Thank you Dr Joe Pajak, Ted Craig, Patrizia, Allen, and many others for tuning into my live video! Follow and subscribe at The Save America Movement to find out more!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Unfortunately, this is unlikely to do much in terms of moving policy. As it stands, President Donald J. Trump’s polling results are quicksand and Trump himself is visibly deteriorating. For now, it’s looking like a MAGA bloodbath in November, although a lot can happen between now and then.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy is “on a tighter leash” for the midterms, but that only appears to mean he should be less visibly anti-vaccine. Or at least he should try. That didn’t go over well with me and Jessica, since “trying” amounted to him saying whatever he likes when asked a question he didn’t want to answer, which is usually a choice between four options of varying degrees of dishonesty:

* Talk about something else, usually incoherently

* Aggressive gaslighting and blame-passing to the point that it’s more of an adjustable floodlight

* Boo hoo, people are being mean to me! I’m pro-science! I am not anti-vax.

* Insert fictional content here

Unfortunately, the majority party is not doing anything to hold Kennedy accountable, as they have sworn to do in their oaths of office. Instead they are doing the Congressional budget appropriations equivalent of ball-stroking about “flipping the food pyramid” (as Jess pointed out, it’s an inverted triangle). I failed to finish last week’s MMMWR because it was one of those weeks.

Thank you Jessica Knurick, PhD, RDN, Ryan McCormick, M.D., Julie, Honey Badger, Marg KJ, and many others for tuning into see me and Making Science Make Sense hold what I assume are Kennedy’s leathern werewolf feet to the proverbial fire. As usual, Kennedy walked out unsinged, but that won’t be forever. Like a couple of Terminators, we’ll be back.

BINGO CARD RESULTS IN OUR UPCOMING JOINT POST!

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Also thanks to this video, we realized that our logo looks too much like an ad for tactical vaccines or something, so we have a new logo.

Here, check it out on our draft BRAINWORM BUDGET BINGO CARD!!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Unfortunately I accidentally tuned into the wrong Appropriations subcommittee so we watched the opening statements of the Congressional Budget Office, Government Publication Office, and Government Accountability Office. Oops! At least I had fun flexing about my academic performance in high school government class. I figured it out once I recognized how boring, accurate, and budget-oriented it seemed. Join me and Jess at 6 pm ET to hear about it!

Making Science Make Sense and I will be doing LIVE play by play tomorrow for the grand finale of the Health Labor Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee. We’ve got MAHA Brainworm Budget Bingo and we’ll be recapping after. The fun starts at 2 pm ET right here on April 22nd, 2026!

Thank you Eric Lullove (who was too busy being professionally into feet to join me), cmdr cool, Deborah J., Marg KJ, Tired of BS, and many others for tuning into this impromptu effort to torture myself. Join us at 6 pm ET tonight for a short recap!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

As stated in today’s show, we really love virology. We are also really annoyed that we haven’t done a good enough job of sharing why we love it. As a result, the most unqualified people imaginable have used our misguided silence and neutrality to enact policies so reckless and destructive the body counts will be measured in the millions. How could this be normalized?

Well, why wouldn’t people think it is normal if the scientists only speak out in such bland, cautious, technical terms that they bore the s**t out of everyone? As it is, scientists have not objected strongly enough to the lies about our profession and our research, and in many cases have just meekly accepted that the public doesn’t trust us as a result of these lies. We have also not explained to people why our scientific work is so amazing and important. We have not given the public any reason to disbelieve the lies that are being used to justify our own destruction.

Virology is amazing and important, so we should start acting like it. I am first and foremost terrified by the consequences of what is happening to science and health in the US. It is literally going to kill millions of people around the world. We are scientists and we can show evidence that this is true. But we aren’t taking the time to tell people why they should even care. We aren’t telling people that this affects everyone or how urgent it is because we aren’t putting it in those terms. We are acting like we don’t care enough to be human in the face of our own end.

Juliet and I would like to change that. We’re hoping that by talking about the scientific evidence that makes us think virology is amazing and important, we might make other people think about this too. By being our authentic selves, sharing our own thoughts in candid conversations between two old friends and colleagues, we might even earn some trust and build a bigger community. So please come along with us as we tell old stories from graduate school and talk about why our field of science means a lot to us, and why it means a lot to you too, whether you realize it yet or not. We’d rather have you realize that before the H5N1 or MERS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-3 pandemic happens in the complete absence of an ability to respond, because viruses are cool and studying them helps avoid potentially civilization-levelling pandemics. And also just your kids dying from a viral disease you could prevent, like measles, polio, or flu. Which you would know is horrific, if only someone had explained how wild pathogenesis is in a way that didn’t put you to sleep or involve PowerPoint.

Join us in two weeks for another one! And please tell us what you want to hear about and what you think! If you liked this, please also consider subscribing!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Even if Kennedy’s position appears secure for now, it won’t necessarily stay that way. Kennedy is a true believer in a cult of his own creation, but he may not always be its leader. If he doesn’t placate both MAHA and MAGA, whose interests are sometimes non-negotiably opposed, he risks his position. He doesn’t want to go back to just being the Sinatra of the Anti-Vax Pack. He only killed 83 kids in Samoa. He wants to do that to the world, and scaling is a lot easier if you are in charge of all the health of America. He is a delusional narcissist and psychopath who wants to be in charge of everything so he can do whatever weirdo serial killer red flag s**t he does in addition to his hobby of performing primitive field necropsies on any animal carcass he happens to spot while on vacation with his children.

He might not be in political death throes just yet, but he is on shaky ground. He’s very skilled at embedding anti-vax doublespeak in everything he says, though, so it’s not even that much of a barrier to not talk proactively about how much he hates vaccines. He doesn’t need to use external policies to ban or limit vaccines directly; he can just pull a bunch of boring administrative levers that nobody wants to hear about and quietly reduce access that way. Enough bureaucratic obstruction has the same effect as a ban.

By continuing to draw attention to the many deceptive and treacherous ways Kennedy is hurting us, and his ambitions to hurt and kill at an even grander scale, perhaps we might eventually accumulate a critical mass that might do something about it. For example, voters could elect representatives in the midterms who might actually take action against Kennedy and/or Trump. Enough bad press could also compel the Trump administration to cut Kennedy loose and hire someone actually qualified. It’s free to b***h on many public platforms, whether you pay or not. It’s free to call your representatives or just pass reliable, truthful, easy to understand information on to your friends and family.

We’re here to try to help provide something you can pass on. We’re really grateful to those of you who have been joining us. Let us know what you think and we’ll see you next week for more of Bobby Morbillivirus and the Loss of Elimination Status denial tour.Thank you Elizabeth Ginexi, Chris Rogers, Ziggy, John Flack, Christine, and many others for tuning in to TAKING SHOTS with me and Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS! Join us next Wednesday for Kennedy’s next visit to answer to our representatives for his masters’ catastrophic failure to serve the American people and betrayal of our country.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

On this episode of Taking Shots

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced a new podcast!

* MAGA vs MAHA

* Kennedy’s political standing going into the midterms

* Laundering anti-vax conspiratorial b******t into Gold Standard Science on chronic disease

* USA #1 in anti-vax influence

ACIP has a new charter

* Kennedy had two options: reinstate competent ACIP or change the rules

* Clown car ACIP will likely be back, minus Robert Malone, who has some conspiracy theories about secret anti-MAHA operatives within the government and rage-quit so he’s going to the State Department to use AI protect us from bioterrorists

MAGA mechanisms for plundering the budget for American health

* Budget cuts

* Bureaucratic trickery

* Lab leak and lying

Casey Means is STILL in the running

* Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is too cowardly to call a vote in the Health Education Labor and Pensions and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are talking to the White House

* TELL YOUR SENATOR TO VOTE NO:

* Residents of the US (Senate Switchboard): (202) 224-3121

* Residents of ALASKA: (202) 224-6665

* Residents of LOUISIANA: (202) 224-5824

* Residents of MAINE: (202) 224-2523

Just like measles, anti-American fascism isn’t limited to the US

* I was on a CBC documentary about the Maple MAGA ostrich convoy up here in Canada

* I also really want to shout out Aritzia for killing it every time in terms of TV wear. They are my go-to for almost everything, but especially for prime-time foundational national news magazine shows talking about bird flu in the context of national policy and threats to democracy. They did me right on 60 Minutes and now on the fifth estate too.

Reduce your risk of RSV and measles!

* RSV vaccination season has been extended—it’s not too late and timing for this vaccine is important

* Measles is going to break records again this year. Vaccinate anyone over 12 months old in your family!

* These vaccines are both tested and safe. If you have questions, let us know!

Let us know what you think

* Got comments or feedback? Let us know!

* Do you have any questions? We literally do all of this to answer them. Your health is important and you deserve honest answers that are factually correct

* I promise to improve as a producer

Links

ACIP coverage with The Save America Movement:Unpacking AAP vs Kennedy (the case that resulted in ACIP’s stay order)

Relevant to ACIP:Taking Shots: ACIP Shot DownA Massive Win for Public Health: AAP v. RFK Jr.

Casey Means coverage with The Save America Movement: Taking Shots: Casey Means nomination hearing pre-gameTaking Shots: Casey Means nomination hearingTaking Shots: Casey Means post-hearing analysisCasey Means Conspiracy Hour with Dean Blundell and Denver Riggleman

Relevant to Casey Means:Rasmussen Retorts Episode 4: Casey Means as US Surgeon GeneralA Means to an End for Public Health

If you’re a US citizen who wants to find their Senator to say no on Casey Means, go here

Lab leak resources:Five Reasons Why It Still Wasn’t a Lab LeakRasmussen Retorts Episode 5: Five Reasons Why We Think It Was ZoonoticNIH FFS: The Freedom from Science Lab Leak Lecture Series

Ostrich fascism:

The documentary for CBC’s the fifth estate about the anti-vax ostrich antibody scammers who responded to an outbreak of avian flu they failed to suppress by suing the government and inviting every anti-government medical freedom activist in Canada to squat at their farm for ten months until they were finally culled.

Ostrich convoy info (I wrote about this a lot):Release the Ostriches’ Grippe: after the cullLast Stand in Bird Flu Ostrich Land: ostrich DEFCON 1Follow the Bird Flu Ostrich Antibody Money: ostrich antibody grifting schemeThe Saga of the H5N1 Freedom Ostriches: how I started chasing the ostrich

Make sure you read Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS’s story about her son’s hospitalization with RSV in 2019, especially if you are a parent. Jessica and her son Laith didn’t have the option to vaccinate then, but parents do now. Ask about vaccination!

We go into more detail about some of these things here:

Thank you PJ Schuster, Stuart Cohen, Mama K, Laurel Fairchild, Shirley Figueroa, and many others for tuning into this week’s episode with me and Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS! Join us next Friday at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s

Today we discussed the horrific conditions at the Dilley ICE detention facility. Anita has been working closely with a network of physicians, nurses, lawyers, and journalists to get children released from Dilley. Not only are the children kept in horrific conditions and subjected to starvation and abuse, but they have no access to medical care whatsoever. There were two cases of measles reported at Dilley in early March. There have been no further updates. I don’t believe that it was just two cases.

Most of the measles cases in Texas in 2026 are occurring in detention facilities (!). The majority of the reported measles cases are occurring in a different facility—but that requires reporting. There is no testing. There is no facility access. There is no ability to administer medical care, even something as simple as providing Tylenol for a fever. There are long delays to getting medical care from external emergency medical services. There is no vaccination or attempt to vaccinate. Respiratory disease is rampant in the facility. To me, that sounds like an uncontained measles outbreak. Potentially other outbreaks, as well. That sounds like potentially many more than 2 cases, given the ages of some of the kids at the facility (the MMR is recommended at 12 months for most kids, as it is a live attenuated vaccine and presents risks for very young infants). It’s hard to say, however, given there is no capacity for diagnostics beyond saying respiratory disease because there are a bunch of kids who are coughing. Whether it is still spreading or not, that sounds a lot like a serious threat to kids in the facility as well as the community, since there is extensive traffic in and out of Dilley. This is also a serious public health threat, given that vaccination rates continue to decline.

We also discussed the culpability of the CoreCivic board members at the helm of the company. One of the board members is Thurgood Marshall, Jr. He is the son of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the namesake of the Marshall Project, which has done some of the best work out there to quantify the atrocities and human rights violations at Dilley that Anita discussed. I wonder how it hits Thurgood Jr. to see his dad’s practically-synonymous-with-civil-rights name emblazoned above a graph of his own shared culpability in violating said civil rights egregiously:

ICE detention has a long history of being bad for detainees’ health. There have been preventable disease outbreaks in ICE detention facilities as long as there have been ICE detention facilities. But what is different now is the level of aggressive neglect and its application to children. People need to be aware of the danger that children are being subjected to by ICE and their contractors like CoreCivic. They are being starved, abused, and tortured. The ICE detention business model is based on cost-efficiency and dehumanization and the Trump administration has incentive to encourage both. Cutting costs to the point where basic life needs cannot be met is not only an appalling violation of human rights, but a violation of both the US Constitution and international law.

It would cost less than $2 per person to immunize with the MMR, which is standard practice for containing a measles outbreak. Vaccination has not even been offered. One of Anita’s colleagues reported that alert signs at Dilley are outdated, warning of a different (also vaccine-preventable) virus, varicella (chicken pox). The signs were recycled from a previous outbreak years before. The added public health threat that allowing infectious diseases to run rampant in detention facilities, especially in kids, and then moving them around between facilities, sending them home, or deporting them is right in line with the MAHA playbook: cull the weak and make everyone so sick that they are unable to stand in the MAGA regime’s way. This also presents a significant national security threat, by the way—and we are already in a very perilous situation given degraded health emergency response capacity.

But it’s true that the walls around the Trump regime are starting to crumble. The more Americans see what MAGA values are, the more they realize that they are as un-American as you can get. That’s why I’m really grateful to Steve and Dean for having Anita and I on to get this out there: the more people know about what’s happening at Dilley, the better our chances of stopping it and holding the people carrying it out accountable.

A quick correction: Anita had heard just before coming on the show about a 2-year-old detainee who had been given an ankle monitor. This was a miscommunication and it was the child’s parent who was fitted for the monitor, not the child. Apologies for the error, but we do strive for accuracy.

Thank you Raya, Nancy L. Haigwood, Wendy R 🇨🇦, CicifromCincy, MarcoNOTRubio, and many others for joining us!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

I truly can’t believe how stupid it is, thinking about what happened in public health and science this week, or any week. Thirty minutes is insufficient to cover it all. But we managed to get through a lot, including a delightful review of Jay Bhattacharya’s administrative fuckery and questionable legal authority, Robert Malone’s I-quit-a-committee-disbanded-by-court-order!, and the fact that all the papers report that it’s all going to be chill because Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is on a short leash. I guess we will see what that means, but in my view I’m suspicious that this predatory ejaculation bandit can be effectively contained.

Thanks for joining despite time zone management and cellular coverage in random parts of the Tri-State area on I-95. I’ll leave you with one of my most aggressive hot takes that I’ve strongly held for nearly 30 years: Connecticut is the worst state in America, just because even New Jersey isn’t dropping my calls in those lonely intermittent stretches so long they warn you that if you run out of gas, you will starve if you cannot walk 19 miles to the Cinnabon at the Molly Pitcher service center.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Thank you Eric Lullove, Elizabeth Ginexi, Julie, Deborah J., Jack, and many others for tuning into my live video! See you next time!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

On Monday, Judge Brian Murphy ruled in AAP vs. Kennedy to stay the appointments of all 13 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, for being mostly unqualified anti-vax charlatans. This negates all their prior decisions and reverses all of the recommendations against vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, and for “shared clinical decision making.” Shared clinical decision making effectively removed six vaccines from the schedule by creating an unnecessary barrier to access. It’s a lot easier to just get a recommended vaccine on schedule than it is to make a doctor’s appointment to get individual recommendations, which are going to be “get this vaccine” most of the time.

Great news! Judge Murphy’s ruling reversed all of the All-Villain ACIP’s recommendations, since their appointments are stayed. Murphy went to great lengths to call out individual ACIP members’ lack of qualification, and his ruling made it clear that ACIP cannot convene without a cohort of voting members who are actually competent for the role.

Of course, there are other vaccines that are recommended more specifically, which is why ACIP’s role is extremely important. As we continue to get data about different vaccines, ACIP updates its data and reevaluates benefits and risks constantly. Despite claims to the contrary, people who study vaccines look for adverse events all the time. ACIP recommendations are extremely important, because they determine insurance coverage and inclusion in vaccination programs for low-income or uninsured kids.

But there are consequences to not having a functional ACIP as well. In the future, new vaccines (like updated flu or COVID shots, newly licensed vaccines, or existing vaccines with new data) will need to undergo ACIP review for voting recommendations. If there is no ACIP to vote, then there will be no more recommendations.

Although Kennedy has been reportedly directed by the White House to rein in the crazy leading up to the midterm elections, he will merely tone it down in terms of visibility. He’s clearly not discouraged from continuing to brand himself as America’s first AI-enhanced, cold-plunging, methylene blue-swigging, mitochondrial dysfunction-detecting, sperm-obsessed wellness quack to serve as HHS Secretary.

Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS and I are proud to partner with The Save America Movement to keep you informed about your health. This is a victorious battle in an ongoing war. Although it is encouraging, there is still a long road ahead. Kennedy has very successfully driven vaccination rates down through targeted propaganda. He is very, very skilled at exploiting public health emergencies and weaponizing scientific uncertainty. The reason measles is exploding now is not because of people losing access to vaccines, but to people being discouraged from taking them altogether. This ruling does reduce the harm of ACIP contributing to anti-vax propaganda, but it does nothing to address the massively degraded information landscape.

On Friday, I will be hosting the first and hopefully only NIH Freedom from Science Lecture, with The Save America Movement, Science Fight Club (Stand Up for Science), and 27 UNIHTED. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya has invited lab leak conspiracy theorist Matt Ridley to deliver a lecture at NIH in which he will allege that SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab that was funded by Tony Fauci through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He will present no evidence to support this, because no evidence exists. It will be entirely based on “what if” scenarios that were entirely imagined to sell Ridley’s book, and have now been appropriated by Bhattacharya to justify the obliteration of the NIAID research portfolio. And every other institute within NIH, because research in general is always risky. Better not do ANY of it. Better siphon as much of that money for politically motivated projects as possible and give the rest of it to President Trump.

The lab leak is being used to justify the continued theft of the Congressionally appropriated NIH budget by the Executive Branch. Join me and an incredible lineup of expert panelists (Kristian Andersen, Gigi Gronvall, and special guests from your favorite disintegrating national biomedical research agency). We are going to explain how we know that Bhattacharya and Ridley are wrong about where SARS-CoV-2 came from, and we are going to explain why Bhattacharya and Ridley are promoting conspiracy theories from within the government. SPOILER ALERT: the destruction of science in support of authoritarianism at the expense of our health, freedom, and liberty. Join us in getting the festivities started at 2 pm ET!

Resources:

Judge Murphy’s ruling

One of America’s preeminent scholars of vaccine law and policy, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, provides expert analysis.

Refreshed evidence-based vaccine schedules

Repository of ACIP recommendations circa June 2025

Thank you Tom Kudla, Marg KJ, Joe White, Lynn L, Linda Hinckley, and many others for tuning into our video! Join us Friday for the NIH Freedom From Science Lecture!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Even better, this decision reverses every one of Kennedy’s spectacularly shitty vaccine decisions including the move to clinical decision making, as well as ACIP’s descheduling of thimerosal, the MMRV, and the HBV birth dose. The vaccine schedule was just instantly reversed to June 2025, which was when it was untouched by Bobby Morbillivirus and his putrescent roadkill-smeared fingers.

Though ACIP is mercifully postponed for now, there is a strong possibility these clowns won’t stay silent for long. Robert Malone has been unravelling for the past 8 hours on Substack and the hellsite. It was fun to join an update call from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ attorneys and watch the evidence of Malone’s degraded grasp on reality accumulate in real time in the form of dissociative tweets and ChatGPT legal analysis of his status as greatest incremental 1990s transfection experiment doer ever (what he calls “inventing mRNA vaccines”).

There are also long-term issues with vaccine access because of ACIP’s normal function. ACIP is critical for determining insurance coverage of vaccines. Insurers have pledged to cover vaccines through 2026, but after? Any new vaccine—including updated flu and COVID shots and new uses for existing vaccines like RSV expanding to a new age group—requires an ACIP recommendation to be eligible for reimbursement and programs like Vaccines for Children (VFC), which provides vaccines for low income or uninsured kids. If ACIP is unable to recommend anything because it doesn’t meet or is too incompetent to do anything, then millions will still lose access to vaccines. The future of ACIP is still critically important, and unfortunately this ruling doesn’t reverse the damage that has already been done.

I’ve been a bit under the weather as of late and have been advised by my doctors that sleep and rest are mandatory for defeating anti-science fascists without incurring a potentially lethal injury. I’ve started to think of this as the Rasmussen Protocol (hey, all the anti-vaxxers call taking ivermectin an eponymous “protocol” so I might as well do the same) for preventing anti-vaccine injury. So as a result I have to call this for tonight and get my mandatory cardiovascular beauty rest, but we have a lot more to tell you.

Our newsletter, the MAHA Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMMWR), is out tomorrow and WEDNESDAY we will have a more organized and comprehensive show unpacking everything you need to know about this. We’ve got you covered!

Also we are deeply sorry to disappoint everyone who expects us to competently produce our own show! Wednesday we will have it together, we promise!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

We are aligned with The Save America Movement in defending our fundamental American rights and values, and vaccination is part of the foundation of our republic. General George Washington ordered that the Continental Army be inoculated against smallpox. Washington’s forces were spared from the smallpox outbreaks that ravaged the British army and cast off the rule of a tyrant king. Flu vaccines helped the US defeat fascism in World War II, when vaccine legend Jonas Salk developed an inactivated vaccine using techniques that he would master to defeat polio a decade later. They are essential for our national security and our standing on the world stage.

Unlike ACIP, the VRBPAC is still staffed by competent people. In fact, the members of VRBPAC are some of the most qualified scientists, clinicians, and public health professionals in America. That makes for a slow meeting. To make things more challenging, my amazing co-host Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS had a last minute schedule conflict, I’ve been dealing with some pretty disruptive health issues, this was the maiden voyage of the new production platform I’m using, and I am the least technically capable systems biologist in the universe when it comes to consumer software products. But I have to watch this meeting anyway, because I am a vaccine researcher at a vaccine research institute and editor of a journal called Vaccine, so this is a professional obligation. I figured I was up to gabbing about it while I watched. Saskia Popescu graciously filled in for Jessica early on and shared her expertise in security and infection control, then I basically talked to myself for an hour when I wasn’t trying to figure out how I suddenly rendered YouTube silent, and then filled in Jessica when she helped finish the meeting. In spite of some challenges, it had its moments!

Some highlights:

* Lots of great flu talk! Subclade K is unleashed on the world, should we have a quadrivalent vaccine with 2 H3N2 components to reduce a subclade K situation, flu B/Yamagata is still extinct (even with imperfect vaccines), and there was bonus measles, vaccinia (the OG vaccine), and herpesvirus (chickenpox) chit chat. The efficiency with which the panelists and expert presenters covered literally the entire world’s flu data was deity-level based on my experience of what happens when you get a bunch of scientists together to talk about their data.

* The manufacturers sent one of their best, Beverly Taylor of Sanofi and CSL Seqirus, to discuss critical timing and choke points that can derail the manufacturing process. Strain selection is a balance of picking strains as early as possible, while having enough data to pick strains accurately. It’s essential for having vaccines at all, because if the manufacturers don’t start making vaccine virus right away, there won’t be enough vaccine available to immunize people in the fall. It was fantastic to hear such a clear explanation of this and the incredibly complex legal and administrative gray area that manufacturers operate within. The US is one of the biggest manufacturers and markets in the world, so if the US market for flu vaccines shrinks

* SPOILER ALERT: Both voting recommendations (to adopt WHO-recommended egg-based and cell-based or recombinant strains) passed unanimously. There’s a fun 20 minutes of me just monologuing during the silent Zoom votes (I am a master-level solo conversationalist, so this was a blessing on the world and you’re welcome)

* Pediatrician Hayley Gans gave an incredibly thoughtful response to a question virologist and infectious diseases physician Hana El Shaly posed about VRBPAC’s role in making recommendations to potentially increase uptake or restore confidence in vaccination. It was an awe-inspiring display of describing the need for VRBPAC to take action in this regard without departing from the careful academic, bureaucratic, and technical language that is the dialect of choice at these policy advisory meetings

* The future of evidence-based strain selection is unclear, given the US withdrawal from WHO. This year the US contributed to GISRS and attended the strain selection meeting virtually. Next year, will we even have that capability? The influenza division at CDC has been severely hindered by personnel losses and funding cuts

Jessica and I have a lot more to say, as well as get you fired up for ACIP next week, so join us tomorrow for TAKING SHOTS.

Thank you Deborah J., Carrie Rhodes, Elizabeth, Lynn L, Andrea D (Canada), and many others for tuning into my live video! Join us tomorrow!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

The problem here, as usual, are policies that Kennedy is enacting as he imposes his anti-vaccine, supplement-crushing agenda upon us all. Kennedy is both an accomplished profiteer and a fanatical zealot, and he is manipulating as many different administrative and political mechanisms as possible to install a team of MAHA loyalist grifters just like him. That includes Surgeon General nominee, failed ENT surgeon-turned-functional medicine influencer Casey Means.

Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS and I joined our friends at The Save America Movement to cover Means’ hearing extensively. We had extensive pregame and postgame analysis of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee. We covered her entire hearing play-by-play. I joined Vincent Racaniello at The Incubator to discuss Means in detail on my own Microbe.TV show devoted to her myriad affronts to evidence-based medicine, basic ethics, and scientific integrity. I covered her accomplishments as a poet, practitioner of psychedelic-fuelled arboreal druidic prospective tradwife manifestation, and functional medicine scammer with Dean Blundell and Denver Riggleman. We told you to CALL YOUR SENATORS and tell them to vote NO. I told Politico that said poetic bullshittery demonstrated her disqualifying unscientific anti-vaccine beliefs. Jessica has been doing heroic work to get the word out, despite both of us flying around North America and somehow doing our day jobs this week.

That especially applies to people in Louisiana, Maine, and Alaska. HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA), as well as Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), despite their serious and inadequately addressed concerns about Means’ qualifications, are still apparently undecided about what the right thing to do is here.

To be clear, that is Cassidy calling for a vote on whether to advance Means to a confirmation vote by the full Senate. She doesn’t currently have the votes. Cassidy himself was unable to pin Means down about her prior statements that giving the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, which has nearly eliminated this deadly, incurable infection in the US, is a “crime.”

Cassidy is a board-certified hepatologist (liver doctor). He knows that the hepatitis B vaccine is extremely safe and the birth dose reduces the risk for most children. He repeatedly asked Means if she thought it was a good idea. She never gave him a straight answer, because even though she said the lines about vaccines being safe and effective, she is anti-vax because it’s effective for getting suckers to open their wallets. She has repeatedly stated that she thinks it’s a crime to protect babies against a disease they would be infected with and not be able to clear until their premature death from liver cancer. Dr. Cassidy the hepatologist, who understands professionally exactly what is at stake (preventable death of Americans), clearly is unwilling to stand up to Sen. Cassidy, the pathetic appeaser. By the way, Cassidy’s tepid vaccine advocacy and sad MAHA servility have failed: he’s getting primaried anyway. His Louisianan colleague, recently resigned CDC Principal Deputy Director, mRNA hater, ivermectin enthusiast, and cartoonish antebellum-flavored relic who seems like the type of good ol’ boy carrying a country doctor bag stocked with skull calipers, was just announced as the campaign manager of his primary challenger.

This begs the question why Cassidy is not bringing this for a vote immediately. He is singlehandedly responsible for Kennedy’s confirmation. He will not admit regret or wrongdoing, despite VERY OBVIOUSLY regretting his promises. And now, despite once again being quite reasonably convinced of Means’ lack of suitability, he is not bringing a vote because that would end her chances. Even though Cassidy knows exactly how unqualified she is, he isn’t willing to display the courage or expend the political capital to prevent her from extending her grift to the entire country.

And stay out

Mid-show, we also got the news that Vinay Prasad was once again on his way out the door. We are going to unpack this in more depth next week, because…well, there is a lot. We need to do justice to both the severity and the seriousness of the corruption Prasad has carried out, as well as characterize the profound, astonishingly stupid means by which this dweeb has contributed to the rise of fascism and the destruction of American democracy. I’ve already bid farewell to Prasad once before. I’d like to make this permanent. I was extremely busy with work stuff the last couple of weeks, but now that I have a moment, I will be sharing some thoughts. I fear they are not charitable.

The MMMWR is about to drop

NEXT WEEK we are launching our weekly newsletter: the MAHA Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This will help track the ongoing toll of death and disease being exacted upon the American people by the people who are supposed to be looking out for us but are really just getting rich by withholding essential medicines. Biggest things coming up:

* The FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) is meeting March 13 to discuss the 2026-2027 seasonal flu shots. Last year there was a secret closed-door meeting, but at least they just accepted WHO recommendations and we had flu shots. This year…who knows? Big mysteries about who will sit on the VRBPAC (there are a lot of empty seats) and what the outcome might be. Jess and I have you covered. We’ll be covering it. With visuals!

* The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting March 18-19 to launder MAHA propaganda and use it to create policy that will kill thousands if not millions of people in the US, Canada, and globally. Jess and I are going to be there for every minute, telling you exactly how these people are destroying science, undermining democracy, and ultimately, using taxpayer funds to enrich themselves at the expense of our children’s lives. We are going to be on their goddamn neck.

Resources

LOUISIANA RESIDENTS: Tell Cassidy to call for a vote now and put an end to Casey Means’ aspirations to become Surgeon General Elizabeth Holmes of the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service. If he is your Senator, call his office: (202) 224-5824

MAINE RESIDENTS: Susan Collins is infamously perennially concerned, but is also infamously unwilling to act on said concerns. Collins’ main concern about Means appears to be her felony illegal drug use, as she admitted to consuming a Schedule I controlled substance on her successful tree-lined vision quest to cuff some Christofascist wellness baby daddy dick in her newsletter. I share Collins’ concerns that the Surgeon General might recommend unregulated or even illegal drugs to Americans for her own benefit because she is a corrupt grifter quack. It is unacceptable that this is even a possibility. Call Collins and tell her that these are concerns requiring action on her part. If you live in Maine, tell Collins to say NO to advancing Means: (202) 224-2523.

ALASKA RESIDENTS: This one is personal. Lisa Murkowski knows how dangerous Means’ views on vaccination are. Murkowski has spoken to my uncle about his life’s work vaccinating Alaskans against hepatitis B virus multiple times. Like Cassidy, my uncle, Brian McMahon, is a board-certified hepatologist. He is now semi-retired, but for many years led efforts against viral hepatitis in Alaska at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Center and the CDC. My uncle has talked to both Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski many times about this. He spoke to Lisa Murkowski’s father Frank, her predecessor in the Senate, many times before that (and after, since he replaced himself with his daughter when he left the Senate to become Alaska’s governor). His colleagues have too, as well as the many Alaskans whose lives have been improved or saved altogether because of vaccination. Murkowski knows that the hepatitis B vaccine has spared thousands of Alaskan children a painful, unnecessary death in the past four decades. Remind Murkowski of what she already knows and tell her she cannot allow Means to advance: (202)-224-6665.

Thank you Lynn L, Patsy Kenefick Stinchfield, Wendy R 🇨🇦, KJ, Cris Waddell, and many others for tuning into our video! Join us next Friday for another episode of TAKING SHOTS.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Contact your Senators now (ESPECIALLY if you live in Louisiana, Alaska, or Maine) and tell them that Casey Means cannot become the Surgeon General of the United States.

We are so grateful to work with The Save America Movement (SAM) to fight back against the grave threat that the MAHA and MAGA movements present to our public health and our democracy. Please join us! We’ll be doing a lot more talking about why you should join us going forward. And MARK YOUR CALENDARS for MARCH 18 and 19!

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be reconvening (maybe…you never know if the Clown Car will actually manage to show up). We will be back to cover that, this time with more of our colleagues and SAM friends. Let us know what worked and could be better from the Means hearing!

Also, if you’ve never attended an ACIP meeting before (and why would you if you don’t work in this space), you should know they are very long and in the before-times were quite boring (because they actually worked due to their reliance on expertise). Not so much anymore. If anything, you should pop in to get my take on ACIP Vice Chair Robert Malone’s evident benign prostate hyperplasia, expert liaisons getting caught on a hot mic calling Retsef Levi an idiot, and ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln’s righteous fury about the departure from the prior frameworks for converting evidence into policy recommendations.

So get your popcorn ready!

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

However, as Dean and Denver discussed, it does not end with the absurd poetry. Casey Means is a profiteering quack who is also applying her skills as a functional medicine influencer to aid the MAHA movement in putting everyone’s health at risk and undermining democracy. So we thought it would be a good idea to discuss this, because as much as the wellness poetry is an undeniable triumph of the AI-assisted rhyming couplets.

You don’t have to go very deep into Means’ past before the woo woo absurdity takes a darker turn. If you read past the poem itself in Means’ newsletter, you’ll see that after throwing in a few (for once, disclosed) sponsored ads for gross-looking vegan snacks, she has a few not-remotely-unhinged things to say about Big Ag! Specifically, she falsely equates damages awarded in civil lawsuits with proof that the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) causes a laundry list of diseases, some of which are not actually diseases at all (mitochondrial dysfunction). There is no evidence that glyphosate causes any of these diseases, despite years of studying it. Modern agriculture depends on glyphosate to ensure high yields, which is more important than ever now as Trump’s trade war and disastrous agricultural policies are increasing food insecurity. And back when she was writing Satanic wellness poetry, she was also advocating against legislation that would protect the American food supply.

Even worse, she compared this legislation to the “horrific” 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which was passed to ensure that manufacturers continue to produce essential childhood vaccines. She laments that this resulted in “a literal explosion in the number of vaccines” and “a complete, full-court suppression of the science showing known harms.” She falsely implies that vaccines are poisonous, just like glyphosate. She does not produce evidence to support these claims (because no such evidence exists).

There are real-world consequences to spreading this type of medical disinformation. Means is actively spreading pseudoscientific propaganda to advance her own interests. If she were as qualified as she claims, she would not knowingly lie about where the science stands. She does so despite also knowing that the American food supply depends on glyphosate and children die of preventable diseases if they don’t get vaccinated.

It pains me to say that it’s a surprisingly short trip from doing psychedelic-fueled arborial husband searches (yes, she did that too) and writing wellness poetry to ushering in mass preventable death. Thanks again to Dean, Denver, and SAM for unpacking it.

The Surgeon General should not give Americans advice that will kill them, which is what she has already demonstrably done. The Senate HELP Committee must not advance her to a confirmation vote.

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Tell your Senators that Casey Means’ nomination ends in the HELP committee. She is unfit for the job of Surgeon General.

Thank you to The Save America Movement and Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS for this. We’ll see you at ACIP with more of our expert friends, so send us your feedback about how we can improve! We’ve already gotten some great suggestions on the play-by-play format. Keep it coming!

Casey Means is a failed surgeon-turned-mitochondrial health influencer who has been nominated for Surgeon General. She was grossly unqualified. Here, we explain why to prep you for Means’ three hours of b******t to the Senate HELP Committee.

Yesterday it was Casey Means’ turn. She showed up with her entire squad of metabolic warriors, ready to deflect every question and talk about her undergraduate years as if she was scrubbing in for surgery as a sophomore. So The Save America Movement, Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS, and I also showed up, ready to correct her in real time.

It’s a good thing we did, because Means responded to nearly every question with a lie. She misrepresented everything from basic cell biology to vaccination to drug regulation to soil health to agricultural practices. She was unable to answer basic yes or no questions about her own beliefs, including whether vaccines cause autism and whether the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine was a good idea.

Her favorite answer was “it’s complex.” Then she would proceed to oversimplify actually complex science or policy questions to the equivalent of one of her Instagram posts about cellular energy. As always, everything for Means is about “root causes,” which to hear means “mitochondria.” Mitochondria are real and important and they do produce cellular energy, but they are not directly fueled by “real food” or whatever and most of us have mitochondria that work just fine. Her understanding of where disease comes from is fundamentally flawed. The “root cause” she’s identified, sometimes for diseases that aren’t diseases, like feeling tired or autism, isn’t the root cause for most of the things she claims are metabolic. Most of the time, the root cause of feeling tired is not getting enough sleep. The root cause of COVID is SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The only thing that’s “complex” about this for Means is that she and her brother will not be able to sustain lucrative revenue streams for products people don’t need if this mitochondrial “root cause” nonsense is shown to be absurd. It costs a lot of money to hire a shaman for a psilocybin-fueled husband-seeking vision quest, like the one Susan Collins questioned her about with regard to her tolerance for using illegal drugs.

She especially juiced up her own qualifications. She repeatedly said she’s seen thousands of patients, even though she never practiced in a recognized field of medicine. She has a certificate in functional medicine, which is an invention to give credibility to ordering constant unnecessary medical tests. She made it sound like she still has a medical license because it was her choice to not keep it active when she decided to quit medicine before completing her training. She’s not an experienced physician. She chose to be a residency dropout. She’s a failure by choice.

Several Republicans on the HELP committee seemed unmoved by her obfuscation, including HELP chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). But he ended up advancing RFK, Jr. anyway, so right now everyone should let their Senators know that her nomination should die like a mitochondrion in the presence of ultraprocessed food.

Also, can someone explain why they all showed up wearing matching shades of blue? I try not to criticize people’s looks, but what people wear is a choice. I dress to project the image of me I want people to see in the world, which is why I cannot abide Casey’s closet of garish floral prints. But I know a coordinated look when I see one and now I can’t unsee the fact that all of the people Casey identified as her family were all wearing the same shade of methylene blue.

Whatever this is all about, we don’t want to see it with the medals of the US Surgeon General on it.

LET YOUR SENATORS KNOW: DO NOT CONFIRM CASEY MEANS AS SURGEON GENERAL

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However, I can still make time for important discussions, especially when they concern the most urgent problems we are actually dealing with, and what we can do about it.I also have to thank Dr. Eric Lullove for getting in touch and having me on to chat about how resurgent infectious diseases and collapsing government capacity are endangering US national security. He also confirmed for me that functional medicine is b******t.

Speaking of functional medicine, I’m also grateful to Eric for the opportunity to promote the most eagerly anticipated Senate HELP Committee hearing of the year thus far: the elusive Dr. Casey Means will rise from the depths of her AI-powered birthing tub address the committee regarding her nomination for US Surgeon General.

Only one problem: Casey Means is totally unqualified to be the nation’s top doctor. I’ve written about her (and her weird brother) before.

She is a functional medicine grifter who dropped out of her residency to become a wellness influencer and has made millions selling blood glucose monitors to people who don’t need them.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led by feckless hepatologist Bill Cassidy (R-LA), is charged with ensuring that the Surgeon General is qualified to dispense trusted medical advice to the American people. The Republicans on the HELP Committee—particularly Cassidy—are also responsible for installing milkmaxxing psychopath Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, where he is currently presiding over a massacre by preventable disease when he’s not taking denim-clad cold plunges with Kid Rock.

Means will almost certainly show up in one of the hideous floral prints she seems to like with her usual Christofascist influencer values (translation: she’s an anti-vax transphobe who writes poetry about the devil) and a bunch of pseudoscientific grifter babble about mitochondria. If Senators on the HELP Committee don’t hold her accountable, someone needs to hold THEM accountable. Good thing there’s an election coming up.

To make sure everyone else gets to follow along with this shitshow, me, Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS, and The Save America Movement are teaming up to provide play-by-play coverage of Means’ confirmation hearing TOMORROW beginning with pre-game coverage at 9 am ET and extending through post-hearing analysis.

We’ll call out Means and Senators who fail to represent their constituents’ interests by safeguarding their health. Join us! I promise there will be no more informative or entertaining coverage of a Surgeon General confirmation hearing before or since.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

Join me and my fantastic co-host Jeremy Faust, MD of Inside Medicine for what I hope will be a highly informative, albeit depressing, year in review:Gigi Gronvall (biosecurity and health security expert): threats to or caused by changes to health and science policy

Noam Ross (grant-witness.us): the cause and consequences of cuts to NIH

Paul Offit (pediatrician, inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, author of the excellent Beyond the Noise Substack): the destruction of vaccination

Demetre Daskalakis (former director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases): the destruction of vaccination

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virology and vaccine research.

We’ll do this every other week, so please join us for more Gold Standard Science.

In theory, this also means that you would have access to vaccines, should you make the shared clinical decision that you want one. You have always been able to make the decision that you don’t. You have always been free to grant or deny informed consent. The vaccine schedule is a recommended timeline for safely immunizing your child against preventable diseases that could kill or disable them. You have always been able to practice shared clinical decision-making.

Normally, recommendations are made individually for each vaccine by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), who follow a standardized framework to conduct extensive evidence reviews. The ACIP was conceived as an external, independent advisory panel that would objectively review data to determine whether or not a particular vaccine regimen provided benefits that outweighed the risks. They’ve done that since the first meeting in 1964.

Although ACIP’s performance has been steadily on the decline since Kennedy fired them all last June and replaced them with mostly anti-vaxxers and space occupiers, this announcement circumvents the need for ACIP recommendations altogether.

It’s hard to stay if this will stick, but it does further chip away at public confidence in vaccines and access to them. It is very unclear how this will impact insurance, something of particular concern considering millions of Americans just lost it and many more never had it to begin with. With health infrastructure failing in the US and globally due to Trump divesting from everything that made America great and our entire cohort of senior health officials tacitly discouraging everyone from immunization by encouraging “shared clinical decision-making” vaccination rates will continue to decline.

What is perhaps most difficult to believe is that this is all based on the bizarre reality that President Donald Trump has ordered Kennedy to align the US vaccine schedule with the far less populous nation of Denmark, which has a socialist economic structure and a nationalized health system and is, actually, nothing like the US.

He appears to have gotten this idea from the combined brain trust of Martin Kulldorff (former ACIP Chair and the newly minted Chief Science Officer of the newly invented HHS think tank that Kennedy started) and Tracy Beth Høeg (Acting Director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research—she is the top US drug regulator), who circulated a memo that supposedly supports this decision. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

As you might imagine, it was an unhappy day for public health enthusiasts and vaccine researchers. I got two of my favorite colleagues together to talk about why you need to know about the most recent MAHA assault on your family’s safety and well-being, and what the consequences will be.

Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS: epidemiologist and science communicator, mother of three

Saskia Popescu: epidemiologist, infection preventionist, global health security and biodefense expert

Dr. Angela Rasmussen (me): virologist and marginally competent Substack Live administrator

It seemed like this was well-received so we are going to do it again and take questions next time. See you then! And get your flu shot.

Rasmussen Retorts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. All content is free. Paid subscriptions support my lab’s virus and vaccine research.

Measles outbreaks in the US, Canada, and Mexico

Andrew Wakefield, Kennedy, Del Bigtree, and the rise of the (really, really, really profitable) modern anti-vax movement

Kennedy’s “natural experiment” in Samoa that killed 83 people, mostly kids under the age of five

Kennedy’s next experiment: he just gave $1.6M to Danish MAHA cronies to conduct a study that appears to be highly ethically questionable in that it will put thousands of children in Guinea-Bissau at risk of contracting a lifelong infection with chronic hepatitis B virus

Get your flu shot

What is occurring in the US—to be clear, that’s the end of democracy via enabling the sickness and death of millions by depriving them of vaccination, safe medication, and essential health services—is the most profoundly upsetting tragedy of my life so far. It crushes me to watch as America collapses into a pestilent, ignorant, non-functional fascist dictatorship. The same things are happening in Canada: the gradual erosion of trust in scientists and public health professionals, relentless anti-science and anti-vax propaganda, targeting individual scientists at their homes and workplaces (ask me how I know), and normalization of disregard for evidence or expertise. This happened in the US. I will do everything I possibly can to prevent this from happening here.

Anyway, when Dean and I met in person about a month ago, it became quickly apparent that we share similar interests in our contempt for foreign influence campaigns that are undermining democratic processes and endangering both Canada and the US with disinformation about health and science. It’s the same interests using the same tactics and it pisses both of us off.

So we decided to see how this would go. It went so well that I think we are going to do it more often. Maybe even every week. So if you are into considered and profane evidence-based discussions from two world-class s**t-talkers about how exploiting ignorance about public health and infectious diseases enables the rise of North American fascism, then this is the show for you! See you next week.

This mission is really important because at the end of the day, it has saved millions of American lives and protected America’s national security interests. Public health is a matter of national security. The solution to reform or modernization of the CDC is not to burn it to the ground and replace it with a political agency that forces pseudoscientific MAHA b******t onto the taxpayers who fund it. Not having a CDC is a risk to national security. People will die without the essential services that CDC provides.

There’s a lot of distrust of public health, but I will go to my grave arguing that it isn’t because of the CDC’s past mistakes. It is because the people who are currently in power, including both Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill, as well as NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, have lied consistently about the CDC and public health for the past five years. They continue to lie to this day.

The CDC will not be able to carry out its mission after these RIFs. Although I am certain that CDC will continue to exist as an agency, I suspect at least some of the leadership that has been removed will be replaced with more people like the aforementioned ideologues. They will continue to use government resources to spread propaganda that will further erode trust in science. They will continue to lie so prolifically that the public will not know who to trust, because the government will no longer be trustworthy. The Trump administration does not care if they are trusted, so long as they acquire absolute power and as many tax dollars as they can siphon from the CDC budget.

It is not an accident that the consequences of gutting the CDC will be more American death and less American security. The chaos-is-a-ladder approach is a tried and true path to consolidating authoritarian power. If people are preoccupied with all the diseases they are getting and dying from, they will be less likely to effectively resist Trump’s growing dictatorial power. CDC will no longer function as a public health agency, but as a mouthpiece for propaganda. When outbreaks occur as they inevitably will, Kennedy will be able to continue telling people the same untrue MAHA b******t, and CDC will back that up without doing any of the things they exist to do: tracking cases, responding to outbreaks, and containing them. The people who I suspect will be installed at CDC will be much more interested in profiteering and advancing political and ideological goals than acting on behalf of the American people they are supposed to serve. The CDC may exist as an agency, but we will not have a CDC.

This will be bad enough at steady state, but it’s even worse in the event of a major health emergency, like a pandemic. I’ll leave you with another video. This was the end of my academic talk on vaccine policy at the 19th Vaccine Congress in Kyoto, Japan on September 8th, in which I discussed the risk that H5N1 bird flu presents. With the level of staff and functionality depleted in early September, I argued with evidence that H5N1 presents an existential threat to human civilization. I’m not being hyperbolic—I genuinely think this is true. Can you imagine what the pandemic post-mortem discourse would be if COVID had a higher mortality rate, killed millions of babies and kids, destroyed agriculture and our food supply, and emerged as a result of American negligence? It would be a lot worse than “oh but masks and lockdowns and (whatever).” There might not be a discourse because so many people will have died, and whoever survives will find themselves in a radically different reality from the one we live in now. This is what America—and the world—faces without a functional CDC.

Congress must take action to prevent the CDC from being dismantled. The RIFs must be reversed and America needs to fight for public health, as it is literally a fight for our lives.