Health and Sanity category archive
“Thinning the Herd” 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini is less than sanguine about RFK Jr.’s stewardship sewership of the Department of Health and Human Services. A snippet:
But that was way back in … 2024.
The plan now seems to involve thinning the herd.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
DOGE Bull 0
Farron reports that the chaos caused by Elon Musk’s DOGE at the National Institutes of Health in endangering persons’ health and lives.
Vaccine Nation 0
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a vaccine against the epidemic of stupid.
Disciples of Dumb 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Timmen L. Cermak argues that we are in the midst of a war on science. In light of, say, just to pick one example, the anti-VAX movement, which is willing to endanger endanger everyone’s health based on one discredited article, despite over two centuries of evidence that vaccines work, methinks he makes some good points.
Here’s a tiny bit:
Follow the link for the rest.
Vaccine Nation, Suffer the Children Dept. 0
Pediatrician Susan Kressly, who happens to be president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, writes that anti-vax lies about vaccines have pediatricians worried. An excerpt (emphasis added):
The stupid. It burns.
Fingers in Their Ears 0
Farron observes that some elected Republican officials are making excuses so as not to have to listen to their constituents if those constituents have the temerity to take exception to the actions of Dear Leader.
Vaccine Nation 0
In an article at the Washington Monthly, Bill Scher admits that he is less than sanguine about the Republican Party’s decision to abandon medical science. Here’s a tiny bit of his article (emphasis added):
Fears that the Kennedy appointment will lead to dire public health consequences ratcheted up this week with the abrupt cancellation of an annual Food and Drug Administration meeting necessary to select strains for the next flu season vaccine.
Sabotaging the flu vaccine will kill people.
(Broken link fixed.)
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Azadeh Aalai looks at how the internet, and particularly “social” media, has empowered scams and scammers. She focuses on the career of Belle Gibson, the subject of two recent documentaries.
Aalai points out that
Follow the link for the rest, and, remember, just because you read it on a screen, it ain’t necessarily so.
Vaccine Nation 0
Afterthought:
I had both kinds of measles when I was in elementary school. I can’t say they were terrible agony–certainly not any worse than the three cases of strep throat I had in my 20s–but they were not fun.
Why any sentient parents would choose to put their children at risk for that when it’s preventable is beyond me.
Doing so is cruel.
I do not think it an exaggeration to say that the anti-vax community promotes cruelty. Cruelty due to willful ignorance is still cruelty.
Gag Order 0
Heaven Trump forbid that federal agencies charged with protecting the health of the populace be allowed to have the unmitigated gall to warn persons of dangers to their health and well-being.
Vaccine Nation 0
At the Des Moines Register, Kimberly Witt remembers her mother’s struggles with polio when she was still a child, before the vaccine existed. She fears that Donald Trump and RFK Jr. will bring those days back.
Here’s tiny piece from her article:
“I was at the top of the stairs crying, and my parents had to carry me down,” my mom recalls. They took her to the doctor where she was diagnosed with paralytic polio.
You’re On Your Own, Buddy! 0
David explains how American health insurance shirks. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)
Vaccine Nation 0
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
America’s Health Scarce System 0
Mike and Farron discusses a health “insurance” company’s strategy to squeeze more profits out of anesthesized patients while they are under the knife.
The United States made a big mistake when it put for-profit companies in charge of health care.