In recent months, we’ve witnessed an assault on science and longstanding safeguards to protect the public’s health on a scale never seen in U.S. history. True to our name, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (Nutrition Action’s publisher) is fighting back. Among the fronts: 

Lawsuit to restore NIH grants

In April, we filed a lawsuit along with the ACLU and Protect Democracy (later joined by Emery Celli), challenging the National Institutes of Health’s decision to cancel hundreds of research grants due largely to their vague connections to “gender identity,” “DEI,” or other topics the government dislikes. 

In June, Judge William G. Young (a Reagan appointee) ordered NIH to restore the grants, ruling that its policies forbidding those research topics were arbitrary and capricious, illegal, and void. NIH’s actions represent racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community, Young also noted. 

The Straight Shot

In May, CSPI launched “The Straight Shot,” a webpage that’s tracking the government’s threats to vaccines. My co-editors are Josh Rising, former senior clinical advisor to the FDA Commissioner; Joshua Sharfstein, former principal deputy FDA Commissioner; and Sarah Despres, former counselor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Among our recent subjects: the mismanaged measles outbreak in the Southwest and HHS Secretary Kennedy’s decision to remove all 17 experts from the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. (His new appointees include vaccine critics who lack the expertise to evaluate scientific evidence.) 

To find out what is (or isn’t) happening with vaccines, go to cspi.org/thestraightshot.

The MAHA Report

In May, the MAHA Commission’s “Make Our Children Healthy Again” report blamed the chronic diseases that are plaguing our children on Kennedy’s long-standing pet peeves, from vaccines to seed oils to lack of exposure to sunlight.

The sloppy, error-ridden document cited sources—likely generated by AI—that didn’t exist.

The report had a few good ideas, like promoting whole, unprocessed foods. Yet the administration has slashed programs to bring local food into schools. At the same time, Congress has voted to rip SNAP benefits and health insurance coverage from millions of people…all to help pay for tax cuts for the rich.

Proposed ban on Salmonella in poultry

In April, the administration axed a proposed rule to stop poultry processors from shipping raw chicken and turkey even after they tested positive for high levels of the most dangerous strains of Salmonella bacteria.

Each year, Salmonella sickens more than a million people, causes more than 26,000 hospitalizations, and kills roughly 420. Shipping more dangerously contaminated poultry to restaurants and grocery stores isn’t exactly the way to “make America healthy again."

We’ll keep fighting these and other outrages to protect your health.