Liz Zuccala

Victorian Government faces massive fight over VicHealth bombshell

Victorian Government faces massive fight over VicHealth bombshell www.croakey.org/victorian-go... #publichealth

12 former commissioners of the FDA came together to write a Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine; raising our concerns about recent changes to vaccine approval policy at the FDA and its implications for patients and public health.

Australia is on track to become the first country to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.

Zero (0) cervical cancer cases were diagnosed in Australian women under 25 in 2021 - the first time since records began.

Put simply, Vaccines Work.

We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.

Why next year's flu shot might not be as good as it should be America's withdrawal from the World Health Organization is affecting the ability of U.S. scientists to track flu and other pathogens. That could be a blow to the development of the 2025 flu vaccine.

America's withdrawal from the World Health Organization is affecting the ability of U.S. scientists to track flu and other pathogens. That could be a blow to the development of the 2025 flu vaccine.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

Will anyone be held accountable for this??

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

How Moderna, the company that helped save the world, unraveled Exclusive: The inside story of why Moderna now faces a crisis unlike any in its 15-year-history.

“Some former employees speak of the company like refugees of a once-great city, grief-stricken and a little bewildered by how it all came undone. They point to moments — a clinical trial result, an election outcome, the selection of a presidential Cabinet member — that could have changed everything”

How attacking healthcare has become a strategy of war

“I have not seen anything like the almost daily attacks on hospitals, the relentlessness of the repeated attacks, the indifference to the consequences of the attacks for patients and staff” - Len Rubenstein

www.bmj.com/content/391/... @bmj.com

Covid-19: Excluding doctors from vaccination programme puts patients at risk, clinicians warn Doctors have warned that the government’s decision to exclude health and social care workers from its covid vaccination programme is putting patients at risk and will have a major impact on an overstr...

This is madness - how can they justify yearly flu vaccination for all staff (and seriously encourage staff to have it with various deals) but then ignore the other infection that is hitting staff on regular basis?

I hoped this madness would change with new government - sadly it has not.

NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC’s MMWR publication Two institutions are coming together to create an alternative to the CDC’s vaunted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The New England Journal of Medicine and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy will begin publishing public health alerts in the coming month.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/c...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

The gaze reversed: global health through local eyes Seye Abimbola's The Foreign Gaze: Essays on Global Health takes a kaleidoscopic view of the effects of outsider visions and imaginaries on the recipients, contexts, and places that hold attention in g...

The gaze reversed: global health through local eyes

@thirushanaidu.bsky.social reviews @seyeabimbola.bsky.social’s book in @thelancet.com

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

NEW in InSight+

University of Technology Sydney plans to cut public health at the worst possible time, writes Associate Professor Daniel Demant

Read more: buff.ly/iNituWK

Heart attack signs look different in women. It affects the care they receive Australian women having a heart attack are less likely to be promptly diagnosed and treated compared to men, although the gender gap in cardiac care is narrowing.

Australian women having a heart attack are less likely to be promptly diagnosed and treated compared to men, although the gender gap in cardiac care is (slowly) narrowing:

www.abc.net.au/news/health/...

Original research article via @mja.com.au: www.mja.com.au/journal/2025...

#genderequity

Very proud to have curated this Special Issue in the @mja.com.au on #gender & health.

Amid growing backlash against #genderequity & diversity, we sought to elevate work informed by evidence & respect for the rights, dignity and perspectives of affected populations.

www.mja.com.au/journal/2025...

📢 New publication alert!
This came out last week while I was off in conference land. “Systemic challenges for meaningful partnerships in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and medical research grant applications: a critical reflection”, published in MJA www.mja.com.au/doi/10.5694/...

Advancing equity: the urgent need to include trans and gender diverse people in cervical cancer prevention in Australia Click on the article title to read more.

Honoured to be named on this paper just published in MJA, brilliantly led by Dr Kade Booth at UON. We articulate the urgent need to address inequity in cervical cancer prevention for trans Australians 🌈🎓

Cells are swapping their mitochondria. What does this mean for our health? Researchers are studying why the energy factories are moving between cells and whether the process can be harnessed to treat cancer and other diseases.

Cells swapping their #mitochondria - this sounded like science fiction 🧪 when the first studies started coming out!

But now this has been observed in #cancer, #yeast, #molluscs, and under normal physiology - as a way to regulate energy demands, metabolism, cell fate & much more - true #powerhouses!

Inside the CDC director's ouster: Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused Susan Monarez’s resistance to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s moves to assert control over vaccine guidance is at the center of her dismissal as CDC director

However bad you think things are at the CDC they are worse.

That's the takeaway from this well-reported story from Daniel Payne w/back-up from an all-star STAT team.

Must-read.

www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

We need a circling of the wagons (journals) to support #CDC & against the weaponising of public health.

As we did when medical journal editors worldwide condemned the first Executive Orders.

It’s tempting to think this destruction is only a US problem - but the underlying currents are everywhere.

Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups

My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up.

NYT just covered it. 1/n

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...

The Executive Order “Restoring Gold Standard Science” is Dangerous for America This EO is an unconstitutional attempt to censor and punish U.S. scientists for publishing science that doesn't fit a political agenda This misleading and false misrepresentation of U.S. scientif...

Editorial published today by the Editors-in-Chief of the @agu.org journals:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

🧵Excellent piece "They appear to have inverted the promise of the internet as an endless archive of information one can navigate for themselves. Do your own research has, in short order, become Get one canonical answer."

This helps explain why Trump/Vance have gone all in on AI...

Australia has 120 health workforce policies. But with no national plan, we’re missing the big picture Australia is awash with policies, but not the kind that would fix the workforce crisis. Here’s what would work instead.

Australia has 120 health workforce policies. But with no national plan, we’re missing the big picture
theconversation.com/australia-ha...

Paramedics are less likely to identify a stroke in women than men. Closing this gap could save lives – and money In women, ‘atypical’ stroke symptoms can be overlooked, leaving them more vulnerable to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment and long-term harm.

Paramedics are less likely to identify a stroke in women than men. Closing this gap could save lives – and money theconversation.com/paramedics-a...

Also see the original research article in @mja.com.au: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.5694/...

This study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine; the journal is NOT retracting it just because of political pressure from the world's most extreme & dangerous anti-vaxx activist

The lead author, Anders Peter Hviid, says "I have not been targeted by a political figurehead in this way before"

War wounds caused by explosive weapons in Gaza: data from a 2024 study by Médecins Sans Frontières As of July 23, 2025, Israel's military assault on Gaza has killed over 59 219 Palestinians, wounded an additional 143 045, and displaced nearly all of the 2·1 million people who live there.1 Triangula...

Today published in the @thelancet.com , our overview of medical consultation related to woud care over 2024 in Gaza, lot of trauma cause by explosive weapons that don't belong in Urban settings. Proud of our teams.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned Seventeen experts ousted from a U.S. vaccine committee are expressing little faith in what the panel has become. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F.

The former vaccine panel members wrote in a commentary that Kennedy — a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government’s top health official — and his new panel are abandoning rigorous scientific review and open deliberation.
apnews.com/article/vacc...