Vaccine Debate and Very Loud Ladies

In this episode, Drs. Arghavan Salles and Alyssa Burgart dive into the world of vaccine misinformation, examining a debate between science communicators and anti-vaccine advocates. They explore how scientific illiteracy fuels dangerous health trends, including the current measles outbreak. The hosts then switch gears to discuss an evangelical pastor's claim that women should remain quiet and out of public life, highlighting how this rhetoric connects to broader political movements aimed at restricting women's rights and visibility. 

Looking for joy this week? They close with moments bringing them joy: viral pizza-tossing videos and humorous social media content that provides relief from today's challenging news cycle.

Here is the Politico group chat article mentioned at the top of the show:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146

For those who really need to know, it was Arghavan’s mumps titer that was low when she had measles, mumps, and rubella titers checked a couple of years ago.

What RFK Jr actually said about the evidence on Tylenol and autism: he will “doing the studies to make the proof”

The word Arghavan was trying to think of regarding the Epstein files was discharge petition, and the representative Mike Johnson refuses to swear in is Adelita Grijalva.

Here is the paper on surgical referrals Arghavan mentioned:

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sarsons/files/sarsons_jmp_01.pdf

Check out pizza wars on Tik Tok, or if you don’t have Tik Tok, check out a few videos here on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/arghavansallesmd.medsky.social/post/3m3bp5n2rxs26

Thanks for listening to The Present Illness with Drs. Arghavan Salles and Alyssa Burgart!

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