This week’s #WednesdayWisdom comes from a new @milbankfund.bsky.social blog post co-authored by CSHP Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com and Research Coordinator Allison Oh. The full #blog post is available here: go.rutgers.edu/lo7kicw4

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

NEW: “Gaza is burning,” says Israel’s Defense Minister as Israel starts their ground invasion of Gaza City after bombing over 50 residential towers in the biggest Palestinian city in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. [Videos] unicornriot.ninja/2025/israel-...

Those who are waiting for Novavax, and those in states with more restrictions, may not be able to get COVID vaccines yet are in a tricky situation. Please hang in there! While there’s a good chance the antivax CDC panel may try to further restrict access, it’s unlikely they can pull them entirely.

When you get a vaccine or a medical checkup, we expect the healthcare worker to wash their hands and wear gloves. We should think the same about wearing masks in medical settings. Viruses can spread pre-symptomatically; masks are another effective infection control measure.

CSHP/ @rutgersifh.bsky.social Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com and Research Coordinator Allison Oh co-authored a NEW blog post for the @milbankfund.bsky.social. Learn how some states provide #healthinsurance to #children regardless of #immigration status: go.rutgers.edu/lo7kicw4

It’s official: the United Nations Commission of Inquiry concludes Israel is committing genocide. The UN body calls on nations to stop sending weapons to Israel, ensure people within their jurisdiction aren’t aiding or inciting the genocide, and hold those who are accountable.

Israel’s military launched its ground assault on Monday “to occupy Gaza City,” killing at least 62 Palestinians, most of them in the city, according to Axios and the Wafa news agency. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/k3tiwn pic.x.com/GeRMd5IGJO

Can long-term care #insurance ease hospital pressures? A Health Economics Special Issue study from #China shows LTCI ⬇️ inpatient admissions by 10% and costs by 16%, while shifting care to community services. Read more: tinyurl.com/a9yy9m26

Longstanding evidence shows that insuring children, regardless of immigration status, improves access to preventive care, reduces uncompensated care costs, and enhances long-term health outcomes.

New blog out today for @milbankfund.bsky.social where we reflect on state-funded solutions to insurance coverage for children, regardless of immigration status. To date, 15 states have a policy covering immigrant children and 7 have gone a step further to include undocumented adults or older adults.

They've accepted that he's going to win so now comes the hard press to water down his promises and also to actively thwart proposed policies.

I'm glad to see that New Mexico is working to make childcare free for all families in the state, regardless of their income. But I'm also worried that the state's new policy doesn't go far enough to overcome the supply side part of the problem. Let me explain... 1/🧵 sourcenm.com/2025/09/08/n...

Want a primer into how public libraries are being targeted right now? Josephine County Library–in the "nice" "blue" state of Oregon–has been subject to the right's war on public institutions for over 2 years, including their main library being evicted from its space.

As always, today's CPS data release shows that states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA had MUCH lower uninsured rates than the 10 holdout states that still haven’t expanded. tinyurl.com/bdfadufc

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

Without Congressional action, telehealth will end after September 30. House and Senate bills have been introduced with bipartisan support to make telehealth permanent. www.ama-assn.org/practice-man...

More reasons to be anti-AI

This is very smart — @19thnews.org has started a newsletter about menopause 19thnews.org/newsletters/...

This has so many impacts, the most obvious being that the science and knowledge base progress slower making it even more difficult to produce timely analyses on policy changes. But it also disproportionately impacts early career scholars with implications for tenure track requirements.

🚨 UPDATE on the current COVID vaccine access situation in the US. Please note that this is based on state laws but different things may be happening on the ground, and some pharmacies are defaulting to federal guidelines instead of state laws.

A 🔥🔥🔥 piece throughout. On the necessity to refuse AI and narratives of inevitably: "Besides, there will be no future to embrace if we deskill our students and selves, and allow the technology industry’s immense contributions to climate crisis and environmental destruction to continue unimpeded."

The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.

People hate when abolitionists say this. But it is correct.

About time

Postpartum contraception access is critical and those disproportionately affected by abortion restrictions face heightened maternal health risks. Read more by @commonwealthfund.org supported Senior Scholar Maria Rodriguez and @Guttmacher.org Megan Kavanaugh: buff.ly/4P2d3Z3

I wrote about the intentionally byzantine process of getting a COVID vaccine this fall defector.com/how-the-fuck...

New issue of @jhppl.bsky.social just dropped (Volume 50, Issue 5). Check it out, for a set of wonderful articles on topics that span health care, opioids, paid leave, and mental health, a great representation of the diversity in JHPPL. Thread here:

A Labor Day reminder: today there isn't a single city, metro area, or state in the U.S. where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment. Millions of people with jobs—even multiple jobs—aren't safe from homelessness in this country.

Good.

I’ve needed to make this for a bit- but here’s a thread of people who are being forced out of Gaza City- a lot of people living in Gaza City have been in bombed out buildings so they don’t have tents and also they need transportation. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

COVID vaccine update: Pharmacies in these states won't give you a shot unless you have a prescription. CVS: CO, FL, GA, KY, LA , ME, NY, NC, PA, UT, VA, WV, DC Walgreens: AZ, CO, GA, IN, LA, MO, MT, NM, NY, OR, SC, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI CVS is not yet offering COVID shots at all in MA, NV, and MN.

Can’t wait for our 5 in NYC to be next 😍

I wish Americans would get louder about their opposition to this man in particular; he is damaging global public health for an entire generation and millions of the most vulnerable around the world will suffer and die directly because of him. A mortality rate equivalent to plagues.

Every time you use ChatGPT or something like it, you’re helping to train an algorithm that is actually being developed to do things like this

I’m so angry about this COVID vaccine thing that I can barely see straight

You can very easily make a case for yourself as being someone who qualifies for Covid vax on this list. Physical inactivity, former/current smoker, depression, ETC - these are extremely broad and wide ranging categories. *You can also just lie* and say you’re depressed. Do what you need to do!!!

Taking adjunct gigs at Columbia undermines the grad union @swcolumbia.bsky.social, so turn them down in solidarity.

U.N. Declares a Famine in Gaza, Where Over 500,000 Face “Starvation, Destitution and Death”

yet again: the reason we say “birthing person” is because yes, it is inclusive of trans and nonbinary/agender people but also because children and adolescents are not women, and even among cis couples there are reasons why you want to specify this.

“During the course of the 26-day sit-in, the Black Panther Party played a leading support role in providing food for the demonstrators. Over and over again, the disabled protesters credited the BPP with literally sustaining their struggle, “keeping us alive body and soul,” as one person put it.”

"We’re in the middle of a Covid-19 wave, with all indicators—from wastewater to hospitalizations and deaths—climbing. The pace isn’t as fast as last winter’s surge and levels remain below last summer’s wave, but the trend is clear." yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/covid-19-v...

Like I always said…ya gotta believe! #LFGM

The CDC shooting didn’t even really register in the news and the details are absolutely insane

a big lessons of 2020 for the uninitiated *should* have been that cops—broadly meaning state agents—use whatever force they want on whoever they want. if you registered that, you may be able to process what we're seeing now with ICE agents and if you didn't know it then, now's the next best time

It’s bananas to me that no one is talking about the CDC shooting. Relatedly, the Minnesota shooter was motivated by anti-vax/anti-covid violence. At least 1x/week I’m harassed for wearing a mask in NYC, and it doesn’t feel great!! The #1 thing you can do is wear a mask so there are more of us.

There is a lot less news reporting coming out of Gaza since Israel killed the entire Al Jazeera team of journalists.

Seizure medication, wheelchairs, Social Security cards, dentures, urns of ashes, work uniforms — just some of what's been thrown away during cruel, degrading, utterly counterproductive homeless sweeps. A good time to revisit this gutting @propublica.org story: