From Pine View Farm

Health and Sanity category archive

Vaccine Nation 0

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

Share

Republican Family Values 0

GOP Elephant floating in swimming pool holding a drink says,

Click to view the original image.

Share

Lies and Lying Liars 0

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

Share

The Medicine Show, Reprise 0

Share

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.

Share

The Medicine Show 0

RFK Jr. swimming in polluted Rock Creek says,

Click for the original image.

Share

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.

Share

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.

Share

Vaccine Nation 0

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

Share

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.

Share

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.”

Share

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.

Share

Vaccine Nation 0

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

Share

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.

Share

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 . . . .

Share

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.

Share

Vaccine Nation 0

Ron Fournier is the father of a fully functional son who is on the autism spectrum and a member of the board of the Autism Alliance of Michigan. At the Detroit Free Press, he–er–expresses some skepticism as to RFK Jr.’s intent to conduct “studies” to blame autism on vaccines. Here’s tiny bit of his article; the whole piece is worth a read:

If somebody wants to conduct serious, unbiased research on autism and determine whether the cause is natural or man-made, I’m OK with that. I will note the National Institutes of Health spends $300 million a year on autism research, including studies examining genetics, environmental factors and the way the condition is diagnosed. That’s a lot of money. That’s good research.

What I’m not OK with: President Donald Trump and his Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spending taxpayers’ money on phony studies with rigged outcomes to support their conspiracy theories ? or with RFK’s plans to reportedly pursue those studies by collecting Americans’ private health data.

Share

Vaccine Nation on the Disinformation Superhighway 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Dr. Thomas R. Verny points out that “(s)ome people spread disinformation meant to erode the public’s confidence in medicine” and offers suggestions to avoid being taken in. Here’s one of them; follow the link for the rest.

What is the track record of the writer or proponent? Have they in the past made mountains out of mole hills to concoct wild theories from kernels of truth and to promote, frankly, quack medicine?

Share

The Miracle Curers 0

Two witches leaning over a cauldron labeled

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

If It Walks like a Duck Quack . . . . 0

Via C&L, which has commentary.

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.