Another day, another wacky bit of public health news coming out of the U.S. of A. As an observer in Canada, it’s all quite perplexing, amusing, and terrifying to me. The most recent bit of eyebrow-raising news is that Florida will no longer be mandating childhood vaccinations for children attending public school.
CATEGORY / politics
03Sep
2025
What Happens When Florida Removes Vaccine Mandates?
28Aug
2025
How Long Will It Take to Recover from Trump?
Someone on social media just asked me, “Seriously asking, how long do you think that it will take to undo all of the damage that [the Trump administration is] inflicting upon Americans and the world?”
(I’ve paraphrased to remove the understandable expletives.)
Now, the asker was probably appealing to my supposed expertise as a health researcher. But I took this as an opportunity to explore the wider consequences of the broad plate of policies brought on by this…. interesting… administration. And do remember that we’re only eight months into a four year mandate.
To answer this question would depend on what kind of “damage” we’re talking about — political, economic, environmental, institutional, or geopolitical. Recovery timelines will vary significantly. They will also depend on how much longer these policies are enacted, how quickly a subsequent administration wishes to act to correct these problematic policies, and whether indeed there is a desire among Americans and a subsequent administration to roll back these policies which I and others deem destructive.
But let’s give it a shot…
27Jun
2025
A Shadow Vaccine Panel Is Now a Public Health Necessity
A version of this article has since been published by Canada Healthwatch.
After shocking the medical world by firing all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Robert Kennedy Jr then let the other shoe drop. He restocked ACIP with individuals that most scientists consider to be, well, unscientific. Indeed, many of the new committee members espouse dangerous and fringe anti-vaccination views that are in stark opposition to consensus scientific opinion. All of this happens just as vaccine-preventable diseases like measles are making a comeback, and terrifying threats like avian flu threaten to cast the world into a new and more deadly pandemic.
The deepening of this administration’s anti-vaccine antics demands more than just criticism, though. It demands a constructive counterweight. The broader public health community —and perhaps the Democratic Party itself- should establish a shadow vaccine advisory committee: a credible, independent body to defend evidence-based medicine and model how vaccine policy should actually be done. (more…)
03Jun
2025
Why RFK Jr’s Cancellation of Moderna’s Pandemic Flu Vaccine is Nonsensical
A version of this article has been published by The Ottawa Citizen on June 2, 2025, under the title, “Cancelling funding for mRNA vaccine is both risky and foolish“
With Donald Trump’s second administration, disruptive news seems to arise on a daily basis. Most concerning for clinicians and health scientists around the world was Trump’s appointment of anti-vaccination zealot Robert Kennedy Jr to the enormously influential position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s ideological dismantling of the US’s vaunted health research apparatus has been at speeds surprising even to his most ardent critics. But his recent decision to cancel a nearly $600 million contract with vaccine manufacturer Moderna might be among his most shortsighted and destructive moves. (more…)
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