Maxwell Smith, PhD
@maxwellsmith.bsky.social
Bioethicist, Associate Professor, & CIHR Applied Public Health Chair at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Also Director, Western's Centre for Bioethics and Associate Director, Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Views are my own. maxwellsmith.ca
It's a scam all the way down. Taylor Farms gave MAGA Inc. $1M USD less than a week after FDA postponed implementation of food traceability rules. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...
Matthew Cortland (they)@matthewcort.land · 3w agoMy pre-write turned out to be 70% a. CDC's comms have been wildly irresponsible; b. If I couldn't prove lettuce is not from Taylor Farms, I wouldn't eat it; c. Taylor Farms gave MAGA Inc. $1M USD less than a week after FDA postponed food traceability rules. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...
The Public Health Agency of Canada is recruiting two new members for its Public Health Ethics Consultative Group (PHECG). More info here: lnkd.in/p/g-86WF2T
Recruitment: PHAC Public Health Ethics Consultative Group | Maxwell Smith
The Public Health Agency of Canada | Agence de la santé publique du Canada seeks to recruit two new members for its Public Health Ethics Consultative Group (PHECG). This expert committee provides adv...
lnkd.in
Court upholds NY repeal of religious vaccine exemption for school: Explaining the decision in Miller v. McDonald (take II), including background, the decision, and what's next. www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalrap... via @skepticalraptor.bsky.social
Court upholds NY repeal of religious vaccine exemption for school
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New York's repeal of religious vaccine exemptions following extensive legal arguments from Amish plaintiffs. The court concluded that the mandate serves publ...
skepticalraptor.com
Well done @HayleyGleeson “Experts say infection control protocols are not good enough, with some doctors warning widespread indifference to COVID is costing too many lives and adding unnecessary pressure to the health system.” www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10...
Thousands caught COVID in NSW hospitals last year, hundreds died, new data shows
Thousands of patients caught COVID in NSW public hospitals last year and hundreds died, fuelling concerns among infection control experts that hospitals are not taking strong enough precautions agains...
abc.net.au
This is bigger than any premier or party. If a single elected official can unilaterally advance policies with adverse public safety impacts, we should be asking hard questions about the strength of our democracy & advocating like hell for evidence-based placemaking. #EvidenceBasedPlacemaking
📣 Calling on all nations to show up and demonstrate solidarity www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/africa...
Africa CDC triples amount needed to fight Ebola
cidrap.umn.edu
NEW: The military is again requiring flu vaccines for recruits, months after Defense Secretary Hegseth ended a mandate.
Military requiring flu vaccines for recruits as Air Force base deals with outbreak
All military branches began requiring recruits to get flu vaccines earlier this month, an exception to Pete Hegseth's decision to lift the military's vaccine mandate, a Pentagon official said.
cbsn.ws
Just in case you were wondering whether the feigned outrage over personal freedom during Covid was real or theater… it turns out the right does really like the exercise of state control.
Melody Schreiber@melodyschreiber.com · 2mo agoKennedy just made a really alarming move -- refusing to let a woman exposed to hantavirus to self-quarantine, which doctors agree is safe. Lots of troubling implications in my latest: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
"If you confine people, they will need to be supported with food. And if they don’t get food, they will move": www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-...
Ebola patients flee treatment centres in Congo for food as hunger crisis deepens
Over 150 escapes from Ebola treatment and isolation facilities have been documented since late May. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
straitstimes.com
Just a reminder that all those LLMs are built on the pilfered vast libraries of humanistic and social scientific knowledge production. Good luck, society. You’re gonna need it. www.hpherald.com/evening_dige...
U. of C. freezes Ph.D. admissions to most humanities programs
The University of Chicago will pause or scale back graduate admissions in more than a dozen programs next year as the school confronts what administrators have called “very real budget
hpherald.com
Secretary Kennedy pretended in the past to support free speech. Now he is using his position to bully a medical journal, in a way that's reminiscent of the conduct the Supreme Court struck down here: supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p... He cites no regulatory authority, and has none.
I agree w/ @shobitap.org that lamenting the politicization of "science" and the health professions is both nonsensical and strategically problematic. The enterprise of science -- basic, clinical, and any other variety -- is fundamentally political in +++ ways. I've written about this here: 1/
Against the Very Idea of the Politicization of Public Health Policy | AJPH | Vol. 102 Issue 1
I criticize the concern over the politicization of public health policy as a justification for preferring a narrow to a broad model of public health. My critique proceeds along 2 lines. First, the fac...
ajph.aphapublications.org
"They have spent so much time talking about not having the government impose on peoples individual decisions..." "And yet, in response to the hantavirus and Ebola, this administration has chosen to impose very draconian and extreme public health measures." www.npr.org/2026/06/11/n...
White House response to hantavirus and Ebola contrasts with COVID criticisms
The administration imposed mandatory quarantine orders on two passengers from the cruise ship hit by hantavirus and is blocking Americans who catch Ebola from returning home for treatment.
npr.org
This is an important & original analysis of whether & how “coercion” is defined in scholarship about public health. Very well done. Can something similar be done for the word “politics” in public health? My sense is the word is much used, rarely defined, and this confuses things.
Maxwell Smith, PhD@maxwellsmith.bsky.social · 2mo agoJust published in BMJ Public Health: "Coercion in public health: a scoping review of definitions" bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/4/2/...
ACOG’s Maternal Immunization Schedule: "Together with the RSV and Tdap vaccines, the flu and COVID vaccines can help to keep both pregnant mothers healthy and their baby safe ...before they develop immunity from their own vaccines." open.substack.com/pub/stopanti... @aboutpediatrics.bsky.social
ACOG’s Maternal Immunization Schedule
The ACOG immunization schedule reinforces that vaccines are safe and necessary during pregnancy.
open.substack.com
“Cervical cancer elimination isn't just a public health objective. It's a moral imperative. No one should be diagnosed with or die from a cancer we have the ability to prevent." www.cidrap.umn.edu/human-papill...
Just published in BMJ Public Health: "Coercion in public health: a scoping review of definitions" bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/4/2/...
bmjpublichealth.bmj.com
NEW: Regulators have linked Mark McAfee’s raw dairy farm to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that left hundreds of people ill. “I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital,” McAfee said. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer.”
He Profits Off Raw Milk That's Making People Sick. The Government Isn't Stopping Him.
With Raw Farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, Mark McAfee has capitalized on a once-fringe product that's been thrust into the mainstream in recent years and backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
propublica.org
More than 14,000 deaths in Canada in 2018 were associated with resistant infections. Of these, 5,400 deaths were directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance. bit.ly/3NljSvK
When Antibiotics Fail, five years on
Ahead of the September 26 UN General Assembly high-level meeting on AMR, the CCA revisited When Antibiotics Fail, a 237-page report from its Expert Panel on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of An...
bit.ly
Canada restricts U.S. livestock imports from areas affected by screwworm
Canada restricts U.S. livestock imports from areas affected by screwworm
Canada will place temporary import restrictions on livestock entering the country from affected areas in the U.S. after a case of screwworm was confirmed.
bit.ly
The U.S. government has charged two scientists at NIH of criminally conspiring to smuggle biological samples into the country and lying about it. The researchers have pled not guilty. https://scim.ag/4uRHH2k
NIH scientists criminally charged for bringing monkeypox virus into US, although samples “inactivated”
Defendants face up to 5 years prison for alleged “smuggling” and “conspiracy”
science.org
The decrease in trust in science has happened almost ENTIRELY on one side of the political spectrum. Mostly created for political gain (MAGA/MAHA), the creation of wellness & influencer brands (eg, Rogan et al), selling unproven products (eg, ivermectin), and the profit of social media platforms.
tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.
Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo agoThe White House today announced it plans to make major changes in how the U.S. government manages research funding. https://scim.ag/43HgW4s
💯 “$8 million funding announcement today from the Canadian government is a drop in the bucket – and it follows an outrageous $2.7 billion cut to Canada’s international assistance”
Heather McPherson MP@heathermcpherson.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe Ebola outbreak is one of the deadliest in history & Canada’s response falls short. Viruses don’t respect borders. What happens there affects us here. Canada needs to step up on funding, on vaccines & on global health leadership. Our collective health depends on it. www.ndp.ca/news/ndp-sta...
🚨🚨🚨 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... “These findings suggest that approximately 1 in 6 patients with COVID-19 develops postacute sequelae, predominantly chronic conditions currently invisible to surveillance systems, representing an accumulating rather than resolving health care burden.”
Long COVID Persistence and Surveillance Gaps Across 58 US Hospitals
This cohort study quantifies the gap between true postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 burden and diagnostic code–based estimates, determines the proportion representing chronic disease, and characterizes...
jamanetwork.com
"New Trump administration restrictions prevent US health experts from contributing during conference calls with the World Health Organisation and limit those only listening to “small groups” www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Trump administration ‘restricts US scientists’ role in Ebola response’
New restrictions prevent US health experts from contributing during conference calls with the World Health Organisation and limit those only listening to “small groups”
independent.co.uk
"Hantavirus and Ebola are making headlines. But another deadly outbreak is unfolding that's barely registered on the global scene." More than 500 children died in a measles outbreak in Bangladesh, with over 60,000 suspected cases. via @npr.org www.npr.org/2026/05/24/g...
More than 500 children have died in an outbreak that the world is virtually ignoring
The number of cases — and deaths — in Bangladesh is staggering. As of Sunday, 528 have died, mostly children. How did this measles outbreak begin? And how is the country responding?
npr.org
The world is witnessing the consequences of a perfect storm of aid cuts, extreme nationalism, withdrawal of multi-lateralism, attacks on science, and under-investments in public health www.wsj.com/world/africa...
