Atul Gawande

You could see where this was going before they even started. 7/

It’s like seeing a surgeon about a curable cancer and focusing entirely on the potential harms of the surgery option without evaluating the potential harms of the no-surgery option. 6/

Meanwhile they jettisoned CDC’s usual, careful process for grappling with risks of changes they’re voting for. ACIP did zero evaluation of harm, costs, or problems in implementation, while asking for an impossible standard for current vaccination practice. 5/

Discussion went round in circles on CDC’s review of the strong evidence supporting current vaccine administration. Prompting this from member Retsef Levi: “I’m hearing a lot of ‘there’s no evidence of harm.’... I think the question is ‘Is there evidence of no harm?’” 4/

Finally, an answer came back: we must make changes because trust in vaccines has decreased. “The signal that is prompting this is not one of safety, but one of trust,” said member Robert Malone. 3/

Liaison members from medical societies asked repeatedly: what is the reason for the votes to now change routine children’s vaccine schedules when there’s been no signal of harm and clear evidence of great benefit? 2/

I watched the 1st meeting day of RFK Jr’s handpicked committee of vaccine advisors. It was utterly depressing. 1/

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

#freedc I returned from the wedding of our daughter to find the city where I have lived for the last 3 years in the midst of a military takeover.

The military policing Americans.

This is happening. It is a danger for everyone in our country. Now is the moment to turn out in protest.

Opinion | Doctors Have Lost Their Mount Olympus of Medicine

Excellent read from @danielleofri.bsky.social on the reality for clinicians as NIH, CDC, FDA recs are put under political controls: “Medical professionals can no longer fully trust federal health guidance, and our patients are the ones who will suffer the most.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

Opinion | José Andrés: People of Good Conscience Must Stop the Starvation in Gaza

truly

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

Opinion | You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next.

They came for the foreign aid workers, justice department, public health institutions, universities and researchers, law firms, media organizations, not to mention longtime immigrants. Now it is nonprofits too. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

Bush, Obama — and singer Bono — fault Trump’s gutting of USAID on agency’s last day “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,” Obama said.

Bono in a lyrical send off: “They called you crooks/when you were the best of us/there for the rest of us./And don’t think any less of us/when politics makes a mess of us.” www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Obama: “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.”

Bush, Obama, and Bono thanked USAID staff & criticized dismantling USAID.

Bush: “Is it in our interest that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is. On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your hard work, and God bless you.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u...

Today, what’s left of USAID is being transferred to the State Dept, which is gutting that development work. Ending USAID will go down in history as a colossal failure and mistake. bsky.app/profile/ddia...

Higher USAID support was associated with a 15% reduction in overall mortality and 32% reduction in child mortality.

This was the effect of not just its health work but also its development support for economies, people, and institutions that transitioned numerous countries off of aid.

STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

"The anti‑vax movement, once seen as confined to the U.S., is now spreading globally." An excellent, if sobering, piece from Rivka Galchen.

Opinion | The U.S. Cannot Solve All the World’s Problems

“Foreign aid has changed nothing.” “These are not our problems.” “The system is dysfunctional.” “The countries we aid are corrupt.” “Other countries aren’t doing enough.”

I have heard all these arguments too. @nickkristof.bsky.social succinctly answers.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/o...

Promise of Victory Over H.I.V. Fades as U.S. Withdraws Support

This was supposed to be a breakthrough year in the 44-year-long struggle against H.I.V.

It's turned into something very different.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/h...

Republicans in Congress know these facts and have supported @Gavi since its founding.

Trump cannot override Congress's mandated support for Gavi.

It is on the GOP to stop this inhuman decision -- or accept its responsibility for the massive loss of children's lives.

There is a direct connection to RFK Jr's firing of CDC vaccine advisers and actions to undermine vaccination here at home.

RFK Jr is now proving to be a direct threat to children's lives in the US and around the world.

Some basic facts RFK Jr continues to ignore.

Global health advances have reduced child deaths 75% over the last 50 years.

40% of those gains were from vaccination. And 60% of those gains were from the measles vaccine alone. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

However, advocates, protests, and calls into Senate offices are mounting pressure against the rescission bill, as well as against the cuts to Medicaid and other lifesaving health programs on the chopping block. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

House passes rescission package to claw back $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid, NPR, PBS The House is expected to vote Thursday on White House's rescission package to claw back funding for NPR, PBS, foreign aid.

Instead, the biggest blocker is foreign aid cuts that shut down most global HIV prevention. The rescission bill in the Senate would make DOGE cuts costing 1000s of lives permanent. And Trump’s big policy bill cuts key funding for PEPFAR & the Global Fund. www.cbsnews.com/news/house-v...

Lenacapavir’s is a big barrier. But PEPFAR and the Global Fund already have agreements for low prices for poor countries in line with existing PrEP (daily pre-exposure prophylaxis medicine) costs. And 6 generic manufacturers have licensing. www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/2024...

The Trump administration also axed CDC’s HIV Prevention programs and is pushing $800M in budget cuts that demolish CDC testing and outreach programs for at-risk populations. It’s already imperilling HIV control. The Senate must not approve these cuts. hivhep.org/press-releas...

AIDSVu Releases New PrEP Data and Launches PrEPVu.org, A New PrEP Equity Platform - AIDSVu

In the US, Medicaid is key. States that expanded Medicaid have 33 percent more people on PrEP than other states. Proposed budget cuts now before the Senate would cut access for many Americans most in need. aidsvu.org/news-updates...