University of Nevada, Reno profiled ACSH trustee Mick Hitchcock, Ph.D., in Moving science out of silos. The August 25 interview traces his path from biochemistry and microbiology training through infectious-disease work at Bristol-Myers to 27 years at Gilead, where he helped make tenofovir the backbone of modern HIV therapy and helped turn hepatitis C into a cure for more than 95 percent of patients.
He is now CEO of Biomea Fusion and remains tied to UNR as a donor and science-communication patron. The profile notes his seat on the ACSH board, which he described as a home for debunking bad science and making the output worth reading. His public-science standard matches ACSH’s: results live in shades of gray; the temptation is to pretend they are black and white. “Resist that,” he said. A scientist builds a hypothesis, tests it and abandons it when the evidence says so. That habit is the product worth exporting from the lab.
Our executive vice president Cameron English took on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pesticide alarmism in the Orange County Register. Americans have long been told that conventional produce is a chemical hazard and that “regenerative” or organic alternatives are safer, a message Kennedy recently amplified. The usual vehicle is the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, plus influencers who treat any detectable residue as proof of harm. English explained why that framing fails toxicology: USDA and FDA monitoring finds residues far below legal limits, often around 0.01 percent of the tolerance, with 100- to 1,000-fold safety margins already built in.
The media-driven scare still does real damage by pushing families toward costlier organic options and discouraging fruit and vegetable consumption. “It’s an unfortunate fact in the age of virality that the loudest voices aren’t always the most honest ones," English concluded.
A widely circulated MSN health slideshow pointed readers to ACSH’s recent coverage of the magnesium-for-sleep boom. Marketers sell magnesium “oil” sprays as a gut-free shortcut: mist the feet, skip the pill, sleep better. Chemistry disagrees: magnesium is a charged ion, and intact skin is a barrier, not a sponge. Reviews find the transdermal claim unsupported. ACSH Director of Medicine Dr. Chuck Dinerstein has argued that the broader “melatonin versus magnesium” frame asks the wrong question: insomnia has many causes and cognitive behavioral therapy remains first-line for chronic cases. Neither supplement replaces proper diagnosis and treatment.
STAT News quoted ACSH scientific advisor and longtime contributor Katie Suleta in a recent report on medical schools adopting, and narrowing, the administration’s nutrition-training push. As some medical schools embrace RFK Jr.'s nutrition push, they deftly sidestep MAHA priorities covered voluntary pledges for about 40 hours of nutrition education, or a competency equivalent, starting fall 2026.
Suleta argued that scarce clinic time should not go to tasks physicians are not uniquely qualified to do. “Frankly, I don’t really need my physician to be trained in food journaling,” she told STAT. She was equally blunt about treating obesity as a moral verdict—“If you’re fat, it’s bad. And it’s a moral failing on your part”—which undercuts honest discussion of the conditions that shape diet and disease. “Food is not going to cure all of these illnesses. It’s just not.”
