I wrote about mumps during a 2014 outbreak in Ohio. College campuses are a well known location for spikes historically. Soon they may occur everywhere else. sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-2014-ohi...

Sidenote about mumps: swollen (painful) testes in ~15-30% of teens and adults, also swollen ovaries (~5%) and mammary glands (~30%) and encephalitis (~1%), so let's hear people say "natural immunity" is superior to getting vaxxed.

Like the Lance Armstrong--err, Livestrong Foundation, will we eventually see a name change? In light of the research grant landscape, if this blows up further, how many orgs, researchers, etc. actually steer clear?

WHO states it has "significant concerns" about the highly ethically-problematic, planned hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea Bissau that RFK Jr. has supported. health policy 🛟😷🧭 sociology idsky medsky

Impt "3rd sector" development in confronting crisis hitting fed vaccine policy. Makes sense for now & for vaccines, but long-term implications for medicine's "social contract" w/society given current state of govt (feds undermined by antivax/sci chaos; some state govts wanting new advisory source)?🛟

As if the US wasn't already in enough trouble for the next one in what has been termed a new pandemic age. 🛟😷 Health policy Medsky idsky

Helpful speaking tips here--especially for early career academics. Sure, your command of the audience at your next talk may not rival a young, hungry to get noticed/make a mark Bono at Live Aid (YouTube it), but always ways to improve.

They think they have a right to impose their delusions on your kids. They are banking on the fact that liberal parents will be too nice to be as aggressive as MAHA. Prove them wrong. This should infuriate you and you must make sure your legislators hear that. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/h...

Oh no... Per Dando’s wife: he's had periods of heavy substance abuse for several yrs bf a mental episode earlier this yr. She believes he relapsed (&) "began exchanging sexual videos w/ numerous women on X...(&) confused (this) woman...w/ the other woman he was already receiving sexual videos from."

Awkward moment when you ask your parents whether you can avoid cervical cancer and they say no.

Examples of "the best government that money can buy" are becoming more depressing. Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted accepted more than $115,000 in campaign contributions from Les Wexner, one of 6 people listed as Epstein's co-conspirators, and then voted against releasing the Epstein files.

Dr. Oz invited Epstein to his home for a Valentine’s Party in 2016, 8 years after Epstein was registered as a sex offender for attemtpting to procure a child. Epstein’s sex offender status was no impediment to his social return and acceptance by the extremely wealthy members of this administration

Hey look, yet another dangerous and blatantly un-scientific policy move from this administration! There's an outrageous amount of evidence supporting human-driven #ClimateChange, and it's very real risks to #PublicHealth. 🧪 apnews.com/article/trum...

Pam Bondi For @rawstory.com Follow my work and writing on Substack: nickanderson.substack.com

Washpost edit page rolls out this graphic to purport to show that the US needn’t worry about climate change. But what is it shows is US emissions *relative to the rest of the world* since 1945. Has China’s economy changed at all in the last 80 years? India’s? Brazil’s?

This move, based on long-debunked climate-change denialism, will throw gasoline on America's home-insurance and health-insurance fires Gift link to my column for @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Truth...

WSJ editorial board hits FDA: It’s hard to recall a regulator who has done as much damage to medical innovation in as little time as Vinay Prasad who rejected Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine without even a cursory review. www.wsj.com/opinion/vina...

This piece by Dr @clayjones.bsky.social is a clinical and personal memoir Measles is not just a rash, fever, or the "Brady Bunch" nonsense. Years after a mild childhood infection some children develop SSPE, a progressive fatal brain disease with no cure. Preventable and heartbreaking. 🛟

Wow... that was fast... Still more intriguing than the mens' ski jumping scandal, though I still have questions about that too. people.com/olympain-stu...

🙋I have questions: 1. What would he have done if he hadn't medalled? 2. Does winning the bronze (versus gold or silver) give him less "take me back" cachet?

👇👇

If you saw today's headline that Gallup will stop measuring presidential approval, they did the same thing in 2018. They do it whenever Trump is president.

Sure, I was jesting the other day when I pondered aloud whether RFK Jr. recommendations for perineum and testicular tanning are all that far off, but based on this... 🤷 /s 🤦

The Atlantic’s profile of Bondi has some wow. @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

The only thing that surpasses her contempt for the People's Branch is the contempt the People's Branch has for itself at this point. The Founders simply did not anticipate elected officials with such little regard for their own power & their oaths.

seems almost certain we’ll later find out they were coerced thehill.com/homenews/med...

So grandma, when authoritarianism came, what did the media do? Well, honey, they framed everything as a battle between two sides, and never actually said one side was undermining the rule of law, damaging institutions, and creating a new Fash Tech Oligarchy™️ that was unaccountable to the people.

sociology

I don't watch reality TV, but I would watch reality TV about biathlon stars

Holy Contrarians and snake oil peddlers, Batman! Have you seen the 2026 Time 100 Health roster? RFK Jr., Makary, Callie Means, and Dr. Oz, along w/ real deal scientists and public health/medical innovators, leaders, advocates, & champions (e.g., Michael Osterholm, Jean Twenge, Susan Monarez).

Guess who foots the bill for most of those costs: you, the taxpayer. Any govt efforts to relax/86 vaccination requirements could be easily framed as efforts to waste your tax dollars. We knew the public health costs wld add up & they have in the last 12 mos. (& that's just part of the total costs).

who knows what lurks in the hearts of men

The findings align with “more than a dozen studies showing that COVID vaccination does not reduce the chance of conception” www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/lar...

The fact that this comes hours after approval of an "Ivermectin for cancer" trial is a damning indictment of the ideological capture the worst people from the pandemic now have over health in the USA...

🤦History repeats itself: The Kingsmen's 1963 hit "Louie Louie" got FBI & FCC scrutiny bc of its popularity & alleged obscene lyrics that ppl cldn't make out. They were cleared (but no one seemed to catch their drummer yelling "Fuck!" at 0:54 after a drum fill mess-up). vault.fbi.gov/louie-louie-...

Sigh... Couldn't bring myself to include the Truth Social post on this (linked in the article anyway).

Under GOP leadership the U.S. has dropped further on the #Corruption Perceptions Index. Hey, at least we are still ahead of Brunei! www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025/...

Terrible news out of British Columbia... www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

Number of times GDP has grown 15% in Trump’s lifetime: Zero. @peterbakernyt.bsky.social

Arizona state Senator seems to envy Utah's recent law and aspires to make her state follow suit. 🛟😷 medsky polisky health policy

It is absolutely outrageous that Moderna’s flu vaccine was met with a “refusal-to-file” even after their approved their protocol with FDA and carried out the trial as agreed. This vaccine works better in older adults than the current flu vaccines. apnews.com/article/mode...

I checked out realfood.gov, the new government website from Mike Tyson's Super Bowl ad. It encourages people to use Grok to "get real answers about real food," yet Grok's advice conflicts with the administration's own nutrition messaging. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr...

Read the section on the NIH in the Heritage Foundation's dystopian Project 2025 It's really stunning how closely the Trump-loving MAGA hero Jay Bhattacharya has followed the Project 2025 vision Surely this is why Trump hired him: to be a faithful collaborator in dismantling science/public health

Congratulations to Jay Bhattacharya. So much winning!

I missed this: Gallup: "40% of [US] women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity." (Was 10% in 2014.) The pronatalism will continue until moral improves. ht @katemanne.bsky.social

“It was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington rejected the effort, sending a signal that they did not believe that the lawmakers had committed any crimes.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/u...