On this, our 303rd Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss the recommendation to stop vaccinating newborns against Hepatitis B, as just handed down by ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) for the CDC. Why were newborns whose mothers do not have Hep B, being vaccinated against a disease that is contracted through sexual activity and dirty needles? We discuss claims of “safe and effective,” risk stratification, the childhood vaccine schedule, and what “individual-based decision-making” will mean for parents and doctors. Then, new research: tattoo ink induces inflammation in lymph nodes, and changes the immune response to vaccination. Finally: an homage to Tom Stoppard, playwright extraordinaire, author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Arcadia, and so much more. RIP.
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Mentioned in this episode:
ACIP Hep B recommendation: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/2025-acip-recommends-individual-based-decision-making-for-hepatitis-b-vaccine-for-infants-born-to-women.html
Retsef Levi on Hep B rec: https://x.com/cdcgov/status/1996967080793358366
RFK on vaccines: https://x.com/seckennedy/status/1997104582128754854
Capucetti et al 2025. Tattoo ink induces inflammation in the draining lymph node and alters the immune response to vaccination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(48), p.e2510392122: https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2510392122
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
