Over the last year plus, Trump Health Secretary RFK Jr. has seemingly been everywhere promoting his personal brand and greatest hits of evidence-free anti-science conspiracy theories – everywhere but communities impacted most by historic measles outbreaks or inside a congressional committee room.
That changes this month with Kennedy set to appear before not one, but six committees in the House and Senate where hopefully he’s asked things like: Are you embarrassed having the lowest public trust rating on health information in the country? Do you take any responsibility for the rapid spread of measles after contributing to lower vaccination rates by falsely smearing the MMR vaccine on numerous occasions? Why did you endorse Donald Trump’s executive order bringing back super harmful weedkiller ingredients you once claimed to oppose? And so many more public health failures he’ll finally get to answer for, maybe even from a Republican or two.
In other news
– Budget Self-Sabotage Watch: To help pay for endless war, Donald Trump is reportedly expected to gut the National Institutes of Health by 20 percent in his fiscal 2027 budget plan expected this week, putting at risk thousands of research grants aimed at finding treatments and cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious diseases and many other illnesses – while deliberately shooting the economy in the foot.
– If Trump Stops Testing For Smallpox, Does It Cease to Exist? The NYT reports the CDC has stopped “testing for rabies and pox viruses, the family of viruses that includes smallpox and mpox” that, up until now, was used to “assist state and local public health laboratories that are not equipped to conduct them”. There’s literally no one left around to do it after “widespread layoffs, hiring freezes and resignations have shrunk the number of qualified scientists” under Trump’s anti-science agenda. What could possibly go wrong?
– Kennedy’s Conundrum: With promising new vaccine against Lyme disease vaccine being submitted for federal regulatory approval, CNN raises a good question: “RFK Jr. pledged to fight Lyme disease. Does that include supporting a vaccine?” Given his long history of trashing vaccine safety no matter how much the scientific data contradicts him, don’t hold your breath.
– Finally, A Message From Trump’s Former Surgeon General: Face The Nation: With measles cases rising in the U.S., former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams says that “normally, we’re able to control those outbreaks because of the CDC,” but “all of that has been cut.”
In The News: – RFK’s Disastrous Tenure At HHS – Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Public Health Threats – Measles – The GOP War on Vaccines Will Have Deadly Consequences – ACIP – Chaos At HHS – Casey Means – CDC – NIH – FDA – Make America Unhealthy Again: RFK Jr.’s Agenda – Food Rhetoric – RFK Jr Resistance – RFK, MAHA, and the 2026 Elections – WHO And International Health – Other Headlines That Caught Our Eye
