Notices by Gregg Gonsalves (gregggonsalves@med-mastodon.com), page 2

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

Buh-bye #Threads. Mark Zuckerberg is a disgrace. I'll delete my account later today. Urge others to do as well. Spread the word. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/07/business/meta-fact-checking

“Based on current medical trends and expected advancements, we conclude that COVID-19 is still driving excess mortality both directly and indirectly.” https://www.swissre.com/institute/research/topics-and-risk-dialogues/health-and-longevity/covid-19-pandemic-synonymous-excess-mortality.html

OK. How did I miss this? This how you do it. You meet hate and ignorance with joy and love and a little bit of civil disobedience. https://msmagazine.com/2024/12/05/trans-bathroom-ban-capitol-hill-congress-dance-party/

And now this. My father had polio when he was a child in the 1930s. He thankfully survived. Many did not. This is, well, evil. Let's not mince words. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html

Wisdom.

What a powerful piece from Christina Pagel, Martin McKee & Kent Buse from the UK. European scientists are deeply worried about Trump's nominations for health and science. We should be too.
https://www.bmj.com/content/387/bmj.q2654

Kids need to be at the front of the line for mpox vaccination. Right now, this is not happening. Our latest research in Lancet Global Health. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(24)00384-X/fulltext

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/a-carnival-of-destruction-2024-11-17#:~:text=It%20is%20for%20this%20reason,best%20guarantee%20of%20their%20loyalty.%E2%80%9D

How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump

RFK Jr.'s involvement in this tragedy needs to be more widely known. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/measles-in-samoa/

“We forget what this country was like 50 years ago – how many children died every year from polio, pertussis, measles.
We’re going to see the return of diseases we have controlled for decades and with that many additional severe illnesses in hospitals and deaths – and that’s just from the rhetoric, not even withdrawing vaccines.”
-Dr Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

The New York Post, no bastion of elite woke liberalism, comes out swinging against the RFK Jr. nomination for HHS. https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/opinion/putting-rfk-jr-in-charge-of-health-breaks-the-first-rule-of-medicine/

Under the new administration, we are likely to see significant attacks on core public health functions in the United States. We need to organize coast-to-coast to figure out how to stem the damage and keep our communities safe and healthy. https://forms.gle/jSLhZXmma4YihfFH6

“What kind of ancestors do we want to be? With every action or inaction, we help decide how the future will unfold. What principles and commitments do we want to adopt for a democracy that doesn't yet exist? How will we cast our votes for a society we won't live to see?”

Dear Donald Trump. You did try to kill the Affordable Care Act. In July 2017, 31 of us got arrested in the Senate Gallery trying to stop the motion to proceed. The ACA was spared by John McCain's no vote. You're a liar and hazardous to our nation's health. https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/senate-gallery-protesters-health-care/index.html

My Yale colleague Timothy Snyder on not obeying in advance, the decision of the wealthy and powerful, including the owners of the Washington Post and LA Times to capitulate now and what it means for the rest of us. https://snyder.substack.com/p/obeying-in-advance?r=dwh6t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&timestamp=219.9&triedRedirect=true

The #WashingtonPost and #LATimes will go down in infamy for their cowardly decisions to forgo a presidential endorsement this year. Let’s be clear. This is appeasement of authoritarianism. It is obeying in advance. It is cowardice.

I’ve been waiting for the New York Times to post the story on its homepage about Donald Trump‘s call to have the military deal with internal enemies the past few hours even if it’s shown up in other media. I am still waiting.

Can't believe I had to write this. But given the upswing in anti-vax sentiment in the US and the low vaccination rates for COVID and flu (and the under-vaccination of kids for some infections), it has to be said loud and clear. Vaccines work. Get yours today. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/vaccines-work/