“Dr. Dave Weldon, Trump’s C.D.C. Pick, Was Not on Anyone’s Radar”

By Apoorva Mandavilli and Benjamin Mueller

“Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Republican congressman who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been off the political stage for more than 15 years.”
“Yet over the years his views have aligned in many ways with those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Trump’s choice for health and human services secretary, and Dr. Weldon’s potential boss. The two have maintained a 25-year relationship.
Like Mr. Kennedy, Dr. Weldon, 71, has claimed that some children may develop autism when vaccinated against measles because of genetics or other factors, despite dozens of robust studies that thoroughly disproved the claim.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/health/dave-weldon-cdc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

“The risk of a bird flu pandemic is rising”
By Jessica Hamzelou

“How worried should we be about bird flu? It’s a question that I’ve been asked by friends and colleagues several times over the last couple of weeks. Their concerns have been spurred by some potentially worrisome developments in the US, including the continued spread of the virus among dairy cattle, the detection of the virus in a pig as well as cow’s milk, and—most concerning of all—the growing number of human infections.”
“I’ll admit that I’m worried. We don’t yet have any evidence that the virus is spreading between people, but the risk of a potential pandemic has increased since I last covered this topic a couple of months ago.
And once you combine that increased risk with an upcoming change in presidential administration that might leave US health agencies in the hands of a vaccine denier who promotes the consumption of raw milk, well … it’s not exactly a comforting thought.”

to read the full article go to

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/29/1107552/risk-of-bird-flu-pandemic-rising/

“Long a ‘Crown Jewel’ of Government, N.I.H. Is Now a Target”

By Teddy Rosenbluth and Emily Anthes

“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the new administration’s selection for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the N.I.H., routinely castigates federal scientists and is a staunch critic of conventional pharmaceuticals and vaccines, with a long record of spreading falsehoods about vaccine safety.

He has said that he would steer the agency into a yearslong “break” from infectious disease research, focusing instead on chronic diseases.”

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