Trump Issues Memo Ordering Comprehensive Review of Childhood Vaccine Schedule, Elevating Political Control Over Medical Science

President Donald Trump issues a Presidential Memorandum ordering the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct a comprehensive review of the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule and align it with “best practices from …

RFK Jr.'s Reconstituted CDC Panel Votes to Roll Back Newborn Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, reconstituted with members handpicked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted 8-3 to end the universal recommendation that all newborns receive hepatitis B vaccine at birth. The vote overturns a 30-year policy credited with reducing …

FDA Vaccine Chief Vinay Prasad Circulates Unsubstantiated Memo Claiming COVID Vaccines Killed At Least Ten Children

Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), circulates an internal memo to FDA staff asserting that COVID-19 vaccines caused “at least 10 deaths in children” and calling for sweeping changes to vaccine regulation—despite providing no …

HHS Lays Off 10,000 Federal Health Workers at NIH, FDA, and CDC in RFK Jr. Restructuring

Following the Supreme Court’s decision authorizing federal workforce reductions, HHS officially laid off approximately 10,000 employees at the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The restructuring consolidated 28 …

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces Historic Rollback of 31 Pollution Rules

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on March 12, 2025, that the agency will undertake 31 sweeping deregulatory actions targeting decades of environmental and public health protections. Zeldin described it as “the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history” and “the greatest and …

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. Confirmed with Ongoing Vaccine Litigation Referral Fees

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed with ongoing financial interests in vaccine litigation, earning $856,559 in referral fees while controlling federal health policy. Despite resignation from consulting arrangements, he retains potential profit from Merck vaccine litigation, raising …

McKinsey Agrees to $650 Million Criminal Settlement for Role in 'Turbocharging' Opioid Sales for Purdue Pharma

McKinsey & Company agrees to pay $650 million to settle federal criminal and civil investigations into its role in helping Purdue Pharma ’turbocharge’ sales of OxyContin, the highly addictive opioid painkiller at the center of America’s overdose epidemic. This marks the first …

Trump Environmental Rollbacks Cause 80,000 Excess Deaths Per Decade

Harvard researchers calculated that Trump’s environmental rollbacks would cause 80,000 excess deaths per decade from increased air pollution, with 18,000 deaths from repealing the Clean Power Plan alone. The administration reversed or weakened over 100 environmental regulations, including …

COVID-Positive Trump Leaves Hospital for SUV Joyride, Endangering Secret Service in Sealed Vehicle

On Sunday evening, October 4, 2020, President Trump—still infected with COVID-19 and hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center—left his hospital suite to drive past supporters gathered outside in a black Chevrolet Suburban SUV, forcing at least two Secret Service agents to …

Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19, Hospitalized at Walter Reed with Experimental Treatments

President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on October 2, 2020, and was flown by Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that evening, where he received an experimental monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals under “compassionate …

Amazon Discloses 19,816 Workers Infected with COVID-19 After Months of Concealment

Amazon Discloses 19,816 Workers Infected with COVID-19 After Months of Concealment

On October 1, 2020, after months of resisting transparency demands from workers, labor groups, politicians, and regulators, Amazon disclosed that at least 19,816 of its frontline employees had tested positive or been …

Rose Garden Amy Coney Barrett Ceremony Becomes White House COVID Superspreader Event

On September 26, 2020, President Trump held a Rose Garden ceremony announcing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court that became what Dr. Anthony Fauci would later call a “superspreader event,” with more than 150 attendees packed together without masks for both an …

Trump Holds Mt. Rushmore Rally with 7,500 Packed, Maskless Attendees During Pandemic Surge

President Trump held a campaign-style rally at Mount Rushmore on July 3-4, 2020, with approximately 7,500 ticketed attendees packed close together and mostly maskless, despite the United States setting a pandemic record on that same day with 57,497 confirmed COVID-19 cases. South Dakota Governor …

Trump Suggests Injecting Disinfectant and UV Light Inside Body as COVID Treatments

During a White House coronavirus briefing on April 23, 2020, President Trump publicly speculated about treating COVID-19 by injecting disinfectant into the human body or inserting ultraviolet light internally, asking “is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a …

HHS Inspector General Christi Grimm Reports Severe Hospital Shortages, Trump Attacks Her Credibility

Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on April 6, 2020, documenting “severe shortages” of COVID-19 testing supplies and “widespread shortages” of personal protective equipment at hospitals nationwide. …

CNP Coordinates National COVID-19 Anti-Lockdown Protest Movement

In April 2020, CNP Action (the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Council for National Policy) began hosting weekly conference calls to coordinate conservative response tactics to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing Tea Party-like protests against virus-related public safety lockdowns in swing states.

The …

Trump Declares National Emergency for COVID-19 After Weeks of Denialism and Delay

President Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency on March 13, 2020—approximately six weeks after Health Secretary Alex Azar had declared it a public health emergency—finally acknowledging the severity of a pandemic he had spent weeks downplaying and dismissing as a Democratic …

Trump Wears "Keep America Great" Campaign Hat During CDC Visit, Makes False Testing Claims

President Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on March 6, 2020, wearing his red “Keep America Great” campaign hat and delivering a chaotic, politically charged performance that included false claims about testing availability, attacks on …

Trump Calls Coronavirus "Their New Hoax" at South Carolina Rally

At a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 28, 2020, President Trump dismissed Democratic criticism of his administration’s coronavirus response by declaring “this is their new hoax,” comparing it to impeachment and other perceived attacks against him. The …

Trump Declares Opioid Public Health Emergency Without Requesting Any New Funding

On October 26, 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency—but the declaration provided no new funding and stopped short of the national emergency designation Trump had promised in August. The move was widely criticized as a hollow gesture that failed to match the …

CDC Issues First Opioid Prescribing Guidelines, Twenty Years After OxyContin Launch

On March 15, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first-ever “Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain”—twenty years after Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin with aggressive marketing based on false addiction claims, and nine years after …

Flint Switches Back to Detroit Water After 18 Months—But Damage to Children Is Permanent

Flint reconnects to the Detroit water system 18 months after the catastrophic switch to Flint River water, following Governor Rick Snyder’s approval of $9.35 million to restore the connection and provide relief. The switch comes only after independent researchers proved beyond doubt that the …

Michigan Finally Confirms Lead Problem and Advises Filters—18 Months After Poisoning Began

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reviews data from Hurley Medical Center and finally verifies what residents have been saying for 18 months: Flint’s water is poisoning children with lead. The state begins testing drinking water in schools and distributing free water …

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha Reveals Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Flint Children

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Flint’s Hurley Medical Center, publicly releases research proving that children’s blood lead levels have doubled since the water switch, nearly tripling in the inner city. Her analysis compares blood lead data for children under 5 from …

EPA Exposes Volkswagen Dieselgate: 11 Million Cars with Emissions Defeat Devices

On September 18, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a Notice of Violation to Volkswagen Group, exposing one of history’s largest corporate environmental frauds: VW had intentionally installed “defeat device” software in approximately 11 million diesel vehicles …

Oklahoma Corporation Commission Orders 347 Disposal Wells to Prove Non-Contact with Basement Rock After Earthquake Surge

In April 2015, after years of earthquake increases that scientists conclusively linked to wastewater injection from oil and gas operations, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission finally issued directives requiring 92 operators of 347 Arbuckle formation disposal wells to prove their wells were not in …

LeeAnne Walters' Water Tests Show Lead at 104 ppb—Nearly 7 Times EPA Limit

The City of Flint tests water at the home of LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four who has been complaining about health problems since the water switch, and finds lead levels at 104 parts per billion (ppb)—nearly seven times greater than the EPA action level of 15 ppb. Walters had first informed the …

West Virginia Suffers Highest Per-Capita Opioid Rate, 67 Pills Per Person Annually

West Virginia emerged as the epicenter of the opioid crisis, with the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in 2015 at 41.5 deaths per 100,000 people—nearly three times the national average. From 2007 to 2012, drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to the state, …

Flint Switches to Corrosive River Water to Save Money, Poisoning Entire City

Officials in Flint, Michigan switch the city’s water supply from treated Detroit water (sourced from Lake Huron) to the polluted Flint River as a cost-cutting measure, beginning one of the worst public health disasters in modern American history. The decision, made by state-appointed emergency …

New England Compounding Center Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Kills 64, Sickens 798 - FDA and State Regulators Ignored Decade of Violations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began investigating a multistate fungal meningitis outbreak in September 2012 that ultimately killed 64 people and sickened 798 individuals across multiple states who received contaminated methylprednisolone steroid injections from the New England …

Purdue Reformulates OxyContin as "Abuse-Deterrent" After 14 Years, Drives Users to Heroin

On April 5, 2010, the FDA approved Purdue Pharma’s reformulated OxyContin designed to make it more difficult to crush, snort, or inject—14 years after the original drug’s launch and three years after the company’s guilty plea to criminal misbranding. Purdue ceased shipping the old …

Purdue Pharma Bonus System Incentivizes Sales Reps to Target Highest Opioid Prescribers

Purdue Pharma’s lucrative bonus system paid sales representatives an average of $71,500 in annual bonuses—more than their $55,000 base salary—with bonuses ranging from $15,000 to nearly $240,000. In 2001 alone, Purdue paid $40 million in sales incentive bonuses, systematically incentivizing …

FDA Approval of OxyContin Reveals Systemic Regulatory Capture by Purdue Pharma

In a landmark case of regulatory capture, Dr. Curtis Wright IV, leading the FDA’s Division of Anesthetic, Critical Care, and Addiction Drug Products, approved OxyContin with controversial language that misrepresented the drug’s addictive potential. Wright held private meetings with …

Rock Hudson Dies of AIDS: Reagan Forced to Finally Acknowledge Crisis

Hollywood icon Rock Hudson dies at age 59 of AIDS complications, becoming the first major U.S. celebrity to die of the disease and forcing President Reagan to finally acknowledge the epidemic publicly. Hudson’s death marks a turning point: Reagan had maintained complete public silence on AIDS …

Bhopal Disaster Kills Thousands, Exposes Union Carbide Safety Negligence and Regulatory Failure

On December 3, 1984, a catastrophic gas leak at Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed an estimated 3,800 people immediately and up to 16,000 in the following weeks. Hundreds of thousands suffered long-term health effects. The disaster exposed how multinational corporations …

Berkeley Pit Mine Closes on Earth Day, Pumps Shut Off, Creating Toxic Lake Superfund Site

Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) closed the Berkeley Pit copper mine on Earth Day 1982 and immediately shut off the pumps that had kept groundwater out of the massive excavation, beginning the pit’s transformation into one of the most toxic bodies of water in North America. The corporate …

AIDS Epidemic Begins: Reagan Administration Maintains Years of Deadly Silence

The CDC publishes the first report on unusual immune system failures in five previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles, marking the medical recognition of what becomes the AIDS epidemic. President Ronald Reagan’s administration responds with years of complete public silence while the epidemic …

Love Canal Disaster Exposes Decades of Corporate Toxic Dumping Cover-Up

On August 7, 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared a federal health emergency at Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York built atop a toxic waste dump. The disaster exposed how Hooker Chemical Company had knowingly sold contaminated land for housing development while concealing the …

Bunker Hill Smelter Fire Leads to Worst Corporate Lead Poisoning in U.S. History

On September 3, 1973, a fire destroys the baghouse pollution control system at the Bunker Hill lead smelter in Kellogg, Idaho—then the largest smelting facility in the world. In a secret board meeting, Gulf Resources & Chemical Corp., the facility’s owner, makes a calculated decision to …

Clean Air Act of 1970 Creates EPA and National Air Quality Standards Despite Industry Opposition

On December 31, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act of 1970, establishing the most comprehensive air quality legislation in history. The act created national ambient air quality standards, gave the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency enforcement authority, set emission …

Occupational Safety and Health Act Creates OSHA After Decades of Industry Opposition to Workplace Safety

On December 29, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and establishing for the first time comprehensive federal authority to set and enforce workplace safety standards. The legislation responded …

First Earth Day Mobilizes 20 Million Americans, Launches Modern Environmental Movement

On April 22, 1970, approximately 20 million Americans—10% of the nation’s population—participated in the first Earth Day, the largest mass demonstration in American history to that point. Organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and coordinated by young activist Denis Hayes, Earth Day …

Clean Air Act of 1963 Establishes First Federal Air Pollution Control Despite Industry Opposition

On December 17, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Clean Air Act of 1963, the first federal legislation to establish a framework for controlling air pollution at the national level. The act authorized $95 million for research and state grants to develop pollution control programs, and gave …

Thalidomide Scandal Drives Kefauver-Harris Amendment Strengthening FDA Drug Safety Requirements

On October 10, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed the Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, fundamentally transforming pharmaceutical regulation in the United States. The legislation, driven by the thalidomide disaster in Europe, required drug manufacturers to …

Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring, Chemical Industry Launches Coordinated Attack Campaign

On September 27, 1962, Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” was published, documenting the devastating environmental and health effects of synthetic pesticides, particularly DDT. The book meticulously detailed how chemical pesticides were poisoning ecosystems, killing wildlife, and …

Roosevelt Signs Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act

President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act on June 30, 1906, marking a major achievement in federal regulation of the food industry. The legislation arose from public education and exposés by muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins …

Upton Sinclair Publishes "The Jungle" Exposing Meatpacking Industry Horrors

Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” on February 26, 1906, after serializing it in the Socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason from February to November 1905. The 26-year-old writer spent seven weeks in fall 1904 investigating Chicago’s “Packingtown”—a dense complex of …