Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, bloody hell.🤦🏻‍♂️

LizW @cave-malum.bsky.social · 1d

@joho.bsky.social @gorskon.bsky.social @doritreiss.bsky.social
Must watch: RFK Jr wants a statue of Andy Wakefield at HHS. And that's just for starters.

Brian Deer 布莱恩-迪尔 @briandeer.com · 2d

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfOZ...

7 7 35

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 2d

Perhaps, but when fascism arises, it always arises from conservatism. Nor is it as distinct as we’d like to believe. There’s long been a fascist undercurrent in the GOP. Was it always destined to take over? Of course not. But it did. It arose from preexisting parts of the GOP.

2 5

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 3d

In a seven-minute video RFK Jr. posted last week, he demonstrated that he is truly antivaccine, weaponizing an old one deceptive antivax trope claiming that vaccines didn’t do that much to improve global health. sciencebasedmedicine.org/robert-f-ken...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. weaponizes an old antivax trope in his quest to eliminate vaccines

People who keep whistling past the graveyard (of vaccines) to assure themselves the RFK Jr,. won't take away their vaccines are deluding themselves. One seven-minute video he posted last week shows th

sciencebasedmedicine.org

22 73 210

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 3d

Wow. Learn something new every day.😂

1 1

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 4d

Absolutely she’s right. It’s even worse than she reports.

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 4d

“I fear for public health in our country.”

Former CDC Chief Medical Officer @drdebhoury.bsky.social says that the national US public health system has been subjected to a “hostile takeover” and she’s right. We should all share her fears. Kennedy must go.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

A ‘hostile takeover’: ousted CDC official raises alarm over RFK Jr approach to infectious disease

Debra Houry speaks after testifying on eight months under Kennedy, who critics say shuns science and spreads falsehoods

www.theguardian.com

11 48

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 5d

I even coined a term 15 years ago for the fallacy of deceptively conflating mortality from infection diseases with incidence, the “vaccines didn’t save us” gambit. sciencebasedmedicine.org/vaccines-did...

“Vaccines didn’t save us” (a.k.a. “vaccines don’t work”): Intellectual dishonesty at its most naked

If there's one thing about the anti-vaccine movement I've learned over the last several years, it's that it's almost completely immune to evidence, science, and reason. No matter how much evidence is

sciencebasedmedicine.org

2

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 5d

I saw this, and I knew before he”d even started which studies he’d cherry pick and misrepresent.

1 4

Reposted by David Gorski, MD, PhD

Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 6d

During Covid, when @gorskon.bsky.social & I coauthored a piece for @bmj.com on the links between right-wing climate denialist billionaires, anti-vaxxers, & the Great Barrington Declaration, some physicians felt it was "uncollegial" to be critical of the GBD

Now the GBD are Trump & RFK Jr's lackeys😔

Clean Observer @hammbear2024.bsky.social · 6d

Not being a physician, what I see is a toxic push for collegiality among medical professionals that has people not calling out bad actors, or as here, going out of the way to praise them, hoping they’ll reform and fly straight, when what they needed was to be called out and disempowered.

6 19 80

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 7d

So far, the incompetence is the only thing saving us. So far.

Henk de Vos @henkdevos.bsky.social · 7d

"Let's just hope that the pushback is strong enough and fast enough to save us all." open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

An Autocracy of Dunces

How stone-faced generals, Wall Street pushback, and a government shutdown may save America’s quickly declining democracy

open.substack.com

2 3 34

Reposted by David Gorski, MD, PhD

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 7d

ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

340 5.3K 15K

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 8d

Many doctors knew, too. (I'm a physician.) Not all, unfortunately, because we are a very privileged class. But those who really care about their patients knew, especially pediatricians, OB/GYNs, and any specialty involved in women's health.

1 4 21

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 8d

I need to get up at 4:30; so I'm going to bed now. I'll find out then, I guess.

1 1

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 8d

Totally. It's totally fucked up.

2

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 8d

Absolutely. This response is so common and predictable that there’s now excuse not to be prepared for it.

1 2 59

Reposted by David Gorski, MD, PhD

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 9d

Exhibit A at The Hague just dropped

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9d

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

360 2.1K 9.8K

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 9d

OK, I admit it. I laughed.😂

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes.bsky.social · 10d

Pete Hegseth accidentally flipping a skateboard into his nuts on live TV

4 1 24

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 9d

Last week, it was reported that old school antivaxxer Mark Blaxill had been hired at CDC. It looks like RFK Jr. is resurrecting every washed up antivax crony he can find to staff HHS. sciencebasedmedicine.org/mark-blaxill...

Mark Blaxill: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resurrects another washed-up antivax activist

Last week, it was reported that Mark Blaxill had been hired at CDC. It looks like RFK Jr.'s resurrecting every washed up antivax crony he can find to staff HHS.

sciencebasedmedicine.org

6 45 98

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 9d

I definitely tend towards the former. 😏

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 10d

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video

5 2 40

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 10d

An eminent oncologist, cancer researcher, and cancer center director is promoting a study that seems to show—but, when critically examined, doesn’t—that COVID vaccines are associated with increased cancer risk. sciencebasedmedicine.org/another-stud...

Here we go again: Another study is being misrepresented as evidence that COVID vaccines cause cancer

An eminent oncologist, cancer researcher, and cancer center director is promoting a study that seems to show—but, when critically examined, doesn't—that COVID vaccines are associated with increase

sciencebasedmedicine.org

4 25 75

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

That’s assuming they ever regain power again.

3

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

Between this and the bankrupting of the VICP, RFK Jr. won’t have to ban vaccines to functionally eliminate vaccines in the US. /end

1 7 26

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

Under RFK Jr.’s demand for saline placebo controlled trials to approve any new vaccines (whether unethical or not to do them), new component vaccines will be much harder to get approved. Most likely, manufacturers just won’t bother. The result? Goodbye MMR.

Rinse, lather, repeat with other vaccines

1 6 28

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

A newish wrinkle is adopting the Wakefieldian idea of separating the MMR components into separate vaccines “to prevent autism.” This will force multiple patient visits to get the same protection. Worse, there are no currently approved single component vaccines for measles, mumps, or rubella.

1 6 17

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

The end result will be a paralyzed VICP and a flood of lawsuits that will drive vaccine manufacturers out of the US, just like what was happening in the 1980s, leading Congress to create the VICP. This is just one part of the plan.

2 5 21

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 12d

That’s exactly what RFK Jr.’s endgame is, but he knows he can’t just ban vaccines all at once. So he’s chipping away at access. The latest is that, as I predicted, he’s going after the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, plotting to bankrupt the system by adding autism as a compensable “injury.”

John Mashey @johnmashey.bsky.social · 12d

RFK JR & gang’s clear end goal is ending vaccination, as any would know who’d followed @gorskon.bsky.social or @pauloffit.bsky.social for years or even watched Shot in the Arm:
bsky.app/profile/john...

John Mashey @johnmashey.bsky.social · Jan 6

I strongly recommend fine documentary “A Shot in the Arm” on vaccine hesitancy & its (often well-paid) promoters, incl RFK, Jr.
www.pbs.org/video/shot-i...
Watch whole thing, but especially:
34:32-onward RFK, Jr
43:45-50:27 Samoa deaths: he denies/evades involvement, video records contradict.

5 41 86