With new vaccine schedule secured, RFK Jr. allies head to statehouses The overhaul of the federal vaccine schedule sent shockwaves through American health care. Now battles over vaccine laws are moving to statehouses across the country.

With new vaccine schedule secured, RFK Jr. allies head to statehouses www.statnews.com/2026/01/29/v... via @statnews.com

States are absolutely the next major target of MAHA

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The Supreme Court’s 2026 Term—Public Health in Jeopardy This JAMA Forum discusses upcoming Supreme Court decisions and the potential damage to public health, including decreases in vaccination rates, in firearms control, and in the rights of sexual minorit...

The Supreme Court’s 2026 Term—Public Health in Jeopardy jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Many of the problems with our health system & democracy itself is because of SCOTUS rulings that are tone deaf to values of public health, science, & equity. I explain this in @JAMAHealthForum today

What a hero Bill Foege was for the world For all the destruction of basic health functions this past year, Bill Foege's legacy, smallpox eradication, cannot be undone. I hope when the current darkness lifts, the CDC director has Bill’s vision and passion for health justice

Bill Foege was a dear friend & my public health hero. He called often outraged at Trump & RFK, Jr's attacks on science- leaving WHO, decimating USAID, undermining vaccines

To Bill, it was deeply personal

He fought for health & justice even as his eyes failed him & he became frail-- until the end

It's painful to see the US flag removed from @WHO Geneva HQ. On June 14, 1948 Truman signed a law requiring payment of dues before exiting. Since then,
every president understood WHO's value. Until Now.

Trump has unilaterally violated US & int'l law.

healthpolicy-watch.news/stars-and-st...

SCOTUS & Culture Wars
We know exactly how Justices will rule
It isn't based on law, justice, or the Constitution

☑️ Can't Ban Conversion Therapy
☑️ Can Ban Gender Affirming Care
☑️ Can Ban Trans Athletes

No legal consistency
Only consistency is SCOTUS joining Culture Wars

The divide between pro- and anti-vaccine states is widening “Vaccine policy now tracks political identity more closely than epidemiology,” write Richard Hughes IV and Lawrence O. Gostin.

Today in @statnews.com, Richard Hughes & I discuss RFK's destructive vaccine policies. There's a cavernous divide between pro- & anti-vaccine states

Vaccine federalism means children’s health depends on geography. No one is safe as herd immunity wanes

Red states are most at risk

shorturl.at/8OI3x

Kudos to the House for passing a clean extension of ACA subsidies. If the Senate follows, it will dramatically lower insurance premiums & prevent 4 million Americans from losing health coverage.

It will save lives, keep families from financial ruin, and keep rural hospitals open.

Bowing to the alcohol beverage industry, RFK, Jr weakens the message on the harms of drinking. The new food pyramid removes advice on safer limits on alcohol. Even the current guidelines (2 units daily for men & 1 for women) is inadequate. There is no safe limit on alcohol consumption.

RFK Jr releases a new food pyramid putting red meat, beef tallow, & full-fat dairy at the top. His handpicked "experts" worked in secret

As with vaccines, Kennedy sets policy without transparency, science, and evidence

We can expect more heart disease, diabetes, & cancer

The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Incorporating Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS  - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

In Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Sam Halabi and @gostin.bsky.social write on one of the unresolved core aspects of the WHO #PandemicAgreement: the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System.

Read the article: https://ow.ly/AT6v50XMvWM

Amid the turmoil of anti-vax policy from RFK Jr some sanity prevails. The 2nd Circuit today upheld a ban on cuts to NIH research funding, ruling that unilaterally slashing NIH research overheads was unlawful. NIH funding saves lives & is the engine of our economy

As 2025 draws to an end, let's reflect back on a year global health was decimated, from the US withdrawal from @who.int & defunding of GAVI, to the elimination of USAID.

PLoS Global Public Health

"The Trump presidency: Cascading global shocks on global health"

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

PubMed has competition from Germany. That’s a very good thing Germany’s new ZB MED is “about ensuring that a single fragile pipeline doesn’t bottleneck good science,” experts write.

As wonderful as PubMed is, it needs competition. Now it is getting it from Germany

That’s a very good thing

The whole world can’t lean on one country’s scientific library

Science is a global enterprise

See @statnews.com

www.statnews.com/2025/12/26/p...

State Vaccine Law and Policy—A New Threat to Public Health This Viewpoint discusses the importance of understanding the evolution and current trajectory of state-level vaccine requirements for assessing the stability of the nation’s immunization infrastructur...

RFK, Jr's war on vaccines is spilling over to states

States have legal power to set vaccine schedules

Sates are ending school vaccine mandates & requiring broad religious exemptions
SCOTUS is abetting this move

In JAMA

State Vaccine Law and Policy—A New Threat to Public Health

shorturl.at/mUbZR

RFK's decision to cut funding for the Am Acad of Pediatrics is short sighted and harmful. It's pure vindictiveness for the principled stand of AAP on vaccines. Grants to AAP support studies on infant deaths, and childhood diseases like autism. This vindictive action is unconscionable.

The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Incorporating Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS  - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

Today in the Georgetown J. of Int'l Affairs, Sam Halabi @oneillinstitute & I explain the importance of CDR in the @WHO Pandemic Agreement PABS Annex

The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS

gjia.georgetown.edu/2025/12/11/t...

254 measles cases in SC are in quarantine, 16 of whom are in isolation. That's the impact of RFK, Jr.'s attack on vaccines, and it will only get worse. Most people in confinement were unvaccinated. It's an entirely preventable health crisis. Measles vaccines are 97% effective

Failure to pass ACA premium subsidies will unravel the insurance market. As premiums dramatically rise, the sickest will have little choice but to remain insured, while younger healthier people will opt out. Insurance will be still more unaffordable. The market is unsustainable

Prasad says FDA will state that "COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children," which he calls a "profound revelation." He directs FDA staff who disagree to resign. He offers no research data & doesn't submit it to peer review. Science is transparent, it is testable.

This is not science

Ralph Abraham is an irresponsible pick as Deputy Director of CDC. As Louisiana Surgeon General, he cancelled vaccine campaigns. He's a major prescriber of ivermectin for COVID-19. Dr. Abraham is likely to further erode the credibility of the CDC. He's a loyalist, not a scientist

RFK Jr forces CDC to say “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of science. Science can not rule out infinite remote possibilities. But science has conclusively shown no link between vaccines and autism

In London for ⁦‪@FT‬⁩ ⁦‪@TheLancet‬⁩ Scientific Integrity Strategies. AI fueled misleading health information is a defining issue of our time. Strategies include health literacy & communication. Quality Health Information for All is worth fighting for.

America First bilateral global health pacts linking aid to pathogen sharing is feckless. Instead of a multilateral @WHO PABS annex we do deals with a few select countries. What makes Trump think the next pandemic will start in those countries? The US is safer inside WHO & PABS

The @oneillinstitute is hosting a special event on the revolutionary PrEp twice-yearly injectable Lenacapavir, featuring a keynote by Moupali Das

Registration Link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Nov 12, 2025
120 F St NW, Washington, DC 20001, Gewirz 12th Floor
1:20 – 3:20 p.m. ET

Opinion | Sudan Is in Free Fall

Sudan Is in Free Fall www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/o...

I'm enormously proud of the @oneillinstitute senior human rights scholar Eric Friedman for his authoritative @nytimes opinion on "Sudan is in Free Fall."

India and the IHR Amendments: Strengthening Legal Preparedness for Global Health Security - O'Neill The O’Neill Institute believes that the law is a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems.

India and the IHR Amendments: Strengthening Legal Preparedness for Global Health Security - O'Neill : O'Neill oneill.law.georgetown.edu/india-and-th...

Congratulations to my friends and colleagues Kashish Aneja and Sam Halabi. Proud to co-author with them

Join the O'Neill Institute tomorrow Wed. 4 Nov on the IHR & Pandemic Agreement. I will moderate a panel of senior Biden Admin officials who negotiated these treaties:

Mara Burr
Susan Kim
Colin Mclff
Stephanie Psaki

@GeorgetownLaw 1:20 pm ET