She’s Charged With Killing Her Twins. The Anti-Vaccine Movement Made Her a Martyr. – Mother Jones

Andrea Shaw is charged with suffocating her toddlers. Children’s Health Defense says it was the vaccines...

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/andrea-shaw-vaccines-childrens-health-defense-murder-charges/

 

The Most Important Health Stories You Missed This Week (Dr. Zachary Rubin, Bench to Bedside podcast)

It’s been a chaotic week in health and science, and a lot of important stories are getting buried.

In Episode 9 of From Bench to Bedside, Dr. Zachary Rubin and Dr. Melanie Matheu break down the health headlines that actually matter: alternative funding programs for medications, ACIP charter changes, the worsening measles outbreak, a polio travel advisory, cuts to rabies and poxvirus testing, and a couple of good-news stories to end on hope.

Let us know what story stood out most, and share this episode with someone who wants clear, grounded takes on science, medicine, and public health.

00:00 Intro + “it’s been a week”
02:00 Alternative Funding Programs (AFPs): cheaper meds, hidden risks
05:30 Why doctors may not even know patients are using AFPs
08:30 RFK Jr. & ACIP charter changes explained
13:00 Why expertise (actually) matters in vaccine policy
16:30 Measles outbreak update (U.S. data + trends)
20:30 Why teens & adults are driving cases now
23:00 Hospitalizations + who’s at highest risk
24:30 Polio travel advisory (what to know before summer trips)
26:30 Rabies & poxvirus testing cuts: why this matters
28:00 Good news: cancer death rates declining
29:00 Good news: wedding before heart transplant
29:45 Outro

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/dROZ3hEmunM?si=NGXr1sa6QpfJylzY

The Disinformation Dozen: Wuhan Drift (Conspirituality podcast #302)

Early in this podcast we covered the Disinformation Dozen, 12 wellness influencers and contrarian health figures responsible for spreading the lion’s share of vaccine misinformation on major social media platforms.

On a recent MAHA Action weekly call, Tony Lyons got the group back together for a victory lap after a court settlement seemed to justify their actions. Or did it?

We break down the court case, then hear from the influencers who continue to inflate their own sense of self-importance while rewriting a history that only exists in their minds.
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/302-disinformation-dozen-returns-wuhan-drift

FDA refuses to consider Moderna flu shot in move experts claim is part of ‘anti-vaccine agenda’

"It's all pretext and obfuscation when the real agenda is rejecting conventional science and serving a predetermined anti-vaccine agenda," said Richard Hughes IV, a partner with Epstein Becker Green and law professor at George Washington University. 

Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, said "personally humiliating a company is not a legitimate reason to refuse to review a submission", and the refusal needs to "address substantive reasons". Angela Rasmussen, an American virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, says "they're just coming up with reasons to not approve mRNA anything, and they're going to eventually do it to all these vaccines"...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/13/fda-moderna-flu-vaccine

 

Measles at Ark Encounter (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podast #617)

— A single Chick-fil-A store congratulated a gay couple, and conservatives lost their damn minds. (2:35)

— People who visited Ark Encounter may have been exposed to measles. (18:55)

— Christian Nationalists can’t handle Zohran Mamdani’s oath on a Qur’an. (29:07)

— Judge says school must shield kindergartner from all things LGBTQ at Christian dad’s demand. (37:40)

— New Jersey finally stops Christians from blocking access to a public beach on Sunday mornings. (58:55)

— Indiana Republicans are reviving a decades-old fight over a Ten Commandments monument. (1:15:07)
Interview: 

https://friendlyatheistpodcast.com/2026/01/08/measles-at-ark-encounter/

Anti-vaccine movement celebrates growing influence in Trump’s Washington - The Washington Post

Among their most prominent goals is eliminating school vaccine mandates in a state-by-state campaign...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/11/10/rfk-anti-vaccine-mandates-health-freedom/

 

Meet the man who built RFK Jr.’s kitchen cabinet (Politico)

Jeffrey Tucker, who elevated Covid contrarians now working for the health secretary, is building support for Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/18/brownstone-tucker-kennedy-rfk-maha-00614274

Federal mRNA funding cut is ‘most dangerous public health decision’ ever, expert says | PBS News

Dr. Michael Osterholm: Well, first of all, we have all just been through a pandemic, and we did see what, in fact, the COVID vaccine could do to reduce serious illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.

But the other kind of pandemic that we're very concerned about and you noted in the lead-in with regard to bird flu and the possibility that it could be the next influenza pandemic virus. Right now, globally, we have the ability to make enough vaccine in about 15 months after an influenza pandemic started to actually vaccinate only about one-fourth of the entire world.

We're still using the 1950s process using embryonated chicken eggs to grow the virus in. That would be an utter failure. Now, with the mRNA technology, we believe we could probably have enough vaccine for the whole world within a year, and it would make a big difference.

This is a vaccine that would surely be every bit as equivalent of what we currently have, if not better. So, there's just one example of where mRNA technology can be helpful. We have a number of other infectious diseases right now, including some cancer vaccine work that is being done within the scientific community…
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/federal-mrna-funding-cut-is-most-dangerous-public-health-decision-ever-expert-says

Why You Should Also Worry About Whooping Cough Amid Measles Outbreak — ProPublica

"My concern is that there is going to be a large outbreak of not just measles, but other vaccine-preventable diseases as well, that's going to end up causing a lot of harm, and possibly deaths in children and young adults," said Dr. Anna Durbin, a professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has spent her career studying vaccines. "And it's completely preventable."

https://www.propublica.org/article/whooping-cough-measles-outbreak-vaccine-hesitancy-trump 

 

MAHA's Soft Eugenics (Conspirituality podcast)

MAHA's (RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again) response to the measles outbreak has been horrific, though expectable. Yet RFK Jr's op-ed, in which he advocated for the MMR vaccine, ripped apart his coalition—briefly.

Derek looks at the responses to Bobby's moment of clarity, then contemplates what MAHA really wants now that their champion is the bureaucracy.
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-maha-soft-eugenics

The Evangelical Anti-Vaccine Movement 50 Years in the Making (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

Brad speaks with scholar Mark Fugitt whose recent work explores the various sources and factors in evangelical opposition to the COVID vaccine. He provides the historical context for this movement, showing that it is half a century in formation. 

He explains to Brad how everything from creationism, to Christian wellness, to anti-abortion sentiment, and the apocalypse play into fear-mongering around the COVID vaccine.

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/swaj-rewind-the-evangelical-anti-vaccine-movement-50-years-in-the-making/

MAHA Storms the Capitol (Conspirituality podcast episode #226)

Cleanse the soil! Purify the blood! Save the children! Make America Healthy Again!

On Sept 23, Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr., rising alt-health stars Casey and Calley Means, and many other nutrition non-experts gathered for a live streamed event they called the American Health and Nutrition Roundtable, hosted by Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Their subtitle, A Second Opinion, was an apt description for the alternative fact-filled diatribes that ensued. The soil has been poisoned, everyone is fat and sick, the entire medical industry is corrupted by Big Pharma, and Big Food is enacting a genocide on the American people via metabolic dysfunction. COVID skepticism and anti-vax messaging lurked just beneath the surface.

The speakers painted a terrifying picture and then presented themselves as benevolent common-sense saviors. At the climax of her speech, Casey Means, fresh from her career-boosting Tucker Carlson appearance, took a deep breath before declaring that this is all actually a spiritual crisis
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/226-maha-storms-the-capitol

Mock Trial: Murthy v. Missouri - Free Speech, Government and Misinformation on Social Media Platforms (John Donvan; Open to Debate podcast)

The Supreme Court is taking up a case that could affect how you read about issues during a crucial election year. Government officials concerned about misinformation related to topics such as COVID and election integrity had requested that social media platforms take down some posts. Several plaintiffs then filed a lawsuit alleging that by doing so, the government was suppressing speech and certain viewpoints. 

Now, there’s a question of whether such government actions amount to coercion or are legitimate exercises of power. Those who argue coercion believe that government requests limit free speech, claim “misinformation” is subjective, and worry that increased content moderation could lead to authoritarian control over public discourse online. 

Those who argue legitimate cooperation say that platforms often voluntarily comply with these requests as part of their anti-misinformation policies, making it a collaborative effort for public benefit. They also note that in cases where misinformation threatens public health or safety, such as false information about vaccines, government intervention is justified to protect the public.

Now in this mock trial, we take this question on the free speech, government, and misinformation on social media platforms.

Interview: 

https://opentodebate.org/debate/mock-trial-murthy-v-missouri-free-speech-government-and-misinformation-on-social-media-platforms/

Virus

RFK Jr’s racist, crazy ideology betrays the legacy of heroes that came before him. This is a new kind of Kennedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVHeCiInJ8

RFK Jr. has NIGHTMARE interview on national TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=QrjKnwoPwZ-umbCW&v=umYOY8c5IYo&feature=youtu.be

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane CRUSHES Bill Maher antivax nonsense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_JHmcL_enw

Fired prelate Strickland appears near — but not at — bishops gathering - The Washington Post

Until Nov. 11, Joseph Strickland was the bishop of Tyler, Tex., a post he had held since 2012, when he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. But Strickland became a source of perpetual controversy, praying at a Jericho March event in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and voicing support during the covid-19 pandemic for priests who defied their bishops by refusing to be vaccinated. In May, Strickland accused Pope Francis on social media of "undermining the Deposit of Faith," the body of Catholic belief...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/11/16/joseph-strickland-catholic-bishops/

DeSantis suggests he could pick RFK Jr. to lead the FDA or CDC - POLITICO

Kennedy, who remains a long shot for the Democratic presidential nomination, has aired contentious views over vaccines, having questioned their effectiveness on several occasions. In the past few weeks, hecame under sharp fire from liberals for suggesting that Covid was engineered to be less lethal to Asian and Jewish people. He has also been a critic of Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, commenting once that he would prosecute him if "crimes were committed."…

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/26/desantis-rfk-jr-fda-cdc-2025-00108305

The Steep Cost of Ron DeSantis’s Vaccine Turnabout - The New York Times

That left the state particularly vulnerable when the Delta variant hit that month. Floridians died at a higher rate, adjusted for age, than residents of almost any other state during the Delta wave, according to the Times analysis. With less than 7 percent of the nation's population, Florida accounted for 14 percent of deaths between the start of July and the end of October. 

Of the 23,000 Floridians who died, 9,000 were younger than 65. Despite the governor's insistence at the time that "our entire vulnerable population has basically been vaccinated," a vast majority of the 23,000 were either unvaccinated or had not yet completed the two-dose regimen...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/politics/ron-desantis-covid.html

DeSantis reverses himself on coronavirus vaccines, moving right of Trump - The Washington Post

A review of DeSantis's public positions on the vaccines shows a full reversal that has unfolded gradually since 2021, seizing on the shots' waning efficacy against new virus variants and portraying evolving scientific advice as deliberate deceit… 

"We know he's not really anti-vax, he's on the record, but now he's taking this position for really blatant political purposes, it appears, and it's really undermining to health care professionals," said David Pate, a retired health systems executive and lifelong Republican who has advised Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R). "I'm not sure what the gain is, because he's already got the base, and now this is just going to alienate moderates and independents."…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/17/desantis-vaccine-reversal/