Kennedy Fires ACIP panelists

• One more sad action from this administration:
“Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken the extraordinary step of firing the expert panel that advises the CDC, saying the action is needed to restore faith in vaccines.”
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-jr-hhs-moves-to-restore-public-trust-in-vaccines-45495112

From NPR:
“Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and Republican representing Louisiana, cast a key vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination to the full Senate. In a floor speech after the committee vote, Cassidy said he was able to vote for Kennedy after securing assurances that he would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations without changes.””

“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”

Senator Bill Cassidy, Feb 4, 2025

 

2025-06-09T17:00:45-05:00June 9th, 2025|HomeRecommended|

Friedman Tells Truth Again

• Once again, Tom Friedman lays out the many ways that this president is failing us and our children’s future.   Read Trump’s Guilded Gut Instinct in the NYT.  From the essay:

“In sum, what you are seeing from this Trump II administration, and its bended-knee Congress, is a dangerous, undisciplined, intellectually inconsistent farce that we will pay dearly for in the future. Major geoeconomic moves are being made by one man who has done no homework, modeling or stress-testing and has fostered little apparent interagency process, with no congressional oversight or apparent reference to history.

If you think this is not dangerous, just keep in mind that the Trump Organization Inc. over the years filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six different businesses. There was a reason for that: the operating style and values of its boss.”

2025-06-04T10:26:18-05:00June 4th, 2025|HomeRecommended|

Action Lab

• If you are a victim of or interested in the damage being done to science, Action Lab is worth a look. It’s self-description:

“We are a living database that grows through user entries and supplies action items for the various issues scientists are facing in the wake of destructive anti-science policies. Filter our database by action type, by location, by deadline, or by the amount of time you have to spend today. Find a way to act that is right for you. “

2025-05-28T18:29:36-05:00May 28th, 2025|HomeRecommended|

More Insanity

More insanity, this time coming from the incompetent head of HHS; as reported by the Washington Post:

“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he may bar government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals, instead proposing the creation of “in-house” publications by his agency — the latest in the Trump administration’s attacks on scientific institutions.

“We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they’re all corrupt,” Kennedy said during an appearance on the “Ultimate Human” podcast. He also described the journals as being under the control of pharmaceutical companies.”

And then there’s this – STAT reports that a $600 million Moderna contract for work on mRNA vaccines for pandemic influenza (including H5N1) was cancelled.

2025-05-28T18:17:03-05:00May 28th, 2025|Home, Musings|

Pinker Writes on Harvard’s Travails

Steven Pinker’s Harvard Derangement Syndrome essay in the NY Times is a must-read. A small part of that essay:

Just as clear is what won’t work: the Trump administration’s punitive defunding of science at Harvard. Contrary to a widespread misunderstanding, a federal grant is not alms to the university, nor may the executive branch dangle it to force grantees to do whatever it wants. It is a fee for a service — namely, a research project that the government decides (after fierce competitive review) would benefit the country. The grant pays for the people and equipment needed to carry out that research, which would not be done otherwise.

Mr. Trump’s strangling of this support will harm Jews more than any president in my lifetime. Many practicing and aspiring scientists are Jewish, and his funding embargo has them watching in horror as they are laid off, their labs are shut down or their dreams of a career in science go up in smoke. This is immensely more harmful than walking past a “Globalize the Intifada” sign. Worse still is the effect on the far larger number of gentiles in science, who are being told that their labs and careers are being snuffed out to advance Jewish interests. Likewise for the current patients whose experimental treatments will be halted, and the future patients who may be deprived of cures. None of this is good for the Jews.

The concern for Jews is patently disingenuous, given Mr. Trump’s sympathy for Holocaust deniers and Hitler fans. The obvious motivation is to cripple civil society institutions that serve as loci of influence outside the executive branch. As JD Vance put it in the title of a 2021 speech: “The Universities Are the Enemy.”

2025-05-25T19:15:11-05:00May 25th, 2025|Home, Musings|

Trump’s Corruption Unrivaled

• Peter Baker writes in the NYT on what is the most corrupt administration in U.S. history.  An excerpt:

By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals…“He’s not trying to give the appearance that he’s doing the right thing anymore,” said Fred Wertheimer, founder of Democracy 21 and a longtime advocate for government ethics. “There’s nothing in the history of America that approaches the use of the presidency for massive personal gain. Nothing.”

2025-05-25T18:58:31-05:00May 25th, 2025|HomeRecommended|

Warzel on X’s Descent

• Writing in the Atlantic, Charlie Warzel has an excellent piece on X’s descent into a cesspool. It’s worth a read: What Are People Still doing on X?  An excerpt:

“You may not have any interest in participating in a culture war. The problem is that on X, everything is a culture war. Culture war is the very point of the MAGA AI slop the platform traffics in and the viscerally cruel White House X account. Culture war is behind Tucker Carlson’s choice to debut his post-Fox show on X and why Alex Jones livestreams on the platform every day. West’s nihilistic neo-Nazi single is an act of culture war: Its message isn’t just that X has energized his ideas, but that the platform renders people like Ye unignorable. Only Musk could shut this machine down, but plenty of others lend it their credibility and happily turn the cranks, ensuring that the culture war grinds on and on.”

2025-05-23T19:49:53-05:00May 23rd, 2025|HomeRecommended|
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