Tag: vaccines

Trust No One

Feb 10, 2026

By KIM BELLARD

You know, it’s gotten to the point when I just try to tune out the things Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says. “Schizophrenia can be cured with a keto diet”? Sure, whatever. “The war on protein is over”? Who even knew there was such a war? The carnivore diet is a great way to lose weight and gain “mental clarity”? It sure doesn’t show.

His most dangerous statements, though, are probably those related to vaccines. He was known as a vaccine skeptic – no, make that critic – long before he was named as HHS Secretary, but being Secretary put him in position to put his anti-vaccine views into action. He has revamped the committee that make vaccine recommendations, putting people on them that share his skepticism.

The committee has already made significant changes to childhood immunization schedules, and they’re not done yet. The head of the vaccine advisory committee isn’t just skeptical of measles vaccines, he’s not keen on mandating the polio vaccine either. His committee is expected to go after COVID vaccines next.

One particularly outspoken committee member, Dr. Robert Malone said: “I’m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the Covid vaccine mRNA products off the market. All I can say is, stay tuned and wait for the upcoming A.C.I.P. meeting. If the F.D.A. won’t act, there are other entities that will.” He told The New York Times that scientists or regulators who claimed COVID vaccines were safe are “either being disingenuous, or they are not considering the context or are ignorant.”

Meanwhile, RFK Jr.’s nominee for Surgeon General is, shall we say, big in the MAHA movement but not so much in medical professional circles, having placed her medical license in “inactive” status. Her own website brags that she “is considered controversial because her work challenges the economic and cultural foundations of U.S. healthcare, agriculture, and food systems.”

The impacts of these attitudes are neither academic nor far in the future: we’re already in the midst of an unprecedented measles outbreak that many attribute to the vaccine skepticism that RFK Jr. and his ilk have spawned and encouraged.

What caused me to write about this is a new poll out from KFF: Trust in the CDC and Views of Federal Childhood Vaccine Schedule Changes. Top-line finding: “the public’s trust in the CDC remains at its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic.” Well, you can’t be surprised by that.

“Six years ago, 85% of Americans, and 90% of Republicans, trusted the CDC. Now less than half trust the CDC on vaccines,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said. “The wars over COVID, science, and vaccines have left the country without a trusted national voice on vaccines, and that trust will take time to restore.”

What I found particularly interesting is that, as Dr. Altman said, pre-COVID trust in the CDC was both high and across party lines. Republicans, though, lost trust during the pandemic and basically have never recovered. It took the Trump Administration to get Democrats to lose their trust – but, in fact, their trust still remains higher (55% versus 43%). Independents hover slightly above Republicans, but well below Democrats.

Specifically, about trust in childhood vaccine recommendations only about 44% have some or a lot of faith in federal agencies such as the CDC and FDA, and that doesn’t vary much by either party ID or support for MAHA. E.g., 47% for MAHA supporters versus 43% for Not MAHA Supporters. What does it say about MAHA that believers don’t have faith what the creator of MAHA is doing?

The Nobel Prize’s Amazing Track Record in Immunology

Oct 27, 2025

By MIKE MAGEE

With the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine last week, the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) took an understandable victory lap, stating: “This Nobel Prize demonstrates how immunology is central to medicine and human health. The ability to harness, modulate, or restrain immune responses holds promise across a vast range of diseases — from autoimmune conditions to cancer, allergies, infectious disease, and beyond.”

This year’s award went to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi, and it couldn’t have come at a better time as our nation’s scientific community and their governmental, academic and corporate science leaders push back against vaccine skeptic RFK Jr.

As the AAI proudly exclaims, “Since 1901, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 27 AAI members for their innovation and achievements in immunology and related disciplines.” Make that 28 with the addition of Dr. Sakaguchi, a Distinguished Fellow of AAI.

The field of Immunology and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have grown side by side over the past century.

Immunity has Latin roots from the word immunitas which in Roman times was offered to denote exemption from the burden of taxation to worthy citizens by their Emperor. Protection from disease is a bit more complicated than that and offers our White Blood Cells (WBCs) a starring role. These cells are produced in the bone marrow, then bivouacked to the fetal thymus for instruction on how to attack only invaders, but spare our own healthy cells.

WBC’s are organized in specialized divisions. WBC neutrophils engulf bacterial, fungi, and fungi as immediate first responders. Monocyte macrophages are an additional first line of defense, literally gobbling and digesting bacteria and damaged cells through a process called “phagocytosis.” B-cells produce specific proteins called antibodies, designed to learn and remember specific invaders chemical make-up or “antigen.” They can ID offenders quickly and neutralize target bacteria, toxins, and viruses. And T-cells are specially designed to go after viruses hidden within the human cells themselves.

The first ever Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to German scientist, Emil von Behring, eleven years after he demonstrated “passive immunity.” He was able to isolate poisons or toxins derived from tetanus and diphtheria microorganisms, inject them into lab animals, and subsequently prove that the animals were now “protected” from tetanus and diphtheria infection. These antitoxins, liberally employed in New York City, where diphtheria was the major killer of infants, quickly ended that sad epidemic.

The body’s inner defense system began to reveal its mysteries in the early 1900s. Brussel scientist Jules Bordet, while studying the bacteria Anthrax, was able to not only identified protein antibodies in response to anthrax infection, but also a series of companion proteins. This cascade of proteins linked to the antibodies enhanced their bacterial killing power. In 1919 Bordet received his Nobel Prize for the discovery of a series of “complement” proteins, which when activated help antibodies “drill holes” through bacterial cell walls and destroy them.

Victories against certain pathogens were hard fought. In the case of poliovirus, which had a predilection to invade motor neurons, especially in children, and cause paralysis, it required a remarkable collaboration between government, academic medical researchers and local community based doctors and nurses to ultimately succeed. The effort involved simultaneous testing in children of two very different vaccines.

Current vaccine skeptics like RFK Jr. argue against historic facts.

We Cannot Let RFK Jr Lead Us Backwards in Health

Mar 6, 2025

By ARIEL FRISTOE

As the artistic director of Out of Hand Theater, an arts organization that promotes anti-racism, social activism and health equity, I believe the recent appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) as Secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services is beyond concerning. RFK is not a doctor, nor is he a scientist, yet he has been very vocal about his vaccine skepticism and has promoted misinformation about vaccine safety. Now, along with the removal of scientific information and warnings from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, RFK’s appointment could lead to major increases in preventable and serious illnesses, outbreaks and deaths.

COVID-19 and its various mutations are still very much part of our daily landscape. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 7 million COVID-related deaths have been reported since 2020 worldwide, nearly 2 million deaths were recorded in 2020 alone. The first vaccines were developed and became available by November 2020 and reported deaths from the last 28 days is 3,872, which is a 98.7% decrease from the onset of the pandemic. Vaccines work and save lives!

Diseases like smallpox and the bubonic plague were wiped out because scientists developed vaccines. Currently, with the “anti-vax” rhetoric being embraced and misinformation being so commonplace, reports of measles went from 4 cases in 2023 to 285 in 2024. Nine of these cases required hospitalization. The affected individuals include six children under four years old, 16 individuals aged 5-17, and two adults over 18 – the numbers rise as the days go by with 124 cases in in Texas in 2025 alone. We cannot and should not be going backwards where medicine is concerned.

Health experts are concerned that increasing nonmedical vaccine exemptions among schoolchildren could lead to more frequent outbreaks. Declining vaccination rates are worrisome as measles can cause serious illness, including hospitalization and brain swelling. I am not a doctor nor a scientist, but I place my trust in the actual doctors and scientists who have the greater good in mind when developing medicines to combat and prevent diseases. Why does this matter to me? Through our Equitable Vaccines program, we use art, information and conversation to encourage vaccine confidence and educate the community about resources so that we can create a healthier community, and we’re proud to have helped deliver 650 vaccines across Georgia. A healthy community is a strong community – and to me, that is the most valuable commodity over what is imported and exported.

As a woman, as a mother, as a human, I worry about our health and our children’s future with RFK Jr leading the Department of Health and Human Services. I implore that all of us contact our local and state representatives to express our concerns over RFK’s Department of Health and Human Services appointment. We cannot go backwards when we have the resources available to us to create a safe and healthy place for every citizen to thrive. We must prioritize our communities’ health and allow proven data to guide our most important decisions that impact those that are most precious to us.

Ariel Fristoe is the Artistic Director at Out of Hand Theater

A COVID-19 vaccine exemption letter

Feb 24, 2023

BY ANISH KOKA

I recently saw a young man who came to see me because his place of future employment, a large health system was requiring him to complete the 1º series of his COVID-19 vaccination. He was concerned because he had chest pain after his first mRNA vaccine and was uncomfortable with the risks of a second mRNA dose. He attempted to get a Johnson and Johnson vaccine and was told by pharmacists he was not allowed to mix and match this particular vaccine as he had already received an mRNA dose. With no other option, he came to ask me whether I thought a vaccine exemption was reasonable in his case. He already had a family medicine physician sign an exemption that had been denied by his future employer’s vaccine exemption committee. The young man works on the “back end” of the health system remotely from home and he has no patient contact. The entire process has caused him to lose his health insurance from his former employer, and he was now paying out of pocket for an expensive COBRA health insurance plan. What follows is my letter to the vaccine exemption review committee regarding his case. (Published with permission, only the relevant names have been changed/redacted)

Dear Vaccine Exemption Review Committee,

I am writing this letter on behalf of John Smith DOB: xx/xx/xx in regard to a mandate from xxxx Health that Mr. Smith receive a second dose of an mRNA vaccine to complete his primary COVID-19 vaccine series.

Mr. Smith has asked me to render an opinion specifically related to his cardiac risk of receiving a second dose of an mRNA vaccine. I am a board-certified cardiologist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and have been in active clinical practice for 13 years.

After reviewing the details of his case, I have grave concerns about compelling him to receive a second dose of an mRNA vaccine and would like to outline the reasons for my conclusion in this letter. I am going to specifically discuss his risk of an important, now well-recognized, adverse event: vaccine myocarditis.

What follows is some important background information about vaccine myocarditis that has been gleaned over the last 2 years before I discuss the particulars of Mr. Smith’s case.

It is relevant to note here that as a physician active clinically in both the inpatient and outpatient arenas, I am an eyewitness to the severe toll COVID-19 took on my patients in the Spring or 2020. I was impressed enough with the initial mRNA vaccine data to acquire the vaccine available from the Philadelphia Department of Health (Moderna) and ran multiple vaccine clinics in order to vaccinate my mostly high-risk patients.

What follows is data produced since the vaccine rollout that is relevant to Mr. Smith’s case.

Matthew’s health care tidbits: The Stupidity Vaccine

Mar 5, 2022

Each week I’ve been adding a brief tidbits section to the THCB Reader, our weekly newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB that week (Sign up here!). Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt

For my health care tidbits this week, I think we need a new vaccine. We need one that prevents stupidity.

Look I get that some people don’t think the flu vaccine is effective and don’t think the effects are too bad, so they don’t get one every year. Many people don’t get a vaccine for shingles. But as someone who had shingles long before the recommended age for the vaccine, let me tell you, you’ll wish you had the vaccine should you get it. And even sensible liberal Maggie Mahar a long while back was pretty suspicious of Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer–although since then it’s been replaced both by a more effective updated version and by Cervarix and the long term results are really good.

But since COVID-19 appeared the cultural and ideological identification among most Republicans has been that only wussy liberals take the COVID vaccine. This is stupid and indefensible. Even Donald Trump thinks so! But when he told his cult members that, they booed him! And so the US is stuck on not enough people vaccinated to repel variants or stop ICUs filling up. There are now hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths among the unvaccinated with no end in sight.

But this isn’t stupid enough. Now we are seeing senior political leaders attacking vaccines for diseases we’ve had under control for ages. We’ve already seen outbreaks of measles in recent years, including one at Disneyland. Last month 17 Georgia state senators proposed banning school mandates for all vaccines including MMR, chickenpox, DtAP, Hep B, Polio and more. It’s amazing that these people don’t believe in science, yet they are probably happy to use a smartphone or get in an airplane.

Sadly there appears to be no vaccine for stupidity on the horizon

The Social Science of Covid

Jan 31, 2022

By MIKE MAGEE

As we enter the third year of the Covid pandemic, with perhaps a partial end in sight, the weight of the debate shows signs of shifting away from genetically engineered therapies, and toward a social science search for historic context.

Renowned historian, Charles E. Rosenberg, envisioned a similar transition for the AIDS epidemic in 1989. He described its likely future course then as a “social phenomenon” with these words, “Epidemics start at a moment in time, proceed on a stage limited in space and duration, follow a plot line of increasing and revelatory tension, move to a crisis of individual and collective character, then drift toward closure.”

The Covid Vaccine’s PR Crisis: Health Innovation vs the Take-Down Power of Disinformation

Jan 21, 2022

By JESSICA DaMASSA

Misinformation and disinformation (intentionally wrong information) have plagued the storyline of the Covid19 vaccine since the early days of its development, creating a healthcare communications crisis that has not only stalled U.S. vaccination rates, but has also raised questions about how medical and scientific experts will ever again win trust across audiences and communications platforms that are becoming increasingly fragmented, and sometimes hostile.

Yesterday, on the two-year anniversary of the first Covid case in the U.S., I sat down with Dr. Carlos del Rio, Professor of Infectious Diseases & Epidemiology at Emory University, and Jon Reiner, Editorial Director at 120/80 MKTG, to check-in on the vaccine conversation and, more generally, what we in the health innovation community can learn from this situation as we attempt to introduce other new medicines, breakthrough technologies, and scientific advances to the world.

Dr. del Rio served as a vaccine expert in a public service campaign that 120/80 MKTG put together called “Just the Facts on Vax,” which sought to combat vaccine disinformation early-on with a series of bite-sized, social-media-ready videos that put infectious disease experts front-and-center to answer common questions about the vaccine. The full campaign can be viewed on 120over80 MKTG’s YouTube channel, but can it still have an impact? And, in the grand scheme of things, when it comes to people’s personal health, evolving medical or scientific information, and a litany of communication platforms that can position nearly anyone as an expert, how do real experts build trust? An interesting – and timely – chat about the power of information and the “trusted expert” archetype in the context of one of the most unique healthcare stories of our lifetime.

The “Secret Sauce” – A Comparison of TSMC and Pfizer

Oct 22, 2021

By MIKE MAGEE

This week’s Tom Friedman Opinion piece in the New York Times contained a title impossible to ignore: “China’s Bullying Is Becoming a Danger To The World and Itself.” The editorial has much to recommend it. But the item that caught my eye was Friedman’s full-throated endorsement of Taiwan’s “most sophisticated microchip manufacturer in the world,” Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

TSMC owns 50% of the world’s microchip manufacturing market, and along with South Korea’s Samsung, is one of only two companies currently producing the ultra-small 5-nanometer chips. Next year, TSMC will take sole ownership of the lead with a 3-nanometer chip. In this field, the smaller the better. (For comparison, most of China’s output is 14 to 28 nanometers.)

U.S. Silicon Valley companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, and recently Intel contract with TSMC rather than produce chips on their own. In addition, the key machines and chemicals necessary to produce the chips are willing supplied to TSMC by U.S. and European manufacturers. TSMC’s secret sauce, according to Friedman, is “trust.” As he writes, “Over the years, TSMC has built an amazing ecosystem of trusted partners that share their intellectual property with TSMC to build their proprietary chips.”

“Trust me” is not a phrase often associated with intellectual property. Consider, for example, Washington Post’s reporting the very same day as Friedman’s under the banner, “In secret vaccine contracts with governments, Pfizer took hard-line in the push for profit, report says.” The article reveals documents in a Public Citizen report that confirms that Pfizer has been maximizing their vaccine profits “behind a veil of strict secrecy, allowing for little public scrutiny… even as demand surges…”

As I describe in my book “Code Blue: Inside the Medical Industrial Complex” (Grove 2020), Pfizer’s focus on intellectual property as a commercial weapon has a history that extends back a half-century.

The Vaccine Brawl – A Legal Battle in Process

Oct 6, 2021

By MIKE MAGEE

The power to mandate vaccines was litigated and resolved over a century ago. Justice John Marshall Harlin, a favorite of current Chief Justice Roberts, penned the 7 to 2 majority opinion in 1905’s Jacobson v. Massachusetts. Its impact was epic.

In 1905, Massachusetts was one of 11 states that required compulsory vaccinations. The Rev. Henning Jacobson, a Lutheran minister, challenged the city of Cambridge, MA, which had passed a local law requiring citizens to undergo smallpox vaccination or pay a $5 fine. Jacobson and his son claimed they had previously had bad reactions to the vaccine and refused to pay the fine believing the government was denying them their due process XIV Amendment rights.

In deciding against them, Harlan wrote, “liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty]…”

Of course, a state’s right to legislate compulsory public health measures does not require them to do so. In fact, as we have seen in Texas and Florida among others, they may decide to do just the opposite – declare life-saving mandates (for masks or vaccines) to be unlawful. At least 14 states have passed laws barring employer and school vaccine mandates and imposing penalties in Republican-controlled states already.

So state powers are clearly a double-edged sword when it comes to health care.

Questions anyone?

Can we move on?

Jun 27, 2019

By CHADI NABHAN MD, MBA, FACP

Every so often, my cynical self emerges from the dead. Maybe it’s a byproduct of social media, or from following Saurabh Jha, who pontificates about everything from Indian elections to the Brexit fiasco. Regardless, there are times when my attempts at refraining from being opinionated are successful, but there are rare occasions when they are not. Have I earned the right to opine freely about moving on from financial toxicity, anti-vaxers, who has ‘skin in the game’ when it comes to the health care system, the patient & their data, and if we should call patients “consumers”? You’ll have to decide.

I endorse academic publications; they can be stimulating and may delve into more research and are essential if you crave academic recognition. I also enjoy listening to live debates and podcasts, as well as reading, social media rants, but some of the debates and publications are annoying me. I have tried to address some of them in my own podcast series “Outspoken Oncology” as a remedy, but my remedy was no cure. Instead, I find myself typing away these words as a last therapeutic intervention.

Here are my random thoughts on the topics that have been rehashed & restated all over social media outlets (think: Twitter feeds, LinkedIn posts, Pubmed articles, the list goes on), that you will simply find no way out. Disclaimer, these are NOT organized by level of importance but simply based on what struck me over the past week as grossly overstated issues in health care. Forgive my blunt honesty.