Yep, just about everyone gets sick!

Extreme Mortality After First Contact with Measles

Believe it or not, that’s what happened in Greenland in 1951.

Sure, we have heard about other measles epidemics like this, including when:

• measles was introduced to the Faroe Islands in 1846 and killed hundreds of islanders

• measles was introduced to Hawaii in 1848 and killed up to a third of the population of the islands

• measles was introduced to Fiji in 1875 and killed up to a third of the population of the island

• measles was introduced to Rotuma in 1911 and killed just over 12% of the population of the Pacific island

But the epidemic in Greenland was far more recent!

That Time Measles Hit Greenland

So what happened?

In 1951, measles finally made it to Greenland, where about 24,000 people lived at the time - mostly in small Inuit coastal settlements under Danish colonial rule.

“On April 6th, 1951, the sG. C. Amdrupa, belonging to the Greenland Depart- ment, left Copenhagen for Julianehlb, having on board a young Greenlander, Manasse, who had been signed on as a deck hand. During the days before his departure Manasse had been in close contact with a Greenlander living in Denmark, who a couple of days after Manasse’s departure developed measles.

On April 16th the nG. C. Amdrupo arrived at Julianehib, and Manasse was discharged there. Immediately after his return home he looked up a number of his acquaintances, and on April 22nd he took part in a dancing-mik at Julianehåb. A dancing-mika is a typical Greenlandic entertainment, attracting a very great number of the inhabitants of the community, who enjoy this interruption of their rather monotonous daily life. The day after this mik Manasse felt ill with sore throat and cough, but he did not consult the district medical officer until the 26th, having noticed a rash on his body the previous day. The incubation period for the source of the epidemic was remarkably long, 19 days having elapsed from the time of infection, which cannot have been later than April 6th, until the appearance of the rash.

About May 1st the first cases of measles infected by Manasse appeared at Julianehåb, and on May 4th there were 57 patients in the prodromal stage and five patients with a rash. ”

An epidemic of measles in southern Greenland, 1951; measles in virgin soil. II. The epidemic proper

And nearly all of them got sick.

“During the epidemic in 1951 in the southern part of Greenland, only 5 theoretically susceptible persons out of a total of 4,262 individuals did not contract the disease. This corresponds to a morbidity of 999 per 1,000.”

Measles epidemics in Greenland

And many developed complications, like pneumonia, cardiac insufficiency, and measles encephalitis.

“During the epidemic in southern Greenland in 1951 the total mortality was 18 per 1,000. Several deaths occurred in the prodromal phase (25 out of 77), and the majority of the remainder within 14 days after the appearance of rash.”

Measles epidemics in Greenland

It should also not surprise anyone that many people in Greenland died during this epidemic.

“The mortality was much lower than might have been expected, probably owing to penicillin treatment of complications combined with the modifica- tion produced by sero-prophylaxis of about 1000 people, both of which measures were rapidly organised from Denmark. Only 77 deaths were recorded-a rate of 18 per 1000.”

Measles in Virgin Soil

Why did so many people die though?

After all, a rate of 18 per 1000 is very high as compared to the 1 per 1000 we are used to seeing.

“The mortality was greatest in the age groups over 55 years and lowest in the group between 2 and 14 years.”

Measles epidemics in Greenland

Can you guess?

Since this was their first introduction to measles, no one had any immunity, so even the oldest members got sick. And like the youngest members, they are the most at risk for complications from measles.

There was also a lot of TB among this population at the time, as it was just before the BCG vaccine was introduced in Greenland.

“In the 1950s, the Inuit population in Greenland presented the highest tuberculosis (TB) disease incidence rates (IR) ever observed worldwide with an IR of 2,200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 1952.”

Ten years of tuberculosis intervention in Greenland - has it prevented cases of childhood tuberculosis?

Mostly though, this is just what happens after first contact with measles!

And no, that doesn’t make a case for natural immunity, as you are at risk for dying with measles at any age.

Remember, you have to earn your natural immunity.

Well, you don’t have to.

You can just get vaccinated now!

More on Measles Epidemics

• The Measles Outbreak in Utah Is Already Breaking Records

• That Time a Chiropractor in Texas Got Measles

• Let’s Talk About Measles Encephalitis

• MAHA Advice if You Are Worried About Measles Outbreaks

• On the Origins of Herd Immunity

• Measles Epidemics in Greenland

• Measles in Virgin Soil

• An epidemic of measles in southern Greenland, 1951; measles in virgin soil. II. The epidemic proper

• Ten years of tuberculosis intervention in Greenland – has it prevented cases of childhood tuberculosis?

• Measles | History of Vaccines

You can expect a lot of misinformation, just like every other podcast they do…

Only it’s much worse, because they were doing it on World Autism Acceptance Day!

When Joe Rogan and Theo Von Talk About Autism...

Shame on them!

I mean, if you think about it, these are probably the last two people in the world that should be talking about either vaccines or autism!

And that’s easy to see when you listen to what they talked about.

“Just think of this. Just the autism rate in California. I want you to scale that out. If it was 1 in 10,000 X amount of years ago, now it’s 1 in 12, when is it 100%?

When is it all kids have autism? Right. Right? I mean, it’s clearly moving in that direction and not the other direction.

If you go from 10,000, 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 12, over a very brief amount of time, a few decades, something’s going on. And don’t tell me it’s just better diagnoses because that’s fucking horseshit. You know that’s horseshit.”

Joe Rogan

Yes, like Stephanie Seneff, Joe Rogan thinks everyone will soon be autistic.

Joe Rogan also doesn’t seem to think that more kids and adults might be getting diagnosed with autism because of all the changes that were made over the years to help them get diagnosed.

Instead, not surprisingly, he blames it on everything else.

“That’s a lot. That’s gaslighting to cover up for the pharmaceutical drug complex. It is. The reality is something’s going on. And if it continues on that same path, what’s to stop it from being all of us? What’s to stop it from being all people born in the future or on the spectrum?

Joe Rogan

What were Theo Von’s thoughts?

“So we have to stop it then as individuals. And what do we do? And what do we do We have to, like, what are the things we have to start doing to fight for ourselves?”

Theo Von

What did Joe Rogan think ‘we’ should do?

Join the Amish.

Joe Rogan

But he’s not done.

“They’ve got to figure out how to fix people that already have it, right? Because right now it’s irreversible for the most part. They’ve shown some things that can alleviate symptoms and help people in a way, but you don’t bring them all the way back to 100%. I don’t think. I’m talking about school.

But if they could, then you could figure out how to correct the problems that already exist. If you can’t, it’s going to eventually get to that point. If we keep living like we’re living, it’s going to get to that point where it’s 100% of us.

And that sounds crazy for a lot of people because they don’t have autism right now right but if you’re dealing with one in 12. One in 12 is not far from 100% when you go from one in 10,000 to one in 12 that’s nuts yeah that’s a nutty progression that’s a nutty acceleration of something

yeah we’re being poisoned (Theo Von)

yeah for sure

but how do we fight back against that right like I understand like we can try to beat some autism or whatever or do like different you know games against them or whatever but I’m saying like how do you how do we stop this thing that’s trying

I don’t know if we do and I don’t know if we’re supposed to. This is what’s fucked up. I think this is the way it happens it happens yeah this is the way. Our species changes and goes and and then history will look back and say well this was how the shift took place. People started using plastics and they started using chemicals and they started using pesticides and vaccines”

Joe Rogan

That’s right, more ableist talk from Joe Rogan and Theo Von.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all surprised that either Joe Rogan or Theo Von said any of this.

I am surprised that they chose to say it on World Autism Acceptance Day.

Not surprisingly, that wasn’t the first time they talked about vaccines during this podcast episode.

“We don’t know exactly what is causing autism. They have a lot of suspicions. A lot of them have to do with vaccines and different medications and different chemicals and pollutants and all sorts of different things.

But one thing that we can all agree on, it’s a big factor is stuff that we’ve created. It’s a big factor. Whatever it is.

Let’s not put the blame on any one of these industries, but there’s something going on where more people are getting autism now than ever. And it seems almost positive that it’s coming from us, that we did something. human society.

Well, if you think about where human society is going, wouldn’t that be a way to turn us into something new, right? If we were going to merge with machines, what better way than to like eliminate empathy, eliminate emotions, make us like able to like stay at home and stare at a screen for hours at a time with no concern whatsoever? Just the kind of social detachment along with the integration of all this. crazy new technology and the people a lot of the people that are in the tech business at high levels are on the spectrum oh dude yeah they’re on the fucking diving board of the spectrum and they’re the ones bringing in AI they’re bringing in the next version of life.”

Joe Rogan

There’s more…

“They just want to make the most amount of money possible. And one of the things they did in this country is they removed all liability to vaccine manufacturers. Yeah. So then they ramped up the schedule to a shit ton more injections than anybody else is getting. So it’s just that this sort of happens whenever you allow people to try to make the most money possible.”

Joe Rogan

Of course, this is not the first time that Joe Rogan has about vaccines and autism.

And it almost certainly won’t be the last, especially if we all don’t let him know that this kind of ableist messaging hurts autistic kids, adults, and their families.

More on Joe Rogan and Theo Von

• The Very Simple Reasons That Autism Has Increased

• Spotify Has an Anti-Vaccine Podcast Problem

• Why Is California Leading the Nation in Autism Rates?

• Let’s Talk about The Autism-Vaccine Timing Connection

• Why Are Anti-Vaccine Influencers Obsessed With the Movie Rain Man?

• Meet the New Rogan. Same as the Old Rogan.

• Sinister sounds: podcasts are becoming the new medium of misinformation

• Joe Rogan just keeps getting worse

• Joe Rogan and the problem of false balance

• HIV/AIDS Denialism Is Back, Courtesy of Joe Rogan

And rabies testing too!

So what does that mean?

What Is the Impact of the CDC Pausing Infectious Disease Testing?

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to mean that essential testing won’t get done, as most (but not all) of these tests can still be done, either at state or commercial labs.

“CDC maintains regular communication with state and local health departments and can assist in coordinating testing through alternative laboratories if needed.”

CDC temporarily halts testing for several infectious diseases amid staffing shortages

So rabies testing will still get done if you or your pets are first exposed to rabies (but not after you are bitten and develop symptoms of rabies)!

And that’s because most rabies testing is done at state labs.

Whew!

One less thing to think about.

Well, at least for now.

That the CDC has to stop this kind of testing is just another sign of our public health systems starting to fail because of the poor management by RFK Jr! All the budget cuts and staff firings haven’t helped either!

Let’s Talk About Rabies Testing

Is this kind of testing, especially rabies testing, something that you ever even think about?

After all, how often do you think someone needs to be tested to see if they have been exposed to rabies?

Well, believe it or not, about 90,000 samples are tested each year to see if they are contaminated with the measles virus!

And most of these are because an animal that might have been rabid bit someone, potentially exposing them to rabies.

So what happens without this testing?

Well, if you can’t do testing to confirm that the animal (bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, dogs, cats, and ferrets, etc.) didn’t have rabies, then the person would likely end up getting rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.

But couldn’t you just quarantine the animal? Sometimes (especially for healthy appearing dogs, cats, and ferrets), but it isn’t a great option with human bites and wild animals, as the incubation period for animals with rabies can be a very long time. And few people would want to take that risk!

What else?

You should know that about 50,000 people in the United States receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis each year.

And of course, that’s why cases of rabies in people is so rare!

Nearly all people get rabies immunoglobulin and a series of rabies shots if they get exposed to a rabid animal.

Also, most people vaccinate their pets to keep them safe from rabies too.

More on CDC Testing

• A 6-year-old in Florida With Rabies Has Died

• A Rabies Case in Utah

• Propaganda About Rabies Vaccine Deaths

• Questions and Answers about Rabies and Rabies Vaccines

• When Was the Last Time Someone Died from Being Bitten by a Rabid Dog in the United States?

• How Many People Die With Rabies Each Year?

• Health Care Sabotage Tracker

• CDC Infectious Disease Test Directory

• CDC temporarily halts testing for several infectious diseases amid staffing shortages

• CDC IgG avidity and PRN assays

• Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Rabies Antibody Testing

• How the Modern Rabies Vaccine Came to Be

• This doctor thinks that Rabies doesn’t exist

What records?

It’s not yet the largest outbreak, but the measles outbreak in Utah is one of the longest lasting, as it has already been going on for 10 months. The previous record was about 10 months - New York’s 2019 outbreak. Well, about 10 months of active cases and then another 6 weeks until it was declared over.

What else?

Having measles in every county or jurisdiction in the state is also a record!

When was the last time we saw that?

The Measles Outbreak in Utah Is Breaking Records

What record is next?

With 559 cases and no signs of slowing down, it is safe bet that the Utah measles outbreak could become even larger than the outbreak we just saw in South Carolina.

It could become the largest outbreak in over thirty-five years.

After all, instead of slowing down after 10 months, it is actually growing faster than ever.

In fact, the measles outbreak in Utah grew by 34% in the past 3 weeks!

And it is easy to see why when you look at how often measles is being detected in their wastewater…

And all the places that people were exposed to measles recently.

Getting the Utah Measles Outbreak Under Control

Fortunately, there is an easy way to get the measles outbreak in Utah under control.

And of course, that simply means more people have to get vaccinated and protected.

“We strongly encourage parents to talk to their healthcare provider about getting an early MMR vaccine for their children, even if they have not been exposed to someone with measles.”

Utah measles outbreak response

That includes getting an early MMR for infants who are at least six months old “because measles is spreading throughout Utah,” with a repeat dose at 12 months.

And it also can mean getting an early second dose of MMR for toddlers and preschoolers, instead of waiting until they are 4 years old.

Of course, it also means getting caught up if you have skipped or delayed getting yourself or your child an MMR vaccine in the past.

Unfortunately, that’s not something we are seeing yet…

More on the Utah Measles Outbreak

• Measles and MMR Information Page

• Measles Vaccines Make Measles Encephalitis Disappear

• Measles is Spreading: What You Need to Know

• Moving the Goalposts When Talking About Measles Cases and Deaths

• Current United States Measles Elimination Status

• Utah measles outbreak response

• Utah measles dashboard

• Utah's Immunization Dashboard

• Immunization coverage levels in Utah

• Utah Measles Wastewater Surveillance

• Patients say measles ‘worse than expected’ as Utah hits 350+ infections, doctors say

• Utah measles outbreak brings its biggest surge yet

• Utah measles outbreak speeds up but there are few changes to daily life

• Utah has “barely acknowledged” ongoing measles outbreak

• Frustration spreads during southwest Utah measles outbreak

Anti-vaccine influencers sure seem to think they know why…

Actually, I’ll give Steve Kirsch the benefit of the doubt, maybe he really doesn’t know…

Let’s Talk About Why Those COVID Vaccine Clinical Trials Were Stopped

We sure do know though!

To satisfy Steve Kirsch, we even asked his beloved AlterAI, which he frequently uses to create misinformation and propaganda about vaccines.

AlterAI first blamed:

• Compressed timelines - these clinical trials are done fairly quickly

• Low perceived personal risk - fortunately, rates of COVID aren’t high right now

• Trial fatigue - folks have been doing these trials for 6 years now!

• Regulatory strictness - for the lower risk population in this study, RFK Jr.’s HHS required larger trials that were placebo controlled. Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad implemented this change last year.

And that’s a great answer!

But there is something missing from this answer…

So, according to AlterAI, the most honest way to explain why the latest COVID vaccine clinical trials couldn’t recruit enough participants include:

• legitimate logistical and epidemiological reasons, including that RFK Jr. made them create a larger trial than usual, and

• the impact of misinformation, including “years of false claims about vaccine harm created genuine hesitancy” which reduced the number of people who would sign up

It’s not so baffling after all, is it?

Of course, the impact of misinformation is not the main factor. AlterAI seems to say what you want it to say…

ChatGPT gives a better answer - “Yes—it’s plausible that misinformation (along with broader vaccine hesitancy) contributed to recruitment challenges, but it’s only one of several factors, and not necessarily the dominant one.”

Still, misinformation is a factor.

What Does This Mean for Our COVID Vaccines?

There is something else that everyone be talking about.

What happens if we need an updated COVID vaccine as new variants keep popping up?

Will vaccine manufacturers be making an updated COVID vaccine this year?

Will the FDA approve an updated COVID vaccine this year?

Anti-vaccine influencers and their followers might not want to be vaccinated, but there are plenty of people who do, especially those with high risk conditions!

More on Updated COVID Vaccine Clinical Trials

• The OpenSAFELY Myocarditis Study

• Pandemic Revisionism Can’t Erase How Many Kids Died With COVID

• Pfizer Explore Our Vaccine Clinical Trials

• Find a Moderna Clinical Trial

• Volunteer for COVID-19 Clinical Trials | NIAID

• Recruiting COVID Vaccine Clinical Trials

• COVID-19 Vaccines Tested in Clinical Trials, Despite Bogus Social Media Claims

Yep, the same misinformation, propaganda, and ableist messaging about autism that they spew every other month of the year.

But, during Autism Acceptance Month, it all gets worse.

Much worse.

How Anti-Vaccine Influencers Observe Autism Acceptance Month

They seem to hate the idea that anyone would want to accept children and adults who are autistic.

“Look past all that garbage foisted onto you by those who neither know nor truly respect autism and autistic people, and you will see that what we need from you most is not a month set aside for the purposes of degrading and pitying our existences and experiences, but constant, unwavering support, the patience to listen to our side of the story, and the power for you to put aside your own ideas about who should be listened to, based on what credentials, and to give those of us with the disability as a constant presence in our lives a chance to speak. Just because someone can’t talk (in your language of words and verbal dialogue) doesn’t mean they have nothing to say.”

Autism Acceptance for Autism Awareness Month

Not even for one month can they stop posting misinformation about autism and vaccines.

“In England, there are stories about new autism classes starting and autism schools being built because of “increasing demand” constantly in the news. They’ve had the same special education law since 1970, so why are they now overwhelmed by the numbers?”

Anne Dachel on The absurd call to CELEBRATE AUTISM ACCEPTANCE MONTH

Misinformation that is quite easy to fact-check!

Doing a few minutes of research, you can easily see that England, like the United States, has not had the same special education laws since 1970, as Anne Dachel said.

Instead, they have had:

• The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 (CSDPA) - required local authorities to provide access and services to disabled people, including “practical assistance, home adaptations and access to activities such as excursions, TV services and educational facilities.” This did not mean that they all started going to school though, as the Act stated that "criteria of need are matters for the authorities to determine in the light of resources."

• The Education Act 1981 - implemented ideas set forth in the Warnock Report of 1978, which pushed for integration of children with special educational needs into public schools.

• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) - required that schools, colleges, and universities provide reasonable adjustments to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities. It also made it illegal for schools to discriminate against students with special educational needs and disabilities.

• The Autism Act 2009 - guaranteed the rights of autistic adults in England.

• The Children and Families Act 2014 - set out to reform the special educational needs system.

So no, England has clearly not had the same special education law since 1970!

What else?

Don’t forget the changes to DSM criteria.

That’s right. Not only have we not have the same education laws since the 1970s, we have also not even had the same diagnostic criteria for autism!

And by looking at how their laws changed over the years and the changes to DSM criteria, it is easy to see why more and more kids have ended up getting diagnosed with autism over the years.

Since autistic kids could now go to school and get other services, there was a lot more awareness and motivation for parents to get a diagnosis for their children.

Not that anti-vaccine influencers will accept any of this…

Instead of acceptance, they mostly have anger.

“Many parents have taken a “warfare” mindset with autism, that they are “fighting” autism. I will tell you right now that you can choose to fight autism, but this is a fight you will lose. Not only will you lose, but your child’s ultimate well being will be taken as a casualty. If you accept your child as an autistic person, however, everyone will be much happier. Does it really matter that much if your child flaps their hands? Being the same is boring anyway.”

To the Parents of a Newly Diagnosed Autistic Child…

Anger because they seem to believe that they have a damaged or injured child instead of the perfect child they were expecting.

And while that is part of the five stages of grief that everyone goes through following a loss, because they became focused on blaming vaccines, they are stuck in the anger stage.

Why blame vaccines?

I guess became most parents (most don’t blame vaccines!) need or want to blame something or someone in these situations…

And vaccines are an easy target, especially after Wakefield’s fraud.

And even though there is overwhelming evidence that vaccines are not associated with autism, their anger blinds them from seeing it.

All of which leads to continued ableist messaging that hurts everyone in the autism community.

And that is something we will never accept.

You shouldn’t either!

More on Autism Acceptance Month

• Why Is California Leading the Nation in Autism Rates?

• Where Were the Autistic Kids and Adults in the 1970s?

• Why Are Anti-Vaccine Influencers Obsessed With the Movie Rain Man?

• That Time RFK Jr Promised to Find the Cause of Autism

• Functioning Labels Harm Autistic People

• “Severe Autism” Is a Label that Tells You Nothing about an Autistic Person

• My Autistic Son Needs Extensive Supports. And Yet, I Oppose Labels Like “Severe Autism.”

• Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism

• To the Parents of a Newly Diagnosed Autistic Child…

• Actually Autism Resources

• Start Here: a guide for parents of autistic kids

• Welcome To The Autistic Community

• So, you’ve just been diagnosed autistic!

• An autism diagnosis later in life

• Letter to My Newly Diagnosed Autistic Self – Seven and a Half Years Later

• Autism Acceptance for Autism Awareness Month

• World Autism Acceptance Month school resources

• Fiftieth anniversary of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970

• Pioneering 1970 disability law ‘never fulfilled its promise’

• Not Enough and the Autism Act 2009

Of course, it is because anti-vaccine influencers won’t let go of the idea of vaccines being tested against saline placebos.

Let’s Talk About Saline Placebos Yet Again

As a recap, remember that anti-vaccine influences believe that:

• vaccines have never, ever been tested against saline placebos before, and

• that all vaccines being used now should be tested against saline placebos

And they would rather that vaccines not be used until they are tested against saline placebos, risking kids getting and dying with polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and other vaccine preventable diseases.

Let’s also recap the real story about vaccines and saline placebos!

• it is highly unethical to use a saline placebo in a vaccine clinical trial when control subjects could instead get a similar vaccine or a vaccine against a similar disease

• it is much harder to keep up the randomized, double-blind nature of a clinical trial when you use a saline placebo, since it is so much different than the vaccine itself, which introduces bias into the study

What else?

“Most people who received a placebo in the Gardasil trials got aluminium adjuvant. However there was one protocol (Protocol 18) conducted in 9-15 year old girls and boys where the placebo used was a saline solution. In this study 1184 were randomised to receive the vaccine and 596 randomised to receive the saline solution placebo. The proportion of participants completing the study was similar in each group. The proportion of systemic events was comparable in each group.”

Was the Gardasil vaccine ever compared with a placebo?

Once again, many vaccines have undergone testing in clinical trials with saline placebos!

“The immunogenicity of GARDASIL was assessed in 23,951 9- through 45-year-old girls and women (GARDASIL N = 12,634; AAHS control or saline placebo N = 11,317) and 5417 9- through 26-year-old boys and men (GARDASIL N = 3109; AAHS control or saline placebo N = 2308).”

Package Insert - GARDASIL

Vaccines that were studied with saline placebos include:

• acellular pertussis

• BCG

• oral polio

• Hib

• measles

• rubella

• mumps

• typhoid

• Prevnar 7

• pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines

• HPV

• live flu

• inactivated flu

• COVID-19

• cholera

• dengue

So why do anti-vaccine influencers continue to say that vaccines were never tested with saline placebos?

Well, even though all of those vaccines were tested with saline placebos, those might not be the studies used to get them approved by the FDA, different versions might have been approved by the FDA, and they are not the versions that we use today. After all, many of these vaccines have now been in use for over 50 to 75 years. And they have been updated since they were first discovered!

Still, think about it, isn’t it enough that they didn’t find any differences between the vaccine and the saline placebo control in all of those vaccine studies?

If there was really a problem with vaccines, wouldn’t that have been picked up in all of those studies that used a saline placebo?

Yes, indeed it would have!

Studies with Unvaccinated Controls

There’s more too!

In addition to all the studies that used a saline placebo, others have actually used an unvaccinated control.

Which vaccines?

The list includes:

• the Salk polio vaccine

• the group C meningococcal vaccine

• the original Prevnar vaccine

• a live Shigella vaccine

• a live measles vaccine

• a cholera vaccine

• a flu vaccine

• the group A meningococcal vaccine

These are the long sought after vaccinated vs. unvaccinated studies that anti-vaccine influencers are always asking for!

And what did they find?

As expected, they simply found that the people who were unvaccinated in the trials got sick more often than those who were vaccinated!

So can we finally stop talking about saline placebos now?

All kinds of vaccine studies have been done that show vaccines work well and are safe, with few risks.

More on Saline Placebos

• How the Modern Anti-Vaccine Movement Resembles a Religious Cult

• Why Was RFK Jr.’s New Hepatitis B Vaccine Study So Controversial?

• What is the Placebo Pyramid Scheme?

• The Saline Placebo Pyramid

• Was the Gardasil vaccine ever compared with a placebo?

• Package Insert - GARDASIL

• Clinical Review - Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) Vaccine, Recombinant - Gardasil, June 8, 2006

• How We Know that Vaccines Are Safe

• HHS Advances Kennedy’s Old ‘Placebo’ Vaccine Safety Claims

• Yes, there have been placebo-controlled studies on childhood vaccines

• Vaccines are tested against placebos

• Placebo Controlled Trials of Vaccines

• Placebos Used in Vaccine Trials Do Not Please Everyone

• The New Placebo Mandate for Vaccines: Unethical, Unscientific, and Impossible

• All Childhood Vaccines Were Tested Against Placebos - Here’s the Evidence

In a new post that he has laundered across his social media accounts, he claims that an AlterAI analysis of a new COVID vaccine study concludes they are not safe for kids.

How Does Steve Kirsch Use AlterAI to Create Anti-Vaccine Propaganda?

An AlterAI analysis that he has obviously influenced…

Not surprisingly, Steve Kirsch is not reporting what the study actually found.

If you ask AlterAI what the study actually found, the results are not surprising!

The study concluded that COVID vaccines are safe!

That’s not exactly what Steve Kirsch found though, is it?

And interestingly, it is easy to ask AlterAI just how Steve Kirsch got such different results!

AlterAI even provides the details on how Steve Kirsch manipulated AlterAI to give the result that he wanted to see.

Of course, if you have been following the antics of Steve Kirsch, you likely aren’t surprised.

But couldn’t I have done the same thing, manipulating AlterAI to say that Steve Kirsch is wrong?

I could have.

Anyone could have.

I didn’t though.

This was a new, clean version of AlterAI with no modifications, and you can see my prompts in the pics above.

Try it if you still aren’t convinced!

And learn to be more suspicious if you are just now learning that anti-vaccine influencers are weaponizing scientific literacy.

More on Anti-Vaccine Propaganda

• Misinformation About Vaccines and Autism Using AI

• Spotify Has an Anti-Vaccine Podcast Problem

• Zenodo Has an Anti-Vaccine Problem

• Is the Anti-Vaccine Movement a Grassroot Cause?

• The OpenSAFELY Myocarditis Study

• Adverse events following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination in norwegian adolescents

• How we tricked AI chatbots into creating misinformation, despite ‘safety’ measures

Who Needs an RSV Vaccine?

As a recap, remember that we now have:

• Beyfortus (nirsevimab) or Enflonsia (clesrovimab), monoclonal antibodies, for newborns and infants less than 8 months old during their first RSV season, typically from October 1 to March 31 (or April 30, 2026 in states that have extended the season because RSV disease has been lingering, including California, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington, and Wisconsin).

• Beyfortus for older infants and toddlers, 8 to 19 months old, during their second RSV season.

• Abrysvo, an RSV vaccine, as a one time shot for pregnant women who are 32 to 36 weeks pregnant from September to January to protect their newborn baby during RSV season

• RSV vaccines, Arexvy, mResvia, or Abrysvo, as a one time shot for seniors who are 75 and older (if not yet vaccinated) at any time - but it might be best to get your shot in late summer or early fall.

• RSV vaccines, Arexvy, mResvia, or Abrysvo, as a one time shot for everyone who is 60 50 to 74 years at high risk for severe RSV disease (if not yet vaccinated) at any time - but it might be best to get your shot in late summer or early fall.

And that most of these have now been available for a few years now.

More Proof That RSV Vaccines Are Working

So how well have they been working?

It does seem like RSV seasons have been milder in the last few years since the first RSV vaccines were introduced!

Ask just about any pediatrician…

In fact, there has been:

• a decrease in the number of sick children and adults who test positive for RSV

• a decrease in the number of infants and who have been hospitalized and/or end up in the ICU with RSV

• a decrease in the number of older adults who have been hospitalized with RSV

• a decrease in the number of kids and adults who have died with RSV

How much of a decrease?

“During the 2024-2025 season, RSV-associated hospitalization rates among infants aged <8 months in two surveillance networks were lower by 28% and 43% compared with RSV seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

2025-2026 Respiratory Disease Season Outlook

It was a pretty big decrease!

A decrease that has now been confirmed by more than a few studies.

A decrease that lasted more than one season for many infants, even though they were only vaccinated once!

Enough of a decrease that you should feel confident dismissing the misinformation from any anti-vaccine influencers that might still be trying to scare you away from getting vaccinated and protected.

More on RSV Vaccines

• About Those VAERS Reports of Infant Deaths Following RSV Vaccines

• More Proof That HPV Vaccines Are Working

• Charts That Show How Well Vaccines Work

• Another Chart That Shows Vaccines Work

• Understanding Flu and COVID Vaccine Studies

• The Evidence Base for 2025-26 Respiratory Season Immunizations

• Cochrane review shows RSV vaccines safe, effective

• CDC Surveillance of RSV

• CDC RSV National Wastewater Data

• RSV cases are down. Health experts are optimistic a new vaccine is behind it.

• Interim Evaluation of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Hospitalization Rates Among Infants and Young Children After Introduction of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Prevention Products — United States, October 2024–February 2025

• Impact of nirsevimab immunoprophylaxis on respiratory syncytial virus-related outcomes in hospital and primary care after two consecutive seasons: a population-based retrospective cohort study in infants in their second year of life in Catalonia, Spain

• Public health impact of nirsevimab and reduction of RSV hospitalisation in all infants: early real-world data from Tuscany (Italy) in the 2024-25 RSV season

• RSV Vaccine Effectiveness Against Hospitalization Among US Adults Aged 60 Years or Older During 2 Seasons

• Nirsevimab Effectiveness Against Intensive Care Unit Admission for Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Infants — 24 States, December 2024–April 2025

• STANDING ORDERS FOR Administering Nirsevimab RSV Preventive Antibody (Beyfortus, by Sanofi) to Infants

• STANDING ORDERS FOR Administering Clesrovimab RSV Preventive Antibody (Enflonsia, by Merck) to Infants

“At least 38 children have died of measles and related complications this year as the infectious disease is spreading in the capital and several other districts.”

At least 38 children dead in measles outbreak

And yes, that is a little unusual for Bangladesh.

Let’s Talk About the Measles Outbreak in Bangladesh

In fact, it is quite unusual for a country that had gotten measles cases under pretty good control once they started expanding their immunization programs about twenty years ago.

They even approached near elimination levels of measles cases!

And now?

Measles is back…

Sound familiar?

It should, it is the same thing that is happening in most other countries…

So what happened?

In addition to vaccinating kids at 9 and 15 months, in Bangladesh, there were special measles vaccination drives every four years to catch up anyone who had been missed.

“Regular vaccine drives have been ongoing, only the special campaign drive which was scheduled for June 2024 had to be postponed due to political unrest.”

Bangladesh PM orders probe into measles outbreak

Tragically, the last drive, which had been due in June 2024, never happened.

In fact, it was scheduled even earlier, but was delayed because of the COVID pandemic.

“Bangladesh has planned to conduct another MR SIA, “Measles-Rubella Vaccination Campaign 2020” during 29 February to 21 March 2020 targeting all 9 month to <10 years old children . It will be three week long campaign, during the 15 week vaccination will be done in all academic institutes where below class one to standard class four children are enrolled. During the 2nd & 3rd week, vaccination will be done in the community to vaccinate 9 month to <10 years old children through regular outreach, fixed, additional and HR/HTR sites. An estimated 34 million children are targeted in this Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign 2020.”

Measles-Rubella Vaccination Campaign 2020

What else?

The last measles SIA was in 2018 and that wasn’t even a nationwide campaign. It targeted Rohingya refugees.

So, that means that the last large-scale nationwide measles SIA was actually in 2014.

“National measles-rubella catch-up SIA targeted children aged 9 mos–14 yrs, conducted during Jan 25–Feb 13, 2014 targeting 51,745,231 children.”

Progress Toward Measles Elimination — Bangladesh, 2000–2016

And that’s likely why measles has returned to Bangladesh.

It’s simple.

There are a lot of unvaccinated kids in Bangladesh who would have been missed by their routine measles vaccination protocols, especially not getting their second dose.

“The situation is particularly critical at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mohakhali, where a surge in cases has overwhelmed capacity. Hospitals nationwide are reporting overcrowding, bed shortages and rising complications, especially among malnourished children.

Health experts say the outbreak is being fuelled by declining vaccination rates, shortages of vaccines and field-level health workers, and the absence of a nationwide measles–rubella campaign since 2020. Stocks of multiple vaccines at central storage facilities have reportedly been depleted, raising concerns about further disease spread.”

Bangladesh measles outbreak: Vaccine gaps, malnutrition fuel child deaths

And now there are a lot of sick kids in Bangladesh with measles, many of whom have died.

Meanwhile, they are dealing with a measles outbreak that is almost certainly going to get much, much worse before they have any chance of regaining control.

USAID Funding Cuts to Bangladesh

A measles outbreak that will be even harder to control because of funding cuts from the administration of Donald Trump!

“US aid was key to funding vaccines combating a host of other diseases, protecting 2.3 million children against diphtheria, measles, polio and tetanus.”

US aid cuts push Bangladesh’s health sector to the edge

Remember all the news about funding cuts to USAID last year?

Well, now you understand one reasons for the shortages of measles vaccines and workers in Bangladesh to help control this outbreak.

That’s not the only reason though…

In 2024, after an uprising, Dr. Muhammad Yunus took charge of the government and quickly began instituting reforms.

“The root of the crisis lies in the appointment of Nurjahan Begum as Health Advisor. While she has been a long-time associate of Dr. Yunus, serving at Grameen Bank since its early days in 1976 and later becoming chairman in 2010, she has no academic background, professional training, or policy experience in health or medical administration. Her appointment appears to have been based solely on loyalty and personal history rather than merit or competence.

From the moment she assumed her role, critical decision-making slowed to a crawl. Experts say this lack of leadership has directly stalled progress in strategic planning, infrastructure development, disease prevention, and healthcare management. The situation has reached a breaking point with the unprecedented 18-month delay in approving the Operational Plan (OP) – the backbone of Bangladesh’s health service delivery.”

Bangladesh health sector faces collapse

Reforms that don’t seem to be working and a health care system being run by people who don’t know what they are doing…

Sound familiar?

More on Measles Outbreaks

• Propaganda About the Ups and Downs of Measles Cases

• MAHA Advice if You Are Worried About Measles Outbreaks

• Doctors Are Pushing Measles Misinformation

• Current United States Measles Elimination Status

• Kennedy Charm is Now Selling Measles

• At least 38 children dead in measles outbreak

• Bangladesh PM orders probe into measles outbreak

• Bangladesh measles outbreak: Vaccine gaps, malnutrition fuel child deaths

• Progress Toward Measles Elimination — Bangladesh, 2000–2016

• US aid cuts push Bangladesh’s health sector to the edge

• Update on Lives Lost from USAID Cuts

• What MSF teams see after first 100 days of US aid budget cuts

• How are aid cuts impacting child vaccines? The IRC’s critical response

• Bangladesh health sector faces collapse

• Measles-Rubella Vaccination Campaign 2020. https://www.scribd.com/document/860998510/MR-Campaign-Final-English-12-02-2020-Final-version

Is it from grassroot efforts?

Anti-vaccine influencers are certainly making some money selling supplements, books, subscriptions, and tickets to attend seminars, etc., but you should know that most of their money comes from rich donors.

Is the Anti-Vaccine Movement a Grassroot Cause?

Of course, the modern anti-vaccine movement would still like you to think that they are a grassroot cause.

They are not.

Investigations have found that a lot of the money to these non-profits have come from just a few very wealthy people, including:

• Bernard and Lisa Selz - they have given millions to the Informed Consent Action Network

• Mark Gorton - the founder of Tower Research Capital and creator of LimeWire has helped bankroll Children’s Health Defense and the MAHA movement.

• Tony Lyons - an early donor to RFK Jr, he founded the MAHA Action PAC and made his money publishing anti-vaccine books

• Steve Kirsch - made a lot of money during the Silicon Valley tech boom and became anti-vaccine during the COVID pandemic

• Joseph Mercola - was propping up the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), giving them at least $2.9 million, until his new psychic medium told him to stop for some reason…

• the Dwoskin Family Foundation - they had created the CMSRI (now shut down), which funded a lot of anti-vaccine research papers we used to see and included Claire Dwoskin who once said that “Vaccines are a holocaust of poison on our children’s brains and immune systems.”

• Barry and Dolly Segal - created the Focus for Health Foundation - it was originally Focus Autism, as he claimed that vaccines were associated with autism. They have helped fund Children’s Health Defense and the NVIC. Barry Segal died in 2025.

• David and Leila Centner - helped produce RFK Jr.’s medical racism documentary, run a private school in Florida and said that any of their teachers who got a COVID vaccine would be fired,

• JB Handley - started Generation Rescue (shut down in 2019), giving Jenny McCarthy a platform to push her idea that vaccines are association with autism

• Nicole Shanahan - she is best described as an anti-vaccine billionaire

But there’s more!

Others with too much money, or maybe it is these same people, now give to anti-vaccine organizations through donor-advised funds, including:

• Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

• Fidelity Charitable

• Schwab Charitable (DAFGiving360)

• Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust

• Donors Trust

• T. Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving

That way they can try to hide that they are donating their money to an anti-vaccine organization and still get a nice tax deduction!

Did you know that these charitable funds were giving their money to anti-vaccine organizations?

And guess where the money trickles down to?

It trickles pours down to anti-vaccine influencers, who have turned pushing misinformation and propaganda about vaccines into a big, money making industry.

An industry that pushes ableist messaging about autism, scares parents away from vaccinating their kids, and is helping create the largest outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases that many of us have seen in our lifetimes.

More on Funding for Anti-Vaccine Groups

• How Much Did the Texas Measles Outbreak Cost to Stop?

• Explaining the Vaccine Injury Epidemic

• The Very Simple Reasons That Autism Has Increased

• Texas-based anti-vaccine group received federal bailout funds in May as pandemic raged

• Big Money Flows To US Charities Fueling Vaccine Misinformation

• Meet the Wall Street executive funding Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine group

• The Upside-Down Doctor ← Joe Mercola

• United Facts of America: Looking at the profit motive driving anti-vaccine misinformation

• Spreading vaccine fears. And cashing in.

Surprisingly, with all the proof we have seen over the years that our HPV vaccines are working to prevent HPV infections and these cancers, there are still some people who don’t think that they are safe or that they work.

More Proof That HPV Vaccines Are Working

So let’s take a look at all of that evidence and see if we can finally shut down those people once and for all…

In many countries, you can simply look at their cancer registries and see that rates of invasive cervical cancer are already starting to drop in young girls.

• Sweden - found that “among Swedish girls and women 10 to 30 years old, quadrivalent HPV vaccination was associated with a substantially reduced risk of invasive cervical cancer at the population level.”

• Scotland - found that “the bivalent vaccine prevents the development of invasive cervical cancer.”

• England - found that “the high effectiveness of the national HPV vaccination programme previously seen in England continued during the additional 12 months of follow-up. HPV vaccination was associated with a substantially reduced incidence of cervical cancer and CIN3 across all five deprivation groups, especially in women offered routine vaccination.”

• United States - found that “observed declines in cervical precancers are consistent with HPV vaccination impact and support Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations to vaccinate children against HPV at age 11–12 years with catch-up through age 26 years.”

• Australia - for the first time ever, “there were no cervical cancer cases diagnosed in women aged <25 years,” and Australia is on track to become the first country to eliminate cervical cancer!

• Netherlands - found that “the risk of cervical cancer and CIN3+ was strongly reduced in vaccinated women indicating that vaccine protection extends at least until age 30.”

• Denmark - found that “the HPV vaccine has been effective in reducing infections with vaccine-covered HPV types (HPV16/18), the HPV types responsible for over 70% of cervical cancer.”

There are also many studies that confirm that HPV vaccines are safe and that they work, including (but definitely not limited to):

• a 2026 study using the US Cancer Statistics database, State-level progress in reducing cervical cancer incidence among US young women between the pre- and post-human papillomavirus vaccination eras, found that “Declines in cervical cancer incidence in young women during the HPV vaccination era varied substantially by state, aligning with HPV vaccination rates.”

• a 2025 NEJM trial, Noninferiority of One HPV Vaccine Dose to Two Doses, found that “one dose provided protection against persistent cervical HPV infections.”

• a 2025 Cochrane review, Effects of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes on community rates of HPV-related disease and harms from vaccination, found that “there are now long-term outcome data from different countries and from different study designs that consistently report a reduction in the development of high-grade CIN and cervical cancer in females vaccinated against HPV in early adolescence. Data show that there is greater benefit to vaccinating younger adolescents prior to becoming sexually active. There is evidence that HPV vaccination does not increase the risk of the most common adverse events reported on social media.”

• another 2025 Cochrane review, Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for the prevention of cervical cancer and other HPV‐related diseases: a network meta‐analysis, found that there were “no safety concerns noted in the studies,” and that “there is evidence from randomised controlled trials that HPV vaccination reduces the risk of pre‐cancerous outcomes such as CIN2+ and anogenital warts.”

• a 2025 Swedish study, Population-Level Impact of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination on the Incidence of Genital Warts in Sweden, found “decreases of GW incidence in women and men following increased vaccination coverage”

• another 2026 Swedish study, Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine and High-Grade Vulvovaginal Lesions, found that “vaccinated women had a lower incidence of high-grade vulvovaginal lesions compared with unvaccinated women”

• a 2019 VAERS study, Safety of the 9-Valent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, analyzed postlicensure surveillance reports to VAERS found that “no new or unexpected safety concerns or reporting patterns of 9vHPV with clinically important AEs were detected.”

• a 2018 Danish and Swedish study, Human papillomavirus vaccination of adult women and risk of autoimmune and neurological diseases, “did not raise any safety issues of concern”

While none of this will likely stop anti-vaccine influencers from trying to scare you away from getting vaccinated and protected, it will hopefully help you ignore them!

“The benefits of the HPV vaccine are, at this point, beyond doubt. Randomized controlled trials like FUTURE I and FUTURE II and Cochrane reviews of the data have demonstrated the vaccine’s ability to prevent the many diseases caused by HPV infection.”

We Can Now Envision an End to Cervical Cancer

Remember, getting your child an HPV vaccine, which have now been around for nearly 20 years, is a great way to protect them from getting cancer.

But what about the idea that changes in cervical cancer screening guidelines are more responsible for drops in cervical cancer? While it is an interesting idea, it doesn’t hold up when you consider the study that correlates drops in cervical cancer to higher HPV vaccine rates!

What about the idea that many HPV infections clear up on their own? While it is true that up to 90% of HPV might clear on their own, that does mean that at least 10% don’t. And it is these persistent HPV infections that are at the highest risk of causing cancer.

And screening obviously isn’t enough, as even with screening, we have had at least 4,000 deaths from cervical cancer each year in the United States. Also, screening for cervical cancer doesn’t do anything about the other types of cancer that can be caused by HPV infections!

Bottom line - HPV vaccines are safe and effective and some parents are now beginning to regret skipping it, as their intentionally unvaccinated kids develop HPV infections.

More on HPV Vaccines

• HPV Vaccine Myths

• Is the HPV Vaccine a Savior or the Most Dangerous Vaccine Ever Made?

• HPV Vaccines: Separating Truth from Fiction

• The HPV Vaccine Is Making History

• HPV vaccination works. Period.

• HPV vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective

• From Skepticism to Hope: The HPV Vaccine Revolution

• What we can learn from the HPV vaccine

• We Can Now Envision an End to Cervical Cancer

• How You Can Save Your Child from Some Cancers

• Vaccine Integrity Project Details Scope and Methods for Independent Review of HPV Vaccine Safety and Effectiveness

• The HPV vaccine is erasing cancer – here’s the proof

• Regional editor opens up after contracting cancer from sex act

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s uncle Ted Kennedy did a lot to promote health and wellness, working for 47 years in the Senate.

As did President John F. Kennedy!

Kennedy Charm is Now Selling Measles

And now?

With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in charge of our public health systems, we are seeing a huge fallback in all the progress we have made over the years.

In addition to his proposed changes to the immunization schedule, we can expect that:

• less money will be spent on getting folks vaccinated and protected to prevent outbreaks and epidemics

• less money will be spent to control outbreaks and epidemics

• less money will be spent to prevent outbreaks and epidemics

• less money will be spent on vaccine research

And of course, we can expect more and more outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.

We can also expect things to get a lot worse for many people, with a lot of unnecessary suffering.

This dark age with continued misinformation and rejection of science and logical thinking won’t last long though in the face of rising rates of measles, pertussis, and other infectious diseases.

The outbreaks and epidemics will be televised!

Everyone will see the consequences of the new MAHA era of misinformation and propaganda that RFK Jr. has wrought.

Everyone will see the body count.

More on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

• More Calls for Secretary RFK Jr to Resign or be Fired

• That Time RFK Jr Promised to Find the Cause of Autism

• Why You Shouldn’t Listen to RFK, Jr Talk About Measles

• About that AAP vs RFK Jr. Lawsuit

• Explaining the Vaccine Injury Epidemic

• MAHA Propaganda on the Growth of the Childhood Vaccine Schedule

• RFK. Jr’s family members call for his resignation, say he is a ‘threat’ to Americans’ health

• RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.

In case you were wondering, researchers at Stanford have modeled what happens if vaccines vanish.

As you would expect, a lot of people will die with now vaccine preventable diseases, like measles, diphtheria, polio, and rubella, etc.

We Don’t Need to Worry About Vaccines Vanishing

Of course, that’s not what we should be worrying about though…

Unless everything falls apart, we are not going to lose all vaccines to the point where these diseases are able to come back to the level that they were in the pre-vaccine era.

So what should we be worrying about?

We should all be worrying about what happens now and over the next few years as measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases surge.

And then?

And then, like every other cycle when anti-vaccine influencers have gotten extra attention and have been able to convince a lot of people to skip or delay getting vaccinated, most people will start getting vaccinated again.

It won’t take 15 years or 25 years, and we won’t lose all of our vaccines…

People will start having confidence in vaccines again once hundreds of kids start dying with measles or pertussis or diphtheria or tetanus…

And that’s what is coming.

And again, it won’t take 25 years.

It has started and will be happening over the next one or two years.

It will be happening unless most people stop listening to anti-vaccine influencers, and they get vaccinated now to help stop the outbreaks.

PS - We might start worrying about if we are going to get an updated COVID vaccine if we need it, as a new COVID variant has appeared.

More on History of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

• We Know What Happens If We Stop Vaccinating

• The Fatal Flaw in the Anti-Vaccine Movement

• MAHA Advice if You Are Worried About Measles Outbreaks

• How the Modern Anti-Vaccine Movement Resembles a Religious Cult

• Anti-Vaccine Movement Timeline and History

• Measles Is Spreading in More and More Places

• The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish

• History of Anti-Vaccination Movements

• US Measles Cases Soar as Health Secretary Sends Mixed Messages about Vaccines

• One Year of RFK Jr.’s Public Health Crisis; Haley Stevens Renews Call for Impeachment

• RFK Jr. Is Systematically Undermining Vaccine Science and Endangering Health

• RFK Jr.’s Dangerous Designs for Public Health

So how do I know about it?

I keep up on WastewaterSCAN data, and they are showing that someone in North Texas has measles and is shedding the virus.

Let’s Talk About the Person With Measles in North Texas That You Don’t Know About

Where in North Texas?

This person or persons with measles is in or was in the Dallas, Richardson, Garland, Rowlett, Sachse, or Sunnyvale area.

These are areas severed by the:

• City of Garland Rowlett Creek WWTP - receives wastewater from the east side of Garland and the cities of Rowlett and Sachse

• Duck Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant - receives wastewater from the west side of Garland, and from portions of Dallas, Richardson and Sunnyvale.

And no, this does not mean that your drinking water is contaminated with measles!

Again, when you have measles, you can shed the measles virus, and it ends up in the wastewater when you go to the bathroom.

So why haven’t we heard about anyone with measles in or near Dallas yet?

Surprisingly, we often see these kinds of reports of measles in wastewater before there is a report of someone with measles in the community.

The wastewater reports are an early warning!

But why?

Well, for one thing, not everyone with measles seeks medical attention.

“Wastewater detections preceded reported cases by approximately 10 weeks.”

Notes from the Field: Retrospective Analysis of Wild-Type Measles Virus in Wastewater During a Measles Outbreak — Oregon, March 24–September 22, 2024

In an outbreak in Oregon a few years ago, there was a 10-week delay between when measles was first detected in wastewater, and they started to hear about cases in the community.

Unfortunately, just because someone isn’t going to the doctor when they have measles doesn’t mean they aren’t contagious - they are! And it doesn’t mean that they have quarantined themselves.

And even if they did, they were still contagious before they realized they had measles, so could have exposed others.

What to Do When You Have Measles in Your Community?

Which is the point of this announcement.

Knowing that there is measles in your community, should put you on the alert so that you:

• can double-check the measles immune status of everyone in your family - is everyone up-to-date on their MMR vaccines? Remember, two doses of the MMR vaccine is your best protection against measles.

• strongly consider getting vaccinated if you have intentionally skipped or delayed one or more of you or your child’s MMR vaccines

• can get your kids an early MMR if an outbreak is declared in your area or if you travel out of the country or to an area where there are a lot of cases of measles already

• can take extra precautions if you are immunosuppressed of if your kids are too young to be vaccinated

It can also help you understand that measles is spreading to more and more places.

And that means it is just a matter of time before these measles outbreaks reach you…

More on Measles in North Texas

• The Measles Outbreaks and Exposures of 2026

• How to Avoid Getting Caught up in a Measles Outbreak

• What to Do If Your Child Is Exposed to Measles

• Who Needs to Hide in the Herd for Protection Against Measles?

• Who Is at Risk If You Don’t Vaccinate Your Kids?

• Notes from the Field: Retrospective Analysis of Wild-Type Measles Virus in Wastewater During a Measles Outbreak — Oregon, March 24–September 22, 2024

• Latest Developments in Measles Cases in Rockwall County

More and more, it is coming from podcasts that are hosted on Spotify.

Spotify Has an Anti-Vaccine Podcast Problem

Don’t believe me?

Let’s take a look…

Of the top 5 podcasts on Spotify, most spout anti-vaccine propaganda.

Most recently, Theo Von of This Past Weekend with Theo Von gave a platform to Peter McCullough to push his revisionist history of the COVID pandemic.

Theo Von also hosted Robert F. Kennedy, Jr…

"I don't care what happens, I'm going to a meeting every day. I'm not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #639

In fact, that’s where we learned that RFK Jr used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats!

What about Shawn Ryan, a former US Navy Seal and Blackwater contractor?

He sends mixed messages about vaccines on The Shawn Ryan Show.

He hosts guests who say they didn’t think the COVID vaccines made sense for kids, but is in favor of them getting an MMR vaccine.

And that newborns should not get the hepatitis B vaccine, and that the vaccines older infants get should be limited to only those which are essential, whatever that means.

Podcasters can say whatever they want with little consequence. Ryan and his ilk rarely push back against the falsehoods their guests spew. Why not? First, they often agree with them, but second? Huberman explains it: “How do you actually convince a guest to communicate what they really believe in if you’re constantly challenging them?”

Meet the New Rogan. Same as the Old Rogan.

Shawn Ryan, when he hosted Gary Brecka, also pushed the idea that you have to detox your blood if you have ever gotten a COVID vaccine!

And while half of Americans now listen to podcasts and expect them to be given them true information, they are often being hit with misinformation, especially about vaccines.

“Wirtschafter's team analyzed 36,000 episodes and found 70 percent of the most popular US podcasts had shared at least one claim debunked by fact-checkers.”

US podcast misinformation goes largely unchecked

What can you do?

Turn them off until they clean up their act!

That’s the only we start getting people vaccinated again and help stop the outbreaks we are seeing.

More on Anti-Vaccine Podcasts

• Ask 8 Questions Before You Skip a Vaccine

• MIT Has an Anti-Vaccine Problem

• Meet the New Rogan. Same as the Old Rogan.

• US podcast misinformation goes largely unchecked

• Sinister sounds: podcasts are becoming the new medium of misinformation

• How online misinformation is ‘supercharging’ conspiracy theories

• Speaking of Psychology: Stopping the spread of misinformation, with Sander van der Linden, PhD

• Everything We Hear: Towards Tackling Misinformation in Podcasts

• Science of Misinformation

• HIV/AIDS Denialism Is Back, Courtesy of Joe Rogan

Especially anti-vaccine propaganda that is so easy to debunk?

Why Does Alex Berenson Keep Pushing Anti-Vaccine Propaganda?

Consider how Alex Berenson continues to mischaracterize what Anthony Fauci has said about flu vaccines…

In the article, Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenza viruses, and other respiratory viruses, Anthony Fauci, with two other authors, wrote that:

“As pointed out decades ago, and still true today, the rates of effectiveness of our best approved influenza vaccines would be inadequate for licensure for most other vaccine-preventable diseases.”

Anthony Fauci, et al

Can you see why Alex Berenson didn’t actually include the full quote?

That flu vaccines aren’t as effective as the MMR, polio, or Hib vaccine, etc., is not a secret.

Flu vaccine effectiveness can vary from 10 to 60%, while most other vaccines we routinely use are over 90% effective.

That’s all Anthony Fauci’s article about next-generation respiratory viruses was saying.

They weren’t saying that flu vaccines “probably shouldn’t be licensed,” that they shouldn’t be used, or that they aren’t safe or effective!

Plenty of studies have shown that flu vaccines are both safe and effective.

The article does talk about the challenges in creating flu vaccines and what is needed to create better, next generation flu vaccines, which is also no secret that we need.

That’s in contrast to Alex Berenson’s article, which is just anti-vaccine propaganda from someone who doesn’t acknowledge that hundreds of children, most of whom are unvaccinated, die each year with the flu.

“The flu vaccine — like the Covid vaccine — does not really qualify as a vaccine at all. At best, it provides temporary and partial protection from a illness that nearly all kids beat after a couple of days without needing more than rest, fluids, and possibly over-the-counter fever-reducing medicines.”

Alex Berenson on Why do public health bureaucrats keep pushing flu shots on kids?

It is anti-vaccine propaganda from someone who has no medical or public health training and is far out of his lane when he tries to talk about flu and COVID vaccines.

More on Alex Berenson

• Christian Eriksen’s Cardiac Arrest Was Not Caused by a COVID Vaccine

• All Adults Need a Hepatitis B Vaccine

• Is COVID Coming Back?

• What Has Dr. Fauci Said About a COVID-19 Vaccine?

• The Anthony Fauci Emails

• How antivaxxers “think” (that vaccine advocates think)

• Explaining vaccines to Alex Berenson

• More Pfizer Documents and More Misinterpretations

• No, mRNA Vaccines Don’t Cause Cancer

• Journalist Alex Berenson misrepresents German study on COVID-19 mRNA vaccination

• The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man ← Alex Berenson

• Correcting Berenson’s optimally wrong take on vaccination and hospitalization risk from JAMA study

• About that Salk Institute paper on the “deadly” COVID-19 spike protein

• COVID-19 death rate in England much higher among unvaccinated than vaccinated

Would you be surprised to know that it hasn’t ended yet?

What Happened to the Measles Outbreak at Ave Maria University?

What’s even more surprising though, after what initially seemed like a strong response from Ave Maria University, with regular reports of case counts and students in quarantine and isolation, we are basically getting no information about the outbreak.

And again, that’s not because the outbreak has ended.

In fact, we had even, gotten some news that the outbreak had spread from the university into the community last month.

“The measles outbreak that began at Ave Maria University has gone beyond the immediate confines of the Catholic school in eastern Collier County.

One case has been confirmed at nearby Donahue Academy, a private K-12 Catholic school adjacent to AMU and once run by the university. The school was acquired by the Diocese of Venice in 2017.”

Measles has spread beyond Ave Maria University in Collier. What to know

But that was the last we heard, even as more cases were reported on the Florida Health Department dashboard.

Are new cases of measles at the university or is this a second wave of measles in the community?

We don’t know…

Ave Marie University hasn’t provided any real details on their measles outbreak since mid-February…

“I was visiting because one of the largest measles outbreaks the United States has seen on a college campus in decades erupted just a few blocks west at Ave Maria University at the end of January, but very little information was being shared with the public.

I tried to get in touch with the Florida Department of Health and Ave Maria University over phone and email for a month, with no response, before making a trip to the center of the outbreak. There have now been more than 100 cases reported in the county: 88 confirmed and 16 probable.

My visit had shown me that a lot was happening outside of the public view, but that night at the grocery store, I was feeling defeated. I still couldn’t pin down the trajectory of the outbreak or gauge the level of risk to the community.”

There’s little information about a large measles outbreak in Florida, so we went to see it

And a lack of information is likely making things worse.

On September 3, 2025, in announcing plans to end all state vaccine mandates, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made several false or misleading claims about the safety of vaccines and described them as “poison.” He also compared vaccine mandates to “slavery” and claimed that there is no ethical reason for herd immunity "to be used as a force to take away your ability to choose what you put in your body and what you as a parent put in your child's body."

Florida Surgeon General Misrepresents Safety of Vaccines

All this as Florida Governor DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo are likely still going to push to make it even easier for parents in Florida to get non-medical vaccine exemptions to attend daycare and school.

More on Measles in Florida

• Measles Is Spreading in More and More Places

• The History of Vaccine Exemptions

• A measles outbreak in Florida is simmering, but we know almost nothing about it. We went to investigate

• Ave Maria University stops releasing measles data. Why it matters

• Measles has spread beyond Ave Maria University in Collier. What to know

• There’s little information about a large measles outbreak in Florida, so we went to see it

• Understanding measles outbreak at Ave Maria University

• DeSantis’ resolve to pass his vaccine policies strengthens as measles cases continue to rise

• Rep. Frankel Slams Gov. DeSantis Decision to Eliminate Vaccine Mandates

• Florida Surgeon General Misrepresents Safety of Vaccines

After all, there are plenty of flu and COVID vaccine studies that say they are safe and effective.

Understanding Flu and COVID Vaccine Studies

Of course, none of those studies are good enough for folks like Alex Berenson and other anti-vaccine influencers.

Ironically, most seem to love any study that says vaccines are harmful or don’t work, even the ones that get retracted!

Still, it is important to understand that flu and COVID vaccine studies do have some limitations.

Why?

It seems that it is mostly because:

• the studies typically have to be completed during a single season, because flu and COVID viruses quickly change, and you want the strain to be (hopefully) matched to the vaccine you are giving

• even within that season, many of the cases occur during a short window of peak cases and that makes it hard to find everyone who has the flu

• flu and COVID symptoms are very variable, in fact, some people are infected and have no symptoms at all and people with mild symptoms might not seek treatment and could be missed

And no, you can’t do a randomized, placebo controlled double-blind flu vaccine clinical trial.

“So-called "universal vaccine recommendations" introduce ethical challenges in performing RCTs that assign people to a placebo group, which could place them at elevated risk for serious complications from flu. Also, observational studies often are the only option to measure vaccine effectiveness against more severe, less common flu outcomes, such as hospitalization.”

How Flu Vaccine Effectiveness and Efficacy Are Measured

Why not?

“Requiring placebos for improved vaccine variants would needlessly expose research participants to deadly diseases for which effective vaccines are available. Placebo testing is therefore not appropriate for already approved vaccines and should only be done when no other options exist and a fatal epidemic is looming against which only a novel vaccine would be available.”

Fool’s-gold science

Mostly because it is not ethical, but also because observational studies are thought to be better for this purpose.

“The challenges of estimating influenza VE are numerous and complex. Evidence continues to suggest that influenza vaccines are protective against infection; however, depending on the season, vaccine, and study, estimates of VE vary.”

Challenges in estimating influenza vaccine effectiveness

Nonetheless, even with all of these known issues, current evidence does show that flu and COVID vaccines work.

Maybe not perfectly, but they work well enough that you shouldn’t hesitate to get vaccinated and protected with a flu vaccine each year and a COVID vaccine if you are high risk.

The RSV vaccine works well too!

“Ongoing peer-reviewed evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of immunizations against Covid-19, RSV, and influenza during the 2025–2026 season.”

Updated Evidence for Covid-19, RSV, and Influenza Vaccines for 2025-2026

Not surprisingly, these studies also show that all of these vaccines are safe, with few risks.

More on Flu and COVID Vaccine Studies

• I’m Not Anti-Vaccine, I Just Don’t Believe in Flu Shots

• I’m Not Anti-Vaccine, I Just Don’t Believe in the COVID-19 Vaccine

• Is COVID Coming Back?

• This is What Happened During the COVID Vaccine Rollout in Gibraltar

• Biases to Consider in Vaccine Effectiveness Studies

• How Flu Vaccine Effectiveness and Efficacy Are Measured

• Fool’s-gold science

• Challenges in estimating influenza vaccine effectiveness

• CIDRAP Op-Ed: Vaccine effectiveness and safety: What the numbers truly mean in 2025

• Updated Evidence for Covid-19, RSV, and Influenza Vaccines for 2025–2026

• How antivaxxers “think” (that vaccine advocates think)

• No, mRNA Vaccines Don’t Cause Cancer

• Correcting Berenson’s optimally wrong take on vaccination and hospitalization risk from JAMA study

• Alex Berenson misrepresents data on death rates by vaccination status in England

Well, there is news of a new COVID variant, Cicada, starting to spread in the US and other countries.

Even Fox News is reporting that RFK Jr.’s CDC has raised concerns about this new COVID variant!

Is COVID Coming Back?

So does that mean that COVID is coming back?

If by COVID, you mean the COVID pandemic, then no, it does not mean that.

It doesn’t even necessarily mean that the COVID virus is coming back, as technically, it never left!

In fact, COVID is still killing people, especially people who haven’t recently been vaccinated.

Still, the number of COVID deaths is far, far lower than they were during the peak of the pandemic.

A new variant could change that though.

“As of February 11, 2026, BA.3.2 had been reported in 23 countries. Detections began increasing in September 2025. In the United States, BA.3.2 was detected in nasal swabs from four travelers, three airplane wastewater samples, clinical samples from five patients, and 132 wastewater samples from 25 U.S. states.”

Early Detection and Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant BA.3.2 — Worldwide, November 2024–February 2026

But no one is saying to panic or to run out and get vaccinated if you aren’t high risk, especially as we don’t even know how well our current vaccine works against this new variant.

“BA.3.2 mutations in the spike protein have the potential to reduce protection from a previous infection or vaccination.”

Early Detection and Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant BA.3.2 — Worldwide, November 2024–February 2026

And everyone who is high risk has hopefully already been vaccinated!

Fortunately, we have heard about many of these new variants before, and then nothing much has come of them. They have not often led to surges that have gotten a lot of us sick.

Then there are the ones that have though.

Both the Delta and Omicron variants led to major COVID surges around the world.

Still, they both appeared early in the pandemic.

So, why should we be concerned about a new variant now?

Well, it is mostly because there have been fewer COVID infections during the last few years and fewer people have been getting vaccinated.

That means that many more people are once again susceptible to getting sick, especially if this new variant has changed that much.

Still, the only reason to panic would be if RFK Jr.'s HHS has messed up things so much that we can’t get a new COVID vaccine out if we need it!

How likely is that?!?

More on the Return of COVID

• Do Seniors Need a Ninth COVID Shot?

• Is It Statistically Impossible to Have 15 Vaccinated Friends Die Suddenly?

• The OpenSAFELY Myocarditis Study

• Q&A on Reducing COVID-19 Risk for Elderly, Immunocompromised

• What COVID-19 variants are going around in March 2026?

• Early Detection and Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant BA.3.2 — Worldwide, November 2024–February 2026

• COVID-19 Surveillance Data in the United States

• Global COVID-19 Tracker

• WastewaterSCAN Dashboard

• New COVID variant with immune escape potential confirmed in US, 22 other countries

• OWiD. Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases & deaths per million people, Jan 1, 2026

• How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues

• Mortality in Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-22: A comparative study