Volume 81, no. 9
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the release of its “new” plan to promote “gold standard” science.
“Building on NIH’s longstanding commitment to scientific integrity, this forward-looking plan incorporates the nine, interlocking tenets of gold standard science adopted by the U.S. Government and aligns with the Department of Health and Human Services’ [HHS] framework for achieving these principles” stated NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D. (https://tinyurl.com/bdf2mr6y).
The principles include: science should be reproducible, transparent, communicative of error and uncertainty, skeptical of its findings and assumptions, subject to unbiased peer review, accepting of negative results, and without conflicts of interest.
What’s old and basic for science has become new at NIH.
Vaccines are still touted as “one of the most important public health achievements in the world.” But even Bill Gates gave a talk in Australia a couple of years ago enumerating how the “current vaccines” are a failure (https://tinyurl.com/4xhdu89f).
In 2023, Anthony Fauci among others wrote that “past unsuccessful attempts to elicit solid protection against mucosal respiratory viruses and to control the deadly outbreaks and pandemics they cause have been a scientific and public health failure that must be urgently addressed” (tinyurl.com/352d7wvm).
The paper stated that for various reasons “it is not surprising that none of the predominantly mucosal respiratory viruses have ever been effectively controlled by vaccines.” One problem is that the innate mucosal immune system must balance tolerance to the enormous amounts of antigens it encounters and responses that might cause bystander tissue damage. Authors nevertheless assert that COVID vaccines “saved innumerable lives and helped to achieve early partial pandemic control” and make no mention of adverse effects. They do not call for uncertainty, skepticism, and unbiased peer review but for next-generation vaccines.
HHS Secretary Kennedy has announced cutting $500 million in funding for development of mRNA vaccines under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Kennedy stated: “The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” Focus will shift to “platforms with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices” (https://tinyurl.com/b5mpwnsp).
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has modified recommendations for pregnant women and children, causing some concern about loss of third-party payment, it has not heeded the direct and unequivocal warning from Joseph Ladapo, M.D., Florida surgeon general, that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines “should not be used in any human beings.” He states that “it is time to embrace a policy of informed consent, focus on early treatment, and abandon one-size-fits-all mandates.” He also warns against use in animals. (https://tinyurl.com/5dvpwwwp).
Official Pushback
Organized medicine has not applauded the plan. Such principles must not be applied to “settled” dogma on vaccines.
At the AMA House of Delegates meeting, according to Arizona Medical Association representatives, AMA stated: “The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was blown apart in June when new HHS Secretary Kennedy removed all 17 ACIP members. Kennedy’s seven handpicked replacements lack experience and expertise in vaccines. Some have spread misinformation about vaccines. Others have gone on record with preconceived bias against vaccines.” The AMA HOD passed an emergency resolution crafting a strong letter of concern and protest over the changes. It calls on the AMA to actively lobby for vaccination efforts and to support vaccine research and development.
In addition to suing HHS over changes in recommendations (AAPS News, August 2025), organized medicine is doubling down on promoting vaccines.
“In the face of misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, a strong, evidence-based recommendation in support of vaccination from a trusted clinician can go a long way toward encouraging our patients to protect themselves and their pregnancies,” said Sandra E. Brooks, MD, MBA, chief executive officer of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In response to the firing of ACIP members, AAP split with the CDC and published its own childhood immunization schedule (https://tinyurl.com/2dkn4rdu).
After the Aug 8 attack on CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, some 750 workers signed a letter deploring HHS Secretary Kennedy’s complicity in “dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information,” including “false and misleading information about vaccines” (https://tinyurl.com/3d2kj53y). In Medicine Matters, Kennedy’s attack on mRNA vaccines is called “unscientific foolishness” (https://tinyurl.com/5cechr8f).
Although some blamed Kennedy’s criticisms for the violence, the shooter evidently blamed the COVID-19 shot for making him depressed and suicidal (tinyurl.com/3dwkf7ce).
Despite the clear and present dangers related to vaccination, especially with mRNA products, much of the MAHA movement’s attention is diverted to sensationalized threats of poisoning that lack scientific foundation (https://tinyurl.com/4uur2xjk).
Gottlieb Warns about Aluminum Adjuvants
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently warned of a potential forthcoming HHS report that might point to aluminum in vaccines as a cause of autism. The role of aluminum in vaccine injury has been documented in the scientific literature for more than three decades. James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., writes that a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Special Master tried to bribe him to change his testimony about aluminum, and then resorted to character assassination from the “bench” to destroy his credibility as an expert witness (https://tinyurl.com/45xntbdd).
In 2004, studies that were later corroborated showed that aluminum adjuvants injected intramuscularly are taken up by phagocytes, transported to the brain, and cause microglial activation, oxidative stress, and behavioral abnormalities in animal models. FDA and CDC models do not consider the difference between injected and ingested doses, nor do they properly model aluminum pharmacokinetics as a function of age, body weight, renal function, and dose accumulation (ibid.).
Aluminum salts are routinely used in experimental biology to reliably induce autoimmune conditions in animal models.
Gottlieb now recognizes that the regulatory blind spot could explode legally. But it’s too late for children who received increasing doses in the ever-expanding vaccine schedule (ibid.).
Did Danish Study Prove Safety?
A highly acclaimed analysis of 1 million Danish children (https://tinyurl.com/3n2w8cpe) is claimed to have found no link between aluminum-containing vaccines and 50 health conditions including autism, asthma, autoimmune conditions, or neurodevelopment disorders (https://tinyurl.com/3nwbamr4).
The Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) posted a lengthy thread on X.com (https://tinyurl.com/3psft459), including a correction to the supplementary material that increased the number of neurodevelopment disorders from 2,200 to more than 5,200, demonstrating the opposite of the authors’ conclusions. It also noted that the study’s authors work for Staten Serum Institut, which makes $400 million a year selling vaccines.
The Annals of Internal Medicine has rejected calls, including one from Secretary Kennedy, to retract the article (https://tinyurl.com/mrb95dwp).
AAP Calls for Research on Food Additives
AAP is concerned about the 10,000 chemicals that the U.S. allows to be added to food and food contact materials. “Data about health effects of food additives on infants and children are limited or missing; however, in general, infants and children are more vulnerable to chemical exposures.” AAP calls for updating the scientific foundation of the FDA’s safety assessment program and retesting all previously approved chemicals (https://tinyurl.com/5xnareb5). Never mind injected aluminum.
“The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party, and of course, in the United Nations.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Approved despite Higher Mortality
In four randomized controlled trials of a monoclonal antibody to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness in infants, there were more deaths in the treatment group. But the number was small and did not reach classical statistical significance. Therefore, the treatment was deemed to be safe. Bayesian analysis, however, showed a 75% probability that the treatment would cause increased mortality (https://tinyurl.com/d8rmhdnz). The new ACIP voted 5-to-2 to approve the product.
Newly appointed CDC Director Susan Monarez soon signed off on the recommendation (https://tinyurl.com/2s3k9wye). More than half of infants received RSV antibodies in early 2025.
Journalist and researcher Maryanne Demasi, who performed an independent analysis, found that infants who received nirsevimab were four times more likely to suffer seizures. The CDC’s presentation did not include a pooled analysis of seizures from the combined infant population. One rationale for splitting the groups was that some received a vaccine on the same day.
Dr. Robert Malone, who voted for approval “based on the information and logic presented,” now says it was actually based “on manipulated data analyses.” ACIP was not even informed about what the FDA itself acknowledged to be “surprising mortality imbalance” (https://tinyurl.com/2m2ecfzm). “If a phenomenon doesn’t meet statistical significance, then from the CDC standpoint, it doesn’t exist.” CDC’s thinking has gutted medical ethics and informed consent (tinyurl.com/5x45ts22).
Dr. Malone stated: “Going forward, speaking for myself, based on these findings, I will no longer be able to trust that what is presented in CDC summaries to the ACIP is transparent, accurate, and unbiased.”
A spokesperson for HHS told The Epoch Times that “Dr. Malone was speaking in his personal capacity on his own blog, outside of his responsibilities as an ACIP member…. ACIP remains committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense” (https://tinyurl.com/24dtjttd).
Noncompliance Is a Disease
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) has a category for noncompliance with medical regimen:
- Z91.11: noncompliance with dietary regimen
- Z91.12 : noncompliance with medication regimen
- Z91.13: noncompliance with renal dialysis
- Z91.14: noncompliance with other medical treatment and regimen
- Z91.19: other personal history of noncompliance with medical treatment and regimen
AAPS Calendar
Sep 11-13. 82nd Annual Meeting, Chantilly, VA.
Sep 24-26, 2026. 83rd Annual Meeting, Alpharetta, GA
ACTION OF THE MONTH
Are you receiving AAPS email updates and alerts? If not, send your preferred email to [email protected] and include your city and state to make sure you get customized messages
Indirect Censorship
To avoid First Amendment scrutiny, the government may avoid overt statutes or censorship boards but rely on “jawboning” to suppress free speech, writes James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D. This is “informal pressure exerted on private platforms to moderate, suppress, or algorithmically demote disfavored content”—often veiled as “advisory guidance” (https://tinyurl.com/3hx74hnk).
How far can the state go? The answer is quite vague.
In Bantam Books v. Sullivan (372 U.S. 58, 1963), a Rhode Island commission created a list of “objectionable” books and distributed it to book vendors, warning that continued distribution could lead to legal trouble. Although the list carried no formal legal authority, the Supreme Court held that it exerted sufficient pressure to constitute unconstitutional state censorship.
In Murthy v. Missouri (5th Cir. 2023, SCOTUS 2024), plaintiffs alleged that agencies like the White House, Surgeon General, CDC, FBI, and CISA colluded with social media companies to censor speech concerning COVID-19, vaccine safety, and election integrity. (See AAPS News, March 2024 and September 2024). SCOTUS left the issue unresolved, citing lack of standing.
In Agency for Int’l Development v. Alliance for Open Society, 570 U.S. 205 (2013), SCOTUS reaffirmed that the government may not condition receipt of a benefit on the surrender of a constitutional right. If federal grants are tied to speech moderation practices, this doctrine is violated. Moreover, Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995), holds that when the state funds speech, it must do so in a viewpoint-neutral way. If Facebook, YouTube, or academic centers accept federal funds and then suppress disfavored speech under federal direction, they risk becoming state actors.
The First Amendment is now in a “gray zone,” Lyons-Weiler states, enabling a “censorship-by-proxy regime.” Still, with COVID-19, “truth did not disappear. It resurfaced because people refused to stop speaking” (ibid.).
Two Pediatricians Sue CDC
Stand for Health Freedom, together with Paul Thomas, M.D., and Kenneth Stoller, M.D., has filed suit in U.S. District Court for D.C. (https://tinyurl.com/mr2p5ysw), challenging the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule, which is mandatory by default in nearly every state. CDC, the lawsuit states, has never tested the safety of the schedule, although doctors, such as Dr. Thomas and Dr. Stoller, can be delicensed for questioning it.
Plaintiffs ask the court to require CDC to reclassify vaccines to “shared decision-making” and to require the CDC to finally conduct safety studies comparing fully vaccinated and unvaccinated children, and to report to Congress as the law requires (https://tinyurl.com/bdec7psc).
Tip of the Month. Beware of agreeing to restrict your privileges at a hospital. Some devious department chairmen or hospital administrators may seek an agreement by a physician on staff to voluntarily restrict his privileges, by telling the physician he can avoid an investigation this way. But this can trigger a report to the National Practitioner Data Bank. Its Guidebook, available online, states that “a surrender of clinical privileges or failure to renew clinical privileges while under investigation or to avoid investigation must be reported” [emphasis added]. Consult our sham peer review hotline or an attorney before signing anything concerning a voluntary restriction of hospital privileges.
AAPS Files Amicus on Religious Exemption
AAPS has filed an amicus brief (https://tinyurl.com/ze6sfnm5) in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to restore the religious exemption to vaccination in California, in Royce v. Bonta (No. 25-2504).
Californians are being denied entry to school, public and private, unless they forgo their religious objections to vaccine requirements. Many of the ten diseases for which vaccination is required in California have not been seen there in decades, or do not create life-threatening risks for most people.
“SB 277 is nothing like the law upheld in 1905 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts by the Supreme Court amid a smallpox outbreak, as that law allowed people to avoid the vaccine by paying a small fine of $5 (equivalent to an inflation-adjusted amount of only $182.65 today, which is less than most traffic tickets),” AAPS stated. “The penalty in Jacobson cannot be considered comparable to the entire and permanent exclusion of a child from school, thereby precluding many career opportunities.”
All major religious have objections to ingredients in certain vaccines, such as porcine gelatin, often used as a stabilizer in live virus vaccines, or components derived from aborted fetal tissue.
AAPS Supports Therapists’ Freedom of Speech
After evading the issue of “conversion” therapy for years, the U.S. Supreme Court finally accepted the case of Chiles v. Salazar (No. 24-539), and AAPS has filed an amicus brief (https://tinyurl.com/4z6skzuc). In this case, licensed counselor Kaley Chiles challenges the Colorado Counseling Restriction, which prohibits counseling conversations with minors that might encourage them to change their “sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex,” while exempting “assistance to a person undergoing gender transition.” Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-245-202(3.5). The Tenth Circuit upheld this ban as a regulation of Chiles’s conduct, not speech. In doing so, the court deepened a circuit split between the Eleventh and Third Circuits, which do not treat counseling conversations as conduct, and the Ninth Circuit, which does. The question posed is whether a law that censors certain conversations between counselors and their clients based on the viewpoints expressed regulates conduct or violates the Free Speech Clause.
Court Rules for Religious Liberty
On Jun 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of parents opting their children out of school lessons featuring pro-LGBT indoctrination, over the objections of a Maryland school board, in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Books promoting LGBT lifestyles were being mandated for children in kindergarten through fifth grade (https://tinyurl.com/yv832s6r). The Court relied on the First Amendment rather than on parental rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/4u3eddkp).
Correspondence
Oncologist Fired over Vaccine Issue. A physician reported being suspended in January 2024 and fired this past April for taking the position that oncology patients should generally not receive the COVID vaccine. It is disgusting that censorship and retaliation related to COVID are still going on. Corporations always seem to adopt and require a rigid adherence to clinical practice guidelines as protocols as if they were the “standard of care.” The act of speaking in opposition to rigid guidelines and protocols in favor of providing appropriate individualized care is considered “heresy” by corporate leaders.
Lawrence R. Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., Eden, N.Y.
Loss of Trust. The era of trusting people based solely on titles or credentials must be over. Loss of trust is appropriate. The CDC was the biggest purveyor of false information. The censorship was shocking. It was worse than suppressing opinion; we were talking about data. People in power don’t want to have the truth come out because their advice killed people.
Scott Atlas, M.D., https://tinyurl.com/3mhnzxtm
Profession Forfeited Trust. Medical journals and medical research are under the thumb of the NIH. Go against the dogma of those in power and kiss your funding good-bye.
Robert Koshnick, M.D., Detroit Lakes, MN
Trust the Medical Cartel? Doctors are victims of the corporate practice of medicine (CPOM). This was created to ration access to “free care.” You cannot trust socially engineered CPOM. You can trust your own doctor if he is a skeptic and independent of the “free care” cartel’s surveillance, “science,” and mandates.
Robert Geist, M.D., North Oaks, MN
Why Are You Still in the System? Cigna Healthcare® will be able, as of October 2025, to adjust your E/M codes by one level if AMA guidelines are not met. Meanwhile, some health system administrators are getting increases of more than 50% in their already lavish salaries. Get out. Go direct primary care.
Douglas Farrago, M.D., https://tinyurl.com/3djxtwpj
The Great Big Ugly Surveillance State. The U.S. Army held a parade prominently sponsored by Palantir. At the same time, the Army announced it was creating a new “Innovation Corps” and had officially sworn in executives from tech companies including Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI. They officially granted these digital elites military ranks, and access to defense projects. The government is merging with the private sector to drastically expand the surveillance state, and there are some, even within the conservative movement, who are fine with this for their own short-term political reasons.
Ron Paul, M.D., https://tinyurl.com/58yrsdnu
The Best Model. The one least used among professionals, the best model is no model. Just look at the observations and ponder. Say you invent a new drug profitizol said to cure the screaming willies and give it to 100 sufferers and an identical-looking placebo to 100 others. If 70 in the drug group get better, and 60 in the placebo group, no model such as a “Z test” is needed to say that a greater proportion in the drug group got better. We do not know why, but the cause is not “chance” or “randomness.” The best we can do is to characterize the uncertainty. [Also see p 2.]
William M. Briggs, Ph.D., https://tinyurl.com/29v3xkz4
The Duty to Dissent. The story I had been telling myself for 35 years about the nobility of our profession and putting patients first and evidence-based care was shattered in a chain pharmacy on an ordinary Tuesday when my sick spouse needed medication (ivermectin) and the system said no. Now, the real practice of medicine is beginning again. The medical innovation movement is emerging from our collective resistance—where conscience over conformity is evolving into systematic healthcare transformation.
Avery Brinkley, Jr., M.D., https://tinyurl.com/46mfjdmd
Jab Incentive Canceled. Secretary Kennedy announced that HHS and CMS Director Mehmet Oz repealed a long-standing Medicare reimbursement policy that financially incentivized hospitals to push COVID shots. This rule tied public reporting of staff vaccination rates to federal incentives—turning hospitals into enforcers instead of caregivers. It was a backdoor mandate, pure and simple, Kennedy stated (tinyurl.com/52barfb9). I guess some people don’t like secret bribes for doctors to force EUA drugs with no long-term safety data onto people. Something about informed consent?
Jeff Childers, https://tinyurl.com/57drundw
Unaccountable Force. The NY Post writes, “What seems like a benign, crowd-sourced online encyclopedia has become one of the most powerful…forces in shaping our shared societal understanding of issues big and small” (tinyurl.com/288au3ny). My Wikipedia entry is a hit job, and my experience is just one of countless examples. House Republicans’ investigation into “bad actors” manipulating Wikipedia entries is welcome news.
Robert W. Malone, M.D., https://tinyurl.com/57c68ykd
