Amid widespread alarm about anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s powerful new position and what it will mean for the health of communities, in the United States and globally, the column this week links you into related updates and reading.
All of which has Croakey wondering: where is the health sector response in Australia, mobilising action across governments, NGOs, civil society and more widely? It seems that some serious and urgent strategising is needed, given the likely flow on effects, including to health communications.
We also bring news of a campaign promoting primary healthcare careers, wins for women’s health, and timely new resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for dealing with disasters and bird flu.
Check out the sections on new books, awards and opportunities, and upcoming events.
The quotable?
The Trump Administration is now an active and direct threat to Australia and the world.”
Trump Administration
As concerns grow about the spread of bird flu and other infectious diseases around the globe, anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr has been confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department has an annual budget of roughly US$1.7 trillion and includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research.
Nature: Vaccine sceptic RFK Jr is now a powerful force in US science: what will he do?
Kennedy has expressed support for some fields, but has also declared he’d like a ‘break’ in infectious-disease research.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/02/13/cdc-bird-flu-spread/
Statement by more than 30 UN experts: US proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza would shatter fundamental rules of international order
UN experts condemned shocking threats by US President Donald Trump to “take over” and “own” Gaza and move the Palestinian population elsewhere, using military force if necessary.
“Such blatant violations by a major power would break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally,” they said.
“Implementing the US proposal would shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, that the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust. It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest,” the experts said.
AP reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday night restored nine webpages and datasets, including pages on adolescent health, information on HIV monitoring and testing, contraception guidance, and data on how pollution, poverty and other factors impact certain communities.
The Food and Drug Administration restored recommendations for increasing enrollment of females in clinical trials, analyzing and interpreting sex-specific data and including sex-specific information in regulatory submissions of medical products.
Health Policy Watch: National Institutes of Health Move to Slash $9 Billion in US Biomedical Research Funding Provokes Outcry
Women in science: a study in contrasts
Great news
First Nations communities
Planning evacuations with Indigenous communities: This guide aims to support culturally safe and effective evacuations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at risk from natural and other hazards.
Some of the principles that have been developed to guide each step in the evacuation planning and implementation process, include:
- know and respect peoples’ rights
- work within existing community governing institutions
- provide a safe and welcome environment for Elders
- foreground connection with Country.
https://fpdn.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/20241209-NIDR-Bird-flu-fact-sheet.pdf
#AusPol
National Women’s Health Advisory Council statement
Conference Watch
#CroakeyREAD
Media matters
Awards and opportunities
Read more here on the recipients.
Events upcoming
