Skip to the content Science Aug 07, 2025 3:42 PM
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Theres a weird little trick to living longer. Its one that influencers wont tell you; after all, theres no way to earn a commission on it. It can be found tucked in the back of CVS, or even at any regular old doctors office. Its expensive, but you may very well be able to get it for free. The government increasinglystaggeringly, stupefyinglydoesnt want you to know about it.
Or to put it another way: This is really, really bad for human longevity. Why bother putting it like that? If vaccination is boring, routine, old news like landing on the moon, the science of living longer is alluring, sexy, obsession-worthy. We pop rapamycin supplements (that probably dont do anything for aging). We try to follow the lifestyle and habits of people who supposedly live remarkably long lives in so-called Blue Zones (whoops, those might be fake). We sauna and cold plunge (though you know what, those activities are nice and I am on board with them). The rich buy access to longevity clinics, and the super rich do all kinds of frankly very weird stuff. Certain tech moguls, in particular, seem to love both longevity science and cozying up to the Trump administration: Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and Peter Thiel have all invested in companies working toward the pursuit of living longer, and all have dined with, donated to, or otherwise supported the president. The most extreme and costly efforts in longevity technology are personally pursued by Bryan Johnson, the man who claims to have the goal of not dying. In a July interview with Wired, Johnson wouldnt quite endorse RFK Jr.s break public health MO, but he wouldnt denounce it, either, noting that change produces a new path that people didnt anticipate. Well, this change, in mRNA vaccine funding, produces a path that we can anticipate, which could be summed up as: die sooner.

Longevity bros, now is the time to be shrieking at the top of your lungs about how bad these vaccine cuts arefor Americas longevity, and for yours. When we talk about longevity science, we tend to focus on the individual: what you can do, what you can buy, what blood test you can take so that you personally can live longer. And its true, there are steps one can take to extend ones own lifespan, though these tend to be a little boring, like Dont eat too much junk food and Go to the doctor. But how long we will live is also a matter of the larger environment were in, including whether its an environment where disease is spreading freely. What circulates in the world can always wind up on your doorstep.
Longevity is something that we can best achieve not as individuals taking supplements and getting transfusions of young blood, but by collectively engaging in and contributing via tax dollars to practices that promote everyones well-being. We will live longer by working together to live longeror we will die sooner by rejecting the fact that our fates are all connected. I mean this literally. Destroying public health is bad for everyones health. Yes, the consequences of the damage to mRNA vaccine development will not be evenly felt across demographics; COVID hit some populations much, much harder than others. But at the end of the day, germs dont really care who you are. When a novel disease spreads and we dont have a way to whip up protection against it, the rich will die, too.
