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DIDIER RAOULT UNCENSORED

The Highwire with Del Bigtree | March 20, 2025

Renowned French physician, microbiologist, and infectious disease expert Didier Raoult, M.D., sits down with Del to revisit the injustices of the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the most controversial figures of the pandemic, Raoult was among the first to advocate for a cheap, repurposed drug that he claimed showed promise in treating COVID. But what followed was a storm of censorship, scientific suppression, and personal attacks.

In this explosive interview, Raoult reveals what really happened, the global forces that worked to discredit his findings, and why the scientific community turned against him. Plus, hear his startling position on the origins of COVID-19, including his unexpected take on the Chinese lab leak theory.

Guest: Didier Raoult, M.D.

March 24, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

New York Takes A Stab At A Green New Deal Demonstration Project: The Case Of Ithaca

By Francis Menton | Manhattan Contrarian | March 20, 2025

Many political jurisdictions claim to be on a path to eliminating emissions of carbon dioxide from their energy systems. Notable examples include California and New York in the U.S., and the UK and Germany in Europe. The Biden administration during its term in office even claimed to have set the entire U.S. onto a path toward what they called “net zero.” But so far none of these places has gotten anywhere near the goal. Indeed, as of today, many hundreds of billions of dollars into the effort, not one of them has even issued a detailed engineering plan of how this is supposed to be accomplished.

For reasons expressed in some dozens of posts on this blog, with the exception of a vast expansion of nuclear energy, I don’t believe that this “net zero” thing can actually be done, at least without entirely impoverishing the people. However, I’m completely willing to be proved wrong. For many years, I have been calling for a Demonstration Project to prove whether or not an economically-developed community is capable of achieving zero carbon emissions, or anything close to that (example here from 2022). Surely, if the entire U.S. can be expected to accomplish “net zero” in response to a government command, then it should be simple to build a working “net zero” Demonstration Project for a small town of, say, a few tens of thousands of people.

I’ve even proposed the perfect place as my candidate to be the guinea pig for the “net zero” demonstration: Ithaca, New York. After all, Ithaca is the most exquisitely climate virtuous place in what is already a deep blue state. It is home to two thoroughly left-wing academic institutions (Cornell University and Ithaca College), with their thousands of radical left-wing climate activist faculty and students. These people should leap at the chance to show the rest of the world how this “net zero” thing can be done. Also, the population (approximately 50,000) is in about the right range for a net zero demonstration project. (Note that the 50,000 is the combined population of the City of Ithaca and Town of Ithaca. Yes, for reasons known only to the geniuses of New York State local governance, Ithaca consists of two independent adjoining municipalities, a City and a Town, sharing the same name.). If “net zero” doesn’t work in a small place like this, the loss of investment could be large, but not catastrophic.

And in fact, when it comes to talking the talk, Ithaca would appear to be at the forefront of the green energy transition. Back in June 2019, the Ithaca City Common Council unanimously adopted what they called the “Ithaca Green New Deal.” A few months later, in March 2020, the Ithaca Town Council, also unanimously, adopted their own “Green New Deal Resolution.” Although there are differences, the Town’s Resolution incorporated much of the language of the City’s Resolution word-for-word. Not to be caught standing still, the next year, 2021, the City of Ithaca went a step further and announced that it would electrify all of its 6000 buildings. They didn’t actually use the words “demonstration project,” but clearly the key elements were now in place. Should we check in on how it’s going?

The short answer: It’s a complete joke.

First, let’s take note of some of the official goals. From the City of Ithaca Green New Deal resolution:

RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca adopts a goal to meet the electricity needs of City government operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. . . . RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca hereby adopts a goal of achieving a carbon neutral city by 2030. . . . RESOLVED, That the City of Ithaca endorses the following actions to achieve these goals: Create a climate action plan (CAP) in 2020 to provide details on how to achieve the Ithaca Green New Deal, and update the CAP regularly. . . .

And then there’s this, not found (at least today) on the City of Ithaca’s website, but reported on January 29, 2025 at the website of WSKG, the Ithaca PBS affiliate:

In 2021, the small city of Ithaca announced it would electrify all of its 6,000 buildings.

And how exactly was Ithaca going to electrify 6000 buildings within a few short years?

[Ithaca planned to achieve building electrification] with the help of one key partner: a technology company called BlocPower, whose then-CEO Donnel Baird said the company would make the mass electrification process fast and affordable. “There’s a lot of expensive engineering and financial and workforce development costs,” Baird told Ithaca’s common council in 2021, after it approved the mass electrification plan. “Our job is to remove all of that friction.”

OK, those were the goals. Now for the progress toward achieving them. If you go to the website of the City of Ithaca today, everything seems great:

Ithaca is leading the world. On June 5th, 2019, the City of Ithaca Common Council unanimously adopted the Ithaca Green New Deal resolution, a government-led commitment to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 that focuses on addressing historical inequities, economic inequality, and social justice. Two years after the resolution was signed, Ithaca established itself as a world-leader in climate mitigation planning and continues to pave the path forward as a blueprint for other cities across the U.S. and the globe.

But how about some actual facts on the ground. Let’s start with that building electrification thing. From that same January 25 WSKG piece:

[I]n recent months, BlocPower has quietly deserted its electrification and workforce training programs in Ithaca and several other cities, according to municipal leaders and organizations that worked with BlocPower. . . . In Ithaca, BlocPower ended its collaboration with the city after completing the electrification of only 10 buildings, according to Ithaca’s current sustainability director, Rebecca Evans. Last November, the company furloughed its Ithaca staff members and ended all partnerships in the city, Evans said.

6000 buildings, 10, whatever. Here is a picture from WSKG of “sustainability director” Rebecca Evans:

So, Ms. Evans, how about the big Climate Action Plan by which Ithaca will instruct the ignorant world how to get to carbon neutrality? Here’s another piece from WSKG, this one from several months ago (October 2024) reporting on recent revisions to the Plan. Excerpt:

The [Green New Deal] resolution . . . charged city staff with creating a formal climate action plan that would outline how the city would achieve those goals. Ithaca’s sustainability director, Rebecca Evans, wrote in a post on LinkedIn last month that she recently decided to scrap the version of that plan she had been working on. The decision, she said in an interview with WSKG, does not change the goals of the Green New Deal, but instead reframes the city’s approach of how it will achieve its commitments. Evans said that rather than prioritizing reducing emissions, the new plan will prioritize helping residents adapt to living in a warming world, while also working towards the city’s emissions-reduction goals. That could include providing residents with better access to social services, like housing and job training, and improving the city’s emergency response and electricity reliability.

Got it — They’ve given up on reducing emissions. And how about the City’s promise to get 100% of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2025? Are they really doing that right now? I can’t find a recent report, but there’s this from back in December 2011:

Beginning in January [2012], the City of Ithaca will purchase 100% of its electricity consumption from renewable sources. Under a new agreement with Integrys Energy Services of New York, Inc., Ithaca will purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) certified by Green-e Energy for all of its electricity.

Aha! It’s the magic of “Renewable Energy Certificates.” Apparently, those make it possible to get your electricity from wind turbines and solar panels on completely calm nights. If you are willing to believe it. Al Gore would be proud.

In short, everything about Ithaca’s Green New Deal is either a scam, or has been quietly abandoned, or both.

Here in New York City we have our own building electrification mandate called “Local Law 97” that is said to require some 50,000 buildings to convert to electric heat and cooking by 2030. Does anybody really think we can make any more progress toward such a goal than Ithaca?

March 23, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

SHOCKING Big Pharma Exposé! Interview w/ Sharyl Attkisson

The Jimmy Dore Show | March 21, 2025

March 22, 2025 Posted by | Book Review, Corruption, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | , , | Leave a comment

‘Medical Error’ Led to Death of 6-Year-Old Who Developed Pneumonia After Measles Diagnosis

By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 19, 2025

A child who died in a Texas hospital after developing pneumonia following a measles infection died as a result of “medical error” — including failure to administer the correct antibiotic in time, according to a medical expert who reviewed the child’s medical records.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) obtained the medical records from the family of the 6-year-old girl. The parents said they wanted people to know what happened to their daughter so it wouldn’t happen to other children.

The parents obtained the records from Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock where their child died on Feb. 26.

The parents told Dr. Ben Edwards, who successfully treated their other children for measles, that they didn’t want to use the information uncovered in the medical records to inflame the situation. However, they did want to get the word out about the mistake if it could prevent it from happening to other children.

Dr. Pierre Kory, who has extensive experience in pulmonary and critical care medicine, analyzed the records. He said today in an interview on CHD.TV, “I’ve done medical case reviews from malpractice lawyers for a good part of my career, and this case was tragic.”

According to Kory’s analysis of the records, the girl died from a secondary bacterial pneumonia that had “little to do with measles.”

He added, “When I say it has little to do with measles, secondary bacterial pneumonias can happen after any viral infection.”

Kory said the girl “died of a medical error — and that error was a completely inappropriate antibiotic” for treating the kind of pneumonia she had.

The records showed that the girl was initially admitted to the emergency room (ER) for “secondary bacterial pneumonia,” Kory told The Defender. At that time, her measles rash was already fading.

She was not administered the correct antibiotic for treating her secondary bacterial pneumonia until roughly two and a half days later. By that time, she had declined so severely that doctors had already placed her on a mechanical ventilator, Kory said.

Also, it appears there was a delay of more than nine hours from the time when the correct antibiotic was finally ordered and the time it was given, Kory said. “Less than 24 hours later, she died — and she died rather catastrophically … suddenly her blood pressure crashed and she arrested.”

Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., according to a 2016 analysis by Johns Hopkins University researchers including Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Hospital initially prescribed inappropriate antibiotic

Kory broke down in more precise medical terms what appears to have happened.

When the girl was admitted to the ER, the staff made a general diagnosis that she had a secondary bacterial pneumonia. “She was clearly being admitted from the community so it was implied that it was a community-acquired pneumonia,” Kory said, referring to how the girl didn’t get the pneumonia from being in a hospital or healthcare facility.

They were “absolutely correct” about that, Kory said.

But what they initially gave her for that diagnosis was incorrect, he said.

Generally, doctors put patients on two antibiotics “to cover all the possibilities” of what specific kind of bacterial pneumonia the patient may have.

Kory said:

“It’s in every guideline — infectious disease, pulmonary — every guideline in the country tells you that for a hospitalized child or adult who gets admitted to the hospital, you put them on two antibiotics.

“One is from a category called beta-lactams, which is like penicillin, cephalosporins. And they [the hospital] got that part correct. They put her on something called ceftriaxone, which was excellent.

“But you always need to pair it with an antibiotic from a different category, which is called a macrolide or a quinolone.”

They didn’t do that part, Kory said. “They didn’t put her on the most common, which is azithromycin.”

Instead, they put her on vancomycin, an antibiotic used for very drug-resistant organisms like MRSA.

According to the Mayo Clinic, MRSA — short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — is an infection caused by a staph bacteria that’s “become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections.” Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or healthcare settings, like nursing homes or dialysis centers.

Giving vancomycin to the girl was an inappropriate choice, according to Kory.

He said:

“There’s no reason to think that this child would come in with MRSA from the community, from a Mennonite community. She’s not coming from a facility where a lot of antibiotics are used. So it’s a grievous error and it’s an error which led to her death.”

Hospital didn’t change course of treatment for over two days

The records show that the hospital didn’t adjust the girl’s antibiotics until a test came back showing that she had a type of bacterial pneumonia called “mycoplasma pneumonia.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, mycoplasma is a single form of bacteria that causes an infection that can occur in different parts of the body, such as the respiratory, urinary or genital tracts.

“The tragedy is that mycoplasma is an extremely common — what we call community-acquired — organism,” Kory said. Azithromycin is very effective against mycoplasma, he said.

The hospital staff finally ordered it for her upon seeing her test results. But they should have ordered it much sooner, given that her bacterial pneumonia was community-acquired, Kory said.

Kory said it wasn’t proper doctoring to let her decline for days without adjusting the treatment they were giving her. “You almost have three full days of a seriously declining medical status with no real changes to her treatment plan.”

He added:

“If I’m taking care of someone, and I’m rounding on them every day and I see that today they’re doing a little bit worse than yesterday. And then the next day they’re doing a little bit worse than the day before, I’m going to review exactly what I’m doing and say, ‘What am I missing? What am I missing? What else can I do?’

“And that didn’t happen until a test showed up on a computer. And that’s just not doctoring.”

By this time, the child was in the intensive care unit. “And from my review of the records,” Kory continued, “the antibiotic was ordered at 11:00 p.m., or approximately 11:00 p.m., and as far as I can tell, it was not administered until 9:00 a.m. the next morning.”

“So not only did you have several days delay of decline without the appropriate antibiotic,” he said, “but then when they realized that they were missing the appropriate antibiotic, it took them, as far as I can tell, 10 hours to administer it.”

By the time the girl received the correct antibiotic, she was already on a ventilator.

Father ‘simply wants the truth out’ so the public can talk about measles vs. vaccine risks

Edwards and CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker also reviewed the medical records. They concurred with Kory’s analysis.

Edwards said, “As Dr. Kory’s pointed out, unfortunately this was a big mistake, a tragic mistake — and I agree — a fatal mistake.”

However, Edwards said the girl’s father— who gave CHD permission to report on the medical records — didn’t intend “to inflame the situation or cause more division and more just hot rhetoric.”

Edwards told a brief story to illustrate how divisive the media coverage of the West Texas measles outbreak has been.

The day the girl died, Edwards was in the middle of an interview with a reporter. “I remember that reporter grabbing his phone as the alert just came from the news announcing the ‘first measles death.’”

Edwards said there was “almost a giddiness” in the reporter’s response to the news.

“It was disgusting, actually,” he said. “I want people to know Peter [the father] doesn’t want this information to be used on the other side in the same almost giddiness kind of way of, ‘Aha, we got you.’”

The girl’s father “simply wants the truth to be told so that other kids who potentially could go down the same path as his daughter won’t have to.”

The parents aren’t sharing the information “to give one side more ammunition” in the ongoing public debate around measles.

The father told Edwards, “I love my neighbor — and my neighbor’s my enemy. My neighbor’s the one who hurt me. My neighbor’s the one who offends me.”

Edwards said he wants the public to understand the father’s reason for letting the medical records go public so that “we can maybe come to the table on this.”

Edwards added:

“There’s potential risk — complications and death — from MMR [the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine]. We need to have that conversation at the table, both sides in a truthful, honest manner for the sake of these children.

“That’s what he wants.”

Watch CHD.TV interview with Dr. Pierre Kory:

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

March 19, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | | Leave a comment

Taxpayers Paid $6.2 Billion to Develop Weight-loss Drugs. Pharma Charges Consumers a Premium — Driving Up Healthcare Costs for Everyone

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 12, 2025

U.S. taxpayers picked up the tab for about $6.2 billion worth of research, development and distribution of GLP-1s, the new class of blockbuster weight-loss drugs, according to an investigation by The Lever.

The “blockbuster drugs” generate annual sales exceeding $1 billion for Big Pharma.

Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound — which belong to the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) class of drugs — are “minting billions of dollars” for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the companies that make them.

Taxpayers fund the research. Pharma reaps massive profits. And Americans pay up to 11 times more for the drugs than people in other countries. The marked-up prices are inflating insurance premiums and risk bankrupting the country’s healthcare system, according to The Lever.

Researchers at Bentley University shared data with The Lever showing that between 1980 and 2024, the federal government spent $6.2 billion on the discovery and development of GLP-1 molecules, plus research on how to use those molecules to treat diabetes, obesity and other health conditions.

“You have to know a lot to develop a drug and to apply it in people,” Dr. Fred Ledley, professor of Natural and Applied Sciences at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, told The Lever. “What we call a ‘mature body of knowledge’ is not cheap.” Ledley provided the spending data to The Lever.

That research laid the foundation for the development of Ozempic and triggered a wave of similar drugs that spawned a massive market.

Media tout ‘miracle cures’ but weight-loss drugs linked to serious side effects

The drugs are now being hailed in the media as the miracle cure for everything from alcoholism and opioid addiction to leukemia, strokes, heart attacks and aging.

The media has focused less attention on the serious side effects of these drugs, which range from vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea to pancreatitis, stomach paralysis, kidney disease, thyroid cancer and sudden vision loss.

The drugs are so potentially dangerous for pregnant women that doctors have argued they should carry a black box warning.

They’ve also been linked to suicidal ideation and even death.

As of May 2024, more than 15 million people — 1 in 8 adults — were taking GLP-1 drugs, which generated more than $50 billion for the drugmakers in 2024 alone, reportedly leading to drug shortages.

At the time, Novo Nordisk said that at least 25,000 people in the U.S. were starting its drug Wegovy each week, according to CNN.

The Lever reported:

“While the weight-loss drug market booms and related ads flood the airwaves and internet, the drugs’ price markups are wreaking havoc on government budgets and even contributing to electric and gas rate hikes.

“In 2022 alone, the federal health insurance plan Medicare spent $5.7 billion on this class of drugs, 10 times what it spent in 2018.”

Big price tags spawn market for alternatives

A month’s supply of GLP-1 drugs in the U.S costs over $1,000, leading many people to seek alternative versions of the drugs made by compounding pharmacies, which mix the drugs themselves.

Drug compounding companies, like the direct-to-consumer telehealth companies Hims & Hers, Noom, Ro, 23andMe, and WeightWatchers, are also raking in major profits from selling compounded versions of the drugs.

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned against compounded versions, even though it allows compounding companies to make the drugs during shortages of the brand-name versions.

The agency doesn’t monitor the compounded drugs for safety, efficacy or quality, according to CNN.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are pushing the compounding pharmacies to stop making the drugs, according to NPR.

Last year’s shortage of the GLP-1s ended in February, so compounding is no longer permitted, but The Lever said it is uncertain whether the secondary market will be shut down.

Price of GLP-1s driving up healthcare costs and more

Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) launched an investigation into the “outrageously high prices” GLP-1 drug manufacturers charge.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized weight-loss drug manufacturers for the high costs, but also for pushing drugs to solve the obesity problem rather than changing the food system.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid — which pays for the drugs when used for indications other than weight loss by people in those programs — has spent years promoting weight-loss drugs.

Dr. Marty Makary, nominated to lead the FDA, was the chief medical officer at a telehealth company selling compounded weight-loss medications.

A 2023 study by Ledley and colleagues highlighted the crucial role of U.S. government funding in drug development, showing that the National Institutes of Health contributed $187 billion to research that led to almost all drugs approved in the U.S. between 2010 and 2019.

The research focuses on “basic science,” according to The Lever, such as identifying proteins or genes linked to a disease or studying how GLP-1s might work.

Despite U.S. taxpayers’ funding for the research, Ozempic costs about $1,000 per month in the U.S., compared to $147 in Canada, $103 in Germany, $93 in the U.K. and $83 in France.

Wegovy is listed in the U.S. for more than $1,300 per month, compared to $186 in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the U.K.

The high cost of the drugs in the U.S. is driving up healthcare costs overall.

The Lever reported:

“This year, private health plan costs are expected to rise by 8 percent — the highest increase in 15 years apart from 2021, during the global COVID-19 pandemic — thanks in part to the rising cost of prescription medications. GLP-1 drugs are ‘a major driver of higher prescription drug costs,’ according to recent reports by the benefits consulting firm Segal.

“A Senate report from last May also found that if half of all Medicare and Medicaid patients with obesity took Wegovy and other GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, it could cost the federal health care system $166 billion per year — nearly as much as what Medicare and Medicaid spent on all retail prescription drugs in 2022.”

Those higher costs affect the broader economy. Con Edison, the largest electricity provider in New York City, announced a likely rate hike, citing a 12% increase in employee benefit costs due to the rising costs and use of GLP-1 drugs.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

March 17, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

NIH Pulls Plug on ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’ Research — Will mRNA Products Be Next?

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 11, 2025

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will no longer fund research on “vaccine hesitancy” and strategies for increasing vaccine uptake, The Washington Post reported Monday.

According to Science, the NIH sent notices canceling or reducing grants to the affected researchers, stating:

“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focus on gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment.”

NIH will terminate at least 33 vaccine hesitancy grants, Science reported. Nine other grants will be modified or reduced.

The terminations came after NIH, on behalf of interim director Matthew Memoli, asked each of its institutes to develop a list of ongoing and future vaccine hesitancy grants.

Science reported that the agency is considering taking similar action for research related to mRNA products.

Of the terminated grants, 14 were funded by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases — the agency formerly led by Dr. Anthony Fauci — and focused on vaccines for COVID-19, chickenpox, mpox (formerly monkeypox), HPV and a hypothetical gonorrhea vaccine.

“The project appeared on the list because one of its aims ‘is to evaluate health care worker’s [sic] and potential patient’s attitudes towards acceptance of a gonorrhea vaccine if one is developed,’” Science reported.

Other canceled grants targeted modeling of disease outbreaks or “promoting vaccine uptake among racial minority groups or understanding why some parents are reluctant to accept childhood and adolescent vaccines.”

Memoli is temporarily leading the NIH pending the confirmation of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of health policy, co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration and President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead NIH.

NIH did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Grants targeted ‘vaccine-hesitant’ minority and conservative communities

The Defender previously reported on multiple taxpayer-funded grants, including some awarded by the NIH, that funded research on decreasing vaccine hesitancy and increasing HPV vaccine uptake.

The Defender obtained the grant information through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in 2023 and 2024

One set of documents, obtained in 2023, revealed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a $4.7 million grant to a scientist — and paid consultant for Merck — to conduct research on how to increase teen uptake of the HPV vaccine. Merck manufactures Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine available in the U.S.

In 2024, the grant’s principal investigator, Noel Brewer, Ph.D., a psychologist and professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccine recommendations.

FOIA documents Children’s Health Defense (CHD) received in 2024 revealed that HHS issued $4 million to fund the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to “inoculate” social media users against HPV vaccine “misinformation” posted on social media.

Other documents CHD received in 2023 revealed that HHS granted $600,000 for research on how to increase HPV vaccine uptake among Black teens, and that NIH granted $519,399 for a four-year study on a smartphone tool to increase HPV vaccine uptake among adolescents whose parents are “vaccine-hesitant.”

The NIH also funded such studies overseas. FOIA documents CHD received in 2024 showed that NIH awarded $340,000 to test psychological tactics aimed at persuading South African fifth-graders and parents to accept the HPV vaccine.

In 2023, documents showed that the CDC had issued hundreds of millions of dollars in grants since 2021 for the development of “culturally tailored” pro-vaccine materials and for the training of “influential messengers” to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccines to communities of color in each U.S. state.

The CDC also funded “Chair Care,” a New Mexico program that trained and paid hairstylists as “trusted messengers” that would target the state’s Hispanic, Black, Native American and conservative populations, who were shown to have the lowest vaccine uptake and highest “vaccine hesitancy.”

‘Vaccine hesitancy’ research targeted personal choice not to vaccinate

Toby Rogers, Ph.D., a fellow at the Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research, welcomed the NIH decision to stop such studies. He questioned the premise of the “vaccine hesitancy” research — and the concept of “vaccine hesitancy” itself.

“There’s no such thing as ‘vaccine hesitancy,’” Rogers said. “The term itself is completely Orwellian. It was likely coined by an expensive Big Pharma PR firm. The purpose of the term is to cast aspersions on parents who do proper research on the risks of medical interventions,” Rogers said.

According to Rogers, studies like those being discontinued were likely backed by pharmaceutical companies to ascertain how to increase vaccine demand.

“Studies on so-called ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and ‘overcoming vaccine hesitancy’ are thinly disguised marketing studies on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry,” Rogers said. “Big Pharma makes plenty of money. American taxpayers should not be paying for marketing studies on behalf of one of the most vile industries on Earth.”

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher said it is inappropriate for the NIH to allocate resources to study people’s personal health choices.

“The purpose of studying vaccine hesitancy is to find ways to increase vaccine uptake in individuals that have made the personal choice to not vaccinate with a particular product,” Hulscher said. “The federal government should simply respect their choice and not waste valuable resources and taxpayer money on trying to change their minds.”

Internal medicine physician Dr. Clayton J. Baker said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to address “vaccine hesitancy” resulted in gimmicks intended to increase uptake of the COVID-19 shots — and punish those who declined vaccination.

“During COVID, we had health officials combating ‘vaccine hesitancy’ with bribes of lottery tickets, donuts, even free beer, and meting out punishments such as being fired from one’s job. Medical practice surrounding vaccines descended to a disgracefully unethical state during COVID,” Baker said.

mRNA research grants next on NIH’s chopping block?

According to Science, the NIH may also curtail grants for mRNA vaccine research.

Citing an internal NIH memo sent March 6, Science reported that Memoli “has requested information on NIH’s investment in mRNA vaccines research,” including ongoing or planned grants and contracts, and collaborations with outside partners.

NIH institutes and programs were asked to respond by this week.

Hulscher drew parallels between mRNA research and “vaccine hesitancy” research.

Vaccine hesitancy will remain high as a result of the federal government authorizing and mandating experimental modified mRNA injections that are suspected to have killed, injured or permanently disabled over a million Americans. The longer this disaster remains unacknowledged, the harder it will be to regain the trust of Americans,” Hulscher said.

According to the Post, it is “unclear” whether HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “had a role, directly or indirectly, in the move to cancel these grants.”

HHS oversees federal health agencies, including NIH and the CDC.

‘Vaccine hesitancy’ grants funded ‘psychological manipulation programs’

Scientists and doctors quoted by the Post expressed concern over the NIH’s planned cuts of “vaccine hesitancy” research.

Manoj Sharma, Ph.D., a professor of social and behavioral health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who received a previous CDC grant for vaccine hesitancy research, told the Post, “There is an urgent need to enhance vaccine acceptance behavior, especially due to the potential resurgence of measles and COVID-19 still looming.”

But for Baker, “This statement exemplifies the real goal of these studies, which is not to study behaviors, but to drive behaviors in a predetermined direction.” He added:

“‘Vaccine hesitancy’ grants do not fund scientific inquiry so much as psychological manipulation programs. They reject freedom of choice in favor of a predetermined behavior. It is a form of coercion. Coercion, be it subtle or obvious, is the opposite of informed consent.

Informed consent is absolutely central to the ethical practice of medicine. NIH should not fund research that undermines the ethical practice of medicine.”

Hulscher suggested that NIH resources previously earmarked for “vaccine hesitancy” studies “should be allocated to proper safety testing of the entire childhood vaccine schedule, where there are currently no products licensed based on long-term placebo-controlled trials.”

Other experts suggested that these resources could be used to rectify harms related to the promotion — or mandate — of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

“The money saved from cancelling these studies should instead be paid to independent researchers who are documenting the experiences of the millions of Americans injured by vaccines,” Rogers said.

“The grant money would be better used to produce a historical document of the abuses of informed consent during COVID, than to continue these psychological manipulation programs disguised as scientific inquiry,” Baker said.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

March 17, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Leave a comment

Almost Unanimous Consensus Of Scientists

“Scientists say signs point to another ice age” – March 16, 1973

BY DONALD C. KIRKMAN Scripps Howard Staff Writer WASHINGTON: A group of scientists say there are disturbing signs that the world’s average temperature has started to decline and that the Earth may face another catastrophic ice age in hundreds or thousands of years.

In a report soon to be released, the scientists say evidence is accumulating that the world has experienced unusually warm temperatures for the last 10,000 years and soon will revert to a colder, more hostile climate that man will find difficult to cope with.

The report is based on the findings of 46 geologists, climatologists and paleontologists who met last year at Brown University, Providence, R.I., to review recent studies of fossils, rock layers, sea sediments and biology.

Almost unanimously, these scientists agreed the world definitely will have another ice age similar to the one that ended 20,000 years ago when vast ice sheets covered large stretches of North America, Europe and Asia.

The only question, they believe is exactly when the new ice age will begin—or whether it already has begun.

“There already are signs the Earth is cooling in a cycle similar to those that heralded earlier great glaciations,” the report says. “And while it may take several centuries before any major global effects are felt and several thousand years before ice sheets reform, preliminary signs are already apparent.”

With the warm age ending, the scientists say the world logically can expect a colder, drier climate to crowd man southwards and reduce the world’s cultivatable land resources. Ice sheets once again could reach as far south as Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago in about 20,000 years.

“In the future, the report says, vast areas of Latin America, Africa, Asia and Australia increasingly will be affected by dryness of rainfall with its associated scourges—drought, soil erosion and starvation.”

To cope with this harsh, cooler world, man will have to call upon all his ingenuity and resourcefulness.”

Mar 16, 1973, page 25 – The Cincinnati Post at Newspapers.com

March 17, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment

Scientists Misreport Climate Cause of LA Wildfires

Sabine Hossenfelder | March 16, 2025

During the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, the media briefly latched on to a study which apparently blamed climate change for making the blazes more likely to occur and also more intense. But is that really what the study says? Let’s take a look.

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Worst climate science doom-scandal ever?

Reef Rebels | March 14, 2025

De’ath et al (2009) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s…

Ridd et al (2013) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…

Dr Peter Ridd has been researching the Great Barrier Reef since 1984, has invented a range of advanced scientific instrumentation, and written over 100 scientific publications.

Since being fired by James Cook University for raising concerns about science quality assurance issues, Peter Ridd receives no payment for any of the work he does.

March 16, 2025 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | | Leave a comment

CDC Will Study Possible Link Between Vaccines and Autism, Pledges to ‘Leave No Stone Unturned’

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 10, 2025

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed it plans to study the possible link between vaccines and autism, after Reuters reported on the plan late Friday, citing two sources inside the agency.

In response to the Reuters story, the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided an identical statement:

“As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed. CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering.”

The revelation came days after President Donald Trump, in an address to Congress, referred to the rising rate of autism in the U.S. Trump, citing CDC data showing that 1 in 36 U.S. children have autism, said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is well suited to lead efforts to study the increase.

“There’s something wrong,” Trump said. “So, we’re going to find out what it is, and there’s nobody better than Bobby [Kennedy] and all of the people that are working with you.”

According to The Washington Post, Trump administration officials asked the CDC to perform the study. Newsweek reported that it is “unclear” whether Kennedy is involved in the new study. However, HHS oversees federal health agencies, including the CDC.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) senior research scientist, applauded “the CDC’s newfound curiosity in vaccines and autism.” He said the U.S. “passed an inflection point” in the 1990s, where autism “went from being a rare disease to a more common one” that has been “increasing exponentially ever since.”

“When is an appropriate time to conduct a large study on vaccines and autism? Apparently, two generations later,” Jablonowski said.

Sayer Ji, chairman and co-founder of the Global Wellness Forum, called the news a “pivotal moment, not just in the scientific exploration of vaccine safety, but in the broader issue of public trust in our institutions.”

Ji said the CDC’s plan for a large-scale study “is an implicit admission that prior investigations may have been insufficient, biased or incomplete.” He said the new study “could represent a breakthrough moment” in “resolving this critical health question” and “restoring faith in the integrity of scientific inquiry itself.”

‘A seismic shift toward accountability’

According to the Post, the CDC will conduct the study using data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a database of patient health records. The Vaccine Safety Datalink draws on data from 13 U.S. healthcare organizations, CNN reported.

Biologist Christina Parks, Ph.D., said the study should examine the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule.

“The cumulative effect of giving multiple vaccines at once as well as over a short period of months has not been studied as a potential contributing factor to autism,” Parks said. “Vaccines have the potential to alter a child’s immune system in ways that are unexpected.”

Parks referred to studies performed in 1970 and 1987 that found autism rates of 0.7 and 3.3 children per 10,000, respectively. “If autism were as prevalent then as it is now, we should have a large number of older autistic adults, which we do not,” Parks said.

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for CHD, suggested the CDC study should use an unvaccinated control group. Hooker cited his experience performing research using data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink, noting that the database already contains data on unvaccinated children.

A 2021 study co-authored by Hooker found that vaccinated children were significantly more likely than unvaccinated children to be diagnosed with autism.

Ji said any CDC study examining a possible vaccine-autism link should reflect Kennedy’s recent calls for “gold-standard science.”

He said:

“It must be a true gold-standard study. The methodology must be rigorous, transparent and independent, with no industry or government interference. It should be a prospective, controlled, long-term study comparing fully unvaccinated and vaccinated populations.”

Hooker said the CDC has previously not made data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink available to the public, even though it is taxpayer-funded.

“We’ve never had access to the Vaccine Safety Datalink. We’ve never had access to such a gold-standard database, and that thing takes $50 million worth of tax dollars to maintain every year. It should be open to the public,” Hooker said.

Ji said many past vaccine safety studies were flawed due to a lack of transparency.

“Historically, vaccine safety studies have been marred by selective reporting, data manipulation and redacted findings. Kennedy has long advocated for open access to government data, and if this study follows through on that promise, it would be a seismic shift toward accountability,” Ji said.

Rise in autism cannot simply be attributed to ‘better diagnosis’

Reuters attributed the rise in autism rates to “more widespread screening and the inclusion of a broader range of behaviors to describe the condition.”

Research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., said such claims are “pure disinformation.”

“No rigorous study has shown that these factors are responsible,” Lyons-Weiler said.

“These criteria cannot explain the 7% increase in autism following the removal of vaccine exemptions from California, which has 1 in 22, the highest rate among all states,” Lyons-Weiler said.

Ji said that prior studies claiming to debunk the vaccine-autism link should be called into question, noting that many such studies “suffer from conflicts of interest, flawed methodologies and a lack of truly unvaccinated control groups.”

According to Hooker, many previous studies were flawed because they focused only on a limited number of vaccines and vaccine components.

“The CDC and most of the open peer-reviewed literature focuses on one vaccine and one vaccine component, the MMR [measles-mumps-rubella] vaccine and thimerosal” — a mercury-based preservative used in some vaccines. A 2013 study found a link between thimerosal exposure and the risk of an autism diagnosis.

Recent independently performed studies have indicated a connection between vaccines and autism.

A peer-reviewed study published in Science, Public Health Policy and the Law in January found that vaccinated children have a 170% higher chance of being diagnosed with autism compared to unvaccinated children. The study also found that the autism risk increases in children with a higher number of vaccinations.

A ‘new era of openness’

Reuters quoted Dr. Wilbur Chen, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and former member of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, who suggested the CDC’s new study could fuel vaccine hesitancy.

“It sends the signal that there is something there that is worth investigating, so that means there must be something going on between vaccines and autism,” Chen said.

But other experts suggest that such statements conceal concerns that vaccines may not be as safe as frequently claimed.

“Americans and those who receive our vaccines overseas should be able to have confidence that American products, especially biologics that are injected into children, meet the highest safety standards,” Parks said. “By addressing parent concerns, the CDC can help to reestablish trust in its guidelines.”

“If the vaccines are safe, transparency should increase confidence, not the opposite,” Ji said. “If vaccines are as safe as claimed, then the data should confirm that and bolster confidence. The fear of ‘hesitancy’ suggests a deeper concern that the results may contradict the official narrative.”

Hooker said the new CDC study is representative of a “new era of openness” and will “encourage greater faith in our institutions and their recommendations regardless of where they fall.”

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

March 16, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

‘The Measles Book’: Download the Free Digital Version Today

Children’s Health Defense | March 14, 2025

We’ve all seen or heard the stories about measles “outbreaks” in the media recently. What’s really going on? Are our children at risk? Download — for free — “The Measles Book: Thirty-Five Secrets the Government and the Media Aren’t Telling You about Measles and the Measles Vaccine.”

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) released “The Measles Book: Thirty-Five Secrets the Government and the Media Aren’t Telling You about Measles and the Measles Vaccine” in 2021.

CHD is making the book available now in digital format. Download your free book here.

“The Measles Book” presents reliable medical information from the most credible sources available. It is intended to help you make an informed choice about vaccinating your child.

The main focus is measles. However, many of the issues are relevant to other childhood vaccines. Within the book’s pages, the reader will discover 35 secrets being kept from the general public about childhood vaccines, especially the measles vaccine.

Some of those secrets include:

  1. Vaccines are not safe for every child, and the government and pharmaceutical companies have known this for years.
  2. Some children will get injured or die from vaccines, and the government and pharmaceutical companies know this, too.
  3. Pharmaceutical companies have developed an incredible way to make money from vaccines — and not be held accountable.
  4. When a child is injured or killed by a vaccine, the pharmaceutical company does not pay for the damage it caused — we do!

The information in “The Measles Book” is vital for parents who want to know how to make informed decisions for their children.

Prefer to have a hard copy instead? For a limited time, you can purchase a hardcover copy of “The Measles Book” for $20. You can order it here.

March 15, 2025 Posted by | Book Review, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Statement from Dr Dave Weldon following withdrawal of his nomination for CDC

WELDON’S FULL STATEMENT:


March 14, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Makary, Bhattacharya Nominations Move to Full Senate Vote, But Trump Pulls Weldon Nomination to Lead CDC

The Defender | March 13, 2025

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions this morning canceled a scheduled hearing on the nomination of Dr. David Weldon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Axios was the first to break the news, stating that Weldon’s “views questioning certain vaccines have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning.”

The New York Times reached Weldon by phone. The former Florida congressman said he learned of the decision last night when a White House official told him that “they didn’t have the votes to confirm” his nomination.

In a statement to media, posted on X, Weldon said, “The concern of many people is that Big Pharma was behind this, which is probably true. They are probably the most powerful lobbying organization in Washington DC giving millions of dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Health committee today voted 14-9 to endorse Dr. Marty Makary to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and 12-11 to endorse Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Both Makary and Bhattacharya “largely breezed through” their Senate confirmation hearings and are now set to be confirmed by a full Senate vote, according to STAT News.

Given the Republican control of the Senate, it is expected that Makary and Bhattacharya will be confirmed.

Weldon nomination pulled amid Texas measles outbreak, CDC plan to study vaccines

Weldon, 71, is a practicing internal medicine doctor and Army veteran. He represented Florida in Congress from 1995 to 2009.

The CDC has a $9 billion budget and staff of around 13,000, according to NBC.

According to the Times, Weldon said he had been excited about the opportunity to help restore the public’s confidence in the CDC and serve his country again.

Weldon had also been looking forward to working on the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) agenda to address the proliferation of chronic diseases among U.S. Americans, particularly children.

In the days leading up to Weldon’s planned hearing, numerous media outlets ran a slew of articles highlighting Weldon’s history of questioning vaccine safety.

Reuters on March 7 broke the news that the CDC was planning a study on the possible link between vaccines and autism. Some senators “have expressed concerns over Weldon’s views on vaccines,” Reuters said.

The Washington Post confirmed that the CDC planned to “leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out” why autism rates are soaring, including using the agency’s Vaccine Safety Datalink database to study any possible links between vaccines and autism.

The last-minute plan to pull Weldon’s nomination came against the backdrop of news reports about the CDC’s planned study and the West Texas measles outbreak. On March 10, Forbes reported, “Vaccine Skeptic Dave Weldon Is Up To Lead CDC As Measles And Flu Rage.”

According to Forbes, Weldon was a friend of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who “holds similar and, in some cases, seemingly more extreme views on some health matters.”

On March 12, STAT News reported, under the headline, “How CDC nominee Dave Weldon’s support for anti-vaccine theories runs long and deep” that Weldon in 2004 asked the U.S. House Appropriations Committee chair to fund an autism research center that would be led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

Wakefield was the first author of the 1998 study, published and later retracted in The Lancet, that linked the MMR vaccine to autism in certain children.

According to STAT News, Weldon requested $1.9 million in the 2005 budget for the center to study “the biological origins” of childhood developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, Congress chose not to fund it.

In 2007, Weldon introduced a bill “to improve vaccine safety research” that would have transferred the responsibility of tracking vaccine safety from the CDC to an independent agency within HHS.

The bill stipulated that the independent agency would:

  1. Conduct or support safety research and monitor licensed vaccines.
  2. Develop a vaccine safety research agenda.
  3. Evaluate means to promote compliance with federal adverse reaction reporting requirements.
  4. Provide a clearinghouse for vaccine studies.
  5. Ensure that functions relating to vaccine monitoring or research on adverse reactions are not carried out by anyone with a conflict of interest.
  6. Oversee the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project.
  7. Resolve U.S. conflicts of interest related to international agreements, partnerships, and activities.

However, the bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

March 14, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment