Gift 🎁 link to an informative piece. Again, the issue is not that this Ebola outbreak is expected to spread unchecked in the US, but that the US, in facing global health risks, is unprepared to meet these moments. Obama & Biden developed pandemic play books (again: ... 1/2 wapo.st/3RDIQM4

There are two issues here: the first is that people with eating disorders are inappropriately accessing GLP-1s, & there aren't really guardrails. The second is that GLP-1s may have the potential to create eating disorders by muting hunger signals. 🧵Details: www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

A brief reprieve for fluoridated water: The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals "found a district court judge had 'commandeered' the case and abused his discretion....[&] sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to rule again." www.eenews.net/articles/cou...

It's interesting (and awful) how attitudes towards maternal & fetal safety have flipped, over the centuries. Until the 19th century, even full-term fetuses were often sacrificed (in a manner that would shock modern sensibilities) to save a pregnant woman's life. Ironically, as obstetric medicine...

I think, if you're going to work for an HHS agency & you have an interest in public health, you ought to assume you'll be blindsided on the regular. Senior officials in the FDA’s tobacco center were "blindsided" by the decision to allow "unauthorized... 1/2 apnews.com/article/fda-...

Good news re: MFLUSIVA: "The FDA initially refused to review the vaccine" in Feb. "before abruptly reversing course a week later. This decision comes following the abrupt departure of former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and not long after the departure of Vinay... 1/2 thehill.com/newsletters/...

I'm very glad she's gone, but if the real issue is that anyone who contradicts Trump on intelligence is axed, that's also concerning. Nonstop lies to the public are bad enough, but if Trump only wants to hear lies, too, that seems awfully dangerous. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

That was very special, and now CBS can go f** itself forever. This is goodnight and not goodbye, Stephen. Tell us where to find you next, and we'll be there in a heartbeat. @colbertlateshow.bsky.social

Former CDC Director Robert Redfield said "he suspects the spreading Ebola outbreak...will spread across three new countries and become a 'very significant pandemic.'” It's in the DRC & Uganda now. He thinks it will spread to Tanzania, southern Sudan, & maybe Rwanda. thehill.com/policy/healt...

Details on how Trump & the GOP screwed the pooch on global health, in ways likely to come back on us in the not-so-distant future. (Will it be Ebola? Hopefully not. But it will be something, because of all USAID did & doesn't do anymore.) 🧵 Details below: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

🚨🚨 Folks, the midterms are this year, & we're in trouble. Messaging wins elections, & messaging depends on money. But per the NYT today, the DNC began "May with $17.5 million in debts and just $14.4 million cash on hand....the [RNC] reported $123.9 million on hand — and no debts." If you care about

Trump hates the Senate parliamentarian because her job is to make sure the Senate follows the rules, & he can't stand being told to follow rules. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

The New York Times editorial board: “Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals.”

Neither RFK nor Bhattacharya cares that the "[s]hortage of permanent leadership keeps centers from planning projects, undertaking research" or advocating for funding. They aren't trying to better human health; RFK is in it for the grift, Bhattacharya, for revenge. www.statnews.com/2026/05/20/n...

RFK, Jr. has fired the two chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The USPSTF "determines when insurance must provide free preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies, for millions of Americans." We don't know why or what it means, yet. The task... 1/2 apnews.com/article/trum...

Rest in power, Barney. You were quite a fierce character, and had quite a sharp wit. Mr. Frank was "known for championing gay rights, civil rights and women’s rights." He was "the first gay member of the House to come out voluntarily." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/u...

If you watch Colbert but it's not on yet where you live, be sure to watch all the way through to the end of David Byrne's Burning Down the House, tonight. I almost cried. CBS sucks.

Gift 🎁 link, because some news is too stressful to summarize in a thread. wapo.st/3RzNpad

Ffs. No one is above the law...except Trump, his family, & their businesses. The agreement the DoJ made to settle Trump's lawsuit against the IRS includes a provision barring the IRS "from pursuing tax claims against President Trump, his family or his businesses." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...

Democrats are doing what they can to protect our supply of healthcare workers. The GOP's Big Beautiful Bill put limits on grad school loans - for everyone, including future MDs, but esp. for those in programs they've deemed "non-professional." Problem is, 🧵 www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

“'This is the most striking example so far of how much the dissolution of USAID and destruction of CDC’s role around the world is threatening our national security,' said Stephanie Psaki, who was U.S. coordinator for global health security" under Biden. 🧵1/4 www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Idjits. Well, it seems like (temporary) good news, at least. Kennedy's HHS tried to amend the CDC's ACIP charter such that the former requirement for members to have “expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive... thehill.com/policy/healt...

Another important reason to get your HPV shot: "If smoking and alcohol use have decreased in the U.S., why then are rates of head and neck cancer increasing? It turns out, the answer involves an infection." It's Human papillomavirus, friends. HPV is... 1/4 www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

“The alert was out very late,” said...a doctor and epidemiologist who is leading the [WHO's] response to the outbreak. Typically, high numbers of cases are picked up much earlier by health officials or in news reports. This time, it was weeks before health... 1/3 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Canadian study: Because SARS-CoV-2 mutates often, it's important to keep assessing vax efficacy. "The 2025/2026 seasonal COVID vaccination was associated with a roughly 50% reduced risk for illness up to 9 weeks post-vaccination." 1/2 www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Health experts are "increasingly alarmed about this outbreak, arguing that cases have been spreading undetected in a volatile region as public health authorities are stretched thin amid funding cuts and the ongoing hantavirus outbreak." Oh, please. The... www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Still think there's no difference between a Democratic & Republican White House? If so, by all means, keep drinking that Kool-aid, made with lots of H20. The EPA’s proposal "would end the Biden-era drinking water limits for four toxic PFAS compounds: 1/2 www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

🚨🧵 Monday Math Day: Wondering where all that money from lost federal healthcare coverage and food stamps went? Suspect a lot of it was on things you neither want nor need? Today, I decided to crunch just a few numbers: 🔺️First, a reminder of what we've lost in health and basic survival funding over

Same as before, 'cept now even more...of your $, to pay folks who literally smeared their poop on the walls of Congress. The DoJ has created a $1.8B fund to compensate Trump's supporters who felt "mistreated" by Dems, as part of his $10B settlement against the IRS. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05...

Gift 🎁 link to a powerful video on the war against public health, American well-being, & our democracy itself - please give it a watch. "Our ability to see the truth is slipping away....The true victim in the war on numbers isn't just the data; it's you." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/o...

USAID "played a major role in containing previous outbreaks, but last year it was shuttered by the Trump [regime]." This is what the 2024 election wrought. The WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak in Uganda & the DRC a “public health emergency of international 🧵1/2 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/w...

They don't care about anyone's feelings - not those of soldiers, and not those of their families. The US - all of it, including others' sacred sites - is just their personal playground; screw the rules. "Out of respect for the dead entombed in the wreck of... 1/3 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/u...

This is the most corrupt regime in US history (makes Nixon look saintly) & we're footing the bill. Trump wants a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies subject to federal investigations under Biden. It could pay nearly 1,600 people charged in the Jan 6 insurrection. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05...

Not crying. So long, Tracy. Hoeg, a sports doc., was the 5th person to run the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation & Research (CDER) in ​a damn year. She was on the job for 5 months. She had "cast doubt on COVID vaccines...and helped lead the effort to overhaul 1/2 www.reuters.com/world/fda-dr...

They were bound to get to Yale eventually. Making (even more) doctors white again: The DoJ says Yale's Med School is discriminating against white applicants. They've gone after several schools on this issue (Stanford, UCSD, Ohio State), even though both... 🧵1/3 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/u...

Linda McMahon & the GOP are destroying US education & civil rights of students. It's a big, hot mess. Deets/commentary: 🔹️She said Americans elected Trump "with a clear mandate: to sunset a 46-year-old, $3 trillion failed federal education bureaucracy...and return 🧵 www.npr.org/2026/05/14/n...

I stopped feeding my cat freeze-dried chicken treats a year or 2 ago, b/c, when I reached out to the manufacturer to find out how they were processed, I got no response. Mind the raw foods, & keep your feline friends indoors - safer for both them & our feathered friends. people.com/cdc-confirms...

I stopped watching anything on CBS except Colbert the minute they canceled him - after next week, I will watch nothing on that network. Nothing. Colbert & Letterman dumped the set furniture off the roof tonight, and it was very satisfying.

"In this randomized study, 2.9% of household contacts who took ensitrelvir developed COVID within 10 days, as compared with 9% of placebo recipients. The FDA is reviewing an application for the oral antiviral, with a decision expected in June." www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

Ofc, Alito called the stay a violation of state's rights, & Thomas wrote that companies "are not entitled to a stay 'based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise,'" - referring to the Comstock Act, which *still* isn't overturned. To them, I point to the chorus of the little ditty below 1/2

Great news! Thank goodness! www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/u...

Just the fact that the Cleveland Clinic would need to issue a statement saying RFK did not operate a robotic surgical arm during a patient's heart surgery is alarming enough, because it hints that he really wanted to. Go play with Legos, Bobby. Stay away from med equip. thehill.com/policy/healt...

Rich Danker has quit as asst. secretary for public affairs at HHS. RFK's "chief spokesperson" resigned yesterday, "citing irreconcilable differences with an effort to advance electronic cigarette flavors that could cause children to become addicted." It's... 🧵1/4 thehill.com/policy/healt...

Monsters. This isn't about fraud; its just attacking blue states in an unacknowledged civil war. "CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said...the $1.3 billion is the agency’s largest deferral ever....CMS recently suspended payments to 800 hospice facilities in California." www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

Don't be alarmed (there have been only 20 clade 1 cases in the US since 2024) but do be aware. And if you're a member of a high-risk group (men who have sex with men; sex workers), please talk to your healthcare provider about getting vaccinated against mpox. www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/d...

Terminology matters. "after more than a century, one of the most prevalent hormone disorders in the world has a title that is no longer inaccurate, misleading, or outdated." "the ovarian focus [of the term PCOS] has done harm in the sense that many... 1/2 www.sciencealert.com/pcos-is-offi...

Often, the most courageous among us die before their time. I was dx'd w/ glioma in 2001 & was blessed to know the best US researchers in glioblastoma multiforme. They were brilliant, yet the mortality rate remains devastating a gen later. Rest in peace, Mr. Collins www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/u...

Gotta be more careful to whom I tell stuff, on this platform. (No one let the FDA know, or they'll put this cute creature on billboards like the Marlboro Man.) Move over, Joe Camel; there's a new animal influencer in town.

NYT says it's Kyle Diamantas, currently the FDA’s chief food regulator. Diamantas is an attorney who represented infant formula industry clients such as Abbott. Oh, wrong side on that one, guy. Abbott's Similac caused fatal necrotizing enterocolitis in premature babies & they didn't warn parents.

More reporting: It wasn't that he was awful: it's that he wasn't awful enough, having qualms about getting kids hooked on nicotine. Makary "ultimately resigned over concerns about [Trump's] decision to authorize fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, an action he opposed." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/u...