I’m reeling from the Trump-Mamdani meet up. It’s hard to focus on public health with the memes flying about their one-sided bromance, but I did my best to look away from the hilarity to bring you some news.

Get your top hat, cane, and lip liner for this new MAHA madness. The CDC webpage “Autism and Vaccines” has been changed for the worse. This sounds completely fake, but it’s real: the page now reads “Vaccines do not cause Autism*”. That asterisk is “clarified” at the bottom of the page, reading:

Senator Bill Cassidy is the chair of that committee. He was the deciding vote to confirm RFK Jr as the head of the HHS earlier this year. I hope he’s really stewing in this. RFK Jr himself is taking the credit for the lies now published on the CDC website. Like all of the other members of the Trump admin, RFK Jr has no shame, honor, or respect. Has Senator Cassidy learned from this? Cassidy has been stabbed in the back by the man he helped into his position of power, so it would only make sense to shut this down by impeaching RFK Jr.

Well, that was a nice thought. Cassidy won’t do anything about this but live his life “forward.” Wow, instead of apologizing or owning up he’s jumping straight to ~Live Laugh Love~ kitschy home decor copy when asked about this development.

In case you need to see what his reaction should have looked like, I’ve pulled together some reactions for you. I’ve never seen so many people with MDs or PhDs cuss and yell on the internet before now. I have a more emo “poise and rationality” type of mentality writing this. Regardless, I’m right there in the chorus with the medical and public health communities. Sing it with me everyone: We chime in with a “Haven’t you people ever heard of telling the goddamn truth?!”

Many are focusing on the danger this messaging is to children. They’re right: these lies are incredibly dangerous. If more parents look at this webpage and decide not to vaccinate their children, we will see an increase in infant and child deaths from preventable infections. We will see even more that survive infection and suffer debilitating consequences and possible lifelong disability.

I want to mention another part of this story. The people behind this push to link vaccination to autism are really bigoted to autistic people. I see autistic people talking about how much these people despise autism, but not as many public health or healthcare providers. We know without a shadow of a doubt that vaccines do not cause autism. Even if we eliminated all childhood vaccination tomorrow, there would be no change in the rates of autism in the United States. These anti-vaxxers are relentless in their pursuit of “preventing” autism. The disdain they have for autistic children and adults disgusts me. They try dressing up their ableism and bigotry in “just asking questions” or “addressing the important concerns of parents” or whatever they think makes it more legitimate.

The CDC page has this limp disguise for their hatred:

Wow, so some parents think that vaccines “played a role”? Then it surely must be “critical” to prove those ignorant fools right! Clearly, what’s most important is how parents feel about autism over providing the best care and resources for children and adults that have autism.

Congrats to the fraudsters and snake oil salesmen that changed this CDC page. If you just skimmed it without knowing any better, you might think all the links to studies, impressive looking citations, and the timeline they present are worth something. Make no mistake, it’s all less than worthless. They’re still claiming victory, however.

I took a look at the other pages from the CDC on vaccine safety. It’s funny in an emo way that all of the other pages are totally normal. The pages on vaccines and febrile seizures, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and fainting are all the pages from December 2024. The information on them is completely reasonable. MAHA has recently been trying to pin autism on the adjuvants in some vaccines, but even the CDC’s adjuvant page is the old one! That means these people are out here declaring victory in a made up scientific “debate” over one webpage. That really confirms it for me, these freaks care about demonizing autism over anything else.

Autistic people need support, not bitter scapegoating and braying about parents’ ill-informed “concerns.” Kaelynn Partlow says it really well at the end of this short video, “the autism community deserves answers, more research, and a higher level of scientific accountability.” Hear, hear!

A study was published earlier this week in JAMA Internal Medicine on the impact of NIH funding cuts on clinical trials. They estimate that 383 clinical trails have had their funding terminated this year. Over 74,000 people were enrolled in those trials.

Clinical trials are really expensive. They are complicated and require a lot of time and dedicated clinicians and researchers to design and run. Many people that enroll in clinical trials are often have no other treatment options for their medical condition. The study itself is behind a paywall, but this Ars Technica coverage is great. In an editor’s note (also paywalled), the editors go into detail on the ethical consequences of suddenly cutting clinical trials:

Some trials may end up being restored, as funding this year has ping ponged all over the place (just like tariffs, and ICE raids, and every other thing this current administration does). Even if funding returns, the harm from these initial cuts will remain.

Earlier this week, ProPublica published a recap of the current state of bird flu in the United States. It’s really worth reading, but I’ll give you a couple highlights. One is the USDA’s refusal to use a vaccine on poultry that is proven to reduce the spread of bird flu. Another is the appearance of RFK Jr’s obsession with his made up ideas on heard immunity—he thinks we should just let bird flu rip through the millions of poultry in the country so “natural” immunity can be established. This approach of course risks bird flu infections in people and will result in financial disaster for farms.

This is an unfortunate case study in what happens when you actively try to avoid the solution to a problem and then try to blame anyone but your poor decision making for the outcomes. For now, that looks like increased egg prices. Turkey prices could also increase, just in time for Thanksgiving.

The new CDC measles data was published this week. There were fewer confirmed weekly cases observed in this report, signalling that spread could be slowing. I’m not holding out hope with the holidays coming up and the weather getting colder. Canada lost its measles elimination status last week. The same could happen in the US if we see continued cases in the next two months.

There’s been some hype this week about existing drugs being repurposed to also treat Alzheimer’s disease. An expert panel looked at eight drugs and the existing research on if they have any known effect on Alzheimer’s disease. The drug they listed with the highest potential is the shingles vaccine.

The studies they present are compelling to me, but it’s too early to say that the shingle vaccine definitively lowers your risk of developing Alzheimer’s. All of the studies they discuss show that groups that get the shingles vaccine have reduced rates of dementia compared to unvaccinated groups. I’m interested to see where this goes—hopefully this paper gets larger studies in motion to really examine the shingles vaccine and Alzheimer’s!

I love seeing the public service announcements from the CPSC around Thanksgiving. You get all the safety tips for holiday cooking AND you get to see flaming infernos from turkey cooking gone wrong. Please enjoy:

Remember when cooking this holiday season:

These tips can keep you safe from fire and infectious disease, leaving you healthy as you enjoy and give thanks. I hope y’all enjoy your Thanksgiving. Try not to get too mad if politics come up at the dinner table. Instead, channel Mamdani’s charisma and remember to listen to the CPSC. Don’t you leave any pans unattended or immolate any turkeys!

Professor Batty