Micah Berman
@micahberman.bsky.social
Stephen F. Loebs Professor in Health Management Services and Policy & Professor of Law, Ohio State University Public Health Law & Policy; Health Policy; Global Public Health; Tobacco Regulation
been in the cards for awhile, but it’s confirmed now: “For the first time in a quarter century, the U.S. no longer meets a main criterion for having eliminated measles as a public health threat.”
Amy Maxmen, PhD@amymaxmen.bsky.social · 2w agoDoctors in Utah pull back the curtain on what's happening in America. You can read (and listen!) to my piece for WIRED/KFFHN without a paywall, here: kffhealthnews.org/public-healt...
Astonishing. RFK Jr. adds 8 members to a 6 member FDA advisory panel. 6 of them were sellers of peptides, and the 7th a compounding pharmacist. In an 8-6 vote with all 8 votes coming from these new panel members, the panel approved 4 peptides against the objections of FDA scientists.
FDA Panel Supports Lifting Restrictions on Four Peptides (Gift Article)
In an all-day hearing, the agency’s scientists argued against allowing broad access to unproven drugs that the agency had banned three years ago.
nytimes.com
Once you understand that this is a model of science written by non-scientists who hate universities but love venture capital and redirecting money to political allies, everything makes a lot more sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
nytimes.com
“Fundamentally, we did not do a proper assessment” Former FDA scientist says the agency approved Zyn nicotine pouches without knowing what was in them - which could include microplastics New from @mattchapman.bsky.social Kathryn Kranhold @theexamination.org
FDA approved Zyn nicotine pouches for sale without knowing what they were made of, says former agency scientist
A toxicologist says the agency’s failure to consider whether the pouch material could shed microplastics shows it’s not doing enough to protect public health.
theexamination.org
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Critical action needed: Stop OMB's political review of federal grants | Defend Public Health
A proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seeks to take expert review of federal grants out of the hands of experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. This rule co...
defendpublichealth.org
The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses. As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses
As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight.
nbcnews.com
An important and powerful decision: "Forcing an official government line—in a college classroom of all places—is exactly the 'pall of orthodoxy' that the First Amendment will not tolerate." www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
‘Breathtaking assertion of power’: Appeals court slams door on Florida ‘Stop Woke’ law championed by DeSantis
The decision from a divided 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit is a devastating, possibly final blow to the so-called Stop WOKE act touted by the DeSantis administration.
politico.com
Some things never change... www.theexamination.org/articles/ame...
How the global network of America’s largest business lobby opens doors for tobacco companies
American Chambers of Commerce opposed a vaping ban in Bulgaria, praised a cigarette factory in Serbia and hosted tobacco executives and government officials in Ukraine.
theexamination.org
"The Trump administration is moving religious freedom to the forefront of its health policies, ... likely affect[ing] reproductive health, LGBTQ+healthcare, and vaccine policy." via HHS restructuring and a DOJ report, via @melodyschreiber.com @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Trump administration puts religious freedom at heart of US health policy
Critics say the new focus could reshape LGBTQ+ healthcare, abortion access and vaccine policy
theguardian.com
to the Trump DOJ, if an ally of the administration breaks the law and the administration decides not to do anything to stop them, they can also prevent anyone else from making sure the law is enforced, regardless of the law’s explicit language. An open invitation to corruption.
Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · last mo.The Department of Justice is trying to get the NAACP’s Clean Air Act suit against xAI tossed because it claims the government should be able to block *all* citizen suits it opposes to avoid “Article II” concerns. As today’s “One First” explains, this argument is as scary and alarming as it is novel:
NEW from Important Context: All eyes have been on the Trump slush fund settlement, but a week earlier, the DOJ settled a Biden-era censorship lawsuit brought by anti-vax writer Alex Berenson, which was on appeal from a federal court dismissal. According to Berenson, it included a 6-figure payout.
Trump DOJ Settles Lawsuit By Vaccine Skeptic Despite Winning in Court
Anti-mRNA vaccine writer Alex Berenson said he received a six-figure payout from the case.
importantcontext.news
Science is built on a foundation of hundreds of papers. If the removal of a single paper from that foundation completely upsets your hypothesis, it often means you’re sciencing incorrectly. He has so little evidence for his claims that he has to cling to this paper and fight tooth and nail.
Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link
Police Remove Diabetes Experts From Conference for Distributing Critique of Trump Administration
nytimes.com
I fear the lesson still has not been learned, but there needs to be strong and consistent pushback from the leadership of every R1 university against this. No minimizing where this would take us.
anil oza@aniloza.bsky.social · 2mo agonew eo dropped last night: Trump outlines who his administration intends to move into schedule F, making them easier to fire At NIH, it includes the deputy directors of the agency and some branch chiefs/division directors www.statnews.com/2026/06/03/t...
Commentary: “My parents understood something that Ohio’s voucher advocates seem to have forgotten: a commitment to your own children’s education doesn’t require defunding someone else’s,” writes The Rev. Ben Huelskamp ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/06/02/i...
I went to Catholic school for 13 years. I still oppose Ohio's private school voucher program • Ohio Capital Journal
“My parents understood something that Ohio’s voucher advocates seem to have forgotten: a commitment to your own children’s education doesn’t require defunding someone else’s,” writes The Rev. Ben…
ohiocapitaljournal.com
“[Rotavirus] vaccines were so effective that Dr. Hofto could recall treating only four or five children with rotavirus in the past decade. Now, she said she had treated about that many already this year, and none of them were vaccinated.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/w...
Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline
nytimes.com
This is the destruction of federal funding for scientific research & universities as we know it. A total, comprehensive politicization of the process & an end run around Congress.
Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net · 2mo agoBREAKING: New proposed OMB regulation, applying to all federal grants, requiring grant reviews by senior political appointees and re-emphasizes that "peer review remains advisory and does not replace agency discretion". #standupforscience public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10817.pdf
In normal times, the fact that government officials at HHS blatantly lied to the public and got caught would be a scandal of unusual size. Everyone involved in this disinformation scheme against the people of the United States should be held accountable.
No child deaths definitively linked to Covid shots, FDA says
The agency’s analysis contradicts claims made by former vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad.
nbcnews.com
The weakening infrastructure for responding to health emergencies
Health Policy Watch - Global health news reporting@healthpolicywatch.bsky.social · 2mo ago
Here's how the corruption works: Thursday: RJ Reynolds donates $5M to Trump Saturday: Trump invites RJR execs to Mar a Lago; execs ask to loosen regs on flavored vapes; Trump calls up RFK Jr. and tells him to change it Friday: FDA changes the policy
Trump Administration Live Updates: President’s Ballroom and New Fund Face Test in Congress
nytimes.com
Only surprise is that this didn’t happen sooner, but more bad news out of HHS. news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...
RFK Jr. Fires Leaders of Preventative Services Advisory Panel
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. terminated the appointments of two vice-chairs of a key advisory committee that helps determine free preventive coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
news.bloomberglaw.com
"The president has developed a close relationship with tobacco companies including Altria and Reynolds American, which have donated millions of dollars to his political groups and projects, including his proposed White House ballroom." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/u...
With a Friend in Trump, the Tobacco Industry Secures a Lucrative Win
nytimes.com
nearly all of these MAHA influencers are being compensated by tobacco companies, and very few disclose it. in many cases, they are marketing to children. nicotine pouches harm child brain development.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4mo agoA new wave of health influencers, many of whom are aligned with the Make America Healthy Again movement, are championing nicotine as a health product despite doctors' warnings.
'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3
Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship
Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.
insidehighered.com
The leadership at HHS has an agenda, and that is to deprive the United States of vaccines, most especially COVID19 vaccines. These people have no problem making claims about their belief that COVID19 vaccines are harmful without any data at all. Now they are hiding data showing the benefits.
CDC delays publishing report showing covid vaccine benefits
The acting CDC director cited concerns with the methodology, but the design has long been used to test vaccine effectiveness.
washingtonpost.com
tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world
Noam Ross@noamross.net · 4mo agoFor #NSF and #NIH watchers, Grant Witness now has interactive data on numbers of grants and total funding obligations, broken down by institute and directorate, new awards and non-competitive renewals. The stranglehold on new awards is still a disaster. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
This is the definition of the Merchants of Doubt strategy: Amplifying 3% of experts with fringe opinions to make it look like the debate is a 50/50 proposition.
Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 4mo agoIt would have been nice had The New York Times asked experts in the field why these law professors are full of shit, rather than framing a piece that looks like a debate that's with three percent of the academy is a 50/50 proposition.
Well, this is awful. www.404media.co/this-company... via @404media.co It relies on the "books.google.com" Author's Guild case as to why it can scrape & play other's presentations w/o consent [theoretically 'opt-out']. Further article here: cyberalberta.ca/zooming-out-...
This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts
WebinarTV hosts 200,000 “webinars.” A Zoom call you may thought was private might be one of them.
404media.co
