"I was baffled and incredibly frustrated," she recalls. "It feels like they are promoting the field while ripping out the foundation" says @smbrander.bsky.social

"The agency is instrumental in funding and advancing research on carcinogens and other dangerous substances — a concern that Secretary Kennedy and President Trump have brought up repeatedly in their pitch to Make America Healthy Again."

"Last week, the CDC shuttered a long-running initiative that offered a broad picture of injuries across the country based on ER records collected from about 100 hospitals." This particular data source was unique because it provided real-time monitoring of non-fatal injuries."

With CDC injury prevention team gutted, 'we will not know what is killing us.' Workers who track data on car crashes, drownings, traumatic brain injury, falls in the elderly, and other perils lost their jobs. Advocates worry life-saving work will stop. www.npr.org/sections/sho... via @npr.org

#Immunity from seasonal flu may offer some protection to #bird #flu if it jumps to humans ... | #AvianInfluenza | #BirdFlu | #AvianFlu | #pathogen | #publichealth | By @wstonereports.bsky.social via @npr.org

The findings offer some reassurance. Antibodies and other players in the immune system may buffer the worst consequences of bird flu, at least in some people. "While this is a bit of a silver lining, it doesn't mean we should all feel safe."

Research on long COVID has coalesced around a handful of explanations for what could underpin the illness, but that hasn't yet translated into major breakthroughs for patients who need care.

"I want to underscore just how unprecedented — how abnormal all of this is," one longtime #NIH official told @npr.org "This is not how we operate."

NEW: w/ @npr.org @pien-huang.bsky.social Just a few weeks after summarily firing hundreds of employees, the Trump administration is now notifying some staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they're back on the job. "None of this is normal," said one CDC employee.

Ebola screening for travelers, testing for insect-borne diseases, support for state/local health depts -- all impacted by CDC job cuts w/ @wstonereports.bsky.social www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Recent mass firings, primarily aimed at new and temporary workers, have thinned the ranks of the workforce that would aid in the response to outbreaks. "In my 24 years at the CDC, I have never seen the morale hit that is going on right now," said former CDC official Dr Deblina Datta @npr.org

🚨 New MMWR - H5N1 in Michigan Cats 🚨 🐱 Two indoor cats on dairy farms tested positive for H5N1. 😷 Had respiratory & neurological symptoms before euthanasia. 🔗 Likely exposed via infected livestock. 👩‍⚕️ Vets: Ask about farm exposure & use PPE. 📢 Report suspected cases ASAP www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

The Trump administration's decision to pull the campaign comes in the midst of a brutal flu season that's still raging. @npr.org story on the latest at CDC @altcdc.bsky.social

One casualty of the mass firings across federal health agencies are regulators who ensure drugs for pets and livestock are safe and effective. "We want to be able to trust the medications," one FDA staffer said. Latest for @npr.org with @sydneylupkin.bsky.social

NPR reviewed termination letters sent to staff at the CDC, NIH and FDA. All of them used similar language and cited inadequate performance as the reason for their firing — yet the employees NPR spoke with had records of stellar work.

"I'm going to work tomorrow and I don't know who's employed," said one of the CDC staffers, who had yet to receive any official notification about exactly which employees in their division had lost their jobs. @npr.org @sydneylupkin.bsky.social @pien-huang.bsky.social on the latest at CDC

The cuts also hit the Epidemic Intelligence Service officer corps, where all those in the first year of their service were laid off. Members of the services, whom the CDC calls "disease detectives," are often dispatched to investigate disease outbreaks and public health threats.

"This is absolutely tragic," said one current CDC employee. "If we lose these people we lose important capacity and in a very real sense we lose our CDC future."

The situation is far from normal at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even as a clampdown on external communications is starting to ease. "At this point, the administration is controlling what topics may be covered and which may not."

The journal released data suggesting some spillovers from dairy cattle into humans have gone undetected, including in states where dairy herds have not tested positive.

BREAKING: In response to doctors' lawsuit, Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, orders CDC, NIH, and FDA to put back up websites and datasets cited by the doctors in their lawsuit as having been relied upon and pulled down without notice. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Losing even half of these workers would be "devastating" for the agency's current disease outbreak responses, which includes H5N1 bird flu, measles and mpox, the source said.

A disruption in federal funding has imperiled the work of community groups that run rape crisis centers and programs aimed at preventing sexual violence.

Thank you for this reporting @wstonereports.bsky.social With quotes from me, @meganranney.bsky.social, Perry Halkitis, Nirav Shah and others. These data keep everyone safe! www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The study's own author tells NPR the data doesn't support a change in vaccine schedule based on race.

From @wstonereports.bsky.social w/ @npr.org: Experts share concerns on possible #birdflu pandemic @JenniferNuzzo highlights that Americans will "demand" vaccines, given just how deadly this virus might be. If a pandemic occurs, the US may struggle to produce vaccines quickly. More here ⤵️