"When There’s ... Wrong Information, It Can Lead to Calamitous Decisions"

Three Things Thursday

Apr 11, 2025

Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week. It has been another hard week. RFK Jr continues to spread misinformation related to vaccines, measles, and fluoride in drinking water. And is now making claims that he will determine the cause of autism by September (as if the public health & medical communities have not been researching autism and its causes for decades). The state legislation he is promoting will have devastating effects on the health of children, especially those who are growing up in poverty.

Secretary Kennedy should NOT be in charge of the health of America.

The misinformation RFK Jr is spreading is dangerous & deadly.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, who has been leading the American Public Health Association for over two decades, has called on Secretary Kennedy to resign, citing his “complete disregard for science.” In an interview with STATNews, Dr. Benjamin said,

“As a physician, I pledged to first do no harm and to speak up when I see harm being done by others. I ask my colleagues to join me and speak up. Secretary Robert Kennedy is a danger to the public’s health and should resign or be fired… The things that he has done have not only not been helpful, but I believe that many of the things he’s articulated have been hurtful. I think people are going to die because of what he’s doing.”

People are dying — last week, another child died of measles (details below). This is the third measles death in 2025; this is highly unusual (from 2000-2024, there were three measles deaths total, during 24 years, in the US).

As this week’s events unfolded, I have been rewatching The Newsroom, which, if you’ve been reading here for a while, know is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. In the pilot episode, the news anchor, Will McAvoy, is yelled at by the executive producer of his TV show. In the scene, the producer states —

“There is nothing more important in a democracy than a well-informed electorate. When there’s no information or, much worse, wrong information, it can lead to calamitous decisions.”

She goes on to ask —

“Is government an instrument of good or is it every man for himself? Is there something bigger we want to reach for, or is self-interest our basic resting pulse?”

Given the current state of politics and health in America, the pilot “hits different” as I rewatched it the other day. I do believe there is something bigger for us to reach for, but we must be healthy and safe to do so. And that is why I am here each week, bringing you the three pieces of news you need to know about.

Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.

Fighting Misinformation

Yesterday, RFK Jr was interviewed on CBS. In that interview, he did say, “The federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine." However, he followed that up with this qualifier, "The government should not be mandating those." (I guess it is every man for himself — to answer the question above) And within hours of that interview, he was back to peddling unproven “cures” for measles on X.

FACT: There is no cure for measles. Once an individual is infected, we can treat the symptoms, but there is no cure, antiviral, or magic pill.

RFK Jr has additionally claimed that other vaccines are either unsafe or do not work. These claims were made as the FDA has to determine (by May 31) how the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccines will be updated (if at all). It is as if the Secretary of Health and Human Services wants to dismantle the entire vaccine industry (notably our seasonal vaccines, including the COVID shot). In STATNews, Stanley Plotkin, a co-developer of the rotavirus vaccine and the vaccine that protects against rubella, stated —

“This is another example of Kennedy being an ignoramus about vaccination, if not other things as well.”

FACT: Not all vaccines are designed or capable of providing lifelong immunity, but that does not mean they are not effective. While the flu vaccine may not prevent illness, it is still effective. In 2022-23, the flu shot prevented 71,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 4,300 flu-related deaths.

FACT: Vaccines undergo three phases of clinical trials1 before they can be approved for use. These clinical trials use the gold standard of all epidemiological studies, the randomized control trial.

Finally, RFK Jr continues to downplay the measles outbreak in the US. There are more than 600 known cases with outbreaks in multiple states. He has incorrectly described the current measles outbreak as common place and even said that the death of a child from measles in the US is “not unusual.” Additionally, Secretary Kennedy made the following FALSE claims on Fox News, “measles vaccine kills people every year,” that “measles vaccine causes blindness and deafness,” “measles vaccine causes the same symptoms as measles,” and that natural measles “prevents cancer.”

I’ve said this previously, but it needs to be repeated —

The MMR vaccine does NOT cause autism.
The MMR does NOT cause blindness or death, but measles (the disease) does.
The MMR vaccine does NOT cause death, illness, encephalitis, or blindness.

There is NO valid or reliable data to support the claim that measles prevents cancer. The opposite is true. Measles is harmful to the immune system.

Impact of Public Health Funding Cuts Hurt

Last week, I reported that public health officials in Texas had to cancel vaccination clinics and fire public health practitioners working on the front lines of the measles epidemic because of funding cuts. This week, the impact of the funding cuts has extended further…

In Milwaukee and Erie (PA), local public health officials had been coordinating with the CDC to prevent (further) lead poisoning of kids. Due to the RIF, it appears that the lead poisoning prevention office at CDC is no longer staffed. The city health official in Milwaukee noted —

“CDC was guiding us on how to triage these children we are anticipating to find, because we are just not equipped to handle the scale of the problem we are talking about here. Now I don’t have anyone to call now at CDC because the entire office is eliminated.”

The mayor of Nashville noted that with the loss of $11 billion in public health funding two local programs could be cut — (1) Nashville Strong Babies, which provides services to moms ranging from family planning services to education free of charge, and (2) the Ryan White Program, which provides community-based care for low-income people.

These spending cuts come with a cost — the lives of babies, new moms, and low-income individuals.

What happened to “do no harm?” Or “love your neighbor?”

Increase in Maternal Mortality

Speaking of new moms — a report published in JAMA this week calculated that pregnancy-related deaths in the United States increased by 27% between 2018-2022. Overall, maternal mortality increased from 25.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018 to 32.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022. The authors conclude that —

“Although cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of the overall pregnancy-related deaths, cancer, mental and behavior disorders, and drug-induced and alcohol-induced death were important contributing causes of late maternal death.”

Dr. Marian Jarlenski, a professor of health policy at the University of Pittsburgh, told STATNews (and I could not agree more!) —

“This study that we’re talking about today shows why this is not a political issue, and it’s really important that we all be focusing on how we can reduce maternal mortality and working together on it.”.

To create healthy communities for all, we need to set politics aside. Health is not a blue vs. red issue. It is about you and me, our neighbors, our communities, and our world. This is about our children and our children’s children.

We must continue to fight the misinformation, or as they said on The Newsroom, “it can lead to calamitous decisions.” It may have already…

We have to work together.

I will be here with you weekly throughout the next four years.

To create healthy communities for all, I am committing to —

Using data/science to create public health (aka preventative health) programs, policies, and interventions to save lives and decrease suffering.
Fighting misinformation.
Inspiring others to understand the science to make healthy decisions and create healthy communities.

Please do not forget to —

Click the “Like” button on the posts you enjoy. It’s a small thing, but it helps.
Share this post, either on social media or with your friends and families. It has NEVER been more important to get these three messages about misinformation to others in our communities.
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And stay in touch — what questions do you have? information do you need? concerns are keeping you awake? Let me know, and we can discuss them together.

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