SEPTEMBER 1-15, 2025 NEWS
Featured topic: Florida
Washington Post: “Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, first in nation to do so.”
Washington Post: “RFK Jr. allies claim momentum as Florida targets vaccines.”
Daily Beast: “Florida surgeon general stuns CNN host with vax plan admission: ‘Kind of shocked’.”
The Guardian: “Florida vaccine mandate rollback falters after Trump criticism.”
Benjamin Radford (Skeptical Inquirer): “Florida surgeon general shares forced vaccination myth.”
Jon Cohen (Science): “Florida plans to nix vaccine mandates. How well do they work?”
Featured topic: vaccines (other)
David Gorski (Science-Based Medicine): “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines” and “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines, part 2: VAERS, the FDA, and ACIP.”
Edzard Ernst: “The 'Henry Ford Health System Analysis': how RFKJr and his minions made themselves even more ridiculous.” The Guardian also reported on the study.
New York Times: Trump wants proof that Covid vaccines work. It’s easy to find.”
CNN: “Vaccine expert who is a frequent critic of RFK Jr. is blocked from participating in FDA advisory committee.”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “RFK Jr.’s endless anti-vax campaign targets the science that could lead to cancer vaccines.”
Washington Post: “FDA questions common practice of getting covid, flu vaccines together.”
New York Times: “States go their own (and contradictory) ways on vaccine policy.”
New York Times: “Kennedy to add new members to vaccine advisory panel.”
New York Times: “Whistle-blower complaints detail tension over vaccines at N.I.H.”
Washington Post: “RFK Jr. says anyone who wants a covid shot can get one. Not these Americans.”
Washington Post: “RFK Jr. weighs adding critics of coronavirus shots to key vaccine panel.”
Andrea Love (ImmunoLogic): “Without vaccine mandates, diseases spread. Communities get sick. People die.”
MSNBC: “Amplifying an anti-vaccine video, Trump’s message takes another incoherent turn.”
Reuters: Just 1 in 4 Americans believe Trump administration vaccine shifts are based on science, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds.”
Washington Post: “Trump officials link covid shots to child deaths, alarming career scientists.”
Washington Post: “’Can we talk about RFK Jr.?’ A dark cloud hangs over vaccine makers.”
Washington Post: “Why 1 in 6 U.S. parents are rejecting vaccine recommendations.”
New York Times: “Turning against vaccines, America is a global outlier.”
Ars Technica: “RFK Jr. adds more anti-vaccine members to CDC advisory panel.”
NBC News: “Data investigation: childhood vaccination rates are backsliding across the U.S.”
Featured topic: other political developments
David Gorski (Science-Based Medicine): “Denial of germ theory and the genetic basis of disease: Two pillars of MAHA.”
Steven Novella (Science-Based Medicine): “Tylenol and autism.”
Edzard Ernst: “A letter of which not only RFK Jr should take very careful note.” Resignation letter of Demetre Daskalakis from CDC. Also: “Charlie Kirk on health-related matters: I regret his death, but am not impressed with his wisdom.”
Washington Post: “I resigned from the CDC. Here are three questions for RFK Jr.”
New York Times: “We ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy is endangering every American’s Health.”
ABC News: “More than 1,000 current, former HHS employees sign letter calling on RFK Jr. to resign.”
American Council on Science and Health: “Gold standard science.”
New York Times: “Kennedy, rejecting data, fuels distrust of his own agencies.”
Inside Medicine: “Tylenol has entered the chat: RFK Jr. wants to link it to autism, even though the best evidence says otherwise.”
Jonathan Mahler (New York Times Magazine): “How the Trump administration is dismantling America’s cancer research system.”
Paul Knoepfler (The Niche): “NIH fetal tissue research ban unfolding; hESC [human embryonic stem cells] work next?”
KFF Health News: “Under Trump, FDA seeks to abandon expert reviews of new drugs.”
New York Times: “You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s conspiracy theories” (video).
Dan Wilson (Skeptical Inquirer): “NIH funding cuts hurt basic research and patients.”
Other topics
On Science-Based Medicine,
Kevin Folta posted:
“Unintended side effects HPV and shingles vaccines—reason for concern.” The side effects discussed are beneficial ones, preventing other diseases.
Edzard Ernst:
Posted “Healing crystals: do they work beyond placebo?...Short answer: No.” “I think this study is splendid! It may well be the first rigorous trial of crystal healing.”
Wrote “Distant reiki for health and wellbeing of dogs – WHAT IS NEXT?” “In any case – deblinding or not – it seems blindingly obvious that the study is false positive and that Reiki is a SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] that amounts to a scam.”
Posted “Homeopathy for odontogenic infections?” “What are the possible explanations for this result? I can think of several…”
Asked “Should SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] for animals be considered malpractice?”
Posted “Tai chi qigong versus intensity-matched exercise and usual care for fatigue of cancer survivors.” “Tai chi is currently much-hyped. I have repeatedly stated that it is plausible to assume that exercise as positive effects on several levels. I have also doubted that there are huge differences between different types of exercise.”
Discussed “Emotional Freedom Technique for pain and depression in cancer patients?” “The trial is quite simply false-positive. The reason lies in the often-discussed A+B versus B design. It makes sure that even dubious BS like the EFT generates a positive result when tested in a seemingly rigorous study. In view of this, let me re-phrase the conclusions by simply adding two words: these findings do not suggest that EFT was effective in significantly reducing both pain and depression levels in cancer patients.”
Began a series on “How to cheat with seemingly rigorous research.” Part 1: Introduction. Part 2: placebo. “So, if someone wants to do a clinical study where even an ineffective therapy appears to be effective, he or she merely needs to ‘forget’ to control for the placebo effect.”
On McGill Office for Science and Society:
Jonathan Jarry:
Wrote “The sweet embellishments of the Glucose Goddess.” “Take-home message: Jessie Inchauspé, also known as the Glucose Goddess, is an influencer who blames bad health on spikes in blood glucose after a meal, even in people without diabetes. Her ‘hacks’ to prevent these spikes are either run-of-the-mill advice freely available elsewhere or they are questionable. She advocates for the wearing of a continuous glucose monitor, even though there is enough evidence that we should be skeptical of such a universal recommendation. She sells a dietary supplement to prevent these blood glucose spikes, even though no study has scientifically tested her supplement and many of the studies she cites for its individual ingredients do not show the benefits she claims.”
Posted “PragerU targets kids and parents with shockingly bad science.” “The conservative media giant misrepresents science by bundling stark contradictions and iconoclasts…Take-home message: PragerU is a charitable organization focused on creating conservative, religiously motivated, pro-American media, including interviews aimed at adults and animated videos targeting children. When its content focuses on science and medicine, it often celebrates contrarians, equating Galileo being right about the Earth not being the centre of our universe with fringe doctors disbelieving the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. PragerU promotes pseudosciences like naturopathy as well as climate change denialism, and its content is full of obvious contradictions and people claiming they were the first to ask a question that is actually very common.”
Eva Kellner:
Discussed beer spas. “The moral of the story? Don’t waste your time or money bathing in beer. In fact, you might not be better off drinking it, because alcohol is a known carcinogen.”
Sophie Pellar:
Wrote “Scrambler therapy: rewiring pain, or just static?” “Scrambler Therapy claims to ‘retrain’ the nervous system and offer lasting relief from chronic pain. It’s FDA-cleared, non-invasive, and backed by a growing body of research—but is it a breakthrough, a placebo, or just another overhyped machine?...Scrambler Therapy isn’t a miracle cure, and it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution. But for people navigating the exhausting, often demoralizing maze of chronic pain, it may represent one of the more promising and underexplored options available today. With over 900 patients studied and very few reported side effects, the data so far is encouraging. That said, the picture isn’t complete. While many studies show benefit, they also vary in quality, and the possibility of publication bias, where negative results remain unpublished, can’t be ruled out.”
September: Myung and Park published “Effects of collagen supplements on skin aging: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials” (Am J Med. 2025 Sep;138(9):1264-1277). “In a meta-analysis of all 23 RCTs, collagen supplements significantly improved skin hydration, elasticity, and wrinkles. However, in the subgroup meta-analysis by funding source, studies not receiving funding from pharmaceutical companies revealed no effect of collagen supplements for improving skin hydration, elasticity, and wrinkles, while those receiving funding from pharmaceutical companies did show significant effects. Similarly, high-quality studies revealed no significant effect in all categories, while low-quality studies revealed a significant improvement in elasticity. Conclusions: There is currently no clinical evidence to support the use of collagen supplements to prevent or treat skin aging.” The authors noted that “It remains unclear how it is possible that the human body directs amino acids and peptides from the ingested collagen hydrolysate specifically toward the dermis, then leading to the increase in the amount of dermal collagen.”
September – Curtis Margo (Skeptical Inquirer) wrote “From ‘tractors’ to cell therapy clinics: unproven medical procedures.” “The United States has become a leader in the promotion of direct-to-consumer ‘stem cell clinics.’ Consumers must be just as vigilant now as they were in early nineteenth-century America to avoid being conned by the aura of novel biotechnology.”
September 3 – Daniel Gilbert (Washington Post) wrote “How microdosing GLP-1 drugs became a longevity ‘craze’.” “There is virtually no published scientific evidence that proves taking smaller-than-standard doses of tirzepatide or semaglutide — the active ingredients in Zepbound and Ozempic, respectively — is safe or effective. But that hasn’t stopped patients like Babb from trying nonstandard doses for a broad array of reasons, including expectations of improved wellness and longevity.”
September 3 – Simar Bajaj (New York Times) wrote “They’ve dropped the weight. But what about the skin?” “Obesity drugs are leaving more people with loose, sagging skin. But firming creams and body contouring treatments are largely a pipe dream, experts say…That mix of high cost [of body contouring] and scant research [on other nonsurgical options] has opened the door to a cottage industry of influencers peddling creams, collagen, supplements and other dubious remedies online.”
September 5 – Steven Myers, Alice Callahan, and Teddy Rosenbluth (New York Times) wrote “The doctors are real, but the sales pitches are frauds.” “Scammers are using A.I. tools to make it look as if medical professionals are promoting dubious health care products…The posts are part of a global surge of frauds hijacking the online personas of prominent medical professionals to sell unproven health products or simply to swindle gullible customers, according to the doctors, government officials and researchers who have tracked the problem.”
September 10 – Matthew Perrone (AP News) wrote “Unproven Lyme disease tests and treatments are proliferating.” “When patients show the classic symptoms — including a bull’s eye rash, fever and fatigue — a short course of antibiotics usually resolves them. But a subset of patients will go on to experience months or even years of arthritis, pain and fatigue — poorly understood symptoms that overlap with a number of other medical conditions. That has left an opening for so-called ‘nonstandard’ Lyme tests and treatments. Interest in those products has been amplified by influencers and a growing list of celebrities attributing various health problems to the disease, most recently Justin Timberlake. That might lead patients to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on bogus tests, which aren’t covered by insurance, followed by unapproved treatments that may do more harm than good. And it’s possible some of them may not have had Lyme at all…Spotting unproven Lyme tests is relatively easy, since only antibody blood tests are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Any Lyme test available for sale at a drugstore or website is unapproved, says Andrea Love, a microbiologist and director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation. Another red flag is the use of saliva, urine or other bodily fluids besides blood to detect Lyme…While the downsides of ineffective Lyme tests are considerable, experts say they are often the gateway to even riskier therapies. A recent medical paper documented nearly 120 clinics across the U.S. offering unproven Lyme treatments, some with consultation fees as high as $3,000. Treatments include electrical stimulation, ‘ozone-based therapy’ and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, procedures that aren’t covered by insurance and can carry price tags as high as $6,000. Love and other doctors say the most worrisome approach involves long-term intravenous use of antibiotics — sometimes multiple drugs for years. While antibiotics are effective for quickly killing Lyme bacteria, multiple large studies have shown no benefits to their long-term use for chronic Lyme symptoms.”
Additions to previous month
August 8 – Jeffrey Mervis (Science) wrote “Trump moves to politicize decisions on science grants.”
August 30 – Bernie Sanders (New York Times) wrote “Kennedy must resign.”