

Dear NYT: When an anti-education fuckwit billionaire submits an op-ed on why we should dismantle higher education as we know it, you aren't obligated to print their nonsense.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools Trump just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America. alumni.controlshift.app/petitions/tr...

In a partnership with the Coalition for Health Resilience, Defend Public Health has a new blog post up about how vaccines are tested.

Great article by Gregg Gonsalves www.thenation.com/article/poli...

VIRUSES ARE COMING. I live in Pima County Arizona where an announcement was sent out about cases of West Nile Virus infections and a death. West Nile is a mosquito-born virus which is not new to Arizona, but the point to

A few weeks ago Defend Public Health posted a report called “Risk Factors for Autism Spectrum Disorder: What We Already Know From Scientific Evidence”. The report discusses all the factors and shows why vaccines are not a factor. If we had known that RFKJr was

Dr. Charlotte Kuperwasser, who will be a presenter at the ACIP meeting on the topic of COVID19 vaccines, states that natural immunity following infection is better than that from the vaccine. Well there is something she isn’t telling you. You only get natural immunity AFTER infection, any

OpEd by @jimalwine.bsky.social and me asking Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to take control of all vaccines and to join The Rebellion…err..the West Coast Health Alliance along with CA, WA, OR, and HI.

VIRAL INFECTIONS. All viral infections leave you damaged in greater or lesser ways. Maybe it’s lasting lung damage, development of cancer, loss of immunity, MS, long COVID, paralysis, shingles, loss of cognitive function. The list can go on, but the take home lesson is

The virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic was a novel flu virus that transfered from an animal, probably a pig, to humans (animal to human transfer is called zoonosis). This is believe to have started at a farm in Kansas and spread to a nearby army base

An absolute barnburner by @gregggonsalves.bsky.social! www.thenation.com/article/soci...

RFKJr is going to release a report on the “causes” of Autism. This report will be tainted by conspiricy theories and pseudoscience. There are many years of real scientific research about the causes of Autism, solid science that Kennedy denies. And all the

This government is throwing so much at us randomly that we might feel overwhelmed, helpless. But no, we are actually in charge if we choose to be. The best thing to do is fixate on one issue and fight for it with all your

In Minneapolis an 8 and a 10 year old were killed by gun violence. They were kids who might have been happy to be back at school, happy to see classmates after the summer. They may have been destined to be great leaders, doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs…we will

The spectacle in Alaska was sickening. What a show of rampant ass kissing. I suppose Republicans will soon propose a bill to make Russian the national language, and have a hammer and sickle inserted over the Stars and Stripes. Trumpers must immediately give up beer and start drinking Stolichnaya.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is as much to blame for the death of the police office at the CDC as the shooter…maybe more so. He is a twisted lier. Republican America, and especially Senitor Cassady, you should be ashamed that you allowed this psycho to have his way with vaccines

The decent of the US to a third or forth world country accelerates. Russell Vought, a person with no scientific expertise, no knowledge of the scientific process, no comprehension of the health and economic benefits of science and NIH funding. Has declared, with no evidence, that NIH