Thank you @usha.bsky.social & colleagues at @statnews.com for always speaking truth to power! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 Terminating or not funding health disparities research is not the path to making Americans healthier. Denying scientists funding by terminating grants or opportunities does not make it a meritocracy.

Thanks Jeremy. We felt this important to document.

NEW: Massive and confusing inconsistencies at NIH. New director says health disparities research is critical yet grants are being cut left and right. With @aniloza.bsky.social and @ericboodman.bsky.social. (Also my last story for STAT. 😢) www.statnews.com/2025/08/01/n...

Congratulations to all the amazing scientists named 2025 Freeman Hrabowski Scholars by @hhmi.org! We’re proud to have to #BlackInBiophysics faculty members, @doctheagrif.bsky.social and @cobarnes27.bsky.social among this outstanding group. We wish you the best in this next stage of your careers! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Important story: Native American longevity rates even lower than previously thoughts because their race is often recorded wrong on death certificates. Story by new STAT intern Marissa Russo. www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/l...

Please, please, please give money to @thecity.nyc You saw @gwynnefitz.bsky.social's video of Lander's arrest today. I'll say it: @thecity.nyc is very poor. The staff is working on measly salaries. You can count on Gwynne to cover ICE and all of the protests. They need help to keep going.

⚡️👀MEMPHIS: “The @NAACP filed an intent to sue Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI over concerns about air pollution generated by a supercomputer located near predominantly Black communities.” www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...

Reading these quotes from Judge Young is just so satisfying. They validate what so many of us have been saying inside #NIH. He called it “palpably clear” that what was behind the government actions was “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”

Things at CDC really mind-boggling. Of course STAT's @helenbranswell.bsky.social is on the case. www.statnews.com/2025/06/17/c...

The Minnesota shooter apparently used data broker websites to find the home addresses of the people he shot and murdered. Congress has had years to do something about data brokers and they've sided with the tech lobby over and over again. Their inaction is deadly.

In an email to staff, NIH deputy director Matt Memoli says: "It has come to our attention that some staff are giving guidance... that the word 'diversity' may not be used in any context." "Obviously this is bad guidance... Please ask your staff to use common sense when implementing NIH priorities."

THIS IS IT! THIS IS HUGE!! PLAINTIFF'S WIN!! Judge Young rules that the NIH grant terminations at issue in these cases are illegal and therefore vacated. BOOM!

While funding cuts on "topics such as geosciences, computer science, biology, and social science" have been heavily covered. "What you don't see is #healthequity, which I think is a really glaring lack and something we as reporters need to start focusing more on," @usha.bsky.social McFarling said.

Fraud, misconduct, and group-think in Alzheimer’s research - thanks to @healthjournalism.org and @usha.bsky.social for inviting me to speak to health journalists about the findings in my book, "Doctored" -- good recap by @emilybazar.bsky.social healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/06...

“I have never seen racial discrimination by the government like this” in 40 years on the bench, says Reagan-appointed judge (to gasps in the courtroom) as he calls NIH grant terminations "void and illegal." Story by @aniloza.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/06/16/n...

Over the next 25 years, if proposed cuts in NIH funding are made real, “In a population of more than 340 million, this reflects **82 million** fewer years of life.” In the US alone. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

More on the battle over indirect costs within research funding by my colleague @jonathanwosen.bsky.social (who you should follow!) www.statnews.com/2025/06/13/n...

More rehiring of fired federal employees. Anyone else dizzy? By @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/06/11/h...

Helen Chu is one of the ousted #ACIP members. She spoke to me today about her grave concerns for future vaccination policy and vaccine access in the United States. www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/c...

As @aniloza.bsky.social says so well, "File it under bureaucratic whiplash." NIH rescinds anti-DEI policy only to reinstate it hours later. Was it a mistake? Will it be rescinded again? HHS not answering questions, leaving researchers only more confused. www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/n...

This is the big one: Kennedy is firing the entire #ACIP in a move he says is needed to restore confidence in vaccines. "It scares me to think of what’s ahead,” Mike Osterholm of CIDRAP told me. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...

BREAKING: Sec. Kennedy fires CDC vaccine advisory panel www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...

Our June 16 webinar features Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director @apha.org, @usha.bsky.social, national science correspondent @statnews.com, and Dr. Monica Peek, Ellen H. Block Professor of Health Justice at the University of Chicago Medicine. Register here: bit.ly/HealthEquity...

NIH walks back ban on DEI -- but officials there are not answering questions from @aniloza.bsky.social so unclear what this means for new/existing/pending/terminated grants, or why policy was suddenly rescinded. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/n...

Proud of the opportunity to share and have my career story highlighted in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Two VA pulmonologists rebuked by Trump administration for warning, in a @nejm.org article, that cancelled contracts, layoffs, and planned staff reductions jeopardize the health of a million veterans seeking help for conditions linked to toxic exposure. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This is such a smart way to do local journalism. More, please.

‘Corrupt’ medical journals, including NEJM and JAMA, have to change, RFK Jr. says, or the NIH will publish in-house, per new @aniloza.bsky.social story. The remarks come a week after the FDA commissioner rolled out a new vaccine framework in ... NEJM. www.statnews.com/2025/05/27/r...

“We found no safety concerns for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Last week new FDA leaders said in a commentary pregnant people should get Covid boosters to protect themselves and their babies; RFK just reversed that decision. News from @helenbranswell.bsky.social

Strong piece by @retractionwatch.com on how a number of Alzheimer's researchers are circling wagons and refusing to acknowledge findings in powerful book "Doctored" by @charlespiller.bsky.social on how fraud in the field may have slowed progress on new treatments

Good analysis by Clyde McGrady. Gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/u...

Something's up (down?) at #UNC. The Bd of Trustees, which has authority over tenure decisions, tabled all at its March mtg & re-tabled all from the College of Arts & Sciences & the non-health professional schools (Law, Biz, etc) at its next mtg. All w/o explanation. #AcademicSky #academicfreedom

Oh man, I spent 30 minutes reading this this morning and I don't know if I've ever read something so full of love

Proud of Harvard for pushing back, exercising some creativity, and, maybe, helping folks get some needed education. Harvard is making many of their online government courses FREE. I just signed up for "Citizen Politics in America". They even asked me my Gender. pll.harvard.edu/subject/gove...

like I dunno maybe if you are going to state something weird and racial about half the population of a country of 1.4 billion people you should have… a (?) source ? ??

Shit.

News from: NASEM faces "radical downsizing" @mmolteni.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/05/23/n...

This Memorial Day, go beyond the headlines. 🧬 Save big on STAT+ and unlock award-winning journalism, deep industry insights, and more. Start your subscription today:

That's real fast.

Do you want political appointees in charge of deciding who gets federal research grants? Neither do most scientists. Story by @mmolteni.bsky.social and @aniloza.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/05/23/n...

MAHA leaders said they'd keep American children safe from lead. Then they laid off the people doing the work. “What’s happening at CDC right now is jeopardizing our ability to do any of this," said one former federal employee. Story by @ericboodman.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/05/23/c...

One of my most brilliant Ph.D students just had his NIH Diversity Supplement cancelled. This supplement was funding his graduate research on perinatal mental health. I'm out of words -- just sad that trainees are bearing the brunt of the administration's attacks on science. We are eating our young.

The WA State Nurses Assn will lead w/ courage & devotion to our patients & practice. @wsna.bsky.social is joining eight other Washington-based health care organizations in a lawsuit against the federal government. They’re demanding the restoration of removed content and an end to further deletions

News from @helenbranswell.bsky.social — new strain targeted for this fall’s Covid boosters but will new FDA rules slow their release? www.statnews.com/2025/05/22/f...

Yes, that's right. Today's reporter in the White House press briefing's "new media" seat is Jillian Michaels, the "Biggest Loser" trainer.

NEW: The DOGE team of President Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk says in an X post that a review of federal government surveys conducted by the Census Bureau has resulted in five being "terminated." I've asked the bureau's public information office for details about those five surveys

If Harvard is blocked from bringing in international physicians . Hospitals lose doctors July 1. Patients lose care. This isn’t just red tape—it’s a healthcare crisis in motion.