"Not since the ransacking of the Library of Alexandria have we witnessed such a wanton, intentional assault on scientific knowledge."

Ah, yes, one famously restores trust in public health and protects people from infectious disease by installing the man who personally ordered Louisiana’s state health department to stop promoting vaccination.

It's Whopper Wednesday. This week @defendpublichealth.bsky.social takes on RFK's claim that food allergies might be caused by... you guessed it... aluminum adjuvants in vaccines. www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...

One thing about @standupforscience.bsky.social: we are *going* to get our message across.

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.

#RFKJr and #MAHA are leading an unprecedented attack on #health#maha#rfkjrnd #science. But states are fighting back, with a hand from organizations like Defend Public Health. https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/119020?trw=no

This was *entirely* preventable.

#RFK Jr. is the most dangerous HHS secretary in U.S. history - from @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social and James Alwine www.arcamax.com/politics/ope... @defendpublichealth.bsky.social

The conspiracy theorist RFK Jr is not just coming after vaccines & mifeprostone (used for medication abortion) & fluoridation of water (ending fluoridation will increase dental caries & cost about cost $10 billion dollars over 5 years)—he is ALSO an anti-psychiatry activist & is coming after SSRIs 😢

If only there was a safe, cheap and effective way to halt its spread.

🚨 Today, I formally introduced articles of impeachment against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.

My latest for @thenation.com: "Public Health Needs a New Motto: No Apologies, No Surrender" It’s time we stopped flinching at the assaults of the far right—and started fighting back. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

CDC's @drdebhoury.bsky.social calls on Congress to act. "It is a purposeful reshaping of CDC away from evidence-based practice & toward ideology-driven governance...I did not resign to make a symbolic point. I resigned because staying silent would have made me complicit." time.com/7338714/dr-d...

RFK may make measles common again. More kids will be hospitalized, some will lose hearing, some will die. A comeback will be costly. A study estimates that an outbreak w/2 cases is >$240,000. An outbreak the size of West Texas' is estimated around $12.6 million. www.texastribune.org/2025/12/05/t...

"Defend Public Health’s cofounder and epidemiologist, Elizabeth Jacobs @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social described the attempt [by ACIP] to restigmatize hepatitis B infections as 'an epidemiological crime scene.'" @drjudystone.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/judyst...

If a committee can’t clearly define the question, it shouldn’t be rewriting a 30-year-old, highly effective vaccine policy. This is not how evidence-based medicine is supposed to work. 1/2

“At today's meeting, multiple speakers also attempted to re-stigmatize Hepatitis B infection by blaming US cases on ‘illegal immigrants,’ and tying the condition to men who have sex w/men…This is a disgraceful direction for a once scientifically-based committee. It is an epidemiological crime scene”

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It's Wednesday so it's time for @defendpublichealth.bsky.social Whopper of the Week! This week addresses Kennedy's love of "terrain theory," aka "germs won't hurt you if you're otherwise healthy" aka justification for his eugenic policies. By @erohealthcomms.com @benecal.bsky.social

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Role and Safety of Aluminum Adjuvants in Childhood Vaccines - new open access article by @enirenberg.bsky.social, Yvonne Maldonado, and @sethahoffmanmd.bsky.social #vaccines publications.aap.org/pediatrics/a...

Twelve former FDA Commissioners take Vinay Prasad to task!

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It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for Defend Public Health’s Whopper of the Week! Today the team took on RFK Jr.’s belief in miasma theory, which got cooked around the same time that humans discovered germ theory. Thanks to @benecal.bsky.social, @erohealthcomms.com, and Aurora Horstkamp.

Hepatitis B vaccine experts—both inside & outside CDC—were left out of the agency's preparations for this week's meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ACIP. The panel is likely to alter the hep B vax recommendations. New ACIP panelist—all anti-vaxxers—were handpicked by RFK👇

The hepatitis B birth dose is safe, effective, and a critical shield against lifelong infection. Delaying it puts infants at risk for preventable, chronic HBV. Universal newborn vaccination saves lives and remains essential public health practice. #HepatitisB #VaccinesWork #IDSky

The destruction of the legitimacy of ACIP is so complete that the vague agenda on the left is all they have up for tomorrow’s meeting. It looks like no CDC scientists will present. No materials are posted. Usually ACIP posts a detailed agenda which includes materials (see example on right).

Hard to square all the talk about “gold-standard science” with an ACIP process that bars CDC hepatitis B experts and sidesteps the people holding the primary safety data. That’s not how you do science-driven policy.

Latest CHAI HIV Market Report: 📉 26,000 children with HIV missing from care 📉 PrEP initiations ↓37% 📉 HIV testing ↓8% 📉 New diagnoses ↓22% 📉 Adult loss-to-follow-up ↑10% and in the meantime we are witnessing this unjustified regulatory strategy for LEN with many left behind #idsky

Commemorating #WorldAIDSday is an act of defiance against ideology driven policies that will end our progress to end the epidemic.

How the cuts have shaken HIV/Aids care to its core and will mean millions more infections ahead

After Marty Makary claimed, with no evidence, that COVID19 vaccines killed children, Defend Public Health published this report on the topic. Now Prasad is making the same claims. These are not “unbiased” people. We don’t trust them & neither should you. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

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👇”This is not normal: a call for HIV activism” by @drdemetre.bsky.social in JIAS @iasociety.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

On the day the Trump administration stops observing world AIDS day, Defend Public Health has a post about RFK Jrs’ denialism about HIV and AIDS. www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for Defend Public Health’s Whopper of the Week! This week @brucemirken.mas.to.ap.brid.gy @benecal.bsky.social and @aetiology.bsky.social take on RFK Jr.’s AIDS Denialism. It’s a great read.

Anti-vaccine sentiment is now a load-bearing plank in the Republican platform. Democrats haven’t budged on the need for school vaccine requirements since 2019. Republicans have consumed so much disinformation that their support has declined by 27% since then.

TAPPER: Dr Cassidy, RFK Jr lied to you CASSIDY: First let me say what's most important -- vaccines are safe.

RFK’s policies are ideologically driven. He cherry picks studies to try to sound science-y. Most are flawed, poor quality studies which he gussies up by saying gold standard repeatedly. He doesn’t care about facts or science, he just wants to sound legitimate to ppl who can’t tell the difference.

MAHA www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Imagine, if you will, that NASA updated its website to suggest gravity might not exist, prompting CalTech and CERN to release statements saying, "With great sadness, we can no longer recommend listening to NASA." This is what's happening in epidemiology.

Control of HIV, TB and malaria at risk after global health fund donations fall

How do we know that autism is not linked to vaccines? Short answer: Massive studies have not found a link between autism and vaccines. Longer answer: Continue reading ⬇️ 🧵1/8 @kkjetelina.bsky.social @meganranney.bsky.social @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social @enirenberg.bsky.social

A horrifying graphic from Pew showing the fruits of the right wing war on public health. Only 48% of Republicans believe that vaccines prevent serious illness, while 80% of Democrats do. This is not a difference of opinion in science. This is the result of a ruthless disinformation campaign.

I certainly did not like last night's "update" to the CDC website suggesting that vaccines do cause autism after all. I liked it even less when I thought about what that means for the upcoming ACIP meeting. rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/preventabl...

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