Introduction
Recent developments surrounding vaccine safety have stirred considerable debate, igniting reactions that span the spectrum from relief to outrage. The revision of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) position on this issue reinforces a fragmented landscape regarding public health information. In this article, we will explore the implications of this shift, the emerging trends in consumer wellness, and the challenges faced by research institutions.
Part the First: CDC Finally “Decides” that Vaccines Cause Autism. In news that seems unsurprising yet polarizing, the CDC has stated that existing data disproving the vaccine-autism link is not evidence-based:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publicly reversed its long-held stance that vaccines do not cause autism, a move that contradicts years of scientific consensus and drew objections from career staff.
A CDC webpage, which previously asserted there is no correlation between vaccines and autism, was subtly updated to describe this assertion as “not evidence-based,” along with several other inaccurate statements.
This update did not undergo the usual scientific clearance process, according to Daniel Jernigan, a senior CDC leader who resigned in August. Another source familiar with the situation indicated that the office managing the page was excluded from decision-making.
What might Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-Louisiana) think about this development, given his role in the confirmation process of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services? This raises pertinent questions regarding the faith placed in assurances made during the confirmation process.
A representative from the Department of Health and Human Services told STAT that research supporting a vaccine-autism link has been overlooked by health authorities, echoing sentiments reflected on the CDC’s webpage.
“HHS has initiated a comprehensive evaluation of autism’s causes, including investigations of plausible biological mechanisms and potential causal links,” the statement read. Additionally, HHS indicated that federal lawmakers were informed in advance of the changes made.
For further reading on the evidence surrounding vaccines and autism, you can refer to this archived STAT article: Here is how we know that vaccines do not cause autism. RFK Jr.’s fervor against thimerosal is equally misplaced, as detailed in an explanation from STAT:
Thimerosal is an essential preservative utilized in some multi-dose vaccines, crucial for maintaining safety in vaccination efforts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This preservative helps prevent contamination from bacteria or other pathogens as healthcare providers extract doses from the vial (especially when refrigeration is inconsistent).
While thimerosal contains mercury, it is worth noting that thimerosal consists of ethylmercury, not methylmercury. The latter is associated with industrial pollution and is harmful to human health, particularly for developing fetuses. Ethylmercury, however, is eliminated swiftly from the body. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that in the concentrations used in vaccines, it poses no health risk. The Minamata Convention even includes a provision for thimerosal, based on a WHO assessment affirming its safety and relevance.
The Food and Drug Administration also affirmed thimerosal’s safety in vaccines in an ongoing review, first published in 1997, which remains available online. “A robust body of peer-reviewed scientific studies conducted in the U.S. and abroad supports the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines.”
While mercury is a poison, its most common modern source is artisanal gold mining, where metallic mercury amalgamates with gold and evaporates under heat, leaving behind gold droplets.
The straightforward yet nuanced perspective on thimerosal’s safety, particularly at the minuscule doses present in vaccines, can be grasped through simple comparisons:
- Consume ethyl alcohol moderately and enjoy its effects.
- Consume methyl alcohol in any significant amount and face severe consequences, including blindness.
Here, two simple compounds yield vastly different results. The implications are notable.
Part the Second: Wellness on Steroids to Somewhere. A recent article discusses wellness startup Function Health, which has raised $300 million amid a growing trend in consumer lab testing.
Function Health, which provides nutrition, supplement, and lifestyle recommendations based on lab tests and body scans, announced a funding influx of $298 million. The company aims to incorporate artificial intelligence into its patient data interpretation process.
Function’s funding success reflects the momentum within a booming wellness industry that the company has actively shaped. Based in Austin, Texas, Function markets preventive care services directly to consumers with appealing advertisements urging them to “discover what you’re made of” and asserting that individuals “deserve answers as unique as they are.” This self-empowerment ethos is further strengthened by co-founder and chief medical officer Mark Hyman’s relationship with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For an annual fee of $365, Function conducts blood tests for common biomarkers, such as glucose and LDL cholesterol, as well as checking for metals like lead and indicators of autoimmune health. Members may also purchase add-ons like Grail’s cancer test and gluten intolerance testing. Users can retest every three months to track their biological changes. After acquiring Ezra earlier this year, Function now provides MRI and CT scans to detect various health issues. Notably, these services are not covered by insurance.
Following testing, members receive a clinician-reviewed summary of their results along with personalized recommendations for nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle changes. Hyman indicated that the company plans to unveil a unique supplement offering but declined to provide specifics.
Mark Hyman, considered “the most trusted name in functional medicine” and recipient of the 2009 Linus and Ava Helen Pauling Award in Functional Medicine, remains tight-lipped about the details. For more insights into “functional medicine,” you can explore his website. If he doesn’t meet your needs, alternatives like Medical Medium or the Surgeon General designee may offer different insights. Returning to Function Health:
With a new valuation of $2.5 billion, Function is pushing its belief that extensive user-generated data can inform significant healthcare and lifestyle decisions. They recently announced Medical Intelligence, an AI platform designed to analyze user data and deliver personalized suggestions. Expected features include a chatbot capable of addressing inquiries based on users’ health data and “protocols” for practical lifestyle changes.
“Medical Intelligence strives to navigate the complexities of human biology, recognizing that traditional medical practices are often overly reductionist, especially considering human physiology’s infinite complexity,” said Hyman. He elaborated: “This platform enables a comprehensive analysis of the vast array of health data, facilitating personalized healthcare roadmaps.”
The AI chat feature will provide answers and recommendations on various subjects. Function’s examples include creating a nutrition plan to ease bloating, suggesting heart-healthy supplements, reviewing abnormal test results, and devising morning routines for increased energy. The new protocols expand on existing recommendations, potentially covering “foods to enjoy versus avoid, meal planning, supplements, sleep, exercise, and stress management.”
A spokesperson clarified that the company employs a “clinician-in-the-loop” system, where healthcare professionals enhance the AI model continuously. While acknowledging valid concerns about accuracy and potential misinformation, Hyman assured that the system maintains careful boundaries.
While the human body may not be infinitely complex, understanding its functions often requires intricate models. Human physiology involves an intricate interplay that is seldom linear, and predicting outcomes can be decidedly challenging. Consequently, while Function may generate financial success, it raises questions about what constitutes effective healthcare, as only a fraction of the functional medicine paradigm aligns with conventional medical knowledge.
Imagining how well individuals might thrive in an economy more attuned to their needs evokes further contemplation. This would necessitate securing living wages, universal healthcare, reliable childcare, and affordable housing for all families—alongside a world free from destructive warfare.
Function may be at the forefront of an emerging wave of testing startups, yet it mirrors approaches previously utilized in the wellness industry. Like numerous recent direct-to-consumer wellness companies, it engages listeners of health-focused podcasts through targeted advertising.
The notion of offering screening tests online is hardly innovative. Tim Mackey, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, reflected on research over a decade ago exposing misconduct by certain direct-to-consumer testing companies, including deceptive marketing and insufficient patient counseling.
“It’s akin to a gold rush market,” he remarked. “Many are more anxious about diseases than actually suffering from them.”
Interestingly, it appears that many affluent individuals are more invested in disease awareness than the general public, who face more immediate survival concerns.
Part the Third: The Hits to NIH and the Rest of Us, They Just Keep on Coming. Has NIH funneled funds into clinical and basic research that, in retrospect, lacked value? The prevailing response is “Yes!” Yet, upon further reflection, the more accurate answer is “No!”—due to the inherent unpredictability of biomedical science and clinical medicine, wherein outcomes cannot be reliably foreseen through deductive reasoning. This leads us to a brief article in Scientific American: Halted NIH Clinical Trials List Reveals Slashed Treatments for Cancer, COVID, and Minority Health.
Conditions such as sickle cell disease, sleep disorders, and lung cancer have experienced postponements in at least 383 clinical trials that had previously received research grants from the National Institutes of Health since February.
This represents roughly 1 in 30 of all clinical trials funded by the federal agency, which operates on a $48 billion research budget, as reported in a JAMA Internal Medicine study published Monday.
The compiled list of 383 paused clinical trials cited in the JAMA paper, acquired by Scientific American, shows a wide array of medical issues affected. These cuts follow a Trump administration initiative to reduce costs and eliminate funding for studies “misaligned” with its priorities. Approximately 74,000 study participants have been impacted by the trial cuts, according to the study.
Misaligned with its priorities? Consider sickle cell disease and a particularly extensive trial titled: “Intensive Symptom Surveillance Guarded by Machine Learning-Directed Risk Stratification in Patients With Non-Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer: The INSIGHT Trial.” As a survivor of a similar experience, I see the potential for enhanced survival rates, perhaps increasing from an 85% survival rate to 95% or higher. However, we will never know.
In an unsurprising turn of events, “spokesman Andrew Nixon stated that the Department of Health and Human Services ‘strongly’ disputes the findings of the study,” while indicating that there are still 42,500 trials at various stages—planning, recruiting, and active. So, why these 383 trials? Followed by this disheartening response:
“Focusing selectively on a small number of paused studies does not undermine the overwhelming majority of trials that meet or exceed the gold standard of clinical research,” he remarked. “We are dedicated to ensuring that taxpayer dollars support programs grounded in evidence-based practices and scientifically validated methods—rather than driven by ideological agendas.”
The term “gold-standard” science often represents a shallow trope, fitting with the current administration’s aesthetic (apologies to the legacy of the Sun King). No evidence has been provided to substantiate claims that any of this research was ideologically motivated. Beyond the knowledge lost that could have benefited many in the future, this also represents a breach of trust with the 74,000 individuals who stepped forward to participate in these trials, as well as the numerous scientists, physicians, nurses, clinical trial coordinators, and other healthcare professionals involved in this research.
Part the Fourth: Can Artifacts Tell Us Anything about Prehistoric Belief Systems? This topic is explored in a brief article from Reuters: Figurine of a woman and a goose offers insight into prehistoric beliefs. My fascination with Comparative Belief Systems during my education revealed how interpretations often hinge on context. A diamond motif prevalent among the remnants of Southeastern North American Native Americans might suggest reverence for the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, although it could simply reflect aesthetic preference.
During my elementary school years, I encountered a fundamental lesson in archaeology at Rock Eagle in Georgia. The guide implied that the bird effigy on the ground must be an eagle or its title would differ. Yet “Rock Buzzard” is equally plausible, given that buzzards were likely more prevalent than eagles in that area.
In this study, the archaeologists make a compelling case:
According to Laurent Davin, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lead author of the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this is the earliest known figurine depicting human-animal interaction. Furthermore, it represents the oldest recognized naturalistic portrayal of a woman in Southwest Asian art.
The goose is positioned on the crouching woman’s back, its wings spread as part of a typical mating posture, providing a glimpse into the belief system of this prehistoric culture, as co-author Leore Grosman noted.
“We interpret this scene as depicting the imagined mating of an animal spirit and a human, a theme commonly found in animistic societies worldwide, often associated with erotic dreams, shamanistic visions, and mythological narratives,” Grosman explained.
Animism posits that natural entities—living organisms like plants and animals, as well as inanimate objects such as rocks and rivers—possess spiritual essence.
“This scene reflects a long-standing tradition in myth, with sexualized motifs between human and animal figures symbolizing fertility, spiritual beliefs, or the sanctity of life,” added University of Connecticut anthropologist Natalie Munro.
“Myths across various cultures often depict deities or beings in hybrid human-animal forms, conveying symbolic impartations rather than literal sexual acts,” Munro added.
While we may never fully grasp these beliefs, the existence of sculpture from 12,000 years ago indicates a mindset remarkably similar to our own. Julian Jaynes might argue otherwise; his The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind remains a thought-provoking read.
The PNAS paper is available here (currently not behind a paywall, but that may change): A 12,000-year-old clay figurine of a woman and a goose marks symbolic innovations in Southwest Asia. The illustrations exemplify stellar archaeological work. In later Levantine culture, the goose evolved into a swan, serving as a point of intriguing continuity in the human psyche.
Part the Fifth: Responses to The Making of the MAGA Right. I rarely have the opportunity to engage with comments on alternate Wednesdays, so I would like to take this moment to express gratitude for your readership and thoughtful insights.
DJG, Reality Czar – Carpet tack, meet 16-oz carpenter’s hammer in a direct hit:
This expresses the typical religious and patriotic fervor: “One of the postliberal changes that Deneen advocated was the embrace of an overtly Christian state, complete with holy holidays and tax-funded religious public works.”
Indeed, I advocate for the U.S. to depict Mary, the Theotokos, the Gran Madre di Dio, on the nickel. I’ll wait… And for Saint Joseph’s Day to become a national holiday, celebrated with traditional chickpea fritters. I’ll wait.
Ultimately, what these individuals seek is power. What they do not wish is for the Beatitudes or inconvenient narratives—like Saint Francis of Assisi kissing lepers—to impede their agenda.
steppenwolf fetchit – I pondered regarding this situation. I think you reached a pivotal point in response to Judith:
Vance is aiming for the presidency. The Legions of Saint Kirk will not accept a Hindu First Lady.
If Mrs. Vance declines conversion to Catholicism, it wouldn’t be surprising if Mr. Vance pursues a divorce, potentially under dubious circumstances.
Henry Moon Pie – I concur with your thoughts on Richard John Neuhaus and First Things, as well as this timeless gem that I’ll store for future discussions:
“Authority is the refuge of the frightened and the lost, and the calling card of the sociopath. Better to seek harmony and reconcile with reality than to hide behind the skirts of the strong.”
Henry Moon Pie – I believe the common good can indeed be defined, as articulated by Kate Raworth, Herman Daly, and others who remain undervalued by the mainstream. This endeavor is essential for the remnant, especially as the world nears a similar fate.
Thank you for acknowledging my appreciation for the late Curt Flood. I am among those fortunate to have educators who fostered our love for baseball, allowing us to watch the World Series on a snowy black-and-white television during school hours. My fourth-grade teacher was one such innovator! We were the only class permitted to forgo using battery-powered radios with earplugs. My sixth-grade teacher shared this passion, allowing me to witness two Orioles games against the Dodgers—an unforgettable series featuring numerous Hall of Famers.
And let’s not forget the late, great Bob Uecker – Mr. Baseball – who also played on that 1964 Cardinals team as McCarver’s backup.
Gulag – Thank you for pointing out that The Wizard of Kalorama recommended Deneen. It’s likely he would have. You rightly note that Deneen shared sentiments aligning him with Christopher Lasch and Wendell Berry. Deneen was a founding voice of Front Porch Republic if my memory serves me. Though its output varies, the more resonant pieces are profound.
Shockley Jensen – Intriguing handle. Is your middle name Herrnstein?
It’s difficult to gauge without further reading, but it appears there’s a willful misinterpretation of the current situation by liberal academia. Those tenured individuals have had no role in the dynamics shaping the right.
To truly comprehend what’s unfolding, examining the list of conservative thinkers and writers canceled by Buckley and his cohort might be insightful. The names include Sam Francis, Joe Sobran, Peter Brimelow, and John Derbyshire.
Francis, Brimelow, and Derbyshire emerge fleetingly in Furious Minds as New Right racists. Sobran is absent from the index and I recall no mention of him. According to LKF, “the ‘particularist’ nationalism (linked to Abraham Lincoln) that Sam Francis defended was white nationalism.” This perspective carries profoundly racist implications.
Plautus (Julius Krein) of Journal of American Greatness (seriously?) “cites well-known racists—Steve Sailer, Peter Brimelow, and John Derbyshire—approvingly and derides anyone—especially establishment conservatives—who might be cautious about nativism and racism.” Many observers recognize these men as racists, and they are unabashed about it.
Derbyshire was dismissed from National Review in 2012 for publishing a racist article in Taki’s Magazine (though I didn’t check). Since Bill Buckley passed away in 2008, the circumstances of Derbyshire’s cancellation by Buckley remain unclear. Buckley was a prominent figure, and I enjoyed Firing Line in my youth, but I doubt he returned from the grave to cut ties with these individuals. Buckley’s contemporaries? Probably not either. His legacy yields little influence on the New Right, whose version of “conservatism” primarily reflects animosity toward others.
The New Right’s grievances with “The Other” burden them with complexities, flawed assumptions, and poorly-formed ideologies. This is not a modern construct worth engaging with. I have faith in LKF.
Finally, LKF is not part of “liberal academia.” She is an academic with a substantive conservative philosophical background who has reconsidered her perspectives for reasoned and valid causes. Read her preface to witness this journey. She departed academia to pursue genuine scholarship, one that engages with the world as it is rather than merely from her own perspective.
Cheers!
In conclusion, the ongoing changes in public health messaging, particularly regarding vaccine safety, reflect broader dissonances in our healthcare narratives. Parallel trends in consumer wellness suggest a shift towards data-driven personal health management, while challenges faced by research institutions underscore the intricate and often unpredictable nature of biomedical advancements.
Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! See you next week.
