SCOTUS & Culture Wars We know exactly how Justices will rule It isn't based on law, justice, or the Constitution ☑️ Can't Ban Conversion Therapy ☑️ Can Ban Gender Affirming Care ☑️ Can Ban Trans Athletes No legal consistency Only consistency is SCOTUS joining Culture Wars

Today in @statnews.com, Richard Hughes & I discuss RFK's destructive vaccine policies. There's a cavernous divide between pro- & anti-vaccine states Vaccine federalism means children’s health depends on geography. No one is safe as herd immunity wanes Red states are most at risk shorturl.at/8OI3x

Kudos to the House for passing a clean extension of ACA subsidies. If the Senate follows, it will dramatically lower insurance premiums & prevent 4 million Americans from losing health coverage. It will save lives, keep families from financial ruin, and keep rural hospitals open.

Bowing to the alcohol beverage industry, RFK, Jr weakens the message on the harms of drinking. The new food pyramid removes advice on safer limits on alcohol. Even the current guidelines (2 units daily for men & 1 for women) is inadequate. There is no safe limit on alcohol consumption.

RFK Jr releases a new food pyramid putting red meat, beef tallow, & full-fat dairy at the top. His handpicked "experts" worked in secret As with vaccines, Kennedy sets policy without transparency, science, and evidence We can expect more heart disease, diabetes, & cancer

In Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Sam Halabi and @gostin.bsky.social write on one of the unresolved core aspects of the WHO #PandemicAgreement: the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System. Read the article: https://ow.ly/AT6v50XMvWM

Amid the turmoil of anti-vax policy from RFK Jr some sanity prevails. The 2nd Circuit today upheld a ban on cuts to NIH research funding, ruling that unilaterally slashing NIH research overheads was unlawful. NIH funding saves lives & is the engine of our economy

As 2025 draws to an end, let's reflect back on a year global health was decimated, from the US withdrawal from @who.int & defunding of GAVI, to the elimination of USAID. PLoS Global Public Health "The Trump presidency: Cascading global shocks on global health" journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

As wonderful as PubMed is, it needs competition. Now it is getting it from Germany That’s a very good thing The whole world can’t lean on one country’s scientific library Science is a global enterprise See @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2025/12/26/p...

RFK, Jr's war on vaccines is spilling over to states States have legal power to set vaccine schedules Sates are ending school vaccine mandates & requiring broad religious exemptions SCOTUS is abetting this move In JAMA State Vaccine Law and Policy—A New Threat to Public Health shorturl.at/mUbZR

RFK's decision to cut funding for the Am Acad of Pediatrics is short sighted and harmful. It's pure vindictiveness for the principled stand of AAP on vaccines. Grants to AAP support studies on infant deaths, and childhood diseases like autism. This vindictive action is unconscionable.

Today in the Georgetown J. of Int'l Affairs, Sam Halabi @oneillinstitute & I explain the importance of CDR in the @WHO Pandemic Agreement PABS Annex The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS gjia.georgetown.edu/2025/12/11/t...

254 measles cases in SC are in quarantine, 16 of whom are in isolation. That's the impact of RFK, Jr.'s attack on vaccines, and it will only get worse. Most people in confinement were unvaccinated. It's an entirely preventable health crisis. Measles vaccines are 97% effective

Failure to pass ACA premium subsidies will unravel the insurance market. As premiums dramatically rise, the sickest will have little choice but to remain insured, while younger healthier people will opt out. Insurance will be still more unaffordable. The market is unsustainable

Prasad says FDA will state that "COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children," which he calls a "profound revelation." He directs FDA staff who disagree to resign. He offers no research data & doesn't submit it to peer review. Science is transparent, it is testable. This is not science

Ralph Abraham is an irresponsible pick as Deputy Director of CDC. As Louisiana Surgeon General, he cancelled vaccine campaigns. He's a major prescriber of ivermectin for COVID-19. Dr. Abraham is likely to further erode the credibility of the CDC. He's a loyalist, not a scientist

RFK Jr forces CDC to say “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of science. Science can not rule out infinite remote possibilities. But science has conclusively shown no link between vaccines and autism

In London for ⁦‪@FT‬⁩ ⁦‪@TheLancet‬⁩ Scientific Integrity Strategies. AI fueled misleading health information is a defining issue of our time. Strategies include health literacy & communication. Quality Health Information for All is worth fighting for.

America First bilateral global health pacts linking aid to pathogen sharing is feckless. Instead of a multilateral @WHO PABS annex we do deals with a few select countries. What makes Trump think the next pandemic will start in those countries? The US is safer inside WHO & PABS

The @oneillinstitute is hosting a special event on the revolutionary PrEp twice-yearly injectable Lenacapavir, featuring a keynote by Moupali Das Registration Link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Nov 12, 2025 120 F St NW, Washington, DC 20001, Gewirz 12th Floor 1:20 – 3:20 p.m. ET

Sudan Is in Free Fall www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/o... I'm enormously proud of the @oneillinstitute senior human rights scholar Eric Friedman for his authoritative @nytimes opinion on "Sudan is in Free Fall."

India and the IHR Amendments: Strengthening Legal Preparedness for Global Health Security - O'Neill : O'Neill oneill.law.georgetown.edu/india-and-th... Congratulations to my friends and colleagues Kashish Aneja and Sam Halabi. Proud to co-author with them

Join the O'Neill Institute tomorrow Wed. 4 Nov on the IHR & Pandemic Agreement. I will moderate a panel of senior Biden Admin officials who negotiated these treaties: Mara Burr Susan Kim Colin Mclff Stephanie Psaki @GeorgetownLaw 1:20 pm ET

President Mahama just appointed Bedima Duut as Justice of the High Court of Ghana. I burst with pride at my student & dear friend who graduated from our Global Health LLM @georgetownlaw.bsky.social @oneillinstitute.bsky.social

Tomorrow, ACA open enrollment begins for 2026 coverage. Huge spikes in insurance rates will force people to discontinue coverage. These will be mostly young healthy people, further driving costs up for everyone. Even if Congress restores ACA subsidies, the damage is already done

The MAHA Agenda is not serious about reducing chronic diseases. RFK, Jr. follows his whims and hunches, while ignoring science. We know what it takes to improve nutrition and physical activity, but the MAHA report just ignores the evidence jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Delighted to be at #WHS2025 in Berlin. Tomorrow, our Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All will official launch at the World Health Summit Our aim is to provide a framework for innovative solutions to advance quality health information equitably and for all

Delighted to co-chair the ⁦Nature Medicine⁩ Commission on Quality Health Information for All in Berlin today. Integrity & trust in information is the world’s greatest health challenge. Our Commission explores how quality health info shared through culture, media, & technology can be strengthened.

RFK has mounted a full assault on @CDCgov-- slashing funding & staff, & and turned the agency into a political tool that can no longer be fully trusted on public health recommendations, especially vaccines. Out today in JAMA Health Forum Peter Lurie CSPI jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The "America First Global Health Strategy" is an oxymoron. Global health requires solidarity & int'l cooperation. Trump's actions have also created mayhem in global health. But the Strategy does identify better ways to conduct foreign aid @bmj.com www.bmj.com/cgi/content/...

Acting CDC Director O'Neill says "informed consent is back" but COVID vaccines are not mandated in any state. He implies COVID vaccines are risky. They are not. CDC halts combined MMRV vaccines. Expect a surge in chickenpox. None of this is science informed www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...

NIH launches a $50m in autism research "to unlock causes." How odd. First, the President & HHS Secretary announce with great fanfare the cause of autism. And then they launch a study to find the cause Isn't research supposed to come first? Chasing hunches a waste of NIH resources

Trump and RFK’s advice on Tylenol & autism is cartoonish. Politicians shouldn’t be giving health advice. Their words on vaccines and Tylenol are reckless. It’s impossible to trust anything HHS says. Science & evidence don’t seem to matter.

Trump’s plan on autism makes a mockery of science. Vast research shows autism has complex causes. Yet RFK is selling the idea that he knows. No new studies. No peer review. No transparency. That’s not how science works.

ACIP's 2 day meeting was a train wreck, riddled with irregularities & devoid of science. In a well functioning government, national uniform recs are based on evidence. We don't want states issuing conflicting recs. But this is not a well functioning govt. And RFK is not a normal HHS Secretary

RFK names 5 new ACIP members He pledges "transparency", but publishes ACIP's agenda late, w/ no public input "Evidence-based science" is non-existent "Expertise" is absent w/ CDC's director & ACIP members unqualified & conflicted RFK is rushing to restrict access to vaccines

FDA may link COVID vaccines to child deaths using VAERS data. VAERS reports cannot be used to assess vaccine safety. There is no known causal link to the vaccine. If ACIP were staffed with real scientists, they would reject this out of hand. But science doesn't matter under RFK.

Please join us tomorrow for the @oneillinstitute Colloquium. We'll explore RFK's attacks on @CDCgov & vaccines I will moderate the panel featuring leading thinkers in vaccine law and policy Wednesday, September 10, from 1:20–2:50 ET Hotung Faculty Dining Room at Georgetown Law

RFK Jr. Has Declared Full-Blown War on CDC — The agency needs to be strengthened, not torn down @medpagetoday.bsky.social @gfriedman.bsky.social www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...

RFK's MAHA Commission out today is a singular disappointment & failure Yes, we need major investments & regulation to reduce the crushing burden of chronic diseases. But the Report contains no new funding, no regulation, & no innovative thinking It just capitulates to industry

RFK’s claim that Tylenol may cause autism is unscientific. He draws broad conclusions from associational studies & doesn’t wait for the careful analysis. He shoots from the hip, goes public with his suspicions, & causes panic in the public

I can't stress enough that Florida's decision to end vaccine mandates is dangerous It will pose high risks to children and families in Florida, but the decision will profoundly harm all Americans as Floridians travel the country Vacations to Disney World will become more perilous

RFK Jr. to appoint 7 new members to ACIP. This simply is not how science is supposed to work. You don't get to hand pick unqualified & conflicted scientific advisers & then claim you are following science. It saddens me but the public cannot trust ACIP and CDC under this Health Secretary

Florida's decision to end school vaccine mandates is a blaring 5 star alarm. School vaccinations date back a century. This will cause great harm everywhere as unvaccinated kids travel in the US & globally. We'll see a frightening return of diseases that have long been eliminated

In a note to CDC staff, RFK says, "We ended the measles outbreak in Texas by surging vaccines" "And we have played a key role in coordinating the federal H5N1 bird flu response" Facts: RFK castigated measles vaccines & prolonged the outbreak The H5N1 response is weak & chaotic

With Jim O'Neill appointed as Interim CDC director, we're seeing a pattern First, RFK fires eminent scientists Then he appoints loyalists without credentials He then takes the advice of loyalists Finally he says, "you see, I have restored trust in science." RFK did the same thing with ACIP

RFK's selection of Jim O’Neill as Interim CDC Director tells you all you need to know. At today's HHS, loyalty and fidelity to political orthodoxy is the sole criteria for a high level health position. What's not needed are actual qualifications & deep public health experience.

So, today I finally got an official letter firing me from the scientific board of NIH's Fogarty International Center. The letter read: You "serve at the pleasure of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. As such, your appointment has been rescinded"

Monarez by law can only be fired by the president who has been silent. RFK fired her & she refuses to go. The sheer chaos is notable in addition to the lawlessness & thinly veiled attack on science & the CDC. Once the shining crown of federal agencies, CDC is now gutted