Highlights:
- NEET-UG examination reforms under consideration after repeated paper leaks.
- A feature in BMJ cries foul on FDA’s action of blocking vaccine safety studies.
- The most powerful nation has a mentally unstable leader at the helm of affairs?
Website: https://uho.org.in
By Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Chairperson of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO)
NEET-UG examination reforms under consideration after repeated paper leaks.
Last week, the nation was rocked by the news of paper leaks in the NEET – UG examination and subsequent cancellation of the test. Regrettably, this has become a recurrent feature. Paper leak of NEET-UG also occurred in the year 2024 which resulted in some fire fighting and some recommendations which never got implemented resulting in the fiasco in 2026.
The UHO has discussed these unfortunate incidents, including a panel discussion, recently.
After this latest incident, according to a report by TNN, a senior health ministry official said discussions on possible reforms in NEET are expected in the coming days between health ministry, National Medical Commission (NMC), and National Testing Agency (NTA), whether parts of the examination could be digitised.
The central government is examining a hybrid examination model, under which the question papers will be digitally transmitted to centres and printed locally under secure conditions. This is being considered as a safer workable option because conducting online examination for around 25 lakhs candidates’ poses infrastructure and logistics issues.
The UHO is of the opinion that the recurring controversies surrounding India’s NEET underscore a harsh reality: while technological and logistical upgrades are necessary, the real challenge in exam reform lies in the lack of strong punitive action that serves as a genuine deterrent.
A feature in BMJ cries foul on FDA’s action of blocking vaccine safety studies.
Recently the British Medical Journal (BMJ), has published an opinion piece which cries foul of the FDA’s action of blocking vaccine safety studies.
Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration have blocked the publication of several studies of covid-19 and shingles vaccines conducted by the agency’s own scientists, it has emerged. Each blocked study showed the safety of widespread use of vaccines for both conditions.
It must be recalled that after Robert F Kennedy Jr, the present Human and Health Secretary (HHS) of the USA assumed office, there was major reshuffle in the top echelons of the FDA and the CDC in that country. Many top officials in these two organizations had strong ties with the pharmaceutical industry resulting in serious conflicts of interests. The studies on the safety of the Covid-19 and the Shingles vaccines which have been blocked had been carried out by the previous FDA scientists who had these conflicts of interest.
“The studies were withdrawn because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data,” Emily Hilliard, HHS press secretary, told The BMJ. “The FDA acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and ensure that any work associated with the agency meets its high standards.”
Critics said the blocks on the studies were another example of antivaccine sentiment from the HHS head, US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Fiona Havers, a former official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the CDC’s tracking of hospital admissions for covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, told ABC News, “HHS leaders now have a clear pattern of blocking high quality studies that include results that don’t support their overall antivaccine narrative. This censorship of taxpayer-funded science is extremely concerning.”
UHO regrets that any caution expressed about any vaccine is labelled as “anti-science” and “anti-vax.” Studies by scientists with conflicts of interests should be viewed with extreme caution as there is a tendency to give a clean chit to vaccines which reap huge profits for the manufacturers and scientists associated with the industry.
The most powerful nation has a mentally unstable leader at the helm of affairs?
According to a, report in the BMJ thirty US psychiatrists and other doctors specialising in mental health have signed a statement declaring President Donald Trump mentally unfit to serve, warning that his ability to launch nuclear weapons is a “danger” to the world.
The signatories say that Trump’s behaviour over the past year has shown “objectively observable signs of serious medical concern.”
They cited examples of his “marked deterioration in cognitive functioning,” “episodes of apparent somnolence during critical public proceedings,” “severely impaired judgment and impulse control,” and “significant loss of self-control,” as well as “grandiose and delusional beliefs, including assertions of infallibility, imagery of himself as Pope suggestive of a divine mission.”
The doctors called for Trump’s immediate removal from office, arguing that he presents a “clear and present danger” to the whole world.
“It is our expert opinion that Donald J Trump is mentally unfit to be the president of the United States and that steps to remove him from office must be undertaken with the greatest urgency,” they said.
The letter invokes the 25th amendment of the US constitution, which provides a mechanism for the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare that the president is unable to discharge the powers of his office and for the vice president to assume these powers.
“If we were called upon under the 25th amendment to judge the president’s present ability to discharge the duties of his office, we would have to conclude that he lacks the capacity to do so,” the signatories wrote.
The US senate offices of Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, two Democratic senators from Rhode Island, submitted the statement—seen by The BMJ—for inclusion in the US Congressional Record.
One of the signatories of the statement was Henry David Abraham, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.
“What motivates my group of physicians now is the buildup of psychiatric symptoms in a person who has the sole authority to launch a nuclear weapon, and has now threatened genocide against an adversary in a time of war,” he told The BMJ.
He was referencing Trump’s 7 April 2026 post on Truth Social regarding the ongoing conflict with Iran, in which the president said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Abraham added, “Symptoms of concern are grandiosity without guardrails, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, and most frightening, uncontrolled rage in a man who controls nuclear weapons without oversight.”
The signatories claimed that the declaration was not a political statement. “It is a medical one, made by individuals holding both conservative and liberal ideologies, identifying as both Republicans and Democrats, from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and religions,” they wrote.
UHO concurs with the signatories as the geopolitics resulting from rash decisions by a mentally unstable President of the most powerful country affects all citizens of the world. We also anticipate that the removal of Trump would deescalate the Hormuz crises which is causing great financial hardships to all common citizens due to escalating oil and gas prices. We also cannot reconcile with the American atrocity of striking on a girls school in Iran killing 110 innocent students.
UHO firmly believes that wars are the greatest threat to public health.
The weekly newsletters bring the updates on the science, battered and bruised during the pandemic, legal updates and impact of activism for a just society, across the world. These are small steps to promote Transparency, Empowerment and Accountability – the ethos of the UHO.
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