This is great, "Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death," a story where Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who administers the lottery from "The Lottery" archiveofourown.org/works/733964...

there we go

The nearly 80-year-old law that could hamper RFK Jr.’s drive to remake the childhood vaccine schedule. I wrote this for CIDRAP News as an explainer for the general public and public health folks, who may not be familiar with the legal issues involved. www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

New vaccine policies, whatever one thinks of them, will have consequences. www.statnews.com/2025/12/23/t...

His view on the future is pretty bleak. He thinks much of what public health has achieved in the US will be dismantled: "We've entered this, like, dark age and it's going to get worse. It is going to get so much worse."

I suspect many people would be fine with getting rid of insurance companies. It’s how you then guarantee broad access to health care where there would be big disagreements.

Variations in annual dengue intensities are explained by temperature anomalies Our new work led by Abbey Porzucek, @rafalpx.bsky.social, @colincarlson.bsky.social, Dan Weinberger to develop a method to compare relative dengue intensity between years and countries. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

NEW: Paper in @jama.com (me, Glenn Cohen, & @drsinhaesq.bsky.social) discusses FDA plan to approve leucovorin for new indication based on "case reports" and "mechanistic data" 1. Departure from FDA's evidentiary standards 2. May harm patients and set bad precedent jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Huzzah! There are rational people at HHS!

i think it’s more helpful to think about the vaccine rec news like it’s a step in a project instead of an immediate crisis. they are chipping away at the foundation for vaccine access. but many states/coalitions will fight. remember, drops in vaccination rates are inherently slow (years to decades)

Lutnick and Trump in the Oval Office

I highly recommend the book Vaccine Nation by historian Elena Conis. She has a chapter on exactly how & why people used to think measles was a harmless childhood illness and how the development of a vaccine allowed researchers to better understand how serious of a disease it is (control groups, etc)

i hadnt heard of this so i looked into it and this is wrong, it was 1961 dont trust everything you see online.

Covid vaccines released last fall sharply decreased the risk of ER and urgent care visits in children, according to new data released by the CDC — providing a striking counterpoint to Trump administration rhetoric about the shots Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/h...

…is it true that new ACIP chair Milhoan was just fired by his medical system? 👀 (Please don’t make me link to Malone’s substack)

My students asked me what I thought might turn the tide of vaccine sentiment in the US. I don't honestly know what will, or if any horrific outbreak or loss of life will make a difference. But my nightmare scenario looks something like this ... 1/

A lot of the history and shape of American public health is explained by civil society (professions, health care institutions, philanthropy, even payers) designing policy to circumvent governments they never trusted. Ideal? Not even close. But now, there might be something useful in that DNA.

What a disaster of a week for public health in the US. www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

The cherry on top of today’s ACIP fiasco

“The West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA) strongly supports that hepatitis B vaccination continue to be routinely offered to all newborns…” doh.wa.gov/newsroom/wes...

'Puppets on a string': ACIP chair airs independence concerns www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

...did Hoeg really just invoke Lysenkoism as an argument in *her* favor?!?

Annenberg survey suggests Americans trust AMA more than CDC, ie trusted experts can protect people from wing nuts www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-mo...

all they know how to do is podcast

Here is Jason Goldman's beautiful, amazing takedown of the whole sham #ACIP meeting today. (2 parts) So glad he said what every expert in the field is feeling today (and all year).

People who conflate "elimination" and "eradication" of infectious disease are telling on themselves

Chairman of Senate’s health committee with his sharpest words yet as CDC’s vaccine advisers meeting gets underway. The question is what does Cassidy do now, beyond issue rebukes.

#medsky #pedsky #idsky #immunosky #episky I collaborated with exceptionally talented people in infectious diseases to write this Special Article about aluminum salts in childhood vaccines. We review the evidence base for key safety concerns and offer guidance for communication with caregivers.

At the CDC and the FDA, regulatory chaos reigns. And this is exactly what we don’t need:

"Credible sources suggest none—or very few—of the ACIP presentations will be delivered by CDC scientists or experts. Instead, external groups, including some with clear anti-vaccine track records, are slated to take the lead. This is highly unusual..." open.substack.com/pub/yourloca...

Prasad's leaked memo makes reckless and dangerous claims without evidence and offers a concerning glimpse into the future of vaccine regulation in the US — one that could have profound implications for both access to and the development of vaccines. My latest for @opinion.bloomberg.com (🎁):

If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more. www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

In a functional vaccine regulatory system there would be full data transparency & structured review of vax benefits & harms. That's not what we have now in the US. 👉FDA & ACIP have abandoned science for ideology. It will take many years to rebuild the regulatory infrastructure & regain public trust

In advance of this week’s ACIP meeting this new preprint modeling the impact of delaying HepB vaccines merits a close read: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

To be clear, there’s a big difference between criticizing the anti-vaccine movement & discrediting their influencers/leaders vs shaming vax-hesitant or quietly vax-refusing parents. The latter backfires/worsens the prob; the former is essential & is effective. But SciComm folks often conflate these.

Martin Kulldorff, the chair of ACIP, was just appointed chief science officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Kirk Milhoan is the new chair of ACIP.

🚨New Paper🚨 US doctors are paid very different amounts for treating different patients—even when providing identical services. How much less are physicians paid for treating non-White patients? In @jamahealthforum.com, we offer the 1st national estimates. (1/7) jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Here's Prasad's full email, if you'd like to read it for yourself: www.washingtonpost.com/documents/30... And I jotted down a few thoughts on my substack, including how the strategy of "asking more evidence" — which on the surface, sure, everyone wants more data — can lead to red tape.

nirav shah not mincing words re: the new principle deputy director of CDC. good report from @apoorvanyt.bsky.social 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/h...

can't believe rfk jr wants to stop me from eating red M&Ms but he'll eat *** out of an ****

I may have *actually* convinced my parents to move out here (Pittsburgh) after the LA fires in January. Which is terrifying. They’re healthy for now but not getting any younger. So what is something you wish you’d known about elder care / aging in place sooner?

For the first time in my career, I can’t tell people to trust what the CDC website says. And that is an incredibly sad and devastating place for this country to be.

what a steaming pile of horseshit 🤬

🔔 When Trump posted a video of budget director Russell Vought as the grim reaper, public health workers recognized a kernel of truth. My latest piece @kffhealthnews.org couldn't be more important. Art by the incredible @oonazenda.bsky.social 🧵 kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

NEW: The entire staff supporting ACIP was laid off, and most working groups haven't met in months. That means the US may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and it could halt new vaccines in the pipeline. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

New foster pup, who dis? Apply to adopt Indie: forms.gle/v6EJ4dihwRaxDD1P8

"Until we go bankrupt or are fully devoured by one of the three beasts, things are going to be business as usual here. That means doing the job of two and a half employees without complaining."

Reshma Ramachandran “said the sequence of events is the antithesis of how the FDA is supposed to function. “What we’re seeing here is, ‘We believe this and we’re going to find the evidence to support that’ …That’s just inherently wrong in terms of how a scientific agency like the FDA operates.”

Japan tried this. They suspended MMR in 1993 and used monovalent vaccines. Result: coverage plummeted, measles and rubella cases shot up, they had multiple measles outbreaks (one with >100k cases), and they then switched back to MMR.

This is EXCELLENT. 1) this is spot-on analysis of the problem & a great immediate 1st thing a city can do to improve outcome. 2) as a 2 min clip? He's giving history, hope & change. Speaking to women, to Jewish & Black NYers, saying "abortion." & also naming eugenics in feminism. 100/10 no notes.