Daily Human Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of human genetics issues, including gene editing, regulations and bioethics, gene therapy, epigenetics, personal genomics, evolution, ancestry and artificial intelligence. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
‘He seems fine’: Marty Makary out as FDA commissioner
Marty Makary resigned from his position as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on [May 12, 2026], ...
Viewpoint— ‘Muscular governance’: How authoritarianism is surging corporate-linked energy misinformation
The world’s slide into authoritarian practices is accelerating the climate crisis. At its core, the authoritarian goal is typically to ...
Pro-vaccine “hero” vs. an anti-vax “villain”: ‘Bad Vaxx’ video stirs MAHA backlash
A video game billed as a “‘vaccine’ against disinformation” is drawing criticism for the “inoculation” strategies it employs — and ...
Hantavirus outbreak research: Trump administration shut down study last year on rodent-to-human transmission
In 2025 the Trump administration eliminated funding for a group that had been running a pilot project aimed at studying the type ...
“Evidence for puberty suppression and gender affirming hormones limited’: British doctors group questions early transitions but also opposes blocker ban
The BMA’s long awaited critique of the Cass review has largely vindicated the findings of the original landmark review into ...
Anti-vax activists falsely blame COVID vaccines for the rising U.S. cancer rate among younger people.
Websites and high-profile anti-vaccine activists are seizing on recently released U.S. government statistics showing a rise in cancers among young ...
Overmedicalization? RFK Jr.’s antidepressant crackdown raises conflict questions over his fee stake in Wisner Baum, the tort firm built on suing drug makers
Environmental lawyer and volunteer riverkeeper RFK Jr continues to make waves in his current job as head of the US ...
Viewpoint: Surge of climate misinformation traced to right wing and anti-wind activists
According to a report presented by UK-based think tank CASM Technology and WindEurope, a large ecosystem of actors, such as ...
Viewpoint: Internal White House documents detail administration’s strategy to undermine climate science
The second Trump administration is taking its hostility to climate science to new levels. In addition to its rhetoric dismissing ...
Vaccine shootout at the CDC
When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public ...
‘Conflict entrepreneurs’ are driving disinformation and shaping public opinion
As brands battle for people’s attention, they no longer control their brand messages nor the ecosystem they exist in. Their ...
‘Protecting the integrity of science’: Kennedy’s FDA blocks release of taxpayer-funded studies finding COVID and shingles vaccines safe
Although large studies of the COVID-19 and shingles vaccines found few risks and overall safety, the U.S. Food and Drug ...
Manufacturing a conspiracy: The timeline of how the White House embraced the fringe claim that scientists are being mysteriously murdered
On April 20, the House Oversight Committee announced that it was planning an investigation of its own. “If the reports ...
Singularity crisis ahead? Can super babies save us from rogue AI geniuses?
Mathematician Tsvi Benson-Tilsen once worked at the Peter Thiel–funded Machine Intelligence Research Institute, where he was one of many experts tasked with ...
Immortal dragons: The quest to ‘make death optional’
...[I]n recent years, finding the secret to longer life has transitioned from mythical fiction to actual science with the help ...
How RFK, Jr.’s false vaccine claims are holding up $600 million to fight diseases in poor countries
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to remake the U.S. vaccination schedule is on hold following a federal judge’s decision last ...
5 myths about summer dehydration that could damage your health — or even kill you
There are various ways to stay hydrated that you may not have considered, but — as is common with online ...
How Utah became the country’s supplement capital — and a haven for unregulated, ineffective and fake products
In 2002, the entire U.S. dietary supplement industry generated about $18.7 billion in sales. In 2024, Utah’s dietary supplement industry alone ...
Viewpoint: How ‘health care guru’ Joe Rogan circumvented the FDA’s skepticism on psychedelics
If you don't like Robert F. Kennedy setting national health policy, how do you feel about Joe Rogan? The question ...
Nanoplastics in drinking water: MAHA activists forge science-based bipartisan coalition
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would, for the first time, formally flag microplastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water as ...
Trump’s America First health aid cuts: Retrenchment has already hit global malaria, HIV, TB, and polio programs
A reduction in U.S. foreign aid under the "America First" policy of President Donald Trump, who took office in 2025, ...
Wellness grifter physician turned wellness influencer out as surgeon general nominee
President Donald Trump said [on April 30, 2026] he’s nominating Fox News Channel contributor and radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier for ...
Anti-seed-oil to anti-vax pipeline: MAHA movement spreads to teen influencers
For years, the “Make America Healthy Again” movement was driven by moms. Concerned about the safety of childhood vaccines and ...
‘Alarming’: Nicotine’s wellness rebranding
Nicotine - the highly addictive substance found in tobacco and vaping products - is being promoted online as a way ...
The tech billionaires behind the immortality movement
Among the most potent archetypes of our time is the elite who seeks eternal youth, whose power is drawn from ...
Anti-vaccine activists are now the majority in RFK, Jr.’s CDC Vaccine Panel
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving several prominent right-wing and anti-vaccine medical groups a formal ...
Dad brains: Only women undergo bodily changes during and after childbirth? Think again.
... By the time [anthropologist Lee] Gettler looked into this field, it was already an established fact that fathers had ...
