Jessica Malaty Rivera

Malaty Rivera contends that clean water and vaccines have been the greatest advances in longevity.

“the greatest advancement in longevity science has been clean water and vaccines. It's why we're living as long as we are”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 30:28

Malaty Rivera argues that hostility arises because vaccine beliefs are bound up with identity, so pushback feels like a personal attack on a worldview.

“It's so much of it has to do with a person's identity”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 20:23

Malaty Rivera acknowledges vaccines carry real risk of adverse events but argues the totality of evidence shows benefits outweigh risks.

“There is risk in vaccines. And anybody who denies that is not being honest. However, we also know from the totality of evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 12:23

Malaty Rivera argues the U.S. is in an extremely dangerous period of redefining established science and exploiting post-pandemic trauma to turn people against evidence.

“we are in an extremely dangerous time in our country's history when it comes to a redefining of established science”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 9:36

Malaty Rivera cites Pew, KFF and Reuters data indicating almost half of Americans use social media as their primary health news source.

“almost half of Americans use social media as their primary health news source”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 42:41

Malaty Rivera recounts that an FBI agent told her that her and her children's names appeared on dark websites with specific threats of violence.

“an FBI agent called me one day to tell me that my name and my children's names had appeared on dark websites with very specific threats of violence”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 19:01

Malaty Rivera advises asking who is speaking and their credentials, where the information comes from, and whether it is designed to provoke emotion before sharing health content.

“Number one, who is saying this and what are their credentials? Number two, where is this information coming from?”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 1:54

Malaty Rivera predicts the United States is about to lose its measles elimination status for the first time in decades.

“we are about to lose our measles elimination status in the United States for the first time in decades”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 15:50

Malaty Rivera states measles killed about 500 U.S. children annually before the MMR vaccine was introduced.

“Measles used to kill 500 children in the United States every single year before the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was introduced”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 11:35

Malaty Rivera recommends a nutrient-dense diet, strength training, and staying up to date on vaccines as three health no-brainers.

“Strength training, especially for women to lift weights, to exercise and stay up to date on your vaccines. Those are my three things”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 51:25

Malaty Rivera rejects claims that sunscreen blocks vitamin D or causes cancer.

“you can wear your SPF and still get vitamin D. That's a misconception that you need to be out in the sun”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 50:22

Malaty Rivera says peptides as a category have many claims but little evidence and are often unregulated.

“Peptides as a category right now is a lot of claims with not a lot of evidence to say what they actually do”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 48:14

Malaty Rivera says AI is essential for medical innovation and diagnostics when used by appropriate experts with proper citations, but worries about its effect on information ecosystems.

“it is an absolutely essential tool in innovation for medicine and for diagnostics in medicine when used by the appropriate experts”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 46:19

Malaty Rivera says COVID-19 is endemic and will never be eradicated, and that vaccines reduce rather than eliminate risk.

“COVID is going to be with us forever. COVID is like one of those diseases that will never be eradicated”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 40:03

Malaty Rivera says the hantavirus cruise outbreak was a rare, closed event and that media headlines made unrelated cases look like a larger outbreak.

“So it made it look like an outbreak. It made it look bigger than it was”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 36:36

Malaty Rivera argues that natural does not mean safe and that the clean-eating trope rests on an appeal to nature fallacy.

“nature has been trying to kill humans since humans came to this planet. Like nature is not safe by default”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 32:05

Malaty Rivera argues that wellness grift preys on women, especially in midlife, by hyper-diagnosing nonspecific symptoms to sell products.

“there's so much money in the opportunity to sell something to have somebody subscribe to something and I think that women are especially preyed upon in this context”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 23:09

Malaty Rivera says decades of research have shown the MMR vaccine does not cause autism, but Wakefield's retracted claim became the first domino of the anti-science movement.

“the mmr one was almost kind of the the first domino to fall”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 15:50

Malaty Rivera defines infodemiology as the study of information to improve public health, applying epidemiology's questions to information.

“We define it as the study of information to improve public health. It is kind of the version of epidemiology, but about information”

TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 2:29