The newsletter says that ”Meanwhile, RFK, Jr. says to “let measles run its course”. That’s what some said in 1990, and we had an urban health crisis.” That is substantiated by https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/08/28/rfk-jr-says-let-measles-run-its-course-thats-what-some-said-in-1990-and-we-had-an-urban-health-crisis. The quote is in the headline in that ”article”, which is actually an excerpt from a new york times article, with a different headline. Neither the excerpt nor the full article actually support that quote, which exists nowhere else online. It appears that you have read the headline, read nothing else, done no work to verify, and mindlessly spread a baseless rumour. I am rather disappointed in this performance.
Thanks for catching this, glad that you checked before taking potentially costly action. I think you'll continue to be disappointed if you consider us as a word from God rather than as a source of signal. But we are increasing our fact-checking efforts; if you would like to put us more manpower into them, consider becoming a paying subscriber.
Glad you acknowledged the error - but it seems like this isn't really an example of noise sadly creeping in with the signal. It looks instead like blatant partisan misinformation because whoever wrote it read the headline and nothing else, and then reprinted it because it confirmed their - it turns out, severely misaligned - priors.
Actually, I think that comes across a bit aggressive. Apologies. I get it. This is the kind of mistake we all make, me included - and god knows I don't like RFK either. But I think dismissing it as just a sad incident of noise undersells it. It is a really serious *kind* of error, which *should* lead to some serious re-evaluations.
The newsletter says that ”Meanwhile, RFK, Jr. says to “let measles run its course”. That’s what some said in 1990, and we had an urban health crisis.” That is substantiated by https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/08/28/rfk-jr-says-let-measles-run-its-course-thats-what-some-said-in-1990-and-we-had-an-urban-health-crisis. The quote is in the headline in that ”article”, which is actually an excerpt from a new york times article, with a different headline. Neither the excerpt nor the full article actually support that quote, which exists nowhere else online. It appears that you have read the headline, read nothing else, done no work to verify, and mindlessly spread a baseless rumour. I am rather disappointed in this performance.
Thanks for catching this, glad that you checked before taking potentially costly action. I think you'll continue to be disappointed if you consider us as a word from God rather than as a source of signal. But we are increasing our fact-checking efforts; if you would like to put us more manpower into them, consider becoming a paying subscriber.
Glad you acknowledged the error - but it seems like this isn't really an example of noise sadly creeping in with the signal. It looks instead like blatant partisan misinformation because whoever wrote it read the headline and nothing else, and then reprinted it because it confirmed their - it turns out, severely misaligned - priors.
Actually, I think that comes across a bit aggressive. Apologies. I get it. This is the kind of mistake we all make, me included - and god knows I don't like RFK either. But I think dismissing it as just a sad incident of noise undersells it. It is a really serious *kind* of error, which *should* lead to some serious re-evaluations.
I see what you mean, yes, an error in a predictable ideological direction is much more worrying than random noise.
Looking a bit more into this, RFK did shift his opinion here, e.g., mentions vaccinations for measles in https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1895585297351799198
Is there a deeper significance to the images being shared this week of Xi, Putin, and Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit this week?
Thanks as always for the newsletter! I appreciated the bolding of country names, which I think is new?
Yes, it's new, glad you liked it :)
Interested in more chikungunya coverage/forecasts
Thanks! Is this something you might be willing to become a paying subscriber for? (On mobile, so sorry if you already are!)
I truly did not know there was a paid option. I'll go for it now