Things pediatricians are scared of: Grapes Hot dogs Lawn mowers Unmounted TVs Babies on laps in cars Riders without helmets Ungated pools Crib bumpers Trampolines Hot tubs Guns Things pediatricians are not scared of: Any/all the vaccines

Glad the UK has come around to this. The US has seen a dramatic decrease in mortality related to chickenpox since vaccination began in 1995. www.bbc.com/news/article...

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi... RFK Jr. will likely be called to testify before Senator Cassidy's HELP committee on May 14th.

New: HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. said he wouldn’t take away childhood vaccines. Then he cut $2 billion from state health programs that helps get them to kids. Clinics canceled. Nurses fired. Immunizations stalled—all amid a measles outbreak. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi... "They were small and could not hope for help. And no help came." W.H. Auden

Huge loss. Peter Marks' approvals for gene therapy led to a revolution in medicine. Children with a terrible disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) used to die of respiratory failure early in life before they could walk. Now these kids live, breathe, & most walk. 1/

Parents of the child who died of measles have joined RFK-founded Children's Health Defense. Anti-vaccine groups excel at swooping in for tragedy, offering parents a cause. “Don’t do the shots,” her mother said, measles is “not as bad as they’re making it out to be.” www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Sort of bleakly funny that RFK of all people is rumored to have said Weldon “wasn’t ready” www.axios.com/2025/03/13/w...

About Weldon: he wasn't just an anti-vaxx sympathizer—he was an important ally to the movement before Kennedy. The most interesting is how he helped anti-vaxx researchers access CDC vaccine data—a move that provided some of the earliest (and sloppiest) anti-vaxx science.

No one: Dave Weldon: The story of me being pushed out of CDC begins with my deep affinity for Andrew Wakefield.

Remembering a lot of people saying stuff like “I don’t agree with RFK Jr. on everything but at least he’s going to do something about the food that’s making us sick”

lol this could’ve been copy from a Vaccinate California social media post circa 2015, following the Disneyland measles outbreak, when this pest of a man showed up in CA to rail ab how MMR was causing autism. Welcome to the team, Bobby! The antivaxxers must be losing their minds. “THEY” got to him!

1. #CDC was finally allowed to issue a statement on the Texas #measles outbreak, though it wasn't sent to the press distribution list or posted on its homepage. They tweeted it in the other place at 8:29 pm EST. Communication by whisper. www.cdc.gov/media/releas...

An unvaccinated NJ traveler who returned to the US infected with #measles went to 3 health facilities earlier this month seeking care before being diagnosed. Not surprisingly, additional cases are now being detected. Measles will spread if we give it the chance. www.nj.com/healthfit/20...

RFK Jr., America’s Leading Advocate for Getting Measles www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

In contrast to RFK's nonexistent response, his antivaccine nonprofit has claimed that measles is healthy & the vaccine caused this outbreak, despite the overwhelming # of unvaccinated kids that have been infected & genotyping showing the outbreak is caused by a wild type virus

As Texas measles outbreak grows, parents are choosing to vaccinate kids www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... via @nbcnews.com @erikaedwards.bsky.social

On the morning of the first reported measles death in a decade, HHS Secretary Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine org Children's Health Defense hosts disgraced scientist Andrew Wakefield. He's urging parents to let their kids catch measles "naturally."

The Texas measles outbreak has reported its first death. This was completely avoidable and it is infuriating that we choose to allow this disease to persist.

After the first measles death of a child HHS Secretary Kennedy seemed to downplay the Texas outbreak saying outbreaks were "not unusual," and the 18 kids hospitalized were "mainly for quarantine." A pediatrician on the ground said they couldn't breathe. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Texas DOH confirms genomic testing shows no vaccine strain in its collected measles samples. Measles vaccine shedding is an antivaccine lie that has been used for years. The measles vaccine does not cause measles outbreaks. It stops them.

Update for the purveyors of this most recent conspiracy theory: Texas DOH confirms genomic testing shows no vaccine strain in its collected measles samples. www.nbcnews.com/news/texas-m...

If you don't follow @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social, you should. She has been covering the antivaccine movement for years and has seen this all before.

1st: vaccines work 2nd: social media companies developed their OG vaccine policies in response to *outbreaks like this* in Samoa & Bklyn. Not COVID! They boosted good info. They labeled false claims. That got redefined as “censorship” by ppl who profit from lies. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/u...

NEW: RFK Jr. said a new study linked vaccines to autism in his confirmation hearing. We found that the study's author had a hard time getting it published. Then he got help from Andrew Wakefield, who is famous for the first debunked study linking the the two. GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Well that’s interesting www.reuters.com/world/us/fda...

Seeing many false claims about immigration as the source of measles outbreaks. Here are some facts: 1) the west Texas outbreak started in a county with 1 of the highest vaccine exemption rates in the state 2) the Americas are the only WHO region that is free of endemic measles

The MAHA EO is out. Kennedy’s pet theories are in it, in euphemism form.

There is one major difference between the US & the many countries that have better health outcomes than us. It isn't glyphosate, red dye, seed oils, 5G, or vaccines. Those countries have all those things too but they have one thing we don't--access to care.

A reminder of all the harm Kennedy could, and likely will, do in the HHS secretary role. Of all the confirmations, this one is going to have the most noticeable impacts on people's daily lives. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi... Why does RFK Jr. believe so many weird things? One reason.

There are a few medical reasons (wound infections, carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness) for a child to need hyperbaric therapy, the rest is not evidence-based & potentially dangerous. This tragedy should have been prevented.

Samoa's director general of health says RFK Jr's comments on the 2019 measles outbreak are a "complete lie". Appointing him is a "disaster for public health in the world" #medsky #nursesky www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

BERNIE SANDERS: Vaccines do not cause autism. Do you agree? RFK Jr: As I said, I'm not going into HHS with any preordained-- SANDERS: I asked you a simple question, Bobby RFK Jr: If you show me those studies ... SANDERS: That is a very troubling response

Cassidy now explaining that HBV vaccination on the first day of life is critical because at that age people are exceptionally high risk for developing chronic hepatitis B infection which leads to liver cancer (figures say 90+% chance if infected in the first year of life). In many cases, HBV...

Rand Paul, a physician, is voicing his support of RFK Jr while casting doubt on the need for vaccinating babies against Hep B. These are exactly the bogus talking points we can expect to hear over the next 4 years if RFK is confirmed. I covered hep B here: sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-willful-...

(Another) Weird day. www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

Monday 1/27/25 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day and I've lost count of how many times RFK Jr has compared vaccines to the Holocaust

Ironic to hear a man that denies HIV as the cause of AIDS claim to support a program that provides millions of people with HIV meds

If the falconry boot fits...

New from me and @kieraevebutler.bsky.social: during his confirmation hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented a distorted picture of why he went to Samoa, insisting it had nothing to do with vaccines and everything with creating a "medical informatics" system www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Thanks so much @artcap.bsky.social for writing this. “The other event that comes to mind when I see Kennedy trying to cement his nomination is the six months I spent in the polio ward at Boston Children’s Hospital in 1956… Dr. Jonas Salk’s vaccine would arrive a few weeks after I became ill.”

I wrote a blog post about physicians that support RFK Jr sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-willful-...

Good lord: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The story behind RFK Jr. in Samoa's measles crisis has never been reported. He wasn't there to spread misinformation about vaccines (though he did). He wanted to study a "natural experiment" of unvaccinated kids. “I can’t imagine anything less ethical or more cruel.” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

New: Trump officials have paused all external communications at health agencies like CDC, FDA, NIH. No health alerts and the famed MMWRs; no updates to key websites or social media posts. And no indication how long the pause will last. With @rachelroubein.bsky.social + Lena Sun.

In the 1950s, 2 US docs (Sabin & Salk) created the polio vaccines supported by FDR's nonprofit. This American innovation has pushed polio to the brink of eradication thanks to the WHO using 10% of its annual budget on polio eradication. By withdrawing from WHO we jeopardize this American success.

Withdrawing from the WHO is a mistake. Playing politics with global health will hurt many poor people in other countries. But make no mistake, the diseases we let spread in other countries by limiting the WHOs effectiveness will eventually make their way to us.

President Trump just signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

It's strange how all of these "earnest defenders" of RFK Jr somehow don't have the time to actually examine what he says in detail and would rather defend an imagined version of him.