LIL Science

Elon Musk sat down with The Economist’s editor-in-chief in July 2026 and said: “Zero point zero. Zero died because of DOGE.” I almost laughed out loud at him when he said that. But it’s not funny, people are losing their lives, and many have a significantly worse life as the totality of these cuts emerges. Does Musk actually think most people can’t draw a straight line between what his agency did and the utter destruction of science, health, and consumer protection?

Amid the evidence that people asking what the heck is going on inside the government can, and often does, lead to direct persecution of that individual inside the United States (we have fallen so far), and against the backdrop of a likely overwhelmed and potentially corrupted FOIA office, I decided to make a request anyway. LIL Science is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

After several social media posts on this topic, the day is finally here - deadline for commenting. Why should you care?

Earlier this year (March 2026) a court ruled that RFK Jr’s firing of the entire 17 member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was likely illegal, rendering his newly appointed committee filled with vaccine-conspiracy theorists ineffective by preliminary injunction. This rendered their prior non-science based removal of 6 childhood vaccines from the recommended list null and void.

I expect more Andes family hantavirus cases in people who were passengers on the MV Hondius in coming days. How many more is difficult to say. As of today there are 11 cases. In the United States 41 people potentially exposed are back on US soil and roughly half of them are staying in voluntary quarantine in Nebraska. Several have returned home to the 16 states shown on the map below.

Marty Makary’s forced exit from the Food and Drug Administration is not just another personality drama in Washington; it is a symptom of a deeper, structural problem. Under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. typically apolitical scientific institutions have become revolving doors with unqualified appointees who when they do decide to take a stand they’re unceremoniously ousted. LIL Science is a reader-supported publication.

Every single one of us carries a bit of scar tissue from experiencing a recent global pandemic. We’ve lost loved ones, worked frontlines, felt abandoned and fatigued by attempting to keep up with messaging that evolved real-time as the scientific understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus changed, and the virus itself mutated.

In the world of science a number should just be a number. But today it was announced that the CDC will not release the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) numbers at the direction of… well, it’s actually hard to tell who made the terminal decision to not release the data at all. The CDC under RFK Jr has had no director for months. Not since Dr. Susan Monarez was fired for refusing to ‘rubber stamp’ RFK Jr’s requests (i.e. push through RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine agenda without scientific review).

Introduction I am and always have been an incredibly COVID-cautious person. I have worn a mask consistently in public except for a very rare occasion since 2020. I am still “COVID 0” meaning I have never acquired SARS-CoV-2 to the best of my knowledge. This is backed up by rigorous testing performed on me and all household contacts (we were all negative) the three (3) times I have been sick since 2020.

Last winter, 2024-25 I predicted on my social media platform that we were about two years (which would include next winter as well) or less from the virus developing human to human transmission capacity. It’s a big prediction to make, and I hope that I am wrong, but with as little as one to three mutations in a notoriously mutagenic virus, person to person spread of H5N1 has really just become a matter of “when” not “if”. LIL Science is a reader-supported publication.