America doesn’t have a science problem. It has a trust problem.

The collapse of trust didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened because the people running our institutions — government agencies, public health bureaucracies, and elite media — chose fear over facts, power over principle, and silence over accountability.

Truth alone won’t restore trust. We need courage. We need accountability. And above all, we need to stop pretending that silence keeps the peace.

I’ve spent more than three decades in life sciences, investing in innovation and funding companies that bring real cures to market. Bureaucracy can slow progress. But during COVID-19, the damage went farther. It wasn’t just red tape. It was arrogance, censorship, and the collapse of debate inside institutions once devoted to transparency and truth.

We told Americans to “trust the experts,” then changed the story every few weeks. We locked down playgrounds while allowing political protests. We shut down small businesses while rewarding massive platforms. We punished skepticism, not misinformation. We arrested surfers, fired nurses, and drove policemen and military personnel out of their jobs for refusing a vaccine. Where were the “my body, my choice” voices then?

Now Americans don’t just question mandates — they question everything: the data, the motives, the science itself.

Who can blame them? Childhood vaccination rates are falling because public health failed. An entire generation lost precious developmental time in isolation. Families grieved alone. And the same bureaucrats behind those mandates persuaded us to blame COVID, when in fact it was their decisions that did much of the damage. No one has been questioned. No one has been punished. Not one county health official has been held accountable.

A recent Gallup poll showed trust in institutions like the CDC and FDA has collapsed by more than 30 points in just a few years. That trust won’t be restored by press conferences or new slogans. It will only be restored when real leaders tell the truth about what went wrong and take responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Dr. Scott Atlas put it plainly: The lockdowns weren’t the result of the virus. They were the result of decisions — decisions made by people who ignored known data, silenced dissent, and wielded authority like a weapon. And they got it wrong. Pretending otherwise only guarantees the disaster repeats.

So where do we start if we want to rebuild trust?

End the illusion of absolute authority. The CDC, NIH, and FDA must return to their proper role: advisory. They don’t make laws. They don’t issue mandates. They provide information — period.

Impose term limits on public health leadership. No more 30-year bureaucratic dynasties. Power without turnover hardens into ideology.

Ban conflicts of interest. No royalty payments to government scientists from the very companies they regulate. No revolving door between regulators and pharma.

Demand transparency. Every agency meeting, vote, and decision should be public and immediate. If they work for us, we should know what they’re saying.

These aren’t partisan talking points. They’re common-sense reforms. The stakes are too high to shrug and “move on.” Parents who lost a year of their children’s development, the elderly who died alone, the small business owners who lost everything — they deserve accountability. This isn’t about public policy. It’s about principle.

RELATED: No perp walks, no peace

Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

And here’s the deeper truth: Fixing this mess isn’t just government’s job. It’s up to us — the entrepreneurs, innovators, parents, doctors, investors, and voters — to become stewards of truth. Not because we crave power, but because we believe in clarity. Because we still believe in the ideals America was built on.

I came to the United States at 15 after fleeing war in Beirut. I’ve seen what happens when fear and control override freedom and reason. I’ve spent my life betting on better — on ideas, on people, and on this country.

Truth alone won’t restore trust. We need courage. We need accountability. And above all, we need to stop pretending that silence keeps the peace.

It doesn’t. It only postpones the next disaster.

Big shake-up at CDC: Director gets the boot; gay vax chief resigns, attacks RFK Jr. on way out

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is executing a historic shake-up at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and make America healthy again. The full-spectrum changes have enraged establishmentarians both inside and outside his agency.

It's clear from the executive ouster and revolt that took place Wednesday at the Centers for Disease Control that Kennedy is not backing down and upsetting all the right people.

Susan Monarez — figured for a mainstream nominee after President Donald Trump's first pick, Dave Weldon, was concern-mongered out of contention — was sworn in as CDC director on July 31. She was not long for the role.

Early Wednesday evening, HHS announced that "Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

The department noted further that Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC "who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad."

Hours later, attorneys Abbe Lowell and Mark Zaid released a joint statement noting that their client, Monarez, "has been targeted" for supposedly refusing "to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts" and choosing to protect "the public over serving a political agenda."

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The attorneys noted further that Monarez "had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired" and that she refuses to resign.

The White House was quick to burst their bubble, notifying her that she was fired.

White House spokesman Kush Desai told the New York Times in a statement both that Monarez was "not aligned with the president's agenda of Making America Healthy Again" and that "the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC."

The Washington Post editorial board hinted in June at Monarez's "power to frustrate the anti-vaccine agenda of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," noting she was a champion of mRNA vaccines — the very vaccines Kennedy pulled the plug on this month — and that she could fight the health secretary's appointees on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to protect the current childhood vaccine schedule.

Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

'They risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.'

While it's presently unclear which straw broke the camel's back, an official alleged to the Times that Kennedy ordered Monarez to his office on Monday and demanded her resignation. Upon her refusal, Kennedy allegedly told her to can the CDC's top leadership by week's end.

According to the unnamed official, Monarez tried to go over Kennedy's head, complaining to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), chairman of the Senate health committee, and other senators. This reportedly infuriated Kennedy, prompting him to allegedly accuse Monarez of "being a leaker."

Zaid claimed that because President Donald Trump had not personally told Monarez to hit the bricks, the notification of her termination was "legally deficient and she remains as CDC director."

While Monarez is apparently resisting her ouster, the top leadership at the CDC went willingly.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

NBC News confirmed that at least four officials threw in the towel, including Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease; and Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

Demetre Daskalakis, the sex-obsessed homosexual "activist physician" who served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and previously served as Joe Biden's monkeypox adviser, announced on Wednesday that he too was resigning, likening his decision to a Greek partisan's fight against fascist forces.

Blaze News previously reported that Daskalakis, an LGBT activist with a track record of pushing drugs to facilitate promiscuous sexual behavior among homosexuals, had a history of denigrating straight Americans, sharing satanic imagery on social media, and showing up in public in bondage gear.

Daskalakis' resignation letter, which he shared on X, is full of clues pointing to why Kennedy may have wanted someone else at the top of the agency.

In addition to using the term "pregnant people" in reference to expectant mothers, the monkeypox expert personally attacked Kennedy; retroactively rejected the "thoughts and prayers" shared by the health secretary and his colleagues in the wake of the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta; criticized recent changes to the adult and children immunization schedules; bemoaned Kennedy's replacement of industry-compromised members on the CDC's vaccine advisory panel; and equated support for natural immunity to "eugenics."

Daskalakis also noted that he was resigning because of the "recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision."

"If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States," added the monkeypox expert.

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Students as young as 11 allegedly forced to take CDC's sexually explicit survey in Massachusetts school district

Parents are outraged after a Massachusetts school district allegedly forced children to take a survey their parents had recused them from, and now the Trump administration is investigating some of the complaints.

Burlington Public Schools is under fire from the feds for allegedly forcing students to participate in surveys that were graphic and sexual in nature.

The Boston Herald reported that students as young as 11 years old were required to take the survey.

According to the Boston Herald, the school district required students to take the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which included questions concerning "sexual intercourse, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexting, experiences with sexual assault, alcohol use, and more."

Even students whose parents had supposedly opted them out of participating in the survey allegedly took it, which, the Trump administration argues, may be a violation of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, given the nature of the questions.

One of the survey questions reportedly read: "Sexual intercourse includes vaginal sex which is when a penis goes inside of a vagina, oral sex which is contact between the mouth and genitals, anal sex which is when the penis goes inside an anus (butt), and use of toys or props (vaginal or anal). Have you ever had sexual intercourse?"

A document on the Department of Education website explains that the PPRA protects the right of parents to consent to surveys and data collection of their students related to "eight protected areas," including "sex behavior and attitudes."

Parents also have the right to "receive notice and an opportunity to opt out of ... any protected information survey administered or distributed to a student by [a] local educational agency that is a recipient of funds under an applicable program," among a few other conditions.

Since the Department of Education states that parents must give "consent before students are required to submit" to such DOE-funded protected information surveys, the incident may have been a violation of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, as is being alleged in the investigation.

"Entities which are found to be in violation of PPRA and fail to take corrective action may lose federal funding," a source familiar with the investigation at the Department of Education told Blaze News.

Notably, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey is produced and collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

While the CDC's website says that the YRBS is given only to students in grades 9-12, the Boston Herald reported that students as young as 11 years old were required to take the survey.

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Doctors sue CDC over childhood vax schedule, demanding proof it does more good than harm

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated during a congressional hearing in June that kids "get 69 to 92 jabs" by the time they are 18 years old. Now, two doctors are working to change the burden of proof from on the patients who are subjected to them, to on the government agencies that effectively demand them.

Tony Lyons, president of MAHA Action, told Blaze News that the "vaccines have never been properly tested, either individually, in groupings, or as the full schedule, so no one can honestly say that they are not linked to the chronic disease epidemic."

Two doctors backed by the advocacy group Stand for Health Freedom have filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention challenging the agency's recommended childhood immunization schedule.

Dr. Paul Thomas and Dr. Kenneth Stoller, both of whom had their medical licenses suspended and revoked in recent years for standing up against the vaccination regime, want to flip the burden of proof on the matter.

Their complaint, filed on Aug. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that "America administers more vaccines than any nation on earth while producing the sickest children in the developed world. Yet CDC demands proof of harm while refusing to conduct the studies that could provide it."

"They who recommend dozens of medical interventions for millions of children must first prove that these interventions taken together result in more good than harm," the complaint says.

Photo illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

In their lawsuit, the doctors accuse the CDC of violating:

the Administrative Procedure Act by issuing de facto "binding national mandates" without required rulemaking and "by failing to consider the important aspect of cumulative vaccine safety";
the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause "by compelling medical interventions without scientific basis while punishing those who seek evidence of safety";
the Fifth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause by allegedly denying the medical vulnerability of certain children, treating all children as medically identical, and treating "each vaccine as if administered in a biological vacuum, ignoring cross-reactivity and cumulative burden on vulnerable immune systems"; and
the First Amendment by suppressing, through its contraindication framework, "medical and scientific dissent through coordinated professional retaliation."

In addition to requesting that the court affirm these accusations, the doctors seek an injunction against the CDC from maintaining any Category A recommendations for childhood vaccines.

The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices is the federal panel that makes the vaccine recommendations that become official policy at the CDC and apply to the entire American population once adopted by the agency's director.

The panel, which was purged in June by Kennedy of all of its Biden administration appointees, organizes its vaccine recommendations into two categories: A and B.

Category A recommendations are made for all persons in an age- or a risk-factor-based group. Category B recommendations are made for individual clinical decision-making.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Thomas and Stoller figure that until the CDC can demonstrate through "scientifically rigorous" studies that the cumulative schedule is safe, all the vaccines should be shifted into the second category.

While the ACIP's recommendations are technically advisory, they are effectively enforced as mandatory standards in most jurisdictions in the country.

'High vaccination rates don't require coercion.'

"Medical boards revoke licenses for deviation. Schools exclude children. Insurance coverage depends on compliance," the lawsuit says.

Lyons told Blaze News, "It's a mandate when children in every state can't go to school without following the schedule. It's disingenuous to claim that it's just a recommended schedule. Everyone knows that isn't true."

Reclassifying the vaccine recommendations as Category B could serve to neutralize such mandates.

Richard Jaffe, attorney for the plaintiffs, indicated that this lawsuit differs from other challenges to the CDC's vaccination schedule because rather than focus on state mandates or exemptions, it is taking the agency to task on administrative and constitutional grounds.

"We're not asking to ban vaccines," Jaffe wrote. "High vaccination rates don't require coercion. Parents make responsible choices when given honest information and medical freedom."

When pressed for comment, a representative for the CDC told Blaze News that the agency "does not discuss pending litigations."

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy researcher at the University of California Law, San Francisco, told Politico, "This lawsuit does not raise valid legal claims, is by plaintiffs who do not have direct injury from the schedule as a whole — the doctors lost their license for other things — and its factual basis is untrue."

"It seems more performative than anything else," added Reiss, who previously complained about the HHS scrapping its recommendation that pregnant women and kids get the COVID-19 vaccines.

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American fertility rate hits all-time low as Dems clamor for foreign replacements

A study published last year in the Lancet revealed that fertility rates have declined in all countries and territories since 1950 and that "human civilization is rapidly converging on a sustained low-fertility reality."

The fertility rate references the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime if she were to experience the age-specific fertility rates of a given year.

In 1950, the global fertility rate was 4.84. In 2021, it was 2.23. By the end of this century, it is expected to drop to 1.59 globally — a rate that Britain, Europe, and a number of Asian countries such as South Korea have long been well below.

This trend is catastrophic, especially for those hoping to bequeath their nations to native-born persons as opposed to imported multitudes and for those keen more broadly to stave off a global population collapse. After all, the fertility rate necessary for a population to maintain stability and replenish itself without requiring replacement by foreign nationals is 2.1.

The United States set a fertility record last year — in the wrong direction.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that U.S. fertility rates dropped to an all-time low in 2024, with 1.599 children being born per woman. By way of comparison, the latest reported fertility rates in Australia, England and Wales, Canada, and China are 1.5, 1.44, 1.26, and 1.01, respectively.

The data released on Thursday indicates that birth rates — the number of births per 1,000 females — dropped for women aged 15-34 between 2023 and 2024 while rising for women aged 40-44, signaling that some women are delaying having kids.

'The number of births has declined 16%; the GFR is down 22% from 2007 to 2024.'

TanyaJoy/iStock/Getty Images Plus

"U.S. birth certificate data show that, from 2023 to 2024, the number of births increased by 1%, while the [general fertility rate] declined 1%," the CDC stated. "From 2007 (the most recent high) to 2023, the number of births has declined 16%; the GFR is down 22% from 2007 to 2024."

Last year, there were only 3.62 million births registered in the United States — 429,880 fewer births than reported in the U.S. in 2000 and 370,452 fewer births than in 2010, and only 1.5 million more than the known number of illegal aliens who stole over the southern border into the homeland last year.

The U.S. has been on a downward trend for centuries, interrupted only by the mid-20th-century baby boom which saw a fertility rate of 3.7 at its zenith.

The new record was set under the Biden administration, which championed the slaughter of the unborn and the effective sterilization of vulnerable populations while enabling millions of foreign nationals to steal into the country — a demographic substitution that one Democrat referred to as a "replenishment" of the population and critics have long referred to as the "great replacement."

The Trump administration has taken a different tack, not only protecting children from sterilization at the hands of gender ideologues and tackling chemicals linked to infertility, but promoting pro-natalist and pro-family policies.

Vice President JD Vance said in his address to pro-life advocates at the 52nd annual March of Life in January, "I want more babies in the United States of America; I want more happy children in our country; and I want beautiful young men and young women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them."

ullstein bild via Getty Images

With this aim, the Trump administration got Trump accounts — the baby bonus program that has the federal government contribute $1,000 to each qualifying child after the birth — passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and has taken steps to reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization.

'They start seeing humans as a plague, a blight on the surface of the earth.'

Such policy efforts, the impact of which are not immediately clear but have not produced great results abroad, have enraged the likes of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said earlier this year of conservatives' supposed plan for America: "It's all in there. Return to the family, the nuclear family, return to being a Christian nation, return to, you know, producing a lot of children."

"[It's] sort of odd because the people who produce the most children in our country are immigrants, and they want to deport them," Clinton added.

Clinton is hardly the only Democrat who figures that immigration is the answer to low American birth rates.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, suggested while stumping for Kamala Harris last year that "America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work."

Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in 2022 that the answer to declining birth rates was amnesty for tens of millions of illegal aliens.

"We're short of workers; we have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to," Schumer said. "The only way we're going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants — the Dreamers and all of them — 'cause our ultimate goal is to help the Dreamers but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here."

Elon Musk, among those who have raised the alarm about the risk of population collapse, claimed last year in an interview with Tucker Carlson that the "civilizational suicide" under way in the West was caused in part by climate alarmism.

"The environmental movement in the extreme is fundamentally misanthropic and anti-human," Musk told Tucker Carlson in an interview. "They start seeing humans as a plague, a blight on the surface of the earth — that earth would be this paradise if only the humans weren't here."

Morgan Stanley analysts told investors in 2021 that the "movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline."

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What happened to RFK Jr.’s red line on risky vaccines?

For nearly half a century after the catastrophic 1967 trial, the U.S. government failed to approve a safe and effective RSV vaccine. Then came the COVID-19 debacle — and suddenly, we’re supposed to believe the science caught up. As if by magic, after the mRNA disaster and its lingering questions, federal agencies now bless an endless stream of RSV shots for children and adults alike.

Never mind that just two years ago, Anthony Fauci co-authored a paper admitting that safe RSV vaccine development faced “many and complex” challenges. He cited risks like antigenic drift and called for “outside-the-box” thinking to make next-generation vaccines possible.

If Kennedy truly doubts the safety of older vaccines, why would his handpicked advisers endorse new injections for a virus that rarely warrants immunization?

Apparently, that box got checked quickly — at least according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted last month to approve Merck’s new RSV monoclonal antibody shot, Enflonsia, for prophylactic use in infants. The treatment mimics a vaccine in function and application.

The approval came despite glaring trial results.

Yes, the Phase 2b/3 CLEVER trial included a legitimate placebo group — finally. But the vaccinated group suffered more deaths and injuries than the placebo group. All-cause mortality ran slightly higher among those who received Enflonsia.

How can any vaccine win approval without reducing the risk of death?

Trial data showed three deaths linked to the vaccinated group, compared to just one among the placebo group. Statistically underpowered or not, that outcome suggests a 50% higher risk of death. That alone should have triggered demands for further study.

Instead, the CDC approved it.

The vaccinated group also faced a 350% higher incidence of upper respiratory tract infections, a 63% higher rate of lower respiratory infections, and a 41% higher risk of febrile seizures. The sample size wasn’t large enough to detect rarer events — yet regulators waved it through anyway. And all this for a virus that most infants overcome with basic care and a nebulizer.

ACIP passed the recommendation 5-2 on June 26. Dissenters Retsef Levi and Vicky Pebsworth cited the higher death rate and adverse reactions. Levi raised additional concerns about immune enhancement — where vaccination worsens the disease in later exposure — and called for longer trials focused on high-risk groups.

History supports his skepticism. In the 1960s, trial participants who received the RSV vaccine developed worse outcomes in subsequent years. We’ve seen similar patterns with some newer RSV formulations. None of today’s trials followed participants long enough to rule out antibody-dependent enhancement.

Even Moderna’s RSV/hMPV combo trial in infants aged 5 to 8 months had to be halted last year due to signs of enhanced respiratory disease. Yet, in May 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved a similar mRNA shot for adults 60 and older. On June 12, Trump's Health and Human Services expanded that approval to adults over 18 deemed “at risk” — despite all we’ve learned about the dangers of mRNA and respiratory virus vaccines.

Hailshadow via iStock/Getty Images

The FDA under Joe Biden approved Abrysvo, Pfizer’s RSV vaccine for seniors and pregnant women, despite serious warning signs. Post-licensure data linked the shot to elevated risks of Guillain-Barré syndrome within 42 days of injection. And in trials involving pregnant women, 5.7% of infants were born prematurely in the vaccinated group — compared to 4.7% in the placebo group.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deserves credit for demanding more rigorous placebo-controlled trials. But what’s the point if agencies approve vaccines even when trials raise red flags?

RFK Jr. has publicly questioned links between childhood vaccines and autism — especially the hepatitis B shot. If he truly doubts the safety of older vaccines, why would his handpicked advisers endorse new injections for a virus that rarely warrants immunization?

Merck’s Enflonsia includes genomic material derived from an ovarian cancer cell line. Why on earth would we inject even a minimal amount of tumorigenic cells for a bad cold that we’ve been treating successfully with a nebulizer for years?

No one expects RFK Jr. to overhaul the CDC overnight, especially given internal resistance and pro-mRNA holdouts within the White House. But at the very least, many hoped the reckless approval of unnecessary vaccines would stop under his watch.

Instead, the CDC pressed forward with the same reckless momentum.

What happened to “first, do no harm”?

How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week canned all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — the federal panel whose vaccine recommendations become official policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and apply to the entire American population once adopted by the agency's director.

Kennedy accused the ACIP of "malevolent malpractice" and vowed to appoint "highly credentialed physicians and scientists who will make extremely consequential public health determinations by applying evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense."

Among the eight individuals whom Kennedy has appointed to the committee are:

Dr. Martin Kulldorf, a former professor of medicine at Harvard University who risked his career by both swimming against the tide of establishment thinking during the pandemic and co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration with now-National Institutes of Health Director Jay Battacharya;
Dr. Robert Malone, an early pioneer in messenger RNA technology who faced years of abuse for questioning the safety of mRNA vaccines and the severity of COVID-19; and
Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth who ruffled feathers in 2021 by criticizing ruinous mask mandates for children.

The removal and replacement of members of the committee is a wish fulfilled for longtime critics of the ACIP and a nightmare realized for medical and pharmaceutical establishmentarians satisfied with the status quo.

Those in the establishmentarian camp now clutching pearls over Kennedy's actions appear eager to ignore or downplay the conflicts of interest, ideological bents, and questionable decisions that were apparently commonplace on the committee.

Lucrative questions, questionable decisions

The ACIP's members as of April 2025 were:

Helen Talbot, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine;
Edwin Jose Asturias, professor of pediatrics and infection diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine;
Noel Brewer, professor in public health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health;
Oliver Brooks, interim chief executive officer at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases;
Lin Chen, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School;
Helen Chu, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Washington;
Sybil Cineas, clinical associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University;
Denise Jamieson, vice president for medical affairs at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine;
Mini Kamboj, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College;
George Kuchel, professor of medicine at University of Connecticut Health;
Jamie Loehr, family physician;
Karyn Lyons, chief of the immunization section at the Illinois Department of Public Health;
Yvonne Maldonado, professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford University;
Charlotte Moser, co-director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia;
Robert Schechter, chief of the California Department of Public Health Immunization branch;
Albert Shaw, professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine; and
Jane Zucker, adjunct professor at SUNY's department of community health services.

All 17 of the members were appointed by the Biden administration. Thirteen were appointed last year.

Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Data provided on OpenPaymentData.CMS.gov, a site managed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, provides some insights into just how cozy some of the former members were with the organizations whose products they were tasked with scrutinizing.

The website indicates that between 2017 and 2023:

Asturias apparently collected around $54,000 from pharmaceutical companies, including $20,705 in what appear to be consulting fees. Among the companies that paid Asturias what appear to have been consulting fees were Pfizer and Merck Sharpe & Dohme LLC, a bio-pharmaceutical subsidiary of the company whose pneumococcal vaccine Capvaxive the committee voted to recommend in October. Asturias also appears to have received millions of dollars in research support from Big Pharma, including over $3.1 million from Pfizer and over $730,000 from the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline LLC. The Colorado Sun reported that the research support was for Asturias to study RSV, pneumonia, and other diseases both in Guatemala and the United States.
Brooks apparentlyreceived over $18,000 in what appear to be consulting fees from the vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur and thousands of dollars more from the company categorized as "compensation for services other than consulting, including serving as faculty or as a speaker at a venue other than a continuing education program."
Chen, a proponent of masking during the pandemic, apparently collected $55,111.07 from pharmaceutical companies. Like Asturias, she has collected thousands of dollars in consulting fees from Merck Sharpe & Dohme LLC but also plenty in consulting fees from the vaccine manufacturer Valneva, which the committee has since blessed with multiple recommendations. During Chen's directorship, Mount Auburn Hospital Travel Center received over $245,000 from the COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna.
Chu apparently received over $6,000 in consulting fees from Merck Sharpe & Dohme and thousands more from the Illinois-headquartered pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. According to documentation from the Washington State Department of Health, Chu served as a co-investigator on studies funded by Pfizer, Novavax, and GlaxoSmithKline; has received research support from Gates Ventures, the Gates Foundation, Sanofi Pasteur, and Cepheid; and has served on advisory boards for Abbvie, Merck, Pfizer, Ellume, and the Gates Foundation.
Kuchel apparently received $10,720 in consulting fees from Big Pharma, the largest payment of which was from Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical company, Janssen Global. ACIP recommended the use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine last year.
Maldonado, who publicly emphasized the supposed need for children to get vaccinated for COVID-19, apparently received over $33,147 from pharmaceutical companies, including $27,577.71 in what appear to be consulting fees. Like Asturias and Chen, Maldonado received a sizeable consulting fee payment from Merck Sharp & Dohme in 2023. When broken down by general payments, Pfizer ranked number one for Maldonado. Prior to her appointment to the ACIP, the CDC indicated that Maldonado "served as Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for Pfizer meningococcal vaccine trials and as a site PI for Pfizer pediatric COVID-19 and maternal RSV vaccines and AstraZenaca [sic] varicella zoster vaccine trials." She reportedly abstained form voting on the COVID-19, pneumococcal, and influenza vaccines.
Shaw, a member of Yale's Infectious Disease Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism Committee, apparently received $2,590 in consulting fees from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.

According to the HPV IQ subpage on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health website, Brewer "has received grants from and/or served on paid advisory boards for Pfizer, Merck, [GlaxoSmithKline LLC], FDA, CDC, and NIH."

The Defender reported in 2023 that Brewer — who suggested in 2023 that the "U.S. needs to get on an annual [COVID-19 vaccine] schedule, as we do for seasonal flu vaccination" — served on different paid Merck human papillomavirus boards since 2011 and served as a general consultant for the company for several years.

'They have a big job to do.'

Brewer reportedly received over $500,000 in grant funding to study HPV vaccine uptake from Merck and over $400,000 from Pfizer to "study how trainings might improve physician perceptions and recommendations of the HPV vaccine."

A Science investigation published in March downplayed the possible impact of Big Pharma ties among ACIP members, claiming that five of the 13 physicians on the committee prior to Kennedy's purge received no Big Pharma payments in the "several years before the service began" and that the various kinds of payments from drugmakers that eight other members received "averaged just over $4000 a year, nearly $3000 less than the average for all U.S. specialist physicians."

Blaze News reached out to Asturias, Brewer, Brooks, Chen, Chu, Maldonado, and Shaw for comment.

Brewer told Blaze News that his "last research grant from a pharmaceutical company ended nine years ago, in 2016," and the numbers provided above "are about right" and that "the actual numbers are higher by maybe $10K and change."

Brewer added, "I wish the new ACIP committee members well. They have a big job to do," then referred Blaze News to a recent article in Science, which notes that "the new panel members have been authors on about 78% fewer vaccine-related papers than the ousted members."

Ideological bent

Helen Chu joined Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) to complain at a press conference on Thursday about the firings. Murray called the removal of Biden administration appointees a "dangerous, practically unthinkable step to undermine public health and vaccine confidence."

Chu, meanwhile, characterized the previous work of the ACIP as "transparent" and "unbiased."

Contrary to Chu's suggestion, biases ran deep on the panel in years past. While some of these biases may have been professional, others were ideological.

Noel Brewer, for instance, is a 2020 Biden donor whose social media history signals a possible DEI-lensed preoccupation with race.

'We must ask whether our own research, teaching, and service are intentionally antiracist.'

Brewer kicked off 2023 complaining that AI tools like ChatGPT sounded "straight, white and probably a few other things too." Months later, Brewer suggested that the lack of diversity in the authorship of certain textbooks was indicative of "white supremacy culture in academia." When discussing academic tenure and promotion decisions in September 2023, Brewer claimed that "fit, culture, and so on are tools of white supremacy."

Oliver Brooks — criticized in 2022 by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary for reportedly voting in favor of recommending that kids ages 5-11 receive COVID-19 vaccine booster shots without outcomes data — is a repeat donor to Democratic politicians including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Like Brewer, his outlook appears tinged by identity politics.

Amid the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, Brooks tried to provide an analogy to George Floyd's death in an editorial titled "Police Brutality and Blacks: An American Immune System Disorder" in the Journal of the National Medical Association in which he stated that the "country as a whole sets stereotypes as well as biases against black Americans which inevitably leads to social misinterpretation of the safety of Americans when a black person is present."

Brooks also noted, quoting another article, "We must ask whether our own research, teaching, and service are intentionally antiracist and challenge the institutions we work in to ask the same."

When Americans were protesting in 2020 in favor of reopening the country, Brooks framed the matter in identitarian terms on C-SPAN, noting, "If you look at those protesting to open up the environment — I prefer to use the term 'environment' as opposed to 'the economy' because it's not about money; it's about lives — most, I won't say all, most of the protesters are white or not inclusive of African-Americans or LatinX individuals."

Like some of her former colleagues on the panel, Sybil Cineas apparently has found it difficult to separate medicine from racial concerns or vice versa.

For instance, Cineas, listed as a member of the advisory group for Brown University's Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, signed an open letter in 2021 to Tulane University's board of trustees, which complained of a "pervasive culture of White Supremacy" in the medical profession that "is perpetuated by the deeply hierarchical power structures of academic medicine."

The 'nuclear' decision

Kennedy noted in a June 9 op-ed that the point of "retiring" the committee members, including those "last-minute appointees of the Biden administration," was to help restore the public's trust "that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies."

"The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine," wrote the health secretary. "It has never recommended against a vaccine — even those later withdrawn for safety reasons. It has failed to scrutinize vaccine products given to babies and pregnant women. To make matters worse, the groups that inform ACIP meet behind closed doors, violating the legal and ethical principle of transparency crucial to maintaining public trust."

'Most of ACIP's members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies.'

When painting the committee as a succession of compromised members, Kennedy referred to a decades-old investigation that found a "web of close ties" between the CDC and the companies that make vaccines.

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

He also highlighted the revelation that four of the eight then-ACIP members who voted in 1997 to recommend routine vaccination of infants with the rotavirus vaccine had financial ties to the very pharmaceutical companies developing such vaccines. This was especially damning because the recommended vaccine was subsequently withdrawn on account of its ruinous and in some cases deadly side effects.

Although members are now barred from holding stocks or serving on advisory boards associated with vaccine makers, Kennedy indicated that "these conflicts of interest persist."

"Most of ACIP's members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines," wrote the health secretary.

'Ending the conflict of interest is the first critical step to restoring unbiased, science-based analysis of safety and efficacy of vaccines.'

The health secretary emphasized that the "malpractice" impacts Americans nationwide, in part due to the committee's "stubborn unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials before recommending new vaccines for our children."

Kennedy claimed that "a compliant American child receives between 69 and 92 routine vaccines (depending on brand/dictated dosage) from conception to 18 years of age."

"ACIP has recommended each of these additional jabs without requiring placebo-controlled trials for any of them," said Kennedy. "This means that no one can scientifically ascertain whether these products are averting more problems than they are causing."

Peter Hotez, a cable news vaccine promoter and the founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, was among the medical establishmentarians to recently contest this claim about placebo-controlled trials, saying, "That's simply not true."

'The pharmaceutical companies have been running a regulatory capture scam.'

Kennedy claimed in response that such protesters were wrong — and made sure to bring receipts.

— (@)

The health secretary also indicated on Friday that the ACIP will "institute bias policies recommending that ACIP panelists recuse themselves from decisions in which their current or former clients have a financial interest."

Mixed reception

Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz said, "This is a nuclear bomb on the biomedical security state."

"The heart of the problem with vaccine safety stems from the fact that the pharmaceutical companies have been running a regulatory capture scam," continued Horowitz. "They place scientists and doctors on their payroll and then insert those individuals into government advisory positions. Ending the conflict of interest is the first critical step to restoring unbiased, science-based analysis of safety and efficacy of vaccines."

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Children's Health Defense, which was chaired by Kennedy from 2015 to 2023, similarly celebrated the news.

Mary Holland, president and CEO of CHD, told Blaze News in a statement that Kennedy's announcement "marks a pivotal advancement in the radical transparency he promised the country."

"Children's Health Defense has long highlighted the conflicts of interest involving the ACIP committee. It is unbelievable that ACIP members were allowed to participate in deliberations regarding a product in which they might have a financial stake," said Holland. "No wonder the committee consistently approved every vaccine for use, including those that were proven unsafe and subsequently removed shortly after approval. Ending this practice represents a significant step forward in restoring the public’s trust in our health agencies."

Of course, Kennedy's actions did not please everyone.

'I've never seen anything this damaging to public health happen in my lifetime.'

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the Democratic lawmakers who has received a fortune in donations from the pharmaceutical industry, called the firing of the ACIP members "a public health disaster."

Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was among the many who concern-mongered last year about the impact that Kennedy could have if afforded power and access in the Trump administration.

Last week, Offit wrote, "RFK Jr. will do everything he can to make sure that all vaccines are no longer mandated and to make vaccines less available, less affordable and more feared. This is only the beginning."

One of the dismissed ACIP members complained to CNN, "I've never seen anything this damaging to public health happen in my lifetime."

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

The ex-member, whose name was not disclosed, added, "I'm shocked. It's pretty brazen. This will fundamentally destabilize vaccination in America."

Bruce Scott, the president of the American Medical Association, similarly expressed distress last week, claiming that the action undermines public trust "and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives."

Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, claimed that Kennedy's "allegations about the integrity of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are completely unfounded."

BlazeTV host Steve Deace, considering the action within the broader context of the MAHA movement, told "Blaze News: The Mandate" last week that President Donald Trump's decision to make Kennedy the health secretary "might be the closest we're ever going to get in America to a tribunal on what happened during that time [the pandemic]."

The firings at the ACIP are "the closest thing to real consequences — people losing their jobs — that we have seen," added Deace.

— (@)

HHS indicated in a statement that it will convene its next meeting June 25 through June 27 at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.

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RFK Jr. torches vaccine panel to make consequences count again

Consequences. The word means little when applied to the failures of America’s so-called expert class. COVID-19 exposed the rot. Officials failed again and again at precisely what they were paid to understand — and escaped unscathed. Lockdowns failed. Masks failed. The mRNA shots failed. Yet, Anthony Fauci walked off the stage wealthier than ever. That’s the problem.

But nearly halfway into year one of Trump 2.0, America finally seems hungry to Make Consequences Great Again.

Choosing a freer, healthier, more dignified path is not just possible — it’s the rightful consequence of reclaiming citizenship in a nation built on liberty and courage.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled the COVID-19 jab recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women. The move strips the shot of its legal basis for mandates now or in the future. Then, in a sweeping housecleaning, Kennedy announced he would “retire” all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee.

Of those members, 13 were appointed by Joe Biden as recently as 2024. I wonder who was running the autopen to make that happen. Since most of those members have direct ties to pharmaceutical companies, I’ll let your imagination fill in the details.

Children’s Health Defense cites a 2000 U.S. House investigation that found conflict-of-interest rules for the CDC’s vaccine committee went largely unenforced. A 2009 report by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General reached the same conclusion. Follow-up investigations in 2021 and 2024 showed no improvement, even as the path was cleared for mRNA shots to be hailed as the next biomedical miracle.

How deeply do the vaccine high priests on this committee worship their pharma gods? When RFK Jr. began removing them like Elijah at Mount Carmel, he noted that the committee had never recommended against adopting a vaccine. Not once.

That’s not science. That’s idolatry. That’s how children went from receiving fewer than 20 shots in my generation to more than 70 on today’s schedule. At this point, after so many miraculous infusions of “health care,” shouldn't we all be glowing, levitating, and reading each other’s minds?

Instead, as RFK Jr. keeps pointing out, Americans today suffer from staggering rates of chronic illness, obesity, and mental distress. That’s what happens when the expert class convinces new parents their babies are born defective — ticking time bombs of disease in constant need of pharmaceutical salvation. Go for a run? Nah. Take a pill instead. Live prayerfully? Try pharmaceutically.

This is what you get when a culture forgets it was made in the image and likeness of God.

We may be the most formally educated society in human history, but we’ve been conditioned — psychologically and emotionally — like lab rats. Decades of programming have trained us to fear life itself and trust the experts to manage it. That’s why RFK Jr.’s purge of the vaccine committee goes far beyond health care. It strikes at the heart of the worldview — because worldview shapes everything.

My partner in crime, Todd Erzen, has long said that most young Christian parents would probably vaccinate their children before baptizing them. He’s not wrong. Fear — not faith — drives too many of our most important decisions. And without realizing it, no matter how many comforts we enjoy, we’ve traded a life of color for one in black and white.

Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The vaccine committee had to go. It had morphed into a cult of flat-earthers — deniers of reality in service of profit and power. For too long, Americans wore their chains, obedient to the credentialed class that promised safety while delivering sickness and dependency.

But we don’t have to live that way.

Choosing a freer, healthier, more dignified path is not just possible — it’s the rightful consequence of reclaiming citizenship in a nation built on liberty and courage. That’s the good, the true, and the beautiful.

And for once, we have unlikely allies to thank: Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both have reminded Americans that the door out of this madness isn’t locked. We just needed the will to kick it open.

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