Elections will always have consequences. It is always best if politics is boring. Sadly it is not at the moment.
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When the anti-science wins out, we all lose. It’s not like “to each their own” - because if it is my deliberate choice to get the vaccine, now that choice has been taken away from me. When science is stopped and demotivated, those of us who want the choice to benefit from science no longer have that option. Dark ages are bad for all including those who wish for enlightenment.
We knew this would happen and here we are, three more years of this madness, but the damage is already epic after just 12 months. If leadership in science passes on to China, we did it to ourselves. Empires rise and fall. Guess where the USA is on that timeline - by our own free choice in a democracy. We have no one to blame, but ourselves. Nobody imposed this upon us, it was our own choice.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves”. Whether Lincoln said this or not, it remains a terrible truth.
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The HHS did cease a $500 million investment in mRNA research last year. Doesn’t feel promising for scientific breakthroughs.
While some final-stage contracts (e.g., Arcturus and Amplitude) will be allowed to run their course to preserve prior taxpayer investment, no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated. HHS has also instructed its partner, Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC), which manages BARDA Ventures, to cease all mRNA-based equity investments. In total, this affects 22 projects worth nearly $500 million. Other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.
https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-winds-down-mrna-development-under-barda.html
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Right now, Qdenga is available in EU but it’s not approved in the US.
When it comes to mrna vaccines though, I doubt any company would risk setting shop in the US. And given all the storage issues with mrna vaccines, I doubt that importing it (if legal) will be as straightforward as ordering medications from India.
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It’s even funnier knowing that Trump himself is actually pro-vaccine but so many of his henchmen and supporters are staunchly anti-science that he basically had no choice but to publicly change his stance.
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From our “friend” AI:
Donald Trump has expressed both pro-vaccine and vaccine-skeptical views over time. While he championed the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines through Operation Warp Speed during his presidency, he has also made statements questioning vaccine safety and has recently aligned with prominent vaccine skeptics like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump’s Vaccine Record: A Mixed Timeline
Pro-Vaccine Actions
• Operation Warp Speed (2020): Trump launched and funded this initiative to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development, leading to the rapid rollout of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Public health experts credit it with saving millions of lives A.
• Publicly vaccinated: Trump received the COVID-19 vaccine and booster, and encouraged others to do so in early 2021.
Vaccine-Skeptical Statements
• Autism claims: Trump has repeatedly suggested a link between vaccines and autism — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked by scientific research B C.
• Vaccine schedule criticism: In 2025, he recommended altering childhood vaccine schedules, such as separating MMR doses and delaying hepatitis B vaccination — positions that contradict CDC guidelines D.
• RFK Jr. appointment: Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine skeptic, as Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2025, raising concerns among public health experts E A.
Summary: Is Trump Pro-Vaccine?
Category Position Evidence
COVID-19 vaccine development Pro Launched Operation Warp Speed
Personal vaccination Pro Received vaccine and booster
Public health messaging Mixed Promoted vaccine skepticism in interviews and social media
Policy appointments Skeptical Appointed RFK Jr., who opposes vaccine mandates
Sources
• Newsweek: Trump’s vaccine statements and RFK Jr. appointment E
• TIME: Trump links vaccines to autism B
• PolitiFact: Fact-checking Trump’s vaccine claims C
• USA Today: Trump’s vaccine schedule recommendations D
• KFF Health News: Trump’s evolving vaccine stance A
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Not sure why politicians want children to experience horrible diseases and death. It boggles the mind.
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I think it’s pretty clear. There are voters out there who are anti-vax. If that’s your voter base, you as a politician cater to them in order to get elected, regardless of your own private opinions. Look at Trump - he was all for vaccinations, but when his voter base became strongly against it, he turned hostile too. Sure, there are true believers out there, but most politicians care about one thing: getting (re)elected. If kids have to suffer, if the constitution needs to be trashed, if we turn into a dictatorship, well, that’s secondary. First and foremost, get (re)elected, and nothing else matters.
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Meanwhile… from the Kaiser Health Foundation:
Although covid has become less deadly, because of population immunization and mutations making the virus less severe, researchers say the politicization around the infection is obscuring what science is increasingly confirming: covid’s potential to cause unexpected, possibly chronic health issues. That in turn, these scientists say, drives the need for more, rather than less, research, because over the long term, covid could have significant economic and societal implications, such as higher health care costs and more demands on social programs and caregivers.
The annual average burden of the disease’s long-term health effects is estimated at $1 trillion globally and $9,000 per patient in the U.S., according to a report published in November in the journal NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine. In this country, the annual lost earnings are estimated to be about $170 billion.
One study estimates that the flu resulted in $16 billion in direct health costs and $13 billion in productivity losses in the 2023-2024 season, according to a Dec. 30 report in medRxiv, an online platform that publishes work not yet certified by peer review.
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A new Ontario-based study is suggesting the shingles vaccine may help prevent and/or delay the onset of dementia more effectively than any existing treatment.
The study was published in Lancet Neurology and led by researchers at McMaster University and Stanford University. It analyzed health data from more than 250,000 seniors in Ontario and found the herpes zoster vaccination, also known as the shingles vaccine, helped significantly prevent dementia.
“There’s no pharmacological tool that has been shown to have such a large preventative effect,” Pascal Geldsetzer, lead researcher and Stanford University professor, told CTV News Toronto.
Paper: Herpes zoster vaccination and incident dementia in Canada: an analysis of natural experiments
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(25)00455-7/fulltext
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Don’t forget enriching oneself along the way!
But yes, it’s quite tragic, but hopefully the rest of the world picks up the baton and keeps moving forward. I don’t like China whatsoever, but there are a lot of smart and well-intentioned people there, and Europe/UK has strong science too, but generally weaker commercialisation. Now is a great opportunity for the rest of the world to out-compete America and seize leadership.
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https://x.com/AviBittMD/status/2022046923906306056#m
I’m most worried about the defunding of mRNA and not reviewing new bird flu vaccines. In the world of advanced AI everyone will have access to their own gain-of-function labs. There are few vaccine technologies that can adapt quickly.
Hell’s going to break loose without rapid biodefense. And right after if a first pathogen hits, there’s going to be a new one.
They have warned about this many times: https://openai.com/index/preparing-for-future-ai-capabilities-in-biology/
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This is so sad. We have the technology and the infrastructure and active work on ways to reduce suffering and improve health for millions, but the progress is being hindered for irrelevant and unscientific reasons.
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Our only hope is now China 
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A good summary of the research in this area, by a writer for the Economist:
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Not sure if this has been shared:
https://www.science.org/content/article/unorthodox-universal-vaccine-offers-broad-protection-mice
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