Kathleen Bachynski

Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website’s Language on Autism and Vaccines

Experts say Kennedy “is also asking for a level of proof that is difficult to achieve. As Dr. Arthur Caplan, who directs the medical ethics division at New York University, once wryly noted, “You can’t prove that Coca-Cola doesn’t cause autism either.”

Over a month after publication our @bmj.com Investigation into the Q-collar is still attracting reader interest. The second most read article in the journal.

15,000+ reads in the first month. 2500+ last weekend.

People want transparency in sports science and the FDA.

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

From the NYT comments: “Maybe people are interested in this case because it is so morally appalling, because there been a complete miscarriage of justice, because there has been +20 year coverup of Epstein’s crimes and those that enabled it that it shocks the conscience of the body politic.”

we have PrEP because of these monkey studies. animal welfare in medical research is extremely strictly limited and regulated to ensure ethical use. there is no replacement for these animal models in biomedical research.

CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on rejecting vaccines-autism link Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who voted to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he pledged not to remove language stating vaccines do not cause autism from the CDC website, condemne...

RFK Jr. has NO business being health secretary and his conspiracy theories are going to get people killed.

This cannot continue—Republicans should join me in calling for RFK Jr. to be FIRED.

They did this in Louisiana and currently have their worst pertussis outbreak in 35 years. Ridiculous.

Opinion | The Epstein Story? Count Me Out.

This seems like it’s from The Onion. “I know a thing or two about the American elite, ahem, and if you’ve read my work, you may be sick of my assaults on the educated elites for being insular, self-indulgent and smug. But the phrase “the Epstein class” is inaccurate, unfair and irresponsible.”

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.

Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Thinking a lot lately about the simple fact that college allows people to spend about 15 weeks immersed in a disciplinary conversation with an expert in that field. And what a special thing that is.

RI judge intervenes after ICE mistakenly detains Superior Court intern A teenager was nearly taken into federal immigration custody in Providence Thursday afternoon before a Superior Court judge intervened, according to the Rhode Island Judiciary.

#BREAKING: A student intern at Rhode Island Superior Court was briefly taken into custody by ICE this afternoon before a judge intervened, 12 News has learned. Story by @jusolyn.bsky.social and @timwhiteri.bsky.social: ⤵️

“He said just like the flu shot, the COVID-19 vaccine significantly reduces the risk of severe illness.
“Anyone who’s over the age of 6 months who wants the COVID vaccine should, unless there’s a specific contraindication, strongly consider getting it,” Jahre said.”

“Last year was the highest year in the past 10 years in the number of children that die from the flu, 90% of the children that die from influenza every year are healthy children… The common finding in those children that happen to die from the flu is that they did not receive the vaccine.”

“This is a big deal because every year, otherwise healthy children get severe cases of flu, sometimes resulting in swelling of the brain or nervous system and in some cases, death. Last year, 280 children died after contracting the flu.”

Flu cases are on the rise in the Lehigh Valley. What you should know Flu cases are rising in eastern Pennsylvania and both St. Luke’s and LVHN are seeing some patients present to the hospital with the illness.

“Dr. Tibisay Villalobos, chief of infectious diseases for LVHN’s Department of Pediatrics, said a good deal of these flu cases are among children, and a couple have been hospitalized… the flu vaccine is recommended to everyone 6 months of age and older.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

In 1497, Italian physician Gasparis Torella wrote that you could treat syphilis by cutting a live frog in half and applying it to the penis.

Wait, is that not a "fun" fact?

Behind this important reversal is a member of the Coast Guard who saw what was happening and had the courage to leak it to the press. That person deserves serious praise.

“Prohibited words and concepts: Equity, diversity, & inclusion; anti-racism; Bias; Critical race theory; implicit bias; oppression; intersectionality; prohibited discriminatory practices; racial privilege; promoting stereotypes based on personal identity characteristics.”

This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.

On October 1, 2025, after successfully completing 16 weeks of the FBI Academy's 19-week training program, Maltinsky was handed a letter terminating his employment with the FBI. The letter was signed by Defendant Patel ("Patel"). In the letter, Patel wrote that he had "determined that [Maltinsky] exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in [his] work area during [his] previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office." In short, Patel fired Maltinsky for displaying a pride flag at his workstation that had been flown by the FBI at the LAFO and then given by the FBI to Maltinsky. The Defendants' discrimination against Maltinsky for engaging in protected speech was a clear and brazen violation of federal law and the Constitution.

Kash Patel's personal firing of the Pride flag-displaying employee was always absurd and unconstitutional, so I'm glad David Maltinsky is suing, but, wait.

It was a flag FLOWN BY THE FBI that was given to him BY THE FBI?! Come on.

Complaint: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking. "Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."

“History shows us that the right to literacy came at a heavy cost…those oppressed recognized that literacy is liberation. To my students & to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write & think when others once risked their lives & died for the freedom to do so”

Just did this and yup, it was turned on for me. Now it's off.

I think we need to bring back personal responsibility.

Cassidy and other Republicans have little to say about change to CDC’s position on vaccines and autism RFK Jr. broke another promise to Sen. Bill Cassidy this week.

Have you no shame, Senator? “In an interview on Thursday, Cassidy dodged questions about whether he regrets confirming Kennedy.

“Life is lived forward,” he said during the interview with Punchbowl News. “What I have to do is to do my best to reassure the American people that vaccines are safe.”

After unprecedented autism-vaccine messaging change, scientists, advocates say CDC no longer trustworthy

Scientists tell Americans not to trust the CDC.

Instead of a global leader in science, the CDC has devolved into “a propaganda machine for RFK Jr.'s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories,” said @pauloffit.bsky.social.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

This is early but encouraging evidence that mRNA flu vaccines may offer a real step forward especially against notoriously slippery A strains like H3N2. We’re not talking about a universal flu vaccine yet, but the platform gives us tools we simply didn’t have before.
The paper is worth read.

This is notable: traditional flu vaccines generate modest T-cell immunity. The more robust cellular responses seen here could matter for durability and breadth of protection, especially in drift-heavy years.

This is very exciting. Pfizer’s mRNA flu vaccine substantially outperformed the traditional/control vaccine. This cumulative incidence graph is remarkable. Again, they’re comparing the mRNA flu vaccine to an existing flu vaccine, not to a placebo @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

Gotta see how it all shakes out but at first glance looks like Pfizer beat Moderna at their own game (mRNA flu vaccines)

C.D.C. Changes Website to Reflect Kennedy’s Vaccine Skepticism

“Doctors, epidemiologists and public health experts condemned it. “This revision represents political pressure overriding scientific consensus,” Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University, said… calling the change “a dangerous precedent for evidence-based medicine.”

Is a bad flu season on the way? Experts see reason to be anxious There are early indications that this flu season could be a bad one.

“If there’s ever a year to get a flu vaccine, this is the year,” said Scott Hensley, a microbiologist &influenza vaccine scientist… studies in previous seasons with vaccine mismatches have shown that people who receive a flu shot were often less likely to become sick enough to require hospital care”

Andrew's book on the politics of smallpox in the American Revolution is such a great book and his argument below about people articulating inoculation as a *right* of the people is so important! @bachynski.bsky.social