From Pine View Farm

Health and Sanity category archive

This New Gilded Age 0

John Oliver rips Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and how it will make the rich richer and the poor even poorer. (Warning: Mild language.)

Via C&L, which has commentary.

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Typhoid Bobby 0

Cartoon showing RFK Jr.'s new vaccine adviosry panel:  RFK Jr. and a panel of communicable diseases.

Via Job’s Anger.

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Suffer the Children 0

One more time, that’s not scripture.

That’s Republican policy.

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Quacks In Command 0

Thom discusses the damage that the Trump maladministration is doing to public health and to the public’s health.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Thom looks at how the Trump maladministration is undermining public health.

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Republican Family Values 0

GOP Elephant floating in swimming pool holding a drink says,

Click to view the original image.

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Lies and Lying Liars 0

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier is fed up with Republicans’ lying about dying.

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The Medicine Show, Reprise 0

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Vaccine Nation 0

Thom discusses the Trump maladministration’s decision to cancel research into a vaccine against bird flu.

Today’s Republican Party does not care about–in fact, disdains–the concept of the general welfare.

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The Medicine Show 0

RFK Jr. swimming in polluted Rock Creek says,

Click for the original image.

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Health Care Hallucinations 0

It sure sounds as if RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again report was written with AI. Here’s the lede:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his “Make America Healthy Again” Commission report harnesses “gold-standard” science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions.

Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.

And this guy’s in charge of HHS.

Much more at the link.

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Health Care Deform 0

At the Washington Monthly, Thom Walsh explains why the Republican plan to increase “work requirements” for Medicaid is little more than a ploy to deny health care to persons who need it, all the while masquerading as guardians of the public purse, Here’s a tiny bit of his article:

Consider the mechanics of the policy. To retain Medicaid coverage, adults without dependents must work, train, or volunteer for at least 80 hours per month. But the burden of proof falls entirely on the enrollee. In Arkansas, the first state to try this, 18,000 people lost coverage in months, not because they weren’t working but because they couldn’t navigate an online reporting system. That’s bureaucracy weaponized.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Farron comments on what happens when a science denier is put in charge of an agency that (supposedly) relies on science.

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Sabotage as a Strategy 0

David sees a pattern. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

Aside:

Yes, I was turned off by what little I saw of the commercial, but I think the David’s commentary is still worth a listen.

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Our Society Is in Decay 0

Exhibit One: Florida Man.

Afterthought:

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to posit that today’s Republican Party has abandoned the concept of “promoting the general welfare.”

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Germy Warfare 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Jay K. Varma, physician and former staffer at the CDC, writes of the increasing number of persons who are rejecting science in favor of voluntary ignorance. He calls the “Germ Deniers.” Here’s how he describes them:

Germ Deniers represent a spectrum of individuals who minimize or reject the well-established role of microbes in causing disease.

While some extremists outright deny that germs cause illness, most acknowledge their existence but downplay their importance. Some argue that individual factors are the primary problem. A person only gets sick from a microbe because their immune system is weak because of malnutrition or other lifestyle factors. Others argue that other external factors are the “real” causes of most diseases, such as microplastics, food dyes, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, mercury, and electromagnetic radiation.

He goes on to obliterate their arguments and explain the danger they pose to both public health and the public’s health.

In the light of what’s happening to medical research under the Trump maladministration, I find his article a timely and alarming read.

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Vaccine Nation 0

It’s a shame that there is no vaccine against our spreading epidemic of stupid.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Sam and the crew play a video of RFK Jr., Secretary of HHS, saying that people should not take medical advice from him.

So Sam and the crew wonder, what’s the point of having a Department of Health and Human Services if you can’t take health advice from it?

Afterthought:

The Trump maladministration is succeeding at one thing: Undermining the credibility of the federal government.

Which, methinks, may not by accident.

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Brain Drain Eviction 0

Der Spiegel reports (follow the link for the full report):

Many researchers are looking for a new home because the Trump administration has launched a broadside attack on science in the U.S.

Also, RFK Jr. has hurt fee-fees because anti-science whack-jobs don’t get no respect.

Not that these two items might in any way be related . . . .

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Vaccine Nation on the Disinformation Superhighway 0

In an article at AL.com, Nicole K. Reh, who is on the path to earning a medical degree, writes about how “social” media is endangering persons’ health; she focuses on the recent measles outbreaks and the anti-VAXX lies that have fueled them.

One interesting frightening statistic that she cites particularly caught my eye:

A 2024 Stanford study found that 49% of TikTok health videos were inaccurate, and 14% were potentially harmful.

The entire piece is worth a read, and, remember, “social” media isn’t.

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