Bob Park’s What’s New: September 26, 2025
No, Bob Park — the physicist who wrote the What’s New newsletter for years — did not write this. Instead, I am imagining what Park would have said were he alive today. The opinions are mine and not necessarily those of Bob Park (but they should be).
What’s New, by Bob Park
Friday, September 26, 2025
1. THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR IMMUNIZATION PROPAGANDA
Last week’s issue of What’s New discussed day one (Thursday) of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Today, I’ll discuss day two (Friday). The ACIP raised objections to the Covid vaccine (many false), but in the end voted to recommend the vaccine for everyone older than six months, saying the decision should be made with their doctor (although a prescription is not required). They discussed hepatitis B (again, voicing many false claims about this extraordinarily safe vaccine), but decided to postpone a vote. The meeting was remarkable not for any decisions made but for the ignorance displayed by ACIP members, who are supposed to be our country’s leading experts on immunology. At one point ACIP chair Martin Kulldorff explained their confusion by saying “we are rookies…”. My question is: why did America choose a bunch of rookies from the bush league for its all star team when it had plenty of future hall-of-famers to choose from? The ACIP meeting resembled that circus clown act where the tiny car drives up, stops, and clowns start getting out, one after another after another. I agree with Angela Rasmussen’s characterization of ACIP as the “Advisory Committee for Immunization Propaganda.”
2. NEW $100K FEE FOR H-1B VISAS
On Friday, the Trump administration placed a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications. The H1-B is for temporary workers in specialty occupations who have professional degrees (math, science, engineering, medicine). It’s used in science and medicine to attract the top talent from around the world. According to economist Paul Krugman, the new fee “will damage American leadership in the network of sectors — tech, education and research — that has driven our economic success for decades.” What’s New is most concerned about its impact on science. Instead of attracting the best scientific researchers from around the world, we are building barriers to keep them out.
3. TYLENOL CAUSES AUTISM…. NOT!
The Trump administration released its much anticipated autism report on Monday. Only, it wasn’t a report at all, but just a press conference. According to epidemiologist and science communicator Ellie Murray “this press conference was full of false, misleading, and straight-up nonsensical claims.” The Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., declared that one of the main causes of autism is the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) by pregnant mothers. This claim was immediately rejected by medical organizations and researchers. The evidence shows that Tylenol is safe. What evidence? Consider a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year. The study examined two and a half million children in Sweden. It’s conclusion was “Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis. This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to familial confounding.” President Trump’s solution for fever and pain among pregnant women: they should “tough it out.” Yet, pain and fever presents its own risks to the fetus.
4. TRUMP CALLS CLIMATE CHANGE “THE GREATEST CON JOB EVER”
On Tuesday, President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly and said that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world…” Furthermore, “all of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong…They were made by stupid people that have cost their country’s fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success.” What is not known yet is if Trump will pull the US out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change. This 1992 treaty negotiated by President George H. W. Bush underlies the international effort to address climate change. The Senate ratified the treaty, but will that stop Trump from unilaterally withdrawing from it? What’s New doubts it. After all, it was based on all those stupid people… um, I mean scientists. In the meantime, if you miss climate.gov, you might want to visit its nonprofit successor, climate.us. Is the “us” for “United States” or for all of us? What’s New is rooting for both.
5. KATHERINE HAYHOE GETS THE LAST WORD
I just finished Katharine Hayhoe’s book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Here’s her inspirational conclusion: “The future we collectively face will be forged by our own actions. Climate change stands between us and a breathtaking, exhilarating future. We cannot afford to be paralyzed by fear or shame. We must act, with power, love, and a sound mind. Together, we can save ourselves.”