Science Controversies
Vaccines turbocharge cancer? Misinformation meme explodes online
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, claims that vaccines can cause severe disease have been widespread on social media, ...
Viewpoint—First year scorecard: ‘The damage HHS secretary Kennedy has done to science and public health is appalling’
It is beyond comprehension that the Senate confirmed [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] to oversee America’s health. The risks are so ...
Viewpoint: When it comes to chemicals in medicine and agriculture, ‘natural’ is often less safe than synthetic
Almost nothing in your life is natural. And that’s a good thing. Take a look around—your smartphone, your fridge, your ...
49ers injury conspiracy theory: Power-station radiation isn’t to blame, but anti-technology hysteria reigns
As a San Francisco 49ers fan since I was a child, it was painful to watch the Seattle Seahawks run ...
Tracking U.S. vaccine policy—Mid-February 2026
Between federal lawsuits, sweeping schedule changes, and states mobilizing their own legal challenges, the last few weeks have been a ...
9 top RFK, Jr. science controversies
From sweeping changes to vaccination protocols to scientifically dubious assertions about a host of childhood maladies, here are some of ...
Viewpoint — Parts per billion, panic per bite: Healthy Florida First food hysteria and the war on modern agriculture
The Make America Healthy Again coalition is at it again. An increasingly organized alliance of anti-vaccine activists, environmental litigators, and ...
GLP spaces on X: Florida’s anti-glyphosate hysteria, dissected
Panic erupted in Florida earlier this month after surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo held a press conference launching the state's ...
‘A chill through the entire vaccine industry’: RFK., Jr.’s flip-flop on Moderna’s mRNA vaccine latest setback
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried ...
Vaccine rejectionist Jenny McCarthy ridiculed online after again spreading false claim that Tylenol causes autism
Anti-vaccine advocate Jenny McCarthy has sparked backlash on social media after she shared a video discussing the unproven "correlation" between Tylenol's active ...
AI regularly passes on misinformation because it relies more on the source than the science
Artificial intelligence tools are more likely to provide incorrect medical advice when the misinformation comes from what the software considers ...
‘Not backed by evidence’: RFK, Jr. wrongly claims that keto diet can cure schizophrenia
... Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s claim that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may cure certain psychiatric conditions is misleading and not ...
Viewpoint: How increasingly politicized foundations use dark money contributions to bolster advocacy campaigns at odds with science
Western societies are creating billionaires at an unprecedented rate. But these newly minted accidental philanthropists are not like the Rockefellers, ...
AI medical advice: Not ready for prime time
Medical artificial intelligence (AI) is often described as a way to make patient care safer by helping clinicians manage information ...
U.S. is becoming a vaccination backwater: Even Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Greece all recommend more shots
The U.S. childhood vaccination schedule has been dramatically reduced, purportedly because, as federal health officials argued, the now-discarded schedule recommended ...
Google and Meta on trial in social media addiction case
Annalee Schott used to live in rural Colorado where the farm, the barn, and the horses were her happy place. But ...
Trump-RFK Jr.’s FDA in science freefall: The leucovorin autism “cure” fiasco is one of many
The Food and Drug Administration is looking less and less like a regulator than a circus, with fresh, disconcerting episodes ...
RFK Jr.’s autism panel packed with bizarre collection of cranks and conspiracists
U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filled an autism committee with friends, associates, and former colleagues who believe that autism ...
GLP podcast: In defense of DDT—the pesticide that saved half a billion lives
The insecticide DDT has prevented roughly half a billion deaths. A relatively low-toxic chemistry widely used to control disease-vectoring mosquitoes ...
Trust in science is cratering in America. Is there a way to restore it?
Although public trust in science is a recent preoccupation for some, it has been a problem for decades in the United States. Republicans began ...
Politicizing science: RFK, Jr.’s FDA rejects review of Moderna’s effective seasonal mRNA flu vaccine
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to review Moderna’s seasonal influenza jab, mRNA-1010, as the shifting vaccine ...
Viewpoint—Vaccine rejectionists are trying to scare women that they are being used as ‘guinea pigs’
We thought we'd answer a question that came in response to our series, Fun Size Science, in which Unbiased Science's ...
‘Addiction machines’: Social media companies on trial, blamed for epidemic of suicides
The world's largest social media companies have been accused of creating "addiction machines" as a landmark trial began in California ...
Should you follow RFK, Jr.’s guidance to replace seed oils in your diet with beef tallow? Not if you want to stay healthier
“Make frying oil tallow again,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And just like that, Steak ...
Plastic surgeons group rejects gender-transitioning plastic surgery for youth 18 or younger
In a watershed moment, on February 3, 2026, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) issued an official position statement ...
RFK, Jr. dilemma: American Medical Association leadership split over whether to ostracize HHS secretary or vainly try to educate him
A meeting ... between the head of the American Medical Association and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has prompted ...
The MAGA right’s weird obsession with the slur word ‘retard’
... [A] woman posted a photograph on social media of a purple hat she had knitted .... The cozy scene ...
