Notices by Gregg Gonsalves (gregggonsalves@med-mastodon.com)

RFK Jr.'s claim that COVID vaccines are deadly? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. In this new extraordinarily large study, vaccinated individuals had a 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 and a 25% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to those who were unvaccinated. RFK Jr. is. liar and a fraud, as are Vinay Prasad and Tracy Hoeg at FDA who have made similar false claims about these vaccines. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2842305#note-ZOI251269-1

This is designed to tank public health & primary care by excluding public health professions, advanced nursing practice, physical & occupational therapy from loans that can cover the cost of education. This is going to make an existing workforce crisis worse.
https://aspph.org/department-of-education-proposal-excludes-public-health-degrees-from-professional-degree-definition/

Ryan Enos and Steve Levitsky have been consistent voices against authoritarianism. Their latest: "American civil society has more than enough financial and organizational muscle to stop this authoritarian offensive. But it requires collective resolve."

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/9/enos-levitsky-harvard-trump-compact/

URGENT! Write your Democratic Senators and Reps with a plea to stand firm in the budget negotiations. If we don’t prevail now, we will end up with huge budget cuts to public health programs and workforce and loss of health care access for millions.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-democrats-to-stand-up-for-public-health-in-the-budget/

#CDC directors going back to 1977 tell the truth about #RFKJr: he is endangering the health of every American. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/cdc-leaders-kennedy.html

May this portion of the dissent by Ketanji Brown Jackson haunt John Roberts forever and be the final word on his tenure as Chief Justice.

We are seeing the death of American biomedicine happening right before our eyes. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget , is the culprit. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/nih-grant-cuts-have-pulled-2b-medical-schools-academic-hospitals-aamc

My colleague Miranda Yaver has a new piece out in @thelancet.com Regional Health on Trump's first 100 days. Short form: it's a disaster for all of us. Keep writing. Telling the truth. History depends on us. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X25001838

VIVA! These are the courageous NIH staffers who have spoken out against what the Trump administration is doing to biomedical research in the US. This is incredibly brave and honorable. They need our support. Spread the word. https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/health/nih-letter-bethesda-declaration

These are masked men, with weapons, no warrants and this is extrajudicial abduction, and with local police aiding and abetting this thuggery. It is illegal under international human rights law. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/us/la-immigration-raids-ice.html

I don't think anyone outside of universities, pharma and biotech, independent research institutions have any idea of what is happening right now. If you haven't sounded the alarm among your friends, family and colleagues, now is the time to do it.

The new COVID vaccination recommendations are being made by a small coterie of people least qualified to make them, while cutting out the experts to push their own views forward, regardless of what the science says. My latest for The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/covid-vaccines-trump-rfk/

Harvard is standing up to Trump and will not turn over control of the university to Administration diktats. Let's be clear. The Trump administration is taking a playbook from the Nazis and others who have targeted universities in their quest for absolute power. Resist. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/14/metro/harvard-response-trump-demands/

Let’s be clear what this is: a political purge. And given the reassignments for staff, it is also punishment. This is worthy of the Soviets. https://apnews.com/article/health-human-services-layoffs-restructuring-rfk-jr-ec4d7731695e4204970c7eab953b2289

There are reports today that the Trump administration in planning to completely eliminate the CDC Division of HIV Prevention, cutting $700 million that should be used to prevent HIV infections and control HIV the HIV epidemic. Such cuts would have horrific consequences for the health of Americans.

AIDS United posted this:
https://lnkd.in/ePhYMrpY

Your representatives contact info can be found here:
https://lnkd.in/e7K7hzhi

5Calls.org has joined our campaign to oppose the nomination of Dave Weldon for CDC Director. Spread the word. Spread the link below. Make the calls. Make good trouble.

https://5calls.org/issue/david-weldon-cdc-director/

Russell Vought & his ex-wife Mary have a daughter with cystic fibrosis, who is being treated with elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor, drugs developed with the support of the National Institutes of Health. Now Russ & Mary are trying to destroy the agency. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/project-2025-vought-medical-funding/

#Trump, #Musk, #Vought are destroying NIH. What they are creating is a rump-institution that kills research on health disparities by banning grants on words like race, gender, equity etc. They are also creating a whites-only future for research by banning DEI initiatives, which will have its desired effect of reducing the number of black and brown students, post-docs and scientists in biomedical research in the US. My latest for @thenation. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trumps-plan-to-defund-the-nih-will-ruin-a-national-treasure/

Elon Musk has purchased $40M on a series of Superbowl ads attacking USAID as "wasteful spending." Colleagues have created this video and are asking that it be posted across social media at exactly 5:30 pm EST today, Sunday, February 9th https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqUESHfuO_8

#globalhealth #publichealth #USAID

Defend Public Health, a new coalition of over 1700 scientists, public health experts, clinicians and patient advocates has come out against the RFK Jr. nomination and generated 3500 letters to Senate offices. Leading experts from Harvard, Emory, Penn, and Boston University, representing some of the most eminent figures in virology, social epidemiology, with experience in local health departments and federal agencies are quoted in this press release. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DV6hRITXNLYGhHwEyVqqMiZgj9EncjZS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107344067330151719423&rtpof=true&sd=true