I’ve recently decided to be possessed by the spirit of the deceased Dr. Harvey Wiley. He was an important figure in early 20th century consumer protections and public health agencies in America, and he is surely spinning in his grave at this very moment! His spinning spirit compels me… I simply MUST publish a newsletter bringing public health to the people!

High quality public health information can be difficult to find in our algorithmic feeds. It’s also not easy to jump head first into government statistics, research papers, biased billionaire-owned media, and debating in comments sections.

In my personal life, I get asked “hey, what’s going on with measles?” or “you know science stuff… Is bird flu, like, still around?” I want to answer questions like those about ongoing public health concerns and issues. I’ll also strive to highlight what to look out for in our consumer and media landscapes. There’s a lot of good out there, but it’s all mixed in with a lot of bad, unfortunately.

Here’s to “Old Borax” (Dr. Wiley) and his fight for public health and consumer protection; I hope to live up to his legacy. And I promise I won’t intentionally poison anyone! You are certainly welcome to call me Young Borax, though I usually go by Professor Batty.

In the United States, measles cases per week are currently falling and have been for several weeks. Canada has had more total cases of measles than the US in 2025 so far; the CDC reports a total of 1,356 total cases while the Canadian government reports 4,548 total cases. I don’t speak Spanish, so it’s harder for me to find current case numbers reported directly by the Mexican government. Today, the Pan American Health Organization reports 3,911 measles cases in Mexico for 2025. Across North and South America, 18 people have died of measles. This is the worst outbreak in this region in decades.

These outbreaks across the Americas all have one similarity: most of the cases are in unvaccinated adults and children. Measles is insanely contagious, so it spreads like wildfire in communities with low vaccination rates. Many people seem to assume measles is just a childhood illness that causes a rash, like chicken pox. If you are in this camp, please know that measles can cause brain swelling, deafness, blindness, seizures, hospitalization and death, even in otherwise healthy children. It is important to take measles seriously, as these complications are preventable with vaccination. After all, measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 because of vaccination efforts. Mexico and Canada achieved the same two years earlier in 1998!

We don’t have specific antiviral treatments for measles. The ounce of prevention in that vaccine is worth a pound of lives saved! Even if cases are falling in some areas right now, measles will continue to stick around and infect unvaccinated populations.

Moving on to bird flu, most cases in the US are on the West coast. Unlike measles, there is no known person-to-person transmission of bird flu. There are also significantly fewer cases of bird flu in 2025 than measles. There are currently no human cases in Canada, but one child has died of bird flu in Mexico earlier this year.

The people most at risk are those that work directly with dairy and poultry, especially in commercial settings. If that’s you or someone you know, the best thing they can do is wear proper personal protective equipment while working.

Cat owners across social media have also been quite concerned, as bird flu can infect cats. Cats seem particularly vulnerable to severe bird flu infection, which can result in death. Cats that live indoors exclusively face a very low risk of contracting bird flu, unless they are fed a raw diet. Raw cat food and raw milk products can spread bird flu to cats, but this risk is eliminated in traditional cat foods that are cooked (including basic kibble and cans of fancy feast). Cats that go (or live) outside have a likely larger risk of contracting bird flu, as they can be exposed to infected birds outside. Even if you cat would never in a million years be able to catch a bird, it could be exposed via dead birds in their territory. Just something to consider, if you are worried for your cats and kittens.

It seems this story has been buried under the botched law enforcement deployments in DC. In Atlanta on Friday, August 8th, the CDC headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman. The CDC and neighboring Emory University campus were put on lock down, and a police officer was killed, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two children. The officer’s name was David Rose.

The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after firing more than 180 bullets at several CDC buildings. His motives allegedly were based on anger at the COVID-19 vaccine. The critics of the COVID-19 vaccines largely seem to believe the vaccine is significantly worse than the illness. The reasons for this include (rare) vaccine side effects and gesturing vaguely at the idea of Big Pharma profits, alongside the impossible claims of the vaccine being used to microchip the population (in service of what purpose, they don’t say). If you’ve ever watched a pet get microchipped, you’d notice how different the needles look to your standard vaccine needle.

The public’s relationship with public health can be… rocky, at times. Old Borax had his struggles 100 years ago, and he was fighting to make sure formaldehyde wasn’t put into milk! That is not entirely different from the current public health struggle with these vaccines. I think the mRNA vaccines are a marvel and a testament to the dedicated scientists around the world working together to create a new technology that has recently been estimated to have saved 2.5 million lives. And yet the rhetoric around this technology has been so poisoned by “critics” that don’t know or care about science and medicine that this ghastly attack has taken place.

Public Health Enemy Number One, RFK Jr., has criticized the CDC in response to the violence. Bold for a man that is not an epidemiologist, virologist, medical doctor, or vaccine researcher to vaguely claim that the CDC lied about the vaccine. Additionally, the Associated Press reports:

Trump, despite his aforementioned law enforcement deployment in DC to crack down on crime while DC crime is at an historic low, has said nothing about this violence in Atlanta. Despicable. My heart goes out to those working at the CDC and at Emory, as well as students, families, and neighbors in the community. We will need to stick together now more than ever to ensure public health can continue to deliver vital community care that saves lives and reduces as much suffering as we can. There’s a petition to impeach RFK Jr, for starters. You can sign here!

I’ve worked as a fact checker focused on healthcare research and content for several years. Misinformation and disinformation thrive on social media algorithms. Many of RFK Jr’s talking points could be plucked straight from quack viral social media moments. It seems there has also been a noticeable uptick in doctors or other healthcare providers becoming influencers (derogatory). This may initially sound great, as they can fight against health disinformation and dangerous viral quackery.

Unfortunately, people working in healthcare, even doctors, can spread mis- and disinformation. This is true of all types of experts. While they are likely an expert in something specific, straying from those specifics can cause accidental errors, creating misinformation. But experts can also spread errors on purpose, likely for their own benefit (be it clout or financial benefit), which falls under disinformation.

So how does anyone know who to trust? I’d like to share with you some people I trust and my reasonings for doing so in the hopes you can learn about assessing a source of health information for quality.

With that said, I’d like to introduce you to my fact checking GOAT: Lab Muffin Beauty Science (Dr. Wong). Truly, she is a fact checking queen and I relish her deep dives into dodgy research papers and claims by a whole spectrum of health influencer-types. And who doesn’t love an Australian accent!

Specifically, Dr. Wong has a PhD in chemistry and a clear love of science, skincare, fact checking, and science education. What I love about her YouTube content is her specificity: she sticks to chemistry and cosmetics while fact checking claims around these topics. When she talks about beef tallow, it’s only in the context of skin, which she knows about! She doesn’t do a deep dive into all of the wild claims by the beef tallow people, rather, she stays in her lanes of expertise. She also gets specific when things get out of her lane. Dr. Wong clarifies what she doesn’t know, provides information on how she formed her opinion, and asks for anyone with more expertise to send their thoughts to her. Nice.

She’s recently put out an amazing video on how you can assess experts online for quality information. I’d recommend watching that, for starters. You could then turn around and apply her tips to her and see how she shakes out, yourself!

See you next Friday,

Professor Batty