Not a Doctor

  • The FDA just quietly walked back a much-hyped “treatment” for autism

    The Trump administration continues to stumble on autism. Back in September, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said they had a breakthrough: a B9 vitamin called leucovorin could treat autism, they claimed. The announcement was immediately met with skepticism, but that didn’t stop the flood of families calling doctors. “The average parent who maybe…

    Melody Schreiber

  • RFK Jr’s autism database is still happening

    It’s not a “registry,” it’s a “real-world data platform” to “link existing datasets,” HHS told me. The news that the U.S. government was creating an “autism registry” sparked a major outcry in recent weeks. One petition against it gained 30,000 signatures in one day, eventually reaching nearly 50,000 names. The backlash seemed to work. “We…

    Melody Schreiber

  • The measles outbreak is getting worse — and so is the misinformation

    Anti-vaccine activists, and the U.S. health secretary, are promoting unproven treatments in place of vaccination. A second child died from measles in Texas this month. Both of the girls, ages 6 and 8, had no previous health conditions, other than being unvaccinated. The outbreak in Texas has now risen to 541 known cases and 56 hospitalizations. The…

    Melody Schreiber