“I mean, why willingly expose yourself to this hornet’s nest?” www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/f...

"A vast majority of the about two dozen poster-style images posted in recent months feature a White man; most are blond, and a significant number are blue-eyed." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

sobering piece by Carl Elliot on missing literature on medical scandals www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc...

Illuminating analysis of Forced Ketamine Studies, Excited Delirium, and Police Violence by @carlelliott.bsky.social and Lauren Wilson onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A week after @bmj.com published a highly publicized paper claiming stem cell therapy can reduce the risk of heart failure, sleuths have unearthed what they are calling “serious” inconsistencies in the data.

I am so very excited about this new chapter of my life. Looking forward to working alongside talented colleagues to find creatives ways to leverage knowledge for the benefit of Canadians www.dal.ca/news/2025/11...

Armed ICE officers arrested a teacher early Wednesday in Chicago after chasing her onto the grounds of a private preschool and grabbing her as parents and students looked on, according to a local official and witnesses.

"It’s time for the FDA to do its job - and it’s just our bad luck that this comes at a time when the FDA has never been less able to do that." www.science.org/content/blog... By @dereklowe.bsky.social

“The legitimate discussion risks being drowned by the synthetic noise.” www.science.org/content/arti...

"Starting next fall, the University of California system office will no longer pay for the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, a fellowship established in 1984 to encourage more women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academic careers." www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

"The multiyear spending plan also calls for a 2% cut to the nation’s three major research funding councils. But that reduction is far smaller than the 15% cut researchers had feared was coming, and science advocacy groups generally welcomed the budget."

FDA has issued a warning letter to Apotex Inc., based in Toronto, Ontario. The letter documents "significant violations of Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations for finished pharmaceuticals." www.fda.gov/inspections-...

Arena BioWorks flames out. www.statnews.com/2025/11/04/a...

NEWS: Federal agents crashed with woman’s car, pointed guns at her, dragged her out by legs, tossed her in a minivan, held her and (eventually) let her go without charges. This as Chicagoans say the immigration blitz is out of control. (DHS blames her.) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/c...

"It was the latest shockwave to sweep through an agency beset by all kinds of tumult in recent months." www.statnews.com/2025/11/04/f...

"Bioethicists owe a large debt to the historians who have excavated the research scandals of the past, but not all scandals have been consigned to history." www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc... By @carlelliott.bsky.social

Thanks to @carlelliott.bsky.social for publishing this important piece about how research scandals occupy too little of the bioethics literature -- and for his extensive discussion of exploitation of disabled people in the Willowbrook hepatitis experiments. www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc...

“We are witnessing nothing less than a clown show at #FDA right now.” People who worked at or rely on the US drug regulator see dysfunctional leadership & soap opera-ish behavior at a key federal agency, @matthewherper.bsky.social & @lizzylawrence.bsky.social report. www.statnews.com/2025/11/04/f...

“Bioethicists owe a debt to historians who excavated the research scandals of the past,…[but] you can see them at medical institutions everywhere, including your own….you may be repelled by what you see.” @carlelliott.bsky.social www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc...

"The majority of Americans now seek health information on social media (and even when we don’t seek it, it is dumped into our eyeballs). We are left to separate a world of unproven, exaggerated and sometimes false claims from the truth." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o... By @jessgrose.bsky.social

"Jury selection could be complicated by the notoriety of the incident, after Halloween decoration tributes and posters depicting Mr. Dunn in the style of the street artist Banksy have sprouted up around the city." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

"MAGA and MAHA are happily married in Florida, and nowhere more at home than in Sarasota County, where...a crowd of several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste." www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/h...

Sometimes it seems as though they're not sending the FDA their best. www.statnews.com/2025/11/03/g...

"On the day the top drug regulator at the Food and Drug Administration resigned amid an investigation into his conduct, he also faced an explosive lawsuit that includes a series of incendiary texts and emails he is said to have sent to a former business associate." www.statnews.com/2025/11/03/g...

"As agencies lose scientific expertise and evidence-based guidance, the knock-on effects will be widespread and costly — to the economy, the environment, public health and the broader research enterprise." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Story has more details now about Tidmarsh's feud with biotech investor Kevin Tang. Tang's company sued Tidmarsh today, accusing him of a "longstanding personal vendetta":

BREAKING: FDA’s top drug regulator George Tidmarsh has been placed on leave after being accused of abusing his regulatory authority - but also after he questioned the commissioner's plan to speed approvals, and clashed with Vinay Prasad. More here: www.statnews.com/2025/11/02/f...

Definitely the right year for "RIP FDA" Halloween headstones. www.statnews.com/2025/11/02/f...

"...Tidmarsh did not find out he had been placed on leave until he was locked out of his agency email account on Saturday." www.statnews.com/2025/11/02/f...

"George Tidmarsh," the FDA's "top regulator of drugs, has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of using his regulatory authority to inflict financial harm on a former business associate." www.statnews.com/2025/11/02/f... By @lizzylawrence.bsky.social @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social

“My contempt is directed at an inferred ignorance that may not even exist. But I try to make them feel as ignorant as possible.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

"Federal immigration agents fanned out across Chicago and its North Shore suburbs on Halloween, chasing suspects through front yards, driving S.U.V.s onto sidewalks and using chemical agents during confrontations with furious residents." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/u...

As SNAP benefits lapse, thousands show up to Southern California food banks

Fantastic article about efforts to create global deregulatory zones for medical research, which seem best at creating conditions to exploit wealthy medical tourists and very bad at producing a shred of decent clinical evidence.

“You’re going to see some very specific announcements coming out very soon on guidance, and they’re going to be moving in one direction. I’ll tell you right now, deregulatory.” endpoints.news/fda-commissi...

What, I wondered, will a future of clinical trials moving at breakneck speed actually look like? How risky is it? Vitalia seemed like it might offer some answers." @shaylalove.bsky.social with a terrific article about Próspera, deregulated 'clinical research' & more. newrepublic.com/article/2011...

I went to a pop-up city on an island off the coast of Honduras, which bills itself as a hub for fast-tracking longevity drugs. I wrote about what I found there for @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2011...

"Dozens of scientists are considering leaving the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, where Prasad serves as director, to escape a work environment that eight agency officials described to STAT as rife with mistrust and paranoia."

For 61 years the #BBCWorldService has been broadcasting the latest in science via its weekly Science in Action programme. That dies in the next half hour, with this final edition, reflecting on the fall in trust in expertise driven by malign interests over recent years.

"By the time freshmen arrived in September with their minifridges and extra-long sheets, disgruntled faculty and graduate students had printed up flyers. Families—many paying $71,000 a year—were handed a paper that read 'UChicago: Spending Your Tuition On Its Mistakes.'” www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Ahead of the 1st shutdown of US food aid to hungry Americans in 60 years, some of the 200,000 Little Free Library locations are converting into food pantries. Thanks @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social

The need for strong ethical oversight of Canadian Research Ethics Boards cannot be overstated. At a minimum, the Minister of Health should insist on compliance with section 4.3 of the Government of Canada's Agreement on the Administration of Agency Grants and Awards by Research Institutions.

Absolutely chilling story by @aniloza.bsky.social on censorship in grant titles at NIH and how researchers are complying and sometimes fighting back. "They are trying to make people afraid to use the word equity," said one program officer. "It's highly effective." www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

The NIH has insisted there are no banned words But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25 Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

“It’s the combination of your own funding uncertainty plus this kind of clash in morals and values that is just such a hard combination.” www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

Sheriff’s deputies euthanized five monkeys that got loose when the truck carrying them overturned on a Mississippi highway on Tuesday after the driver mistakenly told them that the primates were infected with Covid-19, hepatitis C and herpes when they were not, the authorities said.

"Authorities are searching for one monkey that’s still on the loose. Neighbors should not approach the monkey. If they see the monkey, they should call 911." The rest of you can look for the fugitive monkey. I've got my eyes out for time travelers. www.wjtv.com/news/pine-be...

"There are large diphtheria outbreaks now in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Chad — countries with civil wars or large populations of refugees where vaccination coverage is low, surveillance is weak and frail health systems leave children undiagnosed or treated too late."

"If you make truth unknowable, accountability becomes impossible." www.thenation.com/article/poli... By @eric-reinhart.com

"U.S. military officials involved with President Donald Trump's expanding operations in Latin America have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements...a development that raises new questions about a military buildup that Venezuela fears may lead to an invasion." www.reuters.com/world/americ...