What Anti-Vaccine Policies Could Mean for Autoimmune Diseases

Will Bobby Jr.'s anti-vaxxer views block development of new vaccine?

By Giamila Fantuzzi

Autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women. This is especially true for lupus (formally known as systemic lupus erythematosus), as about nine in 10 people with the condition are female. Lupus can cause inflammation and pain and commonly affects the skin, joints, and organs including the heart and kidneys.

Scientists have long observed an association between infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, and several autoimmune diseases, including lupus. Now, the authors of a study published last month in Science Translational Medicine have dissected that link, shedding light on mechanisms that have remained obscure for too long.

It’s a finding that can lead to a solution. If we can prevent infection with EBV we can potentially prevent lupus. But, as a scientist who studies chronic diseases and an educator who teaches about it, I worry that anti-vaccine policies will hinder the search for a cure.

Most people know EBV as the cause of mononucleosis, or mono, the kissing disease of adolescence. But EBV is a jack-of-all-trades.

Michael Anthony Epstein, Yvonne Barr, and Bert Achong discovered the virus in 1964 as the cause of an aggressive type of cancer seen mostly in African children. Scientists later found that EBV infects almost everybody in the world, though in most cases it does not generate any symptoms, and so the infection goes unnoticed.

CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study by controversial Danish researchers

First, decide the conclusion you want and then pay bogus scientists $1.6 million to make up the proof

Liz Szabo, MA

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded an unsolicited $1.6 million grant for vaccine research to Danish researchers whose studies have been challenged by mainstream scientists but championed by anti-vaccine activists, including Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

According to a notice in the Federal Register posted yesterday, the CDC is paying the University of Southern Denmark to conduct a single-blind clinical trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in newborns in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa with exceptionally high rates of maternal and infant mortality, where nearly one in five people are infected with the hepatitis B virus.

The CDC is an agency within HHS. The study aims to assess the optimal timing and delivery of hepatitis B vaccinations, according to the notice.

‘Appearance of blatant cronyism’

The new study was awarded without any competition from any other scientists, giving it “the appearance of blatant cronyism,” said Angela Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist and professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Although the federal announcement did not include the names of the researchers, the Danish university’s Bandim Health Project, which has conducted vaccine research in the developing African country for decades, has acknowledged being awarded the CDC grant.

The Bandim project leaders have claimed to find “non-specific effects” from vaccines—some good and some bad—that they say should change how vaccine safety studies are conducted.

Their message has resonated with Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist.

In June, Kennedy used a single study by the Bandim group to justify canceling more than $1 billion in funding for childhood vaccinations in developing countries. The observational study found an increased risk of death in children who received a combined vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DPT) that hasn’t been used in the United States in three decades. 

Scientists say people shouldn’t put too much faith in that study, which is an outlier and conflicts with hundreds of studies showing that vaccines are safe and save lives. Researchers and policy makers normally consider the totality of scientific evidence on vaccines, rather than a single study, which may be flawed. 

Are you on Donald Trump's "enemies list?"

You Could Be on Trump’s Enemies List, But the Mainstream Media Won’t Warn You

Jim Naureckas

The Trump FBI is drawing up an enemies list that could encompass well over half the US public:

• Do you “advance… opposition to law and immigration enforcement”?
• Do you have “extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders”?
• Show an “adherence to radical gender ideology,” meaning you think trans people exist?
• Do you exhibit (what the Trump administration would interpret as) “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” or “anti-Christianity”?
• Do you display “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality”?

Congratulations—you may be headed for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.” “Terrorism,” of course, is the magic word that strips you of all sorts of legal protections, especially in the post-9/11 era.

This is from a Justice Department memo obtained by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein (12/6/25)—which goes on to instruct the FBI to set up “a cash reward system” for people who turn in those promoting such thoughtcrime, and “establish cooperators to provide information and eventually testify against other members” of groups with these dangerous ideas.

This is the implementation of the Trump administration’s avowed policy of criminalizing dissent—in the words of the NSPM-7 decree, outlawing “organized campaigns of… radicalization… designed to… change or direct policy outcomes” (FAIR.org, 10/3/25; CounterSpin, 10/17/25)—and as such is another giant step towards authoritarianism. Establishment media didn’t see it that way, however.

As Klippenstein (12/9/25) pointed out, virtually no corporate media outlets covered this catastrophic memo, and those who did report on it did a generally poor job. The Guardian headline (12/5/25) was “Pam Bondi Tells Law Enforcement Agencies to Investigate Antifa Groups for ‘Tax Crimes,’” and Bloomberg Law (12/5/25) had “Bondi Orders FBI Extremism Intelligence Review with Antifa Focus”—completely misleading framing that suggests that if you’re not “Antifa,” the memo isn’t about you.

The physics of Donald Trump's brain

Catch pneumonia for charity

Elon Musk's unwitting revenge

Travelling abroad?

How to avoid trouble with ICE upon return whether or not you are a citizen

National Immigration Law Center

We should all be able to travel to visit our loved ones and explore new places. But right now, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is going after immigrants in new and harmful ways. Traveling through U.S. airports can be risky, even if you have active or pending legal immigration status and/or have traveled without issues in the past. That’s why it’s more important than ever to know your rights and how to prepare for risks as you travel.

This resource gives travel safety tips and other resources on how to understand the risks and prepare yourself and your family.

Disclaimer: This resource provides general information. It is not legal advice specific to your situation. We recommend that community members exercise caution and speak to an immigration lawyer about their individual cases.  

What’s Happening 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the government agency that handles airport security, is giving passenger information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This means people who don’t have legal immigration status or whose status is uncertain could be arrested or deported when they go through airport security in the United States.

• How does it happen? A few times each week, TSA sends ICE lists of people flying through U.S. airports. These lists include names, photos, and other details. ICE checks these lists against its own records. If ICE finds someone they want to target, they can send officers to arrest that person at the airport.
• Isn’t my private information protected? Normally, government agencies have rules about sharing private information. But TSA and ICE are both part of the same department – the Department of Homeland Security – so those rules don’t apply here.
• Is ICE already arresting people at airports? Yes. The New York Times reported on December 12, 2025, that TSA is sharing this information with ICE. Before that, there were already reports of ICE arrests at airports. For example, on November 20, ICE arrested college student Ana Luccía López Belloza at Boston’s Logan Airport while she was waiting to board a flight to visit family for Thanksgiving. She had an old deportation order, though she didn’t know it.

RFK Jr. wants to scrutinize the vaccine schedule – but its safety record is already decades long

"Fixing" what's not broken with a sledge hammer

Jake Scott, Stanford University

We now have vaccines for many diseases that once ravaged the population. That's not a problem, but a cause for celebration.

The U.S. childhood immunization schedule, the grid of colored bars pediatricians share with parents, recommends a set of vaccines given from birth through adolescence to prevent a range of serious infections. The basic structure has been in place since 1995, when federal health officials and medical organizations first issued a unified national standard, though new vaccines have been added regularly as science advanced.

Vaccines on the childhood schedule have been tested in controlled trials involving millions of participants, and they are continuously monitored for safety after being rolled out. The schedule represents the accumulated knowledge of decades of research. It has made the diseases it targets so rare that many parents have never seen them.

But the schedule is now under scrutiny.

On Dec. 16, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted its first major change to the childhood immunization schedule, under Kennedy’s leadership. The agency accepted an advisory committee’s vote to drop a long-held recommendation that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B, despite no new evidence that questions the vaccine’s long-standing safety record.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has cast doubt on vaccine safety for decades, has said he plans to further scrutinize the vaccines children receive.

I’m an infectious disease physician who treats vaccine-preventable diseases and reviews the clinical trial evidence behind immunization recommendations. The vaccine schedule wasn’t designed in a single stroke. It was built gradually over decades, shaped by disease outbreaks, technological breakthroughs and hard-won lessons about reducing childhood illness and death.

With federal officials now casting doubt on its foundations, it’s helpful to know how it came about.

The early years

For the first half of the 20th century, smallpox vaccination was common, required by most states for school entry. But there was no unified national schedule. The combination vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, known as the DTP vaccine, emerged in 1948, and the Salk polio vaccine arrived in 1955, but recommendations for when and how to give them varied by state, by physician and even by neighborhood.

Trump’s Tariffs Are Killing Small Businesses

Trump's national sales tax puts a heavy burden on US small businesses

Seth Sandronsky for Common Dreams

According to the Pew Research Center, Americans have big trust in small businesses versus big corporations.

Mom-and-pop shops will need that positive vibe and more as they approach the make-or-break year end business season. While small business owners can’t compete on prices with larger companies, there are other factors in play such as personal service. 

Nevertheless, prices of goods and services do matter, so the rising costs that small business owners are paying for imports due to Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, a tax on American consumers and businesses, is roiling mom-and-pop shops across the US.

On April 2, 2025, Trump announced that he was via tariffs “enacting fair trade policies that will restore our workforce, rebuild our economy, and finally put America First.” According to Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, mom-and-pop shops would reap a bounty of benefits from tariffs on imports from global trading partners: “Small businesses will no longer be crushed by foreign governments and unfair trade deals. Instead, we will put American industry, workers, and strength FIRST.”

How are these claims working out on Main Street? We turn to Fabrice Moschetti, owner of Moschetti Artisan Roasters, in Vallejo, California. 

Imported coffee he buys from Brazil was tariff-free until the president imposed a baseline “reciprocal tariff” of 10% on imported goods globally, then increased tariffs on Brazilian imports another 40% in July because the government of Brazil was prosecuting its past President Jair Bolsonaro, awaiting a 27-year prison sentence on appeal currently after conviction for planning a military coup against his successor, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

It’s been a struggle to find an adequate supply of coffee, according to Moschetti, forcing him to truck it in from cities such as Seattle versus the nearby Port of Oakland. “It’s been difficult to tell the mom-and-pop owner-operators who we work with that our prices are increasing 40%,” he says.

If everything is "national security," then nothing is.

The legal "defense" for Trump's ballroom is a joke

Lisa Needham

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued the Trump administration over the White House ballroom project, saying the law requires that plans be reviewed and approved by two federal commissions and the construction must be authorized by Congress.

But according to the administration, construction can’t be halted for even the briefest moment — or our national security will be imperiled.

How does putting a pause on the Big Gilded Ballroom compromise national security? Well, the administration can’t say … because it would compromise national security.

It’s kind of a fool’s game to treat the administration’s court filings as legitimate legal arguments. That’s not only because Department of Justice attorneys are distressingly comfortable with deceiving judges and defying orders. It’s also because the administration doesn’t genuinely believe it should be required to justify or defend its actions, so instead of legal arguments, we just get assertions of raw, unchecked power.

The most blatant version of this is the administration’s favorite one to raise — namely, that Trump gets to do what he wants because he is president. But the vague, fact-free invocation of national security is in the same category, albeit less obviously so. One is basically “you can’t tell us what to do,” while the other is more “we don’t have to tell you what we’re doing or why we are doing it.”

Priorities, again

OK, MAGA, to stay in step with your Dear Leader, you need to replace the arm rests for all your chairs with marble because it's SO comfortable.

Why Canadians don't move here and don't want to be the 51st state

 

Meet Trump's pick to be Rhode Island's "interim" US Attorney

Senator Whitehouse describes him as a MAGA stooge with neither the qualifications nor temperament for this position

Read Katherine Gregg's story on him: Charles Calenda to be sworn in as interim US Attorney for RI.
Calenda's appointment is opposed by both of Rhode Island's Senators, with Sen. Whitehouse describing Calenda's appointment like this:

“Despite good-faith efforts at a bipartisan nomination process with the Trump White House, the MAGA Department of Justice insisted on a MAGA stooge with neither the qualifications nor temperament for this position. There will be no blue slip and we will be rid of him soon enough.”

Scientists reveal a powerful heart boost hidden in everyday foods

Tasty and good for your heart

King's College London

Regular consumption of polyphenol-rich foods like tea, coffee, berries, nuts, and whole grains may significantly support long-term heart health. A decade-long study of more than 3,100 adults found that those who consistently ate polyphenol-packed diets had healthier blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as lower predicted cardiovascular risk.

Higher intake of polyphenol-rich foods was linked to better heart health and slower increases in cardiovascular risk during aging. Metabolite analysis confirmed the protective effects of key plant compounds like flavonoids and phenolic acids. Credit: Shutterstock

People who frequently include foods and beverages rich in polyphenols, such as tea, coffee, berries, cocoa, nuts, whole grains and olive oil, may experience better heart health over time.

Trump and Bobby Jr. are gunning for trans kids

Bans gender-affirming health care for trans kids

Ayurella Horn-Muller, Staff Writer

Even the NRA thinks this is stupid

This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

Trump administration officials announced new proposed regulations targeting gender-affirming care for youth, part of a larger push from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to restrict such care. 

One of the new proposed rules would ban hospitals that provide gender affirming care to youth under 18 from receiving Medicaid and Medicare funds. Another proposed rule would bar Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care for youth under 18 and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from covering such care for youth under 19. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with other officials, formally announced the proposed rules at an event on Thursday morning. In his remarks, Kennedy cast gender affirming care as “sex-rejecting” procedures that impose “lasting harm” on children.

“This is not medicine. It is malpractice,” Kennedy said. “We're done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”

Gender-affirming care for youth, backed by major medical organizations to treat gender dysphoria, varies depending on the patient’s age and circumstances. For those entering adolescence, providers can prescribe puberty blockers, which temporarily halt hormones causing puberty and are also prescribed to cisgender youth who undergo early puberty. Research has shown that puberty blockers significantly reduce depression and risk of suicide in trans and non-binary youth and that gender-affirming care also reduces depression in transgender adults.