Episode #52 Deep Dive – Misinterpreting Vaccine Data = More Clicks, Fewer Jabs
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› Medical groups call for release of physician detained by DHS
Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, an emergency medicine resident at South Texas Health System in McAllen, Texas and a Venezuelan citizen, was detained by DHS on her way to an asylum interview. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) are calling for her release.
In a statement, the organizations said they were deeply concerned about [her] detention [...]
Bolivar…holds a valid work permit and has lived in the U.S. for a decade, the organizations said. However, she was detained by DHS while traveling with her 5-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, to a previously scheduled asylum interview.
“Dr. Bolivar followed our laws, obtained valid work authorization, and dedicated herself to caring for patients in one of the most underserved regions in the country,” ACEP president L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, said in the statement. “Detaining physicians who are here legally and serving communities in need of vital emergency care is not targeted enforcement. It is a threat to the health of the American people, and it must stop.” [...]
In late February, AMA President John Whyte, MD, sent a letter to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, urging an exemption from the policy for physicians. More than 20 medical organizations…did the same earlier this month, noting that the policy is “forcing physicians to abandon residency programs and leaving already strained communities without access to care.”
››› Abortion is on the ballot again, this time in a Georgia supreme court race
Following the lopsided loss of the anti-abortion supreme court candidate in Wisconsin earlier this month, all eyes are on Georgia where abortion rights are playing a central role in the supreme court race there, as well. Two anti-abortion incumbents are being challenged by liberal candidates who support abortion rights.
From reporting by News From the States:
This week, three major organizations announced support for candidates in this year’s contested races. Incumbent Justice Charlie Bethel is being challenged by Miracle Rankin, a personal injury attorney and former president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan is challenging incumbent Justice Sarah Warren. [...]
On Wednesday, Reproductive Freedom for All, a nonprofit organization that opposes abortion restrictions, announced its endorsement of Jordan and Rankin. On Thursday, Planned Parenthood Votes pledged to pour $750,000 into an ad campaign supporting the two candidates and casting the incumbent justices as “politicians in robes.”
Bethel and Warren were among the six justices who issued a ruling to reinstate Georgia’s six-week abortion ban in 2024.
All of the current members of the nine-member state supreme court are conservatives or conservative-leaning.
››› The GOP’s rural hospital bailout fund is failing
If you need proof that the Republicans’ rural hospital bailout fund isn’t helping save rural hospitals, just take a look at Nebraska. KFF reports that a rural dialysis unit there is closing despite the state receiving over $200 million from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program last summer following the passage of the GOP’s Big, Beautiful Bill and millionaire tax giveaway:
For the past 3½ years, three days a week, [Mark] Pieper has made an early-morning commute to get dialysis at the nearest hospital. [His appointment in…February…] was one of his last dialysis sessions there before the hospital shuttered the service at the end of March.
“I guess I’ll just bloat up and die in a month,” Pieper remembered thinking when he learned the center was closing, eliminating the only option near his home.
He needs dialysis to survive after cancer treatment damaged his kidneys. [...]
The closure is just one example of the long decline of health care services in rural America, where people have higher rates of many chronic conditions but less access to care than elsewhere. [...]
[T]he closure was announced as Nebraska officials celebrated the $219 million the state will receive in first-year funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program.
But the five-year program is aimed at exploring new, creative ways to improve rural health, not to help existing services stay afloat. States can use only up to 15% of their funding to pay providers for patient care.
››› CDC buries report showing added benefits of COVID-19 shots
The Washington Post is reporting that the CDC has decided not to publish a new report that shows COVID-19 shots helped keep people from being hospitalized:
A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.
The move, which has not been previously reported, has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits is being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots. [...]
The report had been scheduled for publication March 19 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
An HHS spokesperson said that CDC head Jay Bhattacharya had problems with the “the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness.”
››› RFK Jr. undercut game-changing mRNA vaccines
Last August, RFK Jr. canceled a half billion dollars in funding for mRNA vaccines used to combat a wide array of diseases. In his press release, Kennedy said, “We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted…terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments.”
In response, infectious disease physician Dr. Jake Scott wrote in an op-ed in STAT:
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. terminated $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research last week, claiming he had “reviewed the science,” his press release linked to a 181-page document as justification.
I reviewed Kennedy’s “evidence.” It doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it.
The document isn’t a government analysis or systematic review. It’s a bibliography assembled by outside authors that, according to its own title page, “originated with contributions to TOXIC SHOT: Facing the Dangers of the COVID ‘Vaccines’” with a foreword by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). The lead compiler is a dentist, not an immunologist, virologist, or vaccine expert.
Then, in February, Kennedy’s FDA rejected Moderna’s application for its mRNA-based flu vaccine.
The implications of this came into clear view this week when a new study generated headlines like:
After a year of turmoil, cancer researchers see promising signs for mRNA vaccines
Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial
In addition, Pfizer researchers announced that an experimental six-strain Lyme vaccine had demonstrated more than 70% efficacy in preventing Lyme disease in people aged five years and older.
››› RFK Jr. goes to Capitol Hill
RFK Jr. has seven Congressional hearings over seven days, concluding this week. At his first hearing before the House Appropriations Committee last week, Kennedy didn’t mention vaccines in his opening statement, apparently complying with a recently revealed internal White House memo directing staff to avoid the topic.
He definitely seems to have changed his messaging about vaccines.
In a sharp break with his past rhetoric, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered a qualified embrace of the measles vaccine on Thursday, as President Trump named a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whose views on vaccination are more conventional than Mr. Kennedy’s.
In back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Mr. Kennedy testified that the measles vaccine is safe and effective “for most people” and agreed it was safer than getting measles.
His turnabout didn’t stop him from getting questions about vaccines, however, as MedPage Today reports:
During the Ways and Means Committee hearing to address the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget, which calls for a 12% cut to HHS, Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) pointed to the rapid rise in measles cases in the U.S. under Kennedy. [...]
Sánchez noted that fewer than 300 cases in 2024 under the Biden administration “ballooned” to more than 2,000 cases in 2025. [...]
“The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlate with the dramatic increases in preventable diseases,” Sánchez said. “As a mother, this horrifies me.”
Friday, he faced further grilling on a wide array of topics, including vaccines, before the House Education and Workforce Committee. Asked about Trump’s mental state, Kennedy responded, “There hasn’t been a president who is more sane.”
During his House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Kennedy was asked about Trump’s nominee to head up the CDC, Dr. Erica Schwartz. “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?” Representative Raul Ruiz, Democrat of California, asked. Kennedy answered, “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”
On Wednesday, testifying before the Senate HELP Committee, Senator Tim Kaine referenced the rural hospital closures that are happening across the country. “If these closures in rural Virginia are happening even before the Medicaid changes get implemented, we’re going to see a lot more of them.” When Kennedy defended the administration, saying they aren’t responsible for closures happening now, Sen. Kaine pointed out that three of the hospitals closing in rural Virginia cited the reconciliation bill for the closures.
Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged him on how TrumpRx is not actually lowering prescription drug costs.
Watch part of that exchange HERE.
Throughout his appearances, Kennedy repeatedly denied he had anything at all to do with rising measles and flu infections, claiming the US is doing better than any other country in the world.
Links for a deeper dive on Episode #52
CNBC: Senate overturns Boundary Waters protections, a boon for Chilean mining company
MedPage Today: Medical Groups Call for Release of Detained Doctor
News From The States: Abortion debate plays out in Georgia Supreme Court race
KFF Health News: Rural Nebraska Dialysis Unit Closes Despite the State’s $219M in Rural Health Funding
The Washington Post: CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits
CNN: HHS rejects publication of study showing Covid-19 vaccines prevent hospitalizations, ER visits
HHS press release: HHS Winds Down mRNA Vaccine Development Under BARDA
STAT: Kennedy’s case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence
CNN: After a year of turmoil, cancer researchers see promising signs for mRNA vaccines
NBC News: Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial
Morning Brew: mRNA vaccines could treat aggressive pancreatic cancer
INC.: New Study Finds mRNA Cancer Vaccine Could Be a Game Changer
CIDRAP: Lyme disease vaccine shows over 70% efficacy in phase 3 trial
Boston Globe: RFK Jr. sat for his first congressional hearings this year. Here are some takeaways.
Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Has Stopped Talking About Vaccines. A Memo Shows Why.
The New York Times: Kennedy Shifts Tone on Vaccines in Congressional Hearing
MedPage Today: Kennedy Defends His Record on Measles, Prior Auth in Traditional Medicare
ABC News: RFK Jr. defends vaccine views, autism comments during House committee hearing
Sen. Elizabeth Warren questions RFK Jr. during HELP Committee hearing
POLITICO: More Americans doubt vaccine safety than trust it, POLITICO Poll finds
Community Immunity: Headlines Claim Vaccine Skepticism Is Widespread. The Data Say Otherwise.
Dr. David Higgins on LinkedIn
Dr. David Higgins’ Substack Community Immunity