"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."
Page 1 of a legal Judgment document from the United States District Court, District of Oregon for Case No. 6:25-cv-02409-MTK, filed on 04/18/26. The plaintiffs are listed as "STATE OF OREGON, et al.," and the defendants are "ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, et al." The document is from United States District Judge Kasubhai. It outlines that final judgment is entered in favor of the Plaintiffs on Counts I, II, III, and IV. Item 3 states the Court holds unlawful, sets aside, and vacates the "Declaration of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services RE: Safety, Effectiveness and Professional Standards of Care for Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Children and Adolescents".
Page 2 of a legal judgment document for Case 6:25-cv-02409-MTK, filed on April 18, 2026. The text outlines a court order declaring that defendants lack the authority to unilaterally establish standards of care that supersede professionally recognized standards for gender-affirming care in the Plaintiff States. It permanently enjoins defendants and their agents, including the HHS-OIG, from enforcing the "Kennedy Declaration" against providers in those states. The document is dated April 18, 2026, and is signed by United States District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai.
Huge news: the court has entered final judgement in Oregon v Kennedy (HHS trans youth care ban) and has vacated the Kennedy declaration and permanently enjoined its enforcement to target gender clinics.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Breaking: HHS’s ban on gender-affirming care is struck down. Rarely have I read a ruling this sharply worded.
“This case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.”
www.advocate.com/politics/nat...
It’s hard to express how important Iris was to ACT UP’s scientific development. She was the catalyst who started it all. Iris Long, Scientific Mentor to AIDS Activists, Dies at 92 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...
Mass murderers, holocaust-scale mass murderers, except it was a handful of almost teenage tech bros impersonally crossing out budget items.
Kennedy canceled $500 million in mRNA research and announced no new mRNA projects will ever be initiated—killing the technology that produced the fastest vaccine rollout in human history.
$165,626,742,154.29
That's the cost of the Trump administration's mismanagement, as estimated by a new tool from @ourpublicservice.bsky.social:
federalharmstracker.org/cost-to-our-...
$1.26B lost from terminated NIH grants as of Feb 2026.
$1,028.74 for each person in the country.
Women vaccinated against human papillomavirus at a young age may need only two or three screenings for cervical cancer over the course of their lifetimes, according to a new study by Norway’s University of Oslo and Harvard Chan School.
The state Department of Health notified the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that it would not renew five of its contracts to test and treat people with HIV and stop the spread of the STI.
via @floridaphoenix.com
Surprise, surprise. Bhattacharya trying to quiet science that doesn’t align with his predetermined conclusions.
Maybe the report should be released so the scientific community can discuss and debate? Isn’t that what Bhattacharya says he is all about?
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
This is not lets-propose-this-and-see-what-Congress-says. Their plan is more like USAID: eliminate before Congress can weigh in.
Science shows what is possible. From breakthrough medicines and clean air to life-saving vaccines and new discoveries — science works for all of us, every day.
This #WorldHealthDay, let's come together and #StandWithScience. 💙
"At an internal all-hands meeting on Friday, NSF leaders announced that they would dissolve the agency’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences directorate based on the budget request, according to two NSF staff members who shared information anonymously in order to speak freely"
“Public health needs to be a higher priority," said @drpanmd.bsky.social. “I know people get really nervous that this will politicize public health. But it’s not been a priority. And it’s already been politicized.” my latest:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
The phrase 'align with current priorities' is definitely on my shit list.
PLEASE SIGN:
End Vinay Prasad's affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.
He's a disinformer, a shameless profiteer, and a rude embarrassment.
form.jotform.com/260836126659...
This is one of the most important stories of the week that you probably missed. The trump admin is basically taking something that belongs to all of us & giving it to political hacks & corporate donors. It’s an outrage & we should push back hard.
This is very very big. Like a big deal and massive cuts. These can’t even be seen as budgetary since you don’t get much savings in the context of trillions budget. They want the US out of R&D out of science research.
40 years ago, during the AIDS epidemic, the CARE Center began helping people others wouldn’t. Established at St. Mary Medical Center, the clinic connected HIV and AIDS patients to care before evolving into a facility that offered that care itself. By Brandon Richardson.
40 years ago, during the AIDS epidemic, the CARE Center in Long Beach began helping people other wouldn’t.
Read more from @brandonrichardson.bsky.social on the Watchdog. lbwatchdog.com/40-years-ago...
This isn’t a “could face” situation.
It’s a “are facing” situation. And brain drain will continue to happen as long as we undermine science in the US.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/b...
So should universities like Stanford, UCSF, Hopkins take back people who have presided over an unprecedented destruction of science & public health in the US, particularly Bhattacharya, Prasad & Makary? No. When this is over, there should be no going back to the places they once called home.
NIH staff nearly killed themselves last year trying to catch up.
This year, we have:
- a greater deficit in number of awards out
- even fewer staff as people continue to escape the demoralizing work of censoring science.
Russell Vought (Trump's OMB Director) was months late delivering the president's 2027 budget plan
...and he turned it in incomplete.
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
Incompetence & evil in one package!
Vought has only provided top line fact sheets.
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/informat...
When you have senior white male military officers willing to end their career by raising concerns about the blocking of Black and female officers, it feels safe to say this isn't about ending DEI: the better historical parallel is Wilson's resegregation of the bureaucracy
bsky.app/profile/nbcn...
This includes many, many increasingly-less-rare pathogens, some of them with no clinical test available *in the US* anymore. CDC always provided those rare pinch-hit testing services that weren’t available (or affordable, or reliable, or) anywhere else. Now what?
Trump and RFK Jr.’s anti-vax crackdown is driving Americans across state lines—and making some pay out of pocket.
This is appalling: “Case counts [of measles] in 2026 are more than double what they were the same period of 2025 and more than ten times what they were in 2024.” 4/1/26 … 1/ www.nbcnews.com/data-graphic...
Tomorrow, April 1, marks one year since thousands of HHS public health workers were pushed out by an administration that doesn't value public health.
They spent years protecting our communities, and we all lost something when they were gone.
Rest tonight, and let that memory move you to act.
Cancelling continuous submission for reviewers seems like just about the worst possible idea. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
Unless of course breaking the system is the point.
Many PIs are already quietly boycotting review. Some not wanting to lend credibility to an increasingly corrupted NIH…
tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world
