So Much for Eliminating Measles | This week, Mattel unveiled a Barbie that has Type 1 diabetes and comes with an insulin pump and a glucose monitor. In a press release, Barbie's senior VP Krista Berger said the T1D doll will help "shape children's early perceptions of the world." If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. keeps up his attack on childhood vaccines, maybe the next Barbie will have measles: "In a grim milestone for public health, measles cases in the US have reached their highest annual level since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000," writes Lisa Jarvis. The kicker? "It's only July." As if 2025 didn't have enough problems — wars, wildfires, tariffs, floods, AI – we're now knee-deep in a public health crisis that Lisa says was completely avoidable. "Instead of unequivocally endorsing vaccination as the key to stopping the spread of the disease, [Kennedy] offered only lukewarm support for the MMR vaccine, couched between misinformation about its safety and recommendations for unproven treatments," she writes. Now, the "real-life consequences of Kennedy's months-long assault on vaccines are materializing," Lisa says: The CDC has recorded 1,288 measles cases across 39 states, marking a 33-year high. Thinking about that timeline, I was barely a glint in my mother's eye back in 1992. I'm lucky to have been born into a mostly measles-free America. It's a shame that today's babies won't be able to say the same. The public health establishment is pushing back against Kennedy's actions: "On Monday, a coalition of six medical associations filed a lawsuit accusing Kennedy of trampling over longstanding processes for setting vaccine policy when he announced on X that Covid shots would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women," Lisa writes. "Although Covid vaccines are the center of the lawsuit (which could be expanded if Kennedy impedes access to others), the group warned that the policy's impact is much broader." If that's true, then the return of measles is just the beginning. The Pareto Principle dictates that 20% of people do 80% of work. At the Pentagon, where one man is singlehandedly masterminding the entire National Defense Strategy, that rule seems to apply. And that man is Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy:  Photographer: Bloomberg "Even a government of the shallow, by the shallow, for the shallow needs depth in certain functions," Andreas Kluth writes. And that depth can be found in Colby. Andreas calls him "a curious person to wield so much sway in such an ostentatiously populist and anti-elitist administration." In addition to his perfectly coiffed head of hair, he's got the academic trifecta — Groton, Harvard, Yale — and nepo baby status (at least in defense circles), thanks to his grandpa, a former CIA director. Colby is by no means fresh meat, though. Toby Harshaw talked to him about nukes back in 2019 and Andreas says he was already influential in Trump's first term. In the second term, Colby's main prerogative seems to be the looming threat of China. "Guided by that stance, Colby has been putting his signature on all sorts of other policy moves," Andreas writes. "The other day, the US abruptly paused deliveries to Ukraine of various munitions, from artillery rounds to Patriot batteries, ostensibly because America needed to conserve its own stockpiles. That initiative came from Colby, who views Ukraine as a job for the European allies but a distraction for Washington." Ironic, considering distractions are what gives Colby such a long leash. Read the whole thing. Bonus Wartime Reading: | 
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