☕️ MAKING LEMONADE ☙ Friday, November 21, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Progressives fume over CDC’s autism-vaccine page; Kennedy breaks a GOP promise; Trump signs the Epstein bill; DOJ redaction limits advance; HHS torches trans-industrial complex; HHS new hope for kids.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Friday! Today’s MAHA-friendly roundup includes: progressives sour after CDC updates its web page on the Autism-Vaccine connection; Kennedy breaks promise to Trump-impeaching Republican senator; illegal agreements; promises about gold-standards; Trump signs Epstein bill giving DOJ a pre-Christmas deadline to deliver gifts of disclosure; Massie bill limits DOJ redactions; blockbuster HHS report torches the trans-industrial complex; and new hope blooms on the lemon tree for disfigured patients victimized by doctors and hospital peddling pseudo-scientific snake oil.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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“The HHS report blindsided career CDC staff and delighted anti-vaccine activists.” Yesterday, the Washington Post ran a sour story, headlined, “CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on debunking vaccines-autism link.” Turmoil! The sub-headline sneered, “The CDC’s website now says health authorities ignored evidence of a potential connection between vaccines and autism, despite dozens of studies showing no link.”

Yesterday, the CDC quietly updated its Q&A page on “Autism and Vaccines.” It now begins with a remarkable summary of “Key Points,” including the astonishing admissions that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim” and that health authorities have ignored the links:

Bedwetting “career scientists at the agency responsible for information about vaccine safety and autism” told WaPo they “had no prior knowledge about the changes to the website and were not consulted.” Anonymously, of course. Cowards.

💉 Behold the freshest CDC fracas. “The CDC revised its website, the Post began, “to contradict the long-settled scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, shocking career scientists, delighting anti-vaccine activists, drawing a rebuke from a key Republican senator and sparking an uproar among medical professionals and autism advocates who questioned whether the agency’s credibility is now gone.”

WaPo quoted only one named (now former) CDC official. Guess who? I’ll give you some hints, stop me when you guess it: he’s bald and skinny, he likes leather and bondage, he is an open Satanist, and he was the Tsar of MonkeyPox. Yes! Demetre Daskalakis. Demetre whined, “the CDC cannot currently be trusted as a scientific voice.”

Media darling and former CDC Czar Daskalakis

It is simply amazing how happily corporate media and progressive readers accept this flamboyant freak as their unofficial CDC expert on trustworthy science. Does judgment matter at all anymore? Oh, well. At least he wasn’t stealing women’s underwear from the airport luggage conveyor!

For the Administration, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon simply explained, “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.” Indeed, the new page continues at great length, soberly and scientifically pointing out what various peer-reviewed studies suggest about the connection, describing what little evidence is so far available, and forthrightly admitting what research remains to be done.

So. For people convinced of some Kennedy conspiracy to let vaccines off the hook— hopefully you’re feeling better now. LTMW.

💉 Hilariously, the top of the Q&A page still confusingly says “Vaccines do not cause autism” —the original title— but it now carries a new asterisk. The asterisk says, and I am not making this up:

“* The header ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ has not been removed, due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.”

The guffaw-producing, asterisked headline is the result of a “deal” that Republicans made with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in exchange for his critical vote to confirm Kennedy as HHS Secretary. At the time, Cassidy recited the agreement into the record, saying (among a list of other promises) that the “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Well, Senator, the statement has not been removed. It was asterisked. (For context, Sen. Cassidy voted to (unsuccessfully) convict the President in the 2021 Senate Impeachment trial that claimed Trump incited a January 6th ‘insurrection.’ He Cassidy has never apologized, but he was censured by the Louisiana GOP.)

Senator Cassidy might have a legitimate complaint about malicious compliance. Leaving the original headline as-is, with an asterisk highlighting the deal, then immediately breaking the spirit of the deal, might arguably be even more offensive than just breaking the promise outright.

They are basically rubbing it in his face.

But Cassidy’s demand was unreasonable. Contracts 101 teaches that contracts to do something illegal are unenforceable.

In other words, Cassidy asked Kennedy to promise to lie. That’s neither ethical nor a legitimate agreement. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) can be legally enforced against, ahem, affectionate actresses, requiring them not to talk about any intimate encounters. But a contract requiring that same actress to lie in court and testify that she did have sex with the man— that agreement cannot be enforced.

If the vaccine-autism issue is important to you, read the new web page, it is a balm for the soul. The most important sentence promises: “HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.” Giddyup.

We’ve long mused over new NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya’s mild promises to “restore gold-standard science” to the agencies. This story, and the media’s hysterical reaction to a single updated CDC web page, show that Jay’s modest promises are actually a battle cry. He’s blinding them— with science.

PS: Jay Bhattacharya is a hero. The Stanford professor gave me a scientific affidavit for my first covid vaccine lawsuit back in summer, 2021 (for free!) and attended the key hearing in case I needed to call him as a witness. (We won.) From personal knowledge, I can tell you he is an all-in Christian, is wicked smart, and is one of the most genuine and quietly courageous men I have ever met.

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“The justice department now has 30 days to publicly share all information from federal investigations into Epstein.” Yesterday, the BBC ran the story, headlined, “Trump signs bill ordering release of Jeffrey Epstein files.” The President had a few things to say about it:

The family of Epstein victim and former Mar-a-Lago locker room attendant Virginia Giuffre, who tragically self-deleted earlier this year, said in a statement that Trump’s signing the bill was “nothing short of monumental” for Virginia and the other victims. “As we look towards the next chapter, we remain vigilant. This work is not finished. Every name must be revealed, regardless of power, wealth, or party affiliation,” vowed Virginia’s in-laws.

There’s been much speculation about whether and how the DOJ will redact or retain documents. But remember, the discharge petition was drafted by the mercurial Thomas Massie, and it leaves Ms. Bondi with little wiggle room. You can read the one-page bill here. I’ll offer two observations.

First, the longest section relates to what may and may not be retained (not disclosed) by DOJ, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), of which Epstein apparently was, not surprisingly, a collector, victims’ personal information, “properly classified” national security material, and information whose release would “jeopardize” ongoing investigations.

But —and this is key— all redactions and withholdings, for whatever reason, must be listed and explained in a separate “unclassified summary.”

Second, I’ll quote the very last requirement in full. The DOJ must deliver a report with this:

(3) A list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials, with no redactions permitted under subsection (b)(1).

A list! In other words, even if we never get an Epstein client list, we might get a Massie “exposed persons” list. Imagine how much interest there is now to see the Massie List.

“The justice department now has 30 days to publicly share all information from federal investigations into Epstein,” the BBC reported.

Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi repeatedly told the press the Department “will follow the law” and “adhere to the 30-day requirement” after the bill’s signing, while promising “maximum transparency.” At her news conference, she confirmed the release will occur within the required 30-day window, which suggests a deadline of December 19, 2025. Just in time for everyone to digest over the Christmas holidays.

Meanwhile, the Defenestration of Larry Summers is now complete. It was the deepest cut. Yesterday, the Harvard Crimson ran this headline:

Larry Summers is now in the winter of his discontent. They didn’t even let him finish the semester. Considering the upcoming holiday class schedule, and excluding exams, there were only about two weeks of classes left. But that was two weeks too long.

He’d already stepped back from other positions, but Summers had still hoped to hang onto his cushy teaching gig. But on Monday, students recorded and uploaded a super cringey video of “Professor” Summers telling his students how he planned to soldier on in the classroom, despite the scandal.

It was one cringe video too much for Harvard. By Wednesday night, it was all over. “Mr. Summers has decided it’s in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role, as Harvard undertakes its review,” a spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday evening statement.

He has also been removed from next semester’s schedule.

Summers has repeatedly said he was “ashamed” about his close relationship with the notorious pedophile— a profound and enduring sense of shame that coincidentally arose after he was exposed.

Who else will be on Massie’s Exposed People list?

🔥 Finally, and I hesitated to include this little nugget, but this tiny news item blossomed all over secondary media yesterday, even making as far as MedPage, which carried the clinical headline, “Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Lemon’ Micropenis; Rough Flu Season? U.S. Measles Status.” Wait. Go back to the lemon thing.

Making lemonade

In a recent Substack interview with Tina Brown, Epstein victim Rina Oh dished the tea. “He had an extremely deformed penis,” she said curtly.

This is almost too much information, but stick with it.

“Some people have described it as the shape of an egg,” Oh continued, but “I think it was more of the shape of a lemon, and it was really small when it was fully erect. It was probably like two inches.” Ms. Oh did not say whether she was thinking of a Meyer lemon, a Sorrento, or some other variety, perhaps even a key lime.

The New York Post seized onto the story, at least the part that it could grab, and compared Epstein to, wait for it, Hitler, who has been long rumored to have had his own genetic predisposition to a shortened schnitzel.

Throughout one’s life, one collects odd scraps of information here and there. We lawyers may be exposed to some of life’s weirdest facts, especially those related to human beings and their various and sundry complaints against one another. One bizarre (and sort of alarming) fact to which I was once exposed —not personally, thank Heavens— is that the egg or lemon shape can be caused by a botched enlargement surgery, after fat is harvested from elsewhere on the body and injected into the male member’s shaft.

Complications can then result. The fat can melt down, lumping around the base of the shaft, ironically producing a shorter pickle than when the patient started. I don’t know how this information is directly useful, except that it might explain Epstein’s preference for paying for companionship.

But it ties into the next, much better, story. The moral of this truncated story is that we should be satisfied with what God has given us, and leave our genitals alone.

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“HHS’ 410-page report alleged that gender-affirming care —including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries —caused significant, long-term damage.” Speaking of genital surgeries that go catastrophically wrong, yesterday, ABC ran a story headlined, “HHS finalizes report on gender-affirming care for youth, medical groups push back.”

Stop messing around with kids’ skulls, too

On January 28th, eight days after taking office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14187, which ordered HHS within 90 days to report on “the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”

To meet the deadline, HHS released a draft version on May 1st, which was savaged by rabid critics, especially because it hadn’t been peer-reviewed. Two days ago, HHS released the final, polished version— with peer review. Critics, never satisfied, were still enraged, like middle-schoolers fined for lacking a permit to run their lemonade stand.

HHS’s report threatens to snuff out big medicine’s lucrative industry around elective procedures for children.

The report demolishes the “Gender Dysphoria” (GD) industry. It is careful and comprehensive. It exposes the whole sordid game as unscientific. “The diagnostic criteria for GD are based solely on subjective reports and behavioral observations in patients with no objective physical pathology,” it clinically and correctly stated. “There are no verifiable physiological or biochemical markers —such as abnormal imaging, lab, or clinical findings— to confirm the GD diagnosis.”

And yet these doctors, without any clinical confirmation, want to perform permanent surgeries with potential complications on children— procedures that are even more risky and horrifying than the one that produced Jeffrey Epstein’s disfigured dongle.

For a single example, one ‘transfemale’ died after ‘her’ vaginoplasty from postsurgical necrotizing fasciitis. Ugh. Kids taking hormones show higher levels of cardiovascular complications, including heart attacks and strokes. Many studies show very high levels of surgical regret, and even post-surgical suicide.

Stop messing around with people’s genitals.

🔥 Critics had also complained in May that the authors hadn’t been disclosed (so that they could be pressured, impugned, and canceled before the report was finalized). Now, the authors are clearly listed. They include self-identified liberals like bioethicist Moti Goren and healthcare researcher Evgenia Abbruzzese, a center-right political scientist Leor Sapir, and a more conservative endocrinologist, Michael Laidlaw. In other words, this is no MAGA team. It is a diverse group of experts, including an MIT philosopher and a research methodologist.

Within hours of the final report’s release on Wednesday, the American Academy of Pediatrics had already denounced it. Tellingly, the AAP’s statement does not point out a single alleged mistake. Instead, it just generally complained the report “misrepresents the current medical consensus” and “prioritizes opinions over dispassionate reviews of evidence.”

Ironically, the AAP and other medical groups complained that they must operate “free from political interference”— apparently having amnesia about how, for the last five years, they’ve relentlessly scolded everyone for “not following the science” when “the science” was just CDC suggestions.

In a press release on Wednesday, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya called the report “a turning point for American medicine,” adding that “we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.” Always follow the science!

“This is a new day for HHS. It’s a new day for the country,” Admiral Brian Christine, assistant secretary for HHS, told Blaze News. “It is because of President Trump and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that this information has come out.”

💉 In the end, the real story isn’t just that HHS produced a 410-page blast of white-hot forensic light, aimed straight at one of the most ideologically protected medical rackets in modern memory. The story is who produced it. For the first time in decades, the government’s science agencies are acting like… science agencies. Not marketing departments for pharma. Not cheerleaders for activist guilds. Not nervous hall monitors terrified of upsetting the donors who financed the new stadium.

This report broke formation. It’s an unmistakable signal flare: the old capture model is cracking. The mandarins who once demanded ritual compliance are suddenly facing a bureaucracy that, at least in part, remembers it has an investigative function. And the moment that happens — the moment evidence stops bowing to guild catechisms — the con starts to shatter apart.

Call it a restoration, a reckoning, or simply a slow return of adult supervision. But something is shifting. And the people who’ve profited the most from confusion, silence, and fear know it. For the first time in a long time, the alphabet-soup agencies aren’t manufacturing balloons of consent — they’re popping them, along with the moneyed interests invested in the pseudo-science.

Don’t miss the part that really stings the institutional interests: this wasn’t a Substack post, a rogue researcher, or a disgruntled clinician yelling into the wind. This is an official, peer-reviewed, HHS publication — stamped, numbered, and signed by the very agency that once carried water for the gender-medicine guild.

Now, every lawyer representing an injured patient, every parent blindsided by a catastrophic complication, can walk into discovery with a federally sanctioned, peer-reviewed document saying what the medical cartels insisted could never be said: that the entire diagnostic framework rests on subjective impressions, that no objective pathology exists, that the evidence base is weak, and that the risks are grave.

In malpractice litigation, that’s solid gold. It’s an engraved invitation to ask juries the critical question: “Why was the hospital doing irreversible surgeries on minors when federal regulators warned them the science was junk?”

Hospitals know exactly how dangerous that is. So do insurers. So do the academics who built their careers on affirm-only dogma. They’re suddenly staring down the barrel of a government report that not only undercuts their talking points but becomes a plaintiff’s Exhibit A.

The liability clock just started ticking loudly.

It almost gives me hope that the government health agencies do have a purpose. Here, their purpose was to collapse pseudo-scientific “consensus” and let some sunlight into the debate. Kudos to Trump and his team.

Have a fabulous Friday! Coffee & Covid will return tomorrow morning, with another terrific roundup of essential news and snarky but optimistic commentary.

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