Autism has gone up by a factor of five since 2000 but acetominophen use during pregnancy has been going down. Sorry but the math just ain’t mathing.

Well, idk about you, but tbh that press conference was even worse than I was expecting. open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

We were promised a report. I wanted to see methods and analyses and all that good stuff!

Snake oil salesman RFK Jr is set to announce the 'cause' of and 'cure' for autism at 4pm today. Here's what we know about what he's going to say: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

You: want to do a target trial emulation or other observational study design but don’t know where to start. Me: available to consult.

Finally, I received my copy of this classic intro text on epidemiology! We used to call it 'Baby Rothman' back in the day, when I did my epi PhD training at Berkeley 20 years ago Delighted to see the inspiring @epiellie.bsky.social as a co-author! Bravo, Ellie! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

All September, I'm explaining common research biases. Today is detection bias. Which is so simple even Trump understands it! Read here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Question for @raulpachecovega.bsky.social or others with similar expertise: I just finished reading Catherine McNeur’s book Taming Manhattan (love it!) and it made me realize how little I know about what happens to all the various waste products generated by our modern cities. Any reading recs?

Today's post is all about how a badly designed study can make it look like people live forever. And how, if you only apply this to one group, you can essentially guarantee any study result you want. 😬 open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

RFK Jr loves to say that there was no autism when he was a kid. And technically he's right. But he's also making a classic error! open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Today's E is for Epi reveals the one weird trick that prevents all illness! Check it out here👇 open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

RFK Jr has promised to release a report on the causes of autism in September. To prepare, it's a good idea to make sure we know what the common types of observational research biases are. First up: confounding by indication. Read more here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

It's an honor to be a guest author on E is for Epi today! Give us a read and let me know what you think.

Some of y’all forget the reason we have food safety regulations is because companies used to do things like adding chalk to spoiled milk so it looked normal. Regulations don’t exist because governments enjoy them. They exist because pure unadulterated capitalism would kill us.

Public health is under attack. It’s not enough to fight back, we need to make our field better for everyone. Today’s E is for Epi guest post by @jessieish.bsky.social & Nadia Abuelezam asks “what would a solidarity-based epidemiology look like?” Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

It's September and I've finished my summer reading list, so summer is officially over! Let's talk books! open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

When he said he wanted to make America healthy again, he meant by unleashing a scourge that only the "healthy" would survive.

🧵 I know it's ridiculous, but when he's talking mitochondrial challenges & inflammation, he's again referring to his idea of vaccine-induced autism. Let me explain.

Curious to hear from all those “but RFK Jr’s right that there *are* problems, let’s give him a chance” people after yesterday’s leadership exodus at the CDC. Still think burning down the house was an actual solution?

All real exponentials are, eventually, sigmoid.

Hot take: AI therapy chatbots are medical devices and should be regulated by the FDA.

This really is an exceptionally great piece about how public health should tackle the current moment of existential crisis. Read it, and be hopeful. Then act. www.statnews.com/2025/08/18/r...

Nate Silver thinks academic journals are a lost cause. But they aren't. If anything, the real problem is that these journals are *too* profitable. Which means no one bothers to dream up other ideas, only variations on the theme. 🧵

In today's article, learn how a chance discussion with the chair of Harvard’s statistics department changed everything about how I think about learning statistics. Click here to read the full article: kareemcarr.substack.com/p/the-hardes...

It's too hot and the world is too awful, so today I wrote about my favorite public health invention of all time. Find out what it is here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

RFK Jr "has perfected the art of undermining public confidence in vaccines by leaning on a tiny handful of fringe researchers and then sounding “sciencey”—throwing around bits of medical jargon—to give the impression he’s an expert himself."

What happens when the highest leaders in office spread misinformation about vaccines killing people, stolen elections, etc? A lot of people believe it. And it makes them furious enough to risk their lives in revenge. My heart goes out to public health workers rn. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

The CDC shooter was fixated on vaccine conspiracy theories. He shot at the CDC and killed a police officer. RFK Jr., through his antivax group, funded the pseudoscience propaganda film PIandemic, a key driver of false vaccine claims. It is beyond inappropriate for him to remain in office.

New blog post: Paper Mills are Poisoning Science Science is being spammed with ghost written junk articles sold in bulk. A new PNAS paper shows how far this has gotten. pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.10… Blog link belowopen.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...os

“we reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and completely ignored it all because we are fuckin dumbasses who want millions of people to die”

Infections are bad for you should be the absolutely least controversial statement a person can make. And yet.

Happy to announce I just defended my dissertation at Harvard and I’m now a PhD.

People thought I was overreacting when I said Trump’s list of “banned” words meant epidemiology was itself defacto being banned. But this week U Michigan announced they aren’t even accepting applications for the 2026 epi PhD admissions cycle. www.michigandaily.com/news/news-br...

How have you been impacted by the changes we've seen under the current administration? What would you want to say to those in charge? I'm launching a new research initiative to collect and share anonymous stories of the human toll. And I'd be very grateful for your help. tinyurl.com/thehumantoll

Looking for some summer reading to help you get through the dog days? Look no further than @jessicacalarco.com's excellent book: Holding it Together. My reflections and why I think everyone should read this book in my newsletter here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Pre-existing conditions make the need for care greater, not lesser. How the fuck did we let this opposite idea take hold?!

The main thing that worries me about this is the near certainty that whoever gets the job next will be even less qualified.

Technical writing is hard bcs "writing is thinking" but we often should tell our story not in the order we worked. Solution? I wrote a quick post on how @quarto.org 's embed shortcodes can reframe technical writing as reproducible evidence curation www.emilyriederer.com/post/quarto-... 🧵 (1/n)

PS: I do not know about you but I want my healthcare provider to make recommendations for my healthcare needs based on the highest level of scientifically backed evidence, not baseless conspiracy theories. Expertise still matters and undermining it causes real harm.

📣Epidemiologists📣 The ever-amazing Nadia Abuelezam and ‪@jessieish.bsky.social‬ are doing a study on what solidarity means to epidemiologists and how it factors into their epi practice. If you have 10 minutes to spare, and are based in the US, check out their survey at tinyurl.com/solidarityepi

Just finished reading @jessicacalarco.com’s Holding it Together and wow! Highly recommend! Jess is such a good writer! And I love how she manages to make this book both a general audience read *and* an evidence-based scientific work. A++

In today's E is for Epi, I explain what's wrong with the methods in the recent study on gabapentin and dementia. I also explain the difference between association and causation using pop-tarts. Because why not 😆 open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

This is so real. Conspiracy trolls like to claim people who do health communication are paid pharma shills, but if I really wanted to make money and didn’t care who got hurt, I would be hyping whatever snake oil is most popular.

If you, like me, have back pain, you might have seen a recent study claiming gabapentin causes dementia. That's scary! But is it true? In this week's E is for Epi, I give the paper a public peer-review. Read Part 1 below and subscribe so you don't miss Part 2. open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

First federal, now state programs designed to make pregnancy and birth safer are being cut. Tracking of adverse MCH outcomes have been halted or cut both federally and in some states. Yet the feds propose to pay people to have more children. This feels like a trap. Maybe even a death trap.

A man in Arizona just died from pneumonic plague. Before you freak out, here are 5 things you need to know about plague. LInk: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Anyone out there in #AcademicSky #ScienceSky #EpiSky have the full text of this article?

Sounds to me like they're planning to use the new proof-of-work requirements to manage the AI-ification of the economy. Funneling people out of the low-wage jobs currently disappearing (like customer service rep) and into the even more precarious jobs that remain (like farm laborer and hotel maid).