Pearl Freier

The NIH Dir was in Boston yesterday for events. Boston Globe said that he denied that the NIH cuts & freezes by WH have had a negative impact on US scientists. “The total amount that Congress allocated last year was spent, every single $ of it,” he said. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/05/b... #medsky

Any crumbs of credibility tariffs ever had got lost in the memeification of the so-called “tariff shelf.” 🤡

The country's biggest anti-vaccine lawyer, the guy behind weakened school mandates in Mississippi and West Virginia, who pulls in millions a year harassing the CDC on behalf of Del Bigtree's anti-vaxx org is ... presenting at ACIP. This panel is anti-vaccine theater. It's a cruel joke.

Høeg Doubles Down On Prasad’s US FDA Vaccine Overhaul At a CDC vaccine advisory committee criticized for “promoting an anti-vaccine agenda,” the new CDER director championed the committee’s plans and suggested the FDA would make more frequent vaccine lab...

I also think it is really important that this is clearly on the record... The medical, scientific & public health consensus is CDC ACIP just made a harmful decision on hep B vaccines. New FDA CDER Director was egging that on yesterday.

insights.citeline.com/pink-sheet/v...

Timely: Did Americans vote in 2024 for major changes to vaccine policy? No.

Only 3% picked vaccines as a top 3 issue in the election.

Our just-published research letter in @jamahealthforum.com

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

FIRST OPINION At a time when the U.S. needed Covid-19 dialogue between scientists, Francis Collins moved to shut it down By Vinay Prasad Dec. 23, 2021

Collins's response to a memo signed by thousands of scientists should not devastating take down, but to use his pulpit been to call for an immediate and discussions and dialogues. In a world

Prasad demanded the previous medical establishment hold a series of public debates and dialogues.

I am making the same demand of him now that he is the medical establishment.

Ritz Cracker Sandwiches Recalled in 8 States for Undeclared Peanut Butter Bad news for people with peanut allergies.

FDA food safety update: Ritz Cracker Cheese Sandwich packages are under alert due to mislabeling. They're trying to prevent giving the wrong packages to kids or adults with peanut allergies which could be life-threatening or fatal in some cases. More info below: gizmodo.com/ritz-cracker... #medsky

Australia is banning social media accounts for all kids under age 16 incl X. They say that all existing profiles must be deactivated & kids <16 won't be able to set up new accounts. YouTube Kids, Google Classroom & Whatsapp are excluded from the ban. www.bbc.com/news/article...

*Megyn Kelly is a former journalist who now hosts a podcast that is supportive of Make America Healthy Again and is friendly with the types of people that HHS & FDA hires now. Some of the podcast's sponsors have included supplements companies

FDA's Makary has been a guest on Megyn K's pod 3 times incl pre-FDA. In a clip, she said officials confirmed to her "in the coming days" that FDA may add a "strict black box warning on the mRNA covid shots for kids & teens....to alert physicians & parents of their link to childhood deaths." #medsky

Re: As The FDA Turns, there was a long-running soap opera on CBS called As The World Turns. The Carol Burnett Show did a parody called As The Stomach Turns which would also be an appropriate name for Kennedy's FDA

Scoop: Kennedy gets personally involved in FDA personnel drama He met with the FDA's departing top drug regulator amid concerns the agency is in turmoil, two sources familiar with the situation told Axios.

This is an Axios story on As The FDA Turns (moniker by @endpts.com John Carroll). Anonymous HHS or FDA sources spoke to Axios re: Kennedy doing exit interview w/Pazdur. My guess is that someone on Team Kennedy leaked this to throw Makary under the bus: www.axios.com/2025/12/03/r... #medsky

Pazdur’s Sudden Exit Leaves Just Three Veterans in FDA’s Senior Ranks Nearly 90% of senior leaders who were at the FDA a year ago are no longer with the agency, a BioSpace analysis shows. None remain from the Office of the Commissioner.

Here's a link to the full BioSpace post: www.biospace.com/fda/pazdurs-...

Updated FDA org chart from BioSpace: nearly 90% of sr leaders who were at FDA a yr ago are gone. Most FDA employees are usually "career staff" who worked 4 multiple FDA commissioners & yrs of training 2b knowledgeable incl cell & gene therapies. Pazdur had worked 4 Bush, Obama,Trump & Biden #medsky

A new venue for Makary's podcast at FDA perhaps: #medsky #biosky

Here's a good piece that lays out how Brecka is probably the exact opposite of the kind of science and evidence-based expert you would expect an FDA commissioner to be doing interviews with as one of his top leaders is about to head for the exits..

www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...

An independent pharmacy near Boston Medical Center for >3 decades has posted a GoFundMe because they're "currently experiencing financial difficulties due to reimbursement issues, which have led to bare shelves & challenges in paying staff." www.boston25news.com/news/local/b... #medsky

Washington Post is currently offering a discount on subscriptions for as low as 99 cents/month & Stat News has a 6 month special for a total of $20 (usually $39/month or $399/yr). Less $/sale to get behind the paywall & access their reporting on FDA, CDC, healthcare, vaccines, biotech etc #medsky

The CDC's website that assisted US residents with finding locations for sites to get FDA-approved vaccines nationally is no longer working.... vaccinesdotgov. I don't know if it's an error due to staffing problems at Kennedy's HHS/CDC or if HHS disabled the site. #medsky

The history of vaccines

Imagine you lived in the 18th century.

Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine?

In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!

More from the "Make America Healthy Again" team: #medsky

An update on the Make America Healthy Again team from The Wall Street Journal: #medsky

Even though Congress approved the funding for NIH: All NIH Oct & November grant application submission deadlines to be rescheduled….no new dates yet. All study sections & council meetings to be rescheduled at some point too. Where is the $ going instead without Congressional approval? #medsky

Anti-vaccine group with ties to RFK Jr. saw another windfall last year, records show The Informed Consent Action Network, which advocates against polio, measles, hepatitis and Covid vaccines, is growing its work and its profile.

I saw the data on the significant revenue increase in an NBC News story: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

HHS Secretary Kennedy's business partner was on the InfoWars/Jones podcast today discussing his "investigation" of FDA-approved vaccines. His "advocacy group" saw a 74% increase in revenue for '24 compared to the previous year—$23M #medsky

An update below on detection of polio in wastewater in Hamburg, Germany: #medsky

"The WHO has sounded the alarm in recent years about the rise of partial resistance to artemisinin, the mainstay of malaria treatment in Africa. Researchers have found mutations linked to partial resistance in multiple regions of Africa." From story above

Potentially the 1st first major innovation in malaria treatment since '99 & ability to kill drug-resistant parasites: Novartis's investigational malaria drug GanLum reportedly had a cure rate of >97% & 85.3 % in Phase 3 clinical trials in 12 African countries www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/nova...

Sharing the below with #medsky:

Everything I Know I Learned In Graduate School - LifeSciVC By Mike Gilman, serial entrepreneur and veteran biotech executive, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC My thesis advisor, Mike Chamberlin, passed away last week. I owe much of who I ...

My thesis advisor Mike Chamberlin passed away last week at his home in Berkeley. I've reflected on what I learned from him and how it has served me for over forty years.

Thanks to @lifescivc.bsky.social for hosting the post on his Life Sci VC site.