Richard Warnica

I can’t stress enough that Temu ACIP has very intentionally banned all CDC scientists from this meeting.

Instead they have invited a panel of radical anti-vaccination activists to speak.

Currently we have Mark Blaxill, who has an MBA from Harvard and leads an anti-vax group.

Tough day for stride analysis

Richard Warnica: Democracy has survived two world wars and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Can it survive Trump and the oligarchs? The Star interviews American journalist Jacob Silverman about the rising influence and increasing militancy of the global tech elite.

I had a good time talking with the Toronto Star's Richard Warnica about the very dim state of US democracy under Trump and the tech oligarchs.
www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough • Kentucky Lantern A third unvaccinated infant in Kentucky has died of pertussis as public health officials urge Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the disease.

I wish all figures of authority cared about moms and babies. But some don’t. Some even want you to hurt. And those are the people who cast doubt on the vaccination miracle that has allowed so many of us to live longer and better.
kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...

And thus, journalism.

It was probably a really bad short term influence on me honestly because shortly thereafter I dropped out of creative writing school after failing to finish a deliberately plotless 10-page play.

I was exactly the right kind of insufferable theatre nerd to be obsessed with Tom Stoppard in high school. My theatre teacher would give us an extra percentage point toward our final grade for reading and writing a capsule review of a play and I think I almost got to 100 on Stoppard alone.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88

Farewell to a modern great

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88 www.bbc.com/news/article...

A *huge* vaccine victory. I've been writing on this for years; Australia has seen remarkable progress in cervical cancer prevention with the HPV vaccine. I love seeing science triumph like this.

you know, what if they aren't actually a commentary on journalism or the state of media. what if these people are just extremely weird

Chilling quote re vaccines from pediatrician Paul Offit in this RFK profile @michaelscherer.bsky.social: “I don’t think there is any way to regain that trust other than have the viruses do the education, and the bacteria do the education, and then people will realize they paid way too high a cost."

I mean it isn't the first time she's been stylistically one of one.

The block quotes start out as being all from written sources, right? But then as the piece progresses, she starts block quoting from her own interviews. So instead of the classic style of quotes integrated into paragraphs you get these big chunks. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it!

Been desperate to talk to someone about how she uses quotes in this piece.

A print product I have only ever seen in stacks behind the press line at quadrennial conventions.

ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record. Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...

BREAKING: Trump is again separating kids from families

The govt isn't releasing info, but we found ICE has sent record # of kids to shelters.

One family went to govt office , only to have parents detained while the children—aged 5, 11 and 1--went to shelters

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

The Hard-Left Shooters Leading a Gun Culture Revolution Earlier this year, I attended a shooting competition for queer, often trans, very online misfits. Then Charlie Kirk was killed.

NEW: After Donald Trump was elected again, I started talking to trans, leftist, and anarchist gun enthusiasts and YouTubers. I wanted to know how they felt about community defense when it feels like rights, particularly for trans folks, are being stripped away: www.wired.com/story/the-ha...

Somewhat lost in all the Nuzzi/Lizza drama is that RFK Jr. is a monster who is going to get untold numbers of children killed. (gift link)
www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-...

This is absolutely f'ing horrifying.

Senators call on prime minister to ban advertising for sports betting | CBC News Two senators are calling on the federal government to ban advertising for sports betting in Canada. A letter to the prime minister from Charlottetown Sen. Percy Downe and Waterloo Sen. Marty Deacon as...

I could not agree more strongly with this. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

CDC’s Autism Website ‘Update’ Came Directly From Kennedy, He Says Ex-CDC vaccines chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis called the update a “national embarrassment.”

RFK Jr. revealed that he personally ordered the CDC to change its website to push the widely debunked claim that vaccines and autism are linked

Whooping Cough Surges Nationwide as Vaccinations Fall THURSDAY, Nov. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Whooping cough is making a major comeback in the United States, with sharp increases now seen in Texas, Florida, Cali

“The U.S. recorded 6,600 pertussis cases in early 2025
Texas has already passed 3,500 cases this year” www.healthday.com/health-news/...

Star Editorial Board: Doug Ford’s latest scandal is almost too brazen to be believed It suggests Ford has established a system where public money is being handed out not based on need or merit but on who you know or who you pay

“What’s disturbing about the scandal though, is how blatant it is. Political appointees are handing out hundreds of millions of dollars from a public slush fund to organizations that are either close to the government or that hire the right political insiders.”

www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Star Editorial Board: Doug Ford’s latest scandal is almost too brazen to be believed It suggests Ford has established a system where public money is being handed out not based on need or merit but on who you know or who you pay

Ford has established what amounts to a modern-day spoils system in his government, where public money is being handed out not based on need or merit but on who you know or who you pay.”

The @thestar.com editorial board on Doug Ford’s skills training slush fund.

www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Netanyahu: ‘There will not be a Palestinian state,’ even at cost of ties with Saudis In interview with Telegram channel, PM says border deal with Syria 'preferable' but won't budge on security demands; Israel to boost arms industry to ease reliance on US

In an interview today, Netanyahu says the following

•There will never be a Palestinian state, even if this means no normalization with Saudi Arabia

•Israel won't leave the occupied Syrian territories

•Israel would like a deal with Turkey but is prepared to treat it like Iran

Star Editorial Board: Doug Ford’s latest scandal is almost too brazen to be believed It suggests Ford has established a system where public money is being handed out not based on need or merit but on who you know or who you pay

"Ford has established what amounts to a modern-day spoils system in his government, where public money is being handed out not based on need or merit but on who you know or who you pay."

www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.

HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.

CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”

Scott Stinson: The NDP was wise not to trigger an election. Now the party can focus on staying alive Having not hurled themselves toward certain doom this week, there remains the question of what the New Democrats should do next.

For @thestar.com, I wrote about the federal NDP, who wisely did not throw themselves into the sea

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." This
@nickhunebrown.bsky.social
piece about journalism grifters in the age of AI slop is fantastic, bonkers & sad on so many levels thelocal.to/investigatin...

I have been thinking about this line today, on the value of editors, from the late great John Bennet, for no reason in particular.