It was a tough time: This spring summer I saw a deliberate anti-science disinformation campaign emerging from the White House, and how it was both targeting scientists (me) and decimating Hispanic and other low-income communities. To say nothing I felt was morally indefensible
I’m in a scary place, definitely out of my comfort zone, but having the support of my family and the scientific community (including many govt scientists who feel similarly threatened), gives me a lot courage to keep going.
Back in May in a paper published in @MicrobesInfect I predicted the attacks on science and scientists would escalate in the weeks prior to the 2020 US presidential election, and pretty much that’s what’s happening.
Also troubling is the accelerating globalization of anti-science and links to QAnon and neo-nazi political activities. I have a new paper out in @MicrobesInfect this coming week..
I took some comfort in the writings of Elie Wiesel, Abba Eban, others, and that helped. Here's what EW said in his @NobelPrize acceptance speech on Dec 10, 1986 in Oslo, Norway. L'Shana Tova
1/n Trump admin set to tie Tylenol to autism risk, officials say…but my view: the published evidence is not very compelling with largest study finding no association, and a systematic review showing some studies linking it other not. This needs reframing washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09…
2/n before I start, here’s a large study of 2 million Swedish kids done at the renowned @karolinskainst showing no association in @JAMA_current jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…
@karolinskainst @JAMA_current 3/n here’s my way of thinking about this, which I wrote about in a previous book after my in depth discussions with RFK Jr back in 2017
1/n Watching more Dept HHS wellness/influencer autism pseudoscience infiltrate RFK Jr’s public remarks + the recent tragic and fact-free White House press conference. Most of this I debunked in a previous book, written during/after a year of unproductive discussions with the guy
2/n the major points:
1. We have a good understanding of the neurodevelopmental basis of autism operating through dozens of autism genes (including Rachel’s) active in early pregnancy .sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
2. This doesn’t mean there is no environmental influence, on the contrary multiple environmental triggers have been identified all operating by interacting with autism genes in early pregnancy nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
1/n When you actually bother to read the HHSBARDA statement you realize how untethered from reality he has become, MAHA pseudoscience. For instance this statement below touting benefits of whole inactivated virus vaccines for serious respiratory infections hhs.gov/press-room/hhs…
2/n so instead of mRNA which can be quickly adapted to emerging pandemic threats he’s going to combine multiple whole inactivated viruses and load them up with TLR agonists as adjuvants. What will that do? Well first it’s unreliable bc you never know what viruses will grow in…
3/n will grow in eggs or cell lines. You need a high titer of virus. Second two of our nation’s most troubling adverse vaccine reactions occurred using this approach. In early 1960s with formalin inactivated RSV and later in 1976 with swine flu causing GBS.
They’re wrong. Vaccines don’t cause autism. They just don’t. As the book about my daughter details: 1. Extensive published scientific evidence showing no link 2. Lack of plausibility based on the autism genes in early fetal brain development 3. Brain assembloid studies
Watch out for antivaccine activists. They don't care about you. They don't care about your family. They have another agenda.
There are a few known environmental exposures linked to autism. They occur through their interactions with autism genes in early pregnancy. I've detailed them for Bobby and wrote about them in my book. He chooses to ignore them. That was 8 years ago, presumably we have more...
1/n The reality: since Mr. Kennedy became HHS Secretary he/staff have waged a war of antivaccine disinformation against the American people on a frequent/regular basis. He did this as U.S. experienced its worse measles epidemic in years, showing zero concern for our health/safety
2/n Here I will list what I consider are some of his worst public statements and acts, it may take me a day or so to get through it all, I hope it’s a useful reference.
3/n first regarding the MMR vaccine vs measles in our pandemic now in 4 states in the Southern Great Plains
1/n My articles and interviews on the overlap between antiscience and antisemitism, accelerating during the pandemic but going back to the 14th century