Mississippi had, for many yrs, the strictest school vax reqs in the US (long bf CA) until an antivax legal effort forced allowing religious exemptions that have been growing & thus outbreak risks as these exemptions cluster in certain counties. Good story mississippitoday.org/2026/07/02/m...

This is a really good explainer about the mortality estimates around USAID. One big point is that dismantling USAID also dismantled one of the main sources of mortality data in some of these regions. Early indicators of mortality are very worrying.

In King Cnty, WA, more kids who got MMRV vax were from minoritized racial/ethnic grps, Vaccines for Children-eligible, & vaxxed at safety-net clinics; & got catch-up dose. "This pop. might be at risk of not (getting) rec'd vaccines if options become limited..." bc of 2025 ACIP recs. 🛟 Health policy

Good that NY was tough on this... $544k civil penalty to DeVuono for falsely reporting giving at least 1 vax to 162 kids btwn 11/2019 & 1/2022. Submitted info abt "hundreds" of vaccinations never given. Already forfeited $1.2M in 2024 plea deal for a COVID-19 vax scheme; lost nursing licenses.🛟😷🧭

🛟 Sociology polisky lawsky

Informative read on the state of the evidence on testosterone therapy for men. Definitely neither an aging panacea nor risk free, and many qs remaining about risks and benefits for which patients. 🛟🧪😷 Sociology

Idsky 😷🛟🧪🧭 Sociology demography 📈

I respect someone who doesn't blindly follow the crowd, but this is also a case of an overcorrection that presents an alternative view of the past that is equally one-sided. Here's a - hopefully short - thread on both this particular issue & on historical overcorrections as a phenomenon. (1/n)

BREAKING: The Trump White House just ousted all three sitting members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — hamstringing the bipartisan agency ahead of the midterms. The EAC helps state and local officials run elections, including by certifying election equipment.

RIP Bonnie Tyler...

Wow. Who could have possibly predicted that the GBD boys would start attacking all vaccines. I am unshocked.

So should this ad campaign cancellation be called The Noem Effect...? "Noem-ified?'

Great explainer by @drjenndowd.bsky.social on this hopeful news. 🧪😷🛟 Sociology health policy demography idsky

This one... explaining its significance and backstory to students in my intro. to public health class, I typically find myself choked up and need to pause a sec to catch myself.

The latest reason why one shouldn't infer that a nice car is an indicator of someone doing well/better than them financially.

Quite a list of famous people who tragically embraced quackery instead of evidence-based medicine for conditions that claimed their lives. 🛟😷🧪 Sociology

From Karestan Koenen's chapter in the new book, Luminaries: Women Leaders Who Light the Way Get your copy at Amazon here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H5DZ84ZL

can't stop laughing at this Poilievre: "We will reinstill a warrior culture, not a woke culture."

Great read... A bit scary at points, but that's been the situation Canada and the EU have found themselves in with the Trump Administration... Scary reading for Americans too (and keep in mind this is in the WSJ). Policysky polisky lawsky sociology Gift linked

What’s to blame for high breast cancer rates in AAPI women? asamnews.com/2026/07/07/w...

Based on this, if other J6 rioters weren't incels already, seems they are now...

It's been striking to see the similarities between such doubling down by Dem supporters of Platner and people I know who are Trump supporters as they dug in to defend him even years ago whenever confronted with stuff in the news.

This is one of the things they legally exist to do, and a state party committee with ~100 people on it is not some tiny smoke-filled room of party bosses. It's not like a convention would produce a meaningfully different result anyway, it's the same set of party activists and minor officials.

👇🎯 My frustration at the near-total lack of loud, public collective action by university presidents is precisely because of this. The idea that we can just ride out a year or two & it will all be fine & back to business as usual is head-in-the-sand denial. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

I'd also add platforming Marianne Williamson, Jenny McCarthy's vaccine-autism fearmongering, and Dr. Christiane Northrup.

There’s a technical term for “the most senior Catholic in the U.S. government.” In the Church, they call that a “layperson.”

“'I was the most senior Catholic in the US government,' Vance recalls, affronted, '& the Vatican seemed unwilling to move its moral guidance....'” “The Scottish writer Stephen Daisley [noted the] 'breezy impertinence' [by which] Vance 'tells the pope... that he is in error on Church doctrine.'"

"The Pope is the puppet of the Chinese authoritatian government" is a take you would make if you made billions by drinking paint.

Sometimes reality has a bias. For example, why would this of all things be the chosen image? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New CA laws in effect July 1: Food safety, education (e.g., phone use limits in schools, gender-free bathrooms), gun safety, autonomous car safety, and even one regulating streaming services' commercial volume to be no louder than content the user is watching (consistent w/ FCC regs for tv & cable)

"Extensively drug-resistant strains (of gonorrhea) detected in Cambodia have spread as far afield as France and Australia." Particularly worrisome amidst reports of condom use decline among US youth, a sig. % of gonorrhea cases (see here: www.cbsnews.com/news/condom-...) 😷🛟 health policy sociology

Vaccine mandates aren't simple policy options and have risks. Katie Attwell & her collaborators have done great work on this. Here, she nicely covers the complexity of COVID-19 vax mandates, the causes & mgmt of their potential unintended consequences, plus what to do next time. 🛟🧭😷 health policy

Want to read any interesting study about public toilets in Atlanta? All stars April Ballard et al. from @phgsu.bsky.social have a new paper out using the audit tool developed by the tremendous Marni Sommer, Andrew Maroko et al. @cupublichealth.bsky.social & Icahn.

NYC Comptroller Levine: There is a legionnaires cluster on the Upper East Side. 2 cases confirmed so far. But this is very early and more expected. Zip codes impacted: 10028 & 10128. If you live, work or have recently visited the two zip codes and have flu-like symptoms contact a doctor ASAP.

Great story in terms of all the details. The conflict is unsurprising: RFK Jr. & MAHA have long been useful tools (dupes) for MAGA--dating back to the election when he agreed to deliver his MAHA votes to Trump's campaign. Also nicely details the many ways RFK Jr. is checked-out & mismanaging HHS.🛟

So glad that "explosive" is added because "diarrhea parasite is on the rise" is just not bad enough to catch my attention... /s

The antivax movement's penchant for confirmation bias has often resulted in embarrassment, but this is a new one. But when you're convinced that anything/everything about vaccines could be harmful, regardless of all the good sci out there, perhaps unsurprising they didn't care to scrutinize this. 🧭🛟

health disparities are all around us, right here at home

Very nice summary from @michaelwiebe.bsky.social of the evidence about how broad upzoning works in practice (rather than a few parcels here, a few there — the typical rezoning) www.buildingabundance.ca/p/upzoning

~16% of youth ages 18-24 in a typical US community neither in school/training programs nor working. Much focus these days on social isolation & its many associated problems. This is a impt subpop. to focus on for that (and a useful indicator of societal well-being). sociology policy demography 📉

Logic of the court's decision aside, the plaintiff tried to get an exemption by claiming they were a "Baptized Catholic." Pope Francis explicitly encouraged Catholics to get vaxxed and, even if a member of the faith doesn't listen to The Pope, the Catholic Church in general has been very provax.

Buried lede: "Vacancies have plagued US health agencies more broadly after cuts from Elon Musk’s (DOGE) and high staff turnover under the admin. CDC leaders this week said they’re focused on hiring more ppl, including for senior roles, to alleviate pressure on the agency..." 🛟😷🧭🧪 Health policy idsky

California's Inland Empire has long been a center for the logistics/supply chain industry (including Amazon), significantly impacting communities & the environment. This award-winning story by Tess Eyrich of UCR's super media relations office nicely covers efforts to document its impacts. 🛟📈😷 Policy

SCOTUS opinions can be baffling and inaccessible, but if there is something, anything people should read about birthright citizenship, it is the amicus brief of Martha S. Jones & Kate Masur. If it doesn't make you believe in the power of change & the good possible in the Constitution, nothing will.

I just completed my first day as Associate Dean & Chair of the UC, Riverside School of Public Policy. It went great thanks in part to our awesome faculty, staff, and students. Hope your Canada Day was great too. 🛟 health policy sociology polisky lawsky demography idsky 😷📉 🧭

But I lost my job bc of their lies & smears. The judge in this case, Terry Doughty, was the Murthy v Missouri judge. He made up a fake quote & attributed it to me in a dramatic opinion in that case on July 4th 2023. Today he had to acknowledge that America First Legal’s case was built on lies.

This pissed off some ppl on here (quell surprise). Reading it through, I quibbled w/ some claims (and what wasn't said), but generally found it useful (regardless of how one feels abt DSA) for provoking healthy discussion of the state of the Dem party, its platforms, & potential electoral success.