Sandra Finley

Jul 092025
 

The 42-page lawsuit, filed Monday by six medical groups, alleges the changes to the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations are “baseless and uninformed” and place pregnant women and children at “grave and immediate risk.” The lawsuit’s lead plaintiff, the American Academy of Pediatrics, lists Merck, Sanofi and Moderna among its donors.

Six medical organizations are suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and several other public health officials and agencies over recent changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.

According to the 42-page lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Boston, the new recommendations are “baseless and uninformed” and place pregnant women and children at “grave and immediate risk.”

The lawsuit alleges the changes will lead to “decreased rates of vaccination, increased rates of transmission, long-lasting illness, and ultimately deaths among pregnant women, unborn children, and all children.”

The complaint also claims Kennedy violated federal law when he issued an internal directive to change the recommendations instead of following the “longstanding process” for making changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) immunization schedules.

Plaintiffs include the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a physician named in the complaint as “Jane Doe,” who is 20 weeks pregnant and allegedly faces “barriers to access to the vaccine.”

The plaintiffs seek an injunction against the directive, request the restoration of the COVID-19 vaccines to the list of recommended immunizations for pregnant women and healthy children and a court order compelling Kennedy to “announce on X that those immunizations are now reinstated to the CDC immunization schedules.”

Other defendants named in the complaint include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC and its acting director Matthew Buzzelli, Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Pharma has ‘tremendous financial incentive’ to ‘preserve the status quo’

Attorney Richard Hughes IV, a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School, who, according to The New York Times, is “leading the effort” to challenge the directive, said Kennedy “aims to destroy vaccines.”

But according to Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), “The medical cartel — funded extensively by the pharmaceutical industry — has a tremendous financial incentive to preserve the status quo.”

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for CHD, noted that the lawsuit “fails to mention that several plaintiffs, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, received millions of dollars from the CDC to promote COVID-19 injections.”

“People who make a lot of money pushing COVID vaccines want to force a recommendation for more COVID vaccines,” Jablonowski said.

The AAP, for instance, lists pharma giants Merck, Sanofi and COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna among its donors. The organization also closely collaborates with corporations such as Coca-Cola.

Last month, two of the plaintiffs — the AAP and the ACP — signed on to the “Vaccine Integrity Project,” a new initiative seeking to bypass public health authorities through the creation of “a nongovernmental vaccine system” for vaccine recommendations and purchasing.

The group is funded by iAlumbra, a nonprofit founded by Walmart heiress and billionaire philanthropist Christy Walton, known for her anti-Trump advocacy.

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, suggested that the organizations suing Kennedy may be concerned that evidence will come to light questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Orient said:

“These organizations evidently consider themselves to be the ultimate authorities on all vaccines and seem to feel threatened by the possibility that a government advisory committee might not agree with their position that all ‘approved’ or ‘recommended’ vaccines are ‘safe and effective’ — and necessary.”

Mack Rosenberg said the liability shield that vaccine manufacturers enjoy “allows them to exercise incredible hubris,” adding that “they desperately fear loss of this extraordinary protection.”

She added:

“The irony of the changes to COVID-19 jabs recommendations is that they actually empower physicians to do their jobs and provide individualized medical care to their patients. One has to ask why these entities fear that.”

Directive ‘arbitrary and capricious,’ lawsuit alleges

The complaint extensively references a May 27 video Kennedy posted on X, in which Kennedy, Bhattacharya and Makary announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for pregnant women and healthy children, citing insufficient data to show that these populations benefited from the vaccine.

 

The lawsuit calls the directive “arbitrary and capricious” and questions Bhattacharya and Makary’s past opposition to various COVID-19 pandemic-related measures.

The complaint notes that Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for herd immunity and targeted measures during the pandemic. The lawsuit characterized this as advocacy in favor of “the uncontrolled spread of an infectious disease to control an epidemic.”

Makary “previously made headlines for his comments during the pandemic, including advocating in favor of natural immunity, questioning the requirement for booster shots in younger people, and opposing vaccine mandates,” the lawsuit claims.

But according to Orient, throughout history, epidemics were controlled by natural immunity and measures such as vector control. “Locking down everybody was the unprecedented action,” she said.

The lawsuit also claims that the COVID-19 vaccines are FDA-approved and that a “wealth of data and peer-reviewed studies” demonstrate their safety and efficacy.

Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine and Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine are fully approved for ages 12 and older. But for children under age 12, the vaccines are administered under emergency use authorization.

Novavax’s Nuvaxovid vaccine is fully approved only for people 65 and older and those between 12 and 64 who have a health condition placing them at increased risk of COVID-19 infection.

Plaintiffs criticize new CDC vaccine advisory committee

Last month, Kennedy dismissed the 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. He subsequently named eight new members to the committee.

During the new members’ first meeting, some members questioned CDC claims about the safety of COVID-19 shots and the virus’s threat to children. The committee also said it plans to examine the cumulative effect of the childhood vaccine schedule.

The lawsuit questions the qualifications of seven of ACIP’s new members, claiming they “do not possess the required scientific and medical expertise to serve on ACIP.”

The complaint also questions Kennedy’s claims that the 17 former members of ACIP had conflicts of interest. “None of these accusations are remotely true,” according to the complaint.

Orient disagreed. “It was the ACIP that Kennedy fired that was likely unlawful,” she said.

ACIP also voted last month to no longer recommend flu vaccines that contain thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. The lawsuit cites a statement by the Infectious Diseases Society of America that said the vote was “politically motivated” and “not based on science.”

The complaint differentiates thimerosal, “which breaks down into ethylmercury” from “harmful forms of mercury like methylmercury.” But according to Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for CHD, this distinction is “absolutely preposterous.”

“This was shown to be wrong in a seminal study by Burbacher et al., which showed that thimerosal exposure resulted in higher amounts of mercury metal essentially locked into the brains of macaque monkeys. The researchers could not determine the half-life of that mercury in the brain because it was longer than the study itself.”

In March, the AAP recommended annual flu shots for all children ages 6 months and older for the next cold and flu season.

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Lawsuit claims ‘wealth’ of studies show COVID shots are safe — but doesn’t cite any

The complaint claims there is a “wealth” of data and studies showing the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 shots for kids and pregnant women, but doesn’t cite any studies.

Several peer-reviewed studies link COVID-19 shots with risks for pregnant women. An animal study published in the journal Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids in March found that mRNA injections cross the placenta and enter the fetus within one hour, where they develop into spike protein and remain in the body after birth.

Another animal study, published in the journal Vaccines in March, found that COVID-19 vaccines decreased the number of primordial follicles in female rats by up to 60%, which may reduce women’s lifelong egg supply.

According to a study of 1.3 million Czech women published last month in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, the rate of successful conception — a pregnancy leading to live birth nine months later — for women who received the COVID-19 vaccine was “substantially lower” than for unvaccinated women.

According to “The Pfizer Papers,” a set of 450,000 documents related to the licensing of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, 72% of recorded adverse events were in women. Babies had to be delivered early, women hemorrhaged during childbirth, and nursing babies of vaccinated women experienced adverse effects.

Pregnant women also experienced side effects. Pfizer lost the records of 234 pregnant women who participated in the clinical trials for the vaccine, but for the 36 pregnant women whose records survived, over 80% lost their babies.

Last month, some of the plaintiffs signed a letter to insurers, urging them to continue covering COVID-19 shots for pregnant women despite the new recommendations.

Other recent studies have linked COVID-19 vaccines to health risks in children. According to a study published in the journal Pediatric Rheumatology in May, children and adolescents who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine had a 23% higher risk of developing autoimmune disease compared to unvaccinated children.

A preprint study published in May 2024 of 1.7 million children in England found cases of myocarditis or pericarditis only in those children who received the COVID-19 shots. No cases were identified in children who didn’t receive the vaccine.

Citing rising maternal mortality and “the sickest generation of American children in history,” Laura Bono, vice-president emerita of CHD and mother of a vaccine-injured child, said the plaintiffs should use their resources to solve these public health issues instead of on this lawsuit.

“Rather than spending money on a lawsuit to preserve the status quo, these associations should support their missions by looking for answers to address the declining health of mothers and children,” Bono said.

Related articles in The Defender

This article was corrected to indicate that Richard Hughes IV is affiliated with George Washington University.

Jul 092025
 

Richard Henry Hughes IV, a former vice president at Moderna, is the lead lawyer representing the plaintiffs suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and several other public health officials and agencies over recent changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.

gavel on book and covid vaccine inside magnifying glass

The lead lawyer in a lawsuit against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over recent changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women previously worked for Moderna and Merck.

Richard Henry Hughes IV was vice president of public policy at Moderna from 2020-2022, when the vaccine maker developed and marketed the Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, which has netted the company billions of dollars over the last four years.

Before winning approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna had never successfully brought a product to market. Investigative journalist Whitney Webb reported that without that authorization and the subsequent approval of the vaccine and boosters, Moderna would have likely crumbled.

Hughes guided Moderna’s policy from the time it won initial emergency use authorization for its mRNA vaccine through the shot’s full approval in 2022.

Now, he’s representing plaintiffs like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in a lawsuit that seeks to restore COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and children — a move that likely would result in more sales and profits for Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccine makers.

In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children on the Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule.

The update followed an announcement by Kennedy that the COVID-19 vaccine would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. The announcement sparked confusion, as the changes weren’t yet visible on the CDC website.

The agency subsequently changed what previously was a universal recommendation that all children ages 6 months and older receive the COVID-19 shots, to a recommendation of “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and providers for children ages 6 months to 17 years who are not moderately immunocompromised.

On Monday, Hughes said at a news conference that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Kennedy are “asking the court to order the secretary to announce on X that those immunization recommendations are now reinstated to the CDC immunization schedules.”

The plaintiffs also seek an injunction against the directive that triggered the changes in recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.

In addition to the AAP, original plaintiffs in the suit include the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a physician named in the complaint as “Jane Doe,” who is 20 weeks pregnant and allegedly faces “barriers to access to the vaccine.”

The Infectious Diseases Society of America announced Tuesday that it had also joined the lawsuit.

A long career of serving Big Pharma 

Since leaving Moderna, Hughes has been a partner at Epstein Becker Green, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, where he builds “comprehensive market strategies” for life science companies to support their product development and growth.

His career has been dedicated to counseling biopharmaceutical companies, investors and industry trade associations.

He is a member of the board of directors of Vaccinate Your Family, a vaccine advocacy group funded by vaccine makers AstraZeneca, CLS Seqirus, Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax, Merck, Sanofi, and the CDC.

Hughes teaches vaccine law at George Washington University. Before joining Moderna, he was vice president at Avalere Health, a healthcare industry consulting firm.

He was also the region policy executive at Merck from 2010-2014.

Merck is the maker of the Gardasil vaccine, first licensed in 2006. The product is designed to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV). In 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new version of that vaccine, the nine-valent Gardasil, which effectively drove GSK’s bivalent Cervarix HPV vaccine from the U.S. market.

Hughes recently criticized the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccine recommendations.

Hughes’ criticism focused largely on Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., whom he accused of having a conflict of interest. He cited Kulldorff’s “adverse position to a major vaccine manufacturer,” demonstrated by his expert witness testimony in a lawsuit against Merck for allegedly misleading consumers about the safety of its Gardasil vaccine.

Hughes told The New York Times that Kennedy has been on a “decades-long mission” to undermine vaccines and to portray them as more dangerous than the illnesses they are designed to prevent.

“The secretary’s intentions are clear,” Hughes said. “He aims to destroy vaccines.”

Hughes has also said there has been a “weaponization of the courts against vaccines.”

The lawsuit against Kennedy and other public health officials and agencies seeks to use the courts to reverse the vaccine policy set by the public health agencies under Kennedy’s leadership.

According to the Times, the lawsuit focuses only on the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, but more vaccine decisions may be added.

A correction to the Times’ article about the lawsuit indicated that Hughes mischaracterized the complaint made by Jane Doe in the lawsuit. He told the Times she was denied a vaccine, but the complaint indicates that she only feared she might not be able to get one.

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Many of the organizations that are plaintiffs in the lawsuit are themselves funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Some also received millions of dollars from the CDC to promote the COVID-19 shots.

The AAP, for instance, lists pharma giants Merck, Sanofi and COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna among its donors.

Last month, two of the plaintiffs — the AAP and the American College of Physicians — signed on to the “Vaccine Integrity Project,” a new initiative seeking to bypass public health authorities through the creation of “a nongovernmental vaccine system” for vaccine recommendations and purchasing.

The group is funded by iAlumbra, a nonprofit founded by Walmart heiress and billionaire philanthropist Christy Walton, known for her anti-Trump advocacy.

Related articles in The Defender 

Jul 082025
 

BY JOHN CARPAY

Corrupted by Fear

https://www.jccf.ca/education/corrupted-by-fear/    

 

#1 Bestseller on Amazon

As Canadians, we depend on our courts to protect us when the government violates our Charter rights and freedoms. After extensive Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates, many are left wondering how such violations could go unchecked.

How is it that we still don’t have clear explanations as to why judges preferred the evidence of the government over the evidence of citizens fighting for their Charter freedoms?

All Canadians, regardless of their views on the pandemic, should be concerned about courts repeating media narratives in their judgments, seemingly turning a blind eye to the violations of human rights, and failing to consider the real harms suffered by people.

Corrupted by Fear reviews, through the eyes of constitutional lawyer John Carpay, the evidence before courts in Charter challenges to Covid lockdowns. Carpay explains how harsh measures that turned our world upside down were not subjected to proper scrutiny. He explores crucial lessons Canadians can learn from history, particularly the collapse of democracy and human rights into fascism in Europe in the 1930s.

Read Chapter 16: The Fascist elements of the lockdown regime

Jul 082025
 

The Last Selection was:     2025-06-24 For Your Selection June #4 2025

 

This is:    For Your Selection July 2025

 

1.    2025-07-03 Bill C-2 Surveillance, ‘Big Step towards Police State.’ John Carpay interviewed by Hugh Faulkner

2.    2025-07-03. Covid, legal challenge to freezing of bank accounts: John Carpay interviewed by Rebel News about Evan Blackman case.

Census + Open Media article. Bill C-2, Online Harms & more updates. Candace Malcolm interviews John Carpay

5.    2025-07-08   Corrupted by Fear,  book by John Carpay

3.     2025-07-04 Covid: Judge orders RCMP and TD Bank to release records in Freedom Convoy bank freeze case. Western Standard.

4.    2025-07-02 Canada set up a $50M vaccine injury Fund. Those harmed say it’s failing them. By Andrew McIntosh & Carolyn Jarvis Global News

  (mainstream media good research and reporting on vaccine injuries.   Bless them!)

 

2025-07-02 Carney wants to spy on all Canadians. Junonews.com/

– – – – – – – –

SHOW-DOWN  Continues

025-06-24 Washington Post Reports on ‘Plan to Vaccinate All Americans, Despite RFK Jr.’

2025-07-08 Updated 07-09.       RFK  Jr. Hit With Lawsuit Over Changes to COVID Vaccine Policies for Kids, Pregnant Women

2025-07-09     Lawyer Leading Lawsuit Against RFK Jr. Over COVID Vaccines Used to Work for Moderna

6.    2025-07-03 Vaccine Lobbyists Deny Calling RFK Jr. ‘Direct Threat to Public Health,’ Declare Support for MAHA

7.    2025-07-01 The Plot to Get RFK By James Lyons-Weiler, published on Dr. Malone’s substack.

8.    2025-06-26 CDC Vaccine Advisers Vote to Stop Recommending Flu Shots That Contain Thimerosal (Mercury)

9.    2025-05-15    The mRNA Drug Industry Strikes Back, by Dr. Robert Malone.

2025-06-03 posted. Covid. Ron Johnson on podcast of Bret Weinstein (DarkHorse)

– – – – – – – –

10.    2025-07 Druthers (July) is out!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

11.     2025-06-29 Neoliberalism’s Playbook: Control, Crisis and Compliance. Endgame Logic of Late Capitalism. by Colin Todhunter on Global Research

12.     2025-07-07 Nova Scotia confirms it funds and performs genital surgeries for teens. By MelaniBennet, True North

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

2025-04-19 Lymphatic System / Lymph Treatment

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

13.      (repeat)    2025-06-05 Blowing the Lid Off SIDS, Dr. Pierre Cory with host Steve Kirsch

APPENDED LIST:   VACCINES  – – SOME POSTINGS FROM MY BLOG.

2020-06-10 If I am making a choice about a vaccine, I want to know this  (WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS OF VACCINES?.)     https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=25074

2025-04-09 8-Year-Old in West Texas Died From Hospital-acquired Pneumonia, Medical Records Show    https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=31342

2025-05-23 I’ve been waiting for years for this – – a film that tells the Simpsonwood story    https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=31536

2025-06-06 Simpsonwood. CHD   https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=31658

 

2025-06-06 Their Babies Died Suddenly in Their Sleep. Police Are Charging the Parents With Felonies for Not Placing Infants on Their Backs. Brenda Baletti, CHD

2025-06-03 posted. Covid. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on podcast of Bret Weinstein (DarkHorse)

2025-05-29 UPDATE: Includes the inspirational ‘Moms Across America’ Plus the Update on ‘Double Tragedy’: Twins’ Deaths Likely Caused by Vaccines, Not Parents. On May 1, Dallas and Tyson, fraternal 18-month-old twins, were found dead by their mother after receiving the Hepatitis A, flu and DTaP vaccines on April 23. Police are investigating the parents, but Dr. Pierre Kory, who reviewed the twins’ medical records, told CHD.TV that, unfortunately, vaccine-related sudden infant deaths are “as common as the day is long.” by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

 

 

Jul 072025
 

Hugh Faulkner – –  This is a good interview.  Please send it further.   /S

Mark Carney’s border bill C-2 will give the federal government unprecedented surveillance measures over Canadians if passed. Constitutional lawyer John Carpay joins me (Hugh Faulkner)  to outline the dark side of Bill C-2 and urges Canadians to speak to their MPs and get them to vote against this bill. 

Read John Capay’s latest book: https://www.amazon.ca/Corrupted-Fear-…

 

Jul 072025
 

A very important initiative,  IMHO.

BACKGROUND:    2024-05-03  Crown appeal against acquitted peaceful protestor Evan Blackman back in court June 19.  JCCF

UPDATE:

Rebel News (Ezra Levant)  Interview of John Carpay:

Go to:

https://www.rebelnews.com/court_compels_rcmp_td_bank_to_hand_over_records?utm_campaign=buzz_070725&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel

As 2025 progresses, revelations about the COVID era emerge.

Global News, once a propagandist, now reports on vaccine injury bureaucracy’s lax behavior, signaling a shift in critical thinking, albeit belatedly. This comes as good news for figures like John Carpay of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

Carpay discusses the case of Evan Blackman, wrongfully arrested during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa.

Blackman, acquitted despite drone footage showing him peacefully de-escalating a situation and singing “O Canada” on his knees, faces an abusive Crown appeal in Ontario. Carpay criticizes Ontario’s prosecutors for pursuing such cases while more serious crimes go unaddressed due to resource limitations.

The Calgary-based lawyer then reveals a recent judicial order: the RCMP and TD Bank must turn over documents related to the freezing of Blackman’s bank accounts.

This unprecedented order seeks to understand the rationale behind the freeze and its connection to the criminal prosecution. This marks a potential turning point, moving away from the “madness” of 2021-2022 when judges made questionable rulings.

According to figures obtained through an access-to-information request by Blacklock’s, an estimated $7.8 million in holdings belonging to convoy supporters had been seized by 267 bank accounts and 170 bitcoin wallets in 2022.

Ezra anticipates TD Bank or RCMP appealing the subpoena to conceal “dirty deeds.” He speculates that if the subpoena holds, the prosecution might drop the appeal or even charges against Blackman to prevent exposure of potentially “dark” internal communications.

Ezra draws a parallel to the “ArriveCan” app cases, where the government avoided constitutional challenges by withdrawing charges, preventing a public examination of their lack of scientific and medical basis for lockdown policies.

 

Jul 072025
 

Democracy – – we are the ones responsible for what our Governments do.

Exclusive documents reveal that doctors in Nova Scotia greenlit five surgeries to create artificial vaginas for patients listed as under 19 years old.

Melanie Bennet, True North.
Jul 7
Guest post

 

   
READ IN APP
 
   

Source: Nova Scotia Health Authority, Instagram. July 23, 2024

Exclusive documents reveal that doctors in Nova Scotia greenlit five surgeries to create artificial vaginas for patients listed as under 19 years old. Citing privacy laws, the provincial health authority refused to reveal whether any of the patients were minors but acknowledged that Nova Scotia Health funds transgender genital surgeries for minors as of this year, “as per policy and procedures.”

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Federal officials and Canadian medical organizations have long assured the public that bottom surgery, a euphemism for irreversible genital procedures like vaginoplasties, or the surgical reshaping of penis tissue into an artificial vaginal opening, are not performed on minors. However, newly released documents from Nova Scotia’s public health system show otherwise.

While the Mainstream Media ignores stories like this, Juno News will not. But we need your support to break more investigative reports. Become a premium subscriber today.

 

The Citizen’s Alliance of Nova Scotia provided True North with demographic data obtained through freedom of information requests. The data shows age breakdowns of both surgical and non-surgical gender-related interventions. The group has been requesting information from the provincial government on behalf of concerned mental health therapists fearful of professional repercussions should they be identified. The documents include internal emails, policy memos, and detailed statistical breakdowns.

The findings reveal that minors in Nova Scotia are receiving irreversible transgender medical treatments, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and in some cases, genital surgeries. The number of transgender treatments for all ages in Nova Scotia are trending upward at a time when other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom and several European countries, are retreating from such interventions due to mounting evidence of harm and a lack of long-term data to back claims made by transgender activists and proponents in the medical community that such procedures lower the risk of suicide.

The 2023–2024 annual report from Nova Scotia’s the province’s health insurance program (MSI) reveals that five procedures to create a neo-vaginal canal were approved for patients under the age of 19. Additional procedures, including the removal of the penis and testicles, appear in the same age bracket but the actual figure remains suppressed under Section 20(1) of Nova Scotia’s FOIPOP Act, which exempts disclosure when the number of patients is fewer than five.

True North sent several emails to Nova Scotia Health asking if any of the patients in the under-19 column were minors, and to verify the age of those listed. Stacy Burgess, Executive Director of Clinical Care at Nova Scotia Health, would not specify any ages but admitted that genital surgeries continue to be funded by the province. Nova Scotia Health’s policy states that minors over the age of 16 can request exemptions for such surgeries under certain conditions. These revelations contradict public-facing guidance from Health Canada and several provincial health authorities, which explicitly state that bottom surgeries are not available to individuals under 18.

 

Puberty blockers, particularly leuprolide (the generic version of Lupron), are being prescribed to children under the age of 15. Teens aged 16 to 18 are being given testosterone and estradiol, often in combination with anti-androgens like spironolactone or cyproterone.

This pharmaceutical regimen initiates irreversible physiological changes, including infertility and altered sexual development. The documents show a sharp increase in leuprolide and testosterone prescribed to young girls in 2024. The same dataset confirms that hormonal interventions are trending upwards for young girls in Nova Scotia’s health system.

The costs associated with this care are significant. Nova Scotia budgeted $1.7 million for gender related health care in 2023–24 alone. That figure does not represent a fixed cap, as internal memos state that departments are encouraged to “adjust forecasts upward” if demand increases.

 

Between 2021 and 2024, the province spent just over $2 million on 187 all ages mastectomies, a medical term for breast amputation. This figure includes hospital costs, physician fees, out-of-province costs like airfare, accommodations, and post-operative care. The province also allocates public funds for binders and prosthetic genital devices as part of its transgender health equipment budget.

The administrative infrastructure overseeing this system is profoundly ideological. In recent years, Nova Scotia health authorities have implemented sweeping policy changes that removed longstanding medical safeguards. The requirement that patients live as the opposite sex for 12 months before surgery was eliminated. The mandate for psychosocial assessments before starting treatment was scrapped. The standard of requiring two independent referral letters for surgical intervention was reduced to just one.

Gender Affirming Care Reform – Nova Scotia.pdf

These changes were based on the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care v8, a document that has come under global scrutiny for promoting early medical transition with limited evidence. In internal emails, Stacy Burgess, Executive Director of Clinical Care at Nova Scotia Health, admitted in May 2024 that she had only “skim read” WPATH v8 and hadn’t noticed anything of concern. This statement came two months after the release of the WPATH Files, an investigative exposé which documented internal dissent among the authors and raised alarms about the reliability of the organization’s standards.

WPATH Files author, Mia Hughes, recently wrote in the National Post that Nova Scotia is dangerously out of step with nearly every jurisdiction that has seriously reviewed the evidence. “Every jurisdiction that has scrutinized this medical protocol has come to the same conclusion—there is no reliable proof of benefit, and the risks are too serious to allow the experiment to continue,” Hughes wrote.

While countries like Sweden, Finland, the UK, and even Alberta have pulled back from youth medical transition, Nova Scotia is forging ahead, expanding services while ignoring growing calls for caution. Hughes describes WPATH as an “activist association posing as a medical authority,” and criticizes the provinces for relying on its guidance instead of commissioning independent reviews.

Behind the rapid expansion of transgender medicine in Nova Scotia lies a network of activist, political, and medical policy actors. This revolving door between activism and administration has allowed ideology to advance through Nova Scotia’s health system, bypassing public scrutiny, medical debate, and evidence-based caution.

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Jul 062025
 

A leading biotech industry trade group denied any knowledge of a document purportedly containing the minutes of an April 3 meeting during which they criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., who said he received the document “anonymously by whistleblowers,” first went public with it on Tuesday.

rfk jr and bio logo

Editor’s note: The Defender was unable to authenticate the April 3 BIO meeting minutes document or communicate directly with its source. However, our writing and editorial team spoke directly with James Lyons-Weiler and, on the basis of that conversation, judged the document likely to have originated from a reliable source.

 

Research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., first went public with the document on Tuesday, publishing it on Substack and in an article for the Brownstone Institute. He said he received it “anonymously by whistleblowers.”

In a statement provided to The Defender on Tuesday, a Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) spokesperson said:

“Earlier today, a blog site posted an article based upon what it claimed is a leaked memo from BIO regarding our Vaccines Task Force. The purported memo was not produced by BIO. We have never seen or heard of this document and it certainly does not accurately represent the spirit, strategy, or mission of BIO’s work.

“We are aligned with Secretary Kennedy and the President’s mission to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’”

However, that statement contradicts the meeting minutes, which quote Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member, as saying, “MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] is a cover for an anti-vaccine campaign.”

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson told The Defender:

“Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability. His longstanding advocacy has focused on ensuring that vaccines and all medical interventions meet the highest standards of safety and are backed by gold-standard science.

“The fact that a prominent, taxpayer-funded lobbying organization like BIO would entertain language about ‘neutralizing’ a sitting Cabinet official, whose focus has been on restoring scientific rigor and prioritizing public health over special interests, is both concerning and revealing.”

According to the document circulated by Lyons-Weiler, BIO members discussed strategies to counter Kennedy’s growing “anti-vaccine rhetoric.”

These included engaging with other federal and state policymakers to sidestep Kennedy, repositioning vaccines as “national security assets,” and focusing public messaging “on science” and the “economic benefits” of vaccines.

Lyons-Weiler stands by document’s authenticity

Lyons-Weiler stood by the veracity of the document and his sources. Commenting on BIO’s statement that the group didn’t produce the document, he told The Defender:

“While it is exciting and reassuring to see BIO’s unreserved support for the MAHA initiative and the Kennedy evidence bar, we had sufficient information to determine to our satisfaction that the document was most likely real. Nevertheless, we ran it with caveats.

“In the interest of journalistic integrity, should evidence come forward that the document was in some way falsified, and was provided as some sort of ruse, we would be happy to publish that information as well, and let the public decide.”

On whether the document may have been leaked by “nefarious” actors, Lyons-Weiler said, “That is speculative, but one could only guess whether this would then perhaps represent a type of corporate espionage, with organizations which not so long ago left the trade association.”

“If so, it could be an attempt to divide BIO from the MAHA agenda at HHS,” Lyons-Weiler said. “Either way, I’m excited to see them ready to engage in objective and ethical biomedical research.”

In November 2024, Pharma giant GSK ended its membership with BIO. A GSK spokesperson told Fierce Pharma the company “opted not to renew its BIO membership for 2025 following an annual evaluation of its corporate memberships and trade association participation.”

GSK followed in the footsteps of other pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, UCB, WuXi AppTec and Takeda, who also recently left BIO, Fierce Pharma reported.

Vaccine makers raise investor concerns, but not vaccine safety concerns

AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novartis, Novavax, Novo Nordisk, Roche and Sanofi are among the major pharma companies listed as members of BIO.

According to the document, participants in the April meeting included Silvia Taylor, executive vice president and chief corporate affairs and advocacy officer at Novavax; Jim Wassil, executive vice president and chief operating officer of vaccine innovation company Vaxcyte; and Gottlieb, who in addition to being a Pfizer board member is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Wassil zeroed in on shareholder concerns, noting that investors are “sitting on the sidelines for the next 6-9 months” because the vaccine “pathway to approval is unpredictable and politicized.”

There was no mention in the meeting minutes of the need to improve vaccine safety. However, members purportedly discussed how to improve communication with the new administration “using their words — safety, efficiency, health resilience, transparency.”

John F. Crowley, president and CEO of BIO, also allegedly participated in the meeting.

The document allegedly shows that Crowley proposed a “creative communication campaign” targeting legislators and influencers instead of working “directly with RFK Jr.” The campaign would enlist the help of unions and conservative-leaning, pro-vaccine organizations like the American Enterprise Institute.

Crowley also allegedly suggested that BIO spend $2 million of its $4 million cash reserves on “vaccine programs.” The meeting included a discussion of BIO’s new “WhyWeVaccinate” campaign.

The document also suggests that “it is time to go to The Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr to go … communicate what’s going on in business.”

It is unclear whether “The Hill” refers to Capitol Hill or to a publication by that name popular among policymaking circles.

A Novavax spokesperson contacted by The Defender declined to comment. Wassil and Gottlieb did not respond to a request for comment.

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Despite claim of support, BIO has questioned some of RFK Jr.’s moves

In their statement, BIO emphasized the organization’s pro-vaccine campaign.

“We also believe strongly in the vital role that vaccines play for public health, and we will continue to be strong advocates for scientific rigor and the importance of vaccines to protect our children, our citizens broadly — and to protect and strengthen America. The BIO vaccines campaign supports this effort,” BIO said.

In spite of its stated support for Kennedy and the MAHA agenda, BIO has previously questioned some of Kennedy’s moves as health secretary.

In March, following the resignation of Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., former FDA director responsible for authorizing vaccines, under pressure from Kennedy, BIO said it was “deeply concerned” Marks’ resignation would “broadly impact the development of new, transformative therapies to fight diseases for the American people.”

Last month, following Kennedy’s dismissal of all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, BIO said it was “greatly concerned about the uncertainty created by the abrupt dismissal of the serving committee members.”

BIO allegedly contributed to the censorship of non-establishment views concerning COVID-19 during the pandemic.

According to “Twitter Files” documents published in January 2023 by journalist Lee Fang, BIO “fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects” during the pandemic. The campaign worked with Twitter “to set content moderation rules around COVID ‘misinformation.’”

According to Open Secrets, 63 of BIO’s 100 lobbyists in 2024 previously held government jobs, while BIO has spent $890,000 on lobbying efforts so far this year.

Health and medical freedom advocates have said that a “revolving door” between federal public health agencies and Big Pharma has compromised the ability of those agencies to effectively regulate the industry.

In its statement, HHS said that Kennedy and HHS are working to restore trust in public health and vaccines.

“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS is exposing decades of waste, fraud, and abuse, eliminating conflicts of interest, and restoring evidence-based policy to medicine and public health. The Department will stay focused on our mission, which is to protect the health and well-being of the American people,” HHS said.

Related articles in The Defender

 

Jul 052025
 

 

Evan Blackman at a hockey game with his son Damian
Evan Blackman at a hockey game with his son DamianCourtesy JCCF

An Ontario judge has ordered the RCMP and TD Bank to hand over records related to the freezing of Evan Blackman’s bank accounts during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa.

Blackman was arrested on February 18, 2022, under the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, and charged with mischief and obstruction. He was acquitted in October 2023, but the Crown appealed and a new trial is set to begin on August 14, 2025.

Blackman is now seeking access to records detailing how and why his accounts were frozen, to support a Charter application at his retrial. His lawyers argue the freeze was a serious violation of his constitutional rights and plan to ask the court to stay the case.

“The freezing of Mr. Blackman’s bank accounts was an extreme overreach on the part of the police and the federal government,” said Chris Fleury, a constitutional lawyer representing Blackman.

“These records will hopefully reveal exactly how and why Mr. Blackman’s accounts were frozen.”

Blackman welcomed the ruling.

“I’m delighted that we will finally get records that may reveal why my bank accounts were frozen,” he said.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is backing Blackman’s legal challenge, called the ruling a significant development.

It is believed to be the first criminal case in Canada involving a proposed Charter challenge based on the freezing of personal bank accounts under the Emergencies Act.