Our Health & Science Experts in the News

Insights and opinions fresh from the team across media outlets and face to face out on the road

IN THE NEWS

The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism

A guest essay authored by Jess Steier exposing how flawed science has sustained the false link between vaccines and autism.

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US states and medical societies chart new paths amid turmoil at CDC and ACIP

Amid unprecedented turmoil at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, some state governments and medical societies are parting ways with federal immunisation schedules.

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RFK Jr’s pick to review Covid vaccines authored misleading research, experts say

The MIT professor who has been appointed by Robert F Kennedy Jr to review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has failed to meet basic scientific standards in his own research on the topic, according to more than a dozen scientists and public health experts.

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Measles Outbreak Nears 30-Year US Record as Virginia Becomes New Hot Spot

Dr. Jess Steier, DrPH, writing in a CIDRAP op-ed published June 24, argued that the careful, conditional official language surrounding U.S. elimination status — "may lose," "at risk," "will be assessed" — is doing active public health harm by framing a situation that already meets the epidemiological definition of endemic spread as though the verdict is still open. The conclusion of the November review, Steier argued, will formalize what the molecular record has already established.

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The rising price of Trump’s anti-science agenda

Dr. Jess Steier is quoted in a recent op-ed for CIDRAP. “Pretending otherwise does two kinds of harm,” Steier writes. “It tells the public the situation is borderline and offers a false sense of hope that this year’s shots can still save the status, and it hands the people responsible for the decline an easy story in which the outcome looks like a bureaucratic surprise rather than the foreseeable result of dismantling the very systems that secured elimination to begin with.”

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U.S. may have lost a ‘crown jewel’ of public health, experts say

A quarter-century ago, the United States eliminated measles. Today, it’s effectively lost that status. So say an increasingly large number of scientists, including a public health expert who this week published an essay for one of the best known infectious disease agencies in the country. “Call it what it is,” Jess Steier stated in the headline of her piece for CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “The U.S. has lost its hold on measles elimination.”

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Is Glyphosate in Our Food Supply Causing Cancer? Here’s What The Latest Science Says

Jessica Steier would like to set the record straight. “The reality is that without glyphosate and other pesticides, our food supply would be decimated," says Steier. "We would see lower crop yields, more soil erosion from aggressive tilling, higher food prices and increased food insecurity. While it’s always prudent to assess risks, it’s equally important to recognize the benefits these tools provide in modern agriculture.”

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1 in 3 adults now turn to AI for health advice

At an American Public Health Association event held April 6 during National Public Health Week, Jessica Steier delivered a keynote address arguing that the larger misinformation challenge in American health care is fundamentally about trust rather than data.

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Anti-vax push from inside of the government

Recently, the Texas Attorney General launched a formal investigation into what he called “unlawful financial incentives” for childhood vaccines, saying that he would “ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids.” Jess Steier was part of a six-month investigation into this exact question: Do pediatricians get rich from vaccines?

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Fast spreading measles outbreak in London

Dr. Jessica Steier, public health scientist, joins BBC News to comment on the rise of measles and in particular the outbreak in north London and to address a critical issue: misinformation remains one of the biggest contributors to declining vaccination rates — not just in the US, but worldwide.

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Public access’s next frontier

In the past two decades, the scientific world has waged an extraordinary campaign for openness. As paywalls fell and repositories surged, what had once been locked away could now be read by most anyone with an internet connection.

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Do pediatricians make large profits from vaccines?

Recently, the Texas Attorney General launched a formal investigation into what he called “unlawful financial incentives” for childhood vaccines, saying that he would “ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids.” Jess Steier was part of a six-month investigation into this exact question: Do pediatricians get rich from vaccines?

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