Notices by Dr. Lucky Tran :verified: (luckytran@med-mastodon.com)

Governments ignoring the ongoing long-term impacts of COVID has made us more vulnerable to future pandemics.

All the infrastructure needed to mitigate the ongoing impacts of COVID — next gen vaccines, normalizing masks, developing Long COVID treatments, better tests, beefing up pathogen surveillance, expanding social programs — are the same ones needed to prevent future pandemics.

Dental supply stocks have been surging since RFK announced plans to remove fluoride from drinking water because the rich profit when people are sicker.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/18/dental-supply-stock-rallies-on-theory-rfks-anti-fluoride-stance-will-prompt-more-dentist-visits.html

In recent weeks, there have been reports of increasing bird flu hospitalizations, new mpox strains, deadly foodborne bacterial outbreaks, measles cases up 20%, and Long COVID prevalence may be much higher.

And yet the US plans to appoint an anti-vaxxer as its top health official.

The Trump administration plans to nominate Jay Bhattacharya to lead the NIH. Bhattacharya has spread disinformation on COVID, fought against lifesaving measures including vaccines, masks, and social distancing, and is backed by dark money groups pushing corporate interests.

The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research on the planet. Having a discredited corporate-backed contrarian like Bhattacharya as its head will disrupt critical lifesaving research on vaccines, Long COVID, and pandemic threats etc. and undermine public health generally.

Some media outlets are already sane-washing Bhattacharya. To learn more about how he has spread disinformation that undermines public health, is widely discredit by real experts, and is funded by dark money, read this piece by Walker Bragman who has tracked him throughout the pandemic: https://www.importantcontext.news/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about

Don't be deceived. RFK doesn't care about corporate greed. He only attacks the pharma industry because he wants to make it easier to hawk dubious supplements and products from a wellness industry that is already worth trillions and is regulated far less than vaccines and drugs.

Yes, we should fight greedy pharma practices that often make drugs less accessible to the people who need them most. But that's not what RFK is railing about.

RFK wants regulatory policies dismantled so supplement manufacturers can make unproven claims without accountability.

It's disturbing seeing some medical and public health professionals trying to normalize RFK Jr by saying "we have to meet him halfway."

NOPE.

RFK is a charlatan who has deliberately spread disinformation that has killed people.

Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Vaccines are one of the most important inventions humans have ever made. Period.

So... now would be a really bad time to risk having another pandemic start *stares in bird flu*

Elections aren't abstract. We need to stop "both sides are the same" reductionism. Allowing people who profit from disinformation like RFK Jr to lead health agencies will literally kill people.

Reminder: RFK Jr caused a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people, mostly children.

RFK Jr and his non-profit visited Samoa to lobby the government and spread misinformation that reduced measles vaccination rates.

He may now lead the top US health agency.

According to an inside source, Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

This will be horrible for public health. Kennedy will try to restrict vaccine access, spread misinformation, weaken food and drug safety standards, and more.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/14/politics/robert-f-kennedy-donald-trump-hhs/index.html

Yes, those of us in public health understand "trade offs" and it's factored in when formulating guidance.

However the term "trade offs" has been hijacked and weaponized during COVID by the rich and privileged to try and make it socially acceptable to let marginalized people suffer.

It's shameful that some Democrats have supported mask bans. We need to be clear that anyone supporting a mask ban is supporting the suppression of democracy.

Link to 'The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide': https://verfassungsblog.de/the-authoritarian-regime-survival-guide/

From the authoritarian regime survival guide:

"Oppose any legislation attempting to interfere with freedom of assembly, for whatever reason."

Mask bans are a gateway to wider bans on all forms of protest. We should be do everything we can to stop them.

Oster's work has been embraced by right-wing think tanks such as the Manhattan Institute and the Cato Institute. Her audience is affluent parents who seek permission to disengage from the social contract and ignore harmful impacts to the working class and people of color.

Here's a horrendous example of COVID misinformation spread by Emily Oster in 2020, which has been proven wrong by research many times since. Please do not listen to any of her advice about public health.