First snow. First amaryllis bloom. The view from here #ygk

This is disturbing and, if related to the motives suggested, outrageous. Answers are needed form the committee. As someone who has served on numerous grant review committees, all that matters is: merit, originality of idea, feasibility and the potential for impact.

Googly-eyed pumpkin and some mini French apple tart treats. Happy Halloween 🎃

Trump's government meets all 12 indicators of democratic erosion. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

(this very big mistake that killed an enormous number of people, if anyone's looking for the citation) www.spiegel.de/internationa...

Al Gore didn’t hold back: The Trump admin is “attacking the heart of truth,” twisting facts like the Nazis did in the 1930s. From climate denial to rewriting the Ukraine war, it’s all about power—not reality. Gore warned the U.S. is under siege—and every former leader should speak out like he did.

Don’t use X much anymore but just saw there’s a fake account purporting to be me there (@MDElizabeth_) Ignore her

Frost tonight so time to cut last of the summer dahlias…

Beautiful October day The view from here #ygk

Maybe a mechanism through which the CHALLENGE trial exerted its benefits in colon cancer er patients? (Though of course exercise in that trial not “combined” with immune Rx)

So sad 💔. Jane Goodall was an inspiration. She never stopped … www.bbc.com/news/live/c9...

Junk science and fascism. Dr.Gunter: “Dr, Timothy Snyder, a noted expert on fascism, offers the best framing–fascism, he writes, is ‘the triumph of will over reason.’ This strips away right-wing and left-wing ideologies, and just leaves us with the perversion of truth in the quest for domination.”

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of the great Dr. Balfour Mount, widely considered the father of palliative care in Canada. He will be greatly missed. Please read our message in full: e1.envoke.com/m/783fa9fc5f...

Amazing essay by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social Convincingly weaving the connection between literacy, reading, innovation, creativity and public engagement in democracy. And by corollary - the decline of literacy / reading a harbinger of democracy’s fall. Read it. substack.com/home/post/p-...

!!!!

Is there a Nobel Prize for Buffoonery?

Fall has befallen us The view from here #ygk

This is very exciting! A small clinical trial using gene therapy for Huntington's disease has been successful. microRNAs were used to edit the Huntington mRNA, stopping it making mutant protein that can damage neurons. Huge hopes now for treating such a devastating condition

Medical ethicist Arthur Kaplan, quoted in the NYT: “The announcement on autism was the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recyling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies & dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority in the world claiming to know anything about science”

📅 Attending ESMO in Berlin? Don't miss this special CSO Symposium taking place on Fri Oct 17, 5:30-7:00 pm CET. Moderated by @winettevandergraaf.bsky.social, the panel will discuss recent CSO initiatives & activities in Europe & beyond. tinyurl.com/5yj9vm8b @qol.eortc.org #CommonSenseOncology

🎶It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year 🎶 Free Covid, flu and RSV vaccines starting Sept 22 for Ontario. #Onpoli #VaccinesSaveLives www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

My guess is there will be no evidence to support ANY of the things they recommend. Ever.

On Friday, the Trump administration claimed that COVID19 vaccines caused the deaths of 25 children. They are doing this to gin up a reason for their unnecessary restrictions on COVID19 vaccines. We explain the science for how we know these vaccines didn’t cause pediatric deaths in our report.

beautiful Prince Edward Island

Science is under attack How can we fight back? Important, new book by two scientists are seeing the war on science up close @michaelemann.bsky.social is seeing climate science denial & @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social is seeing vaccine denial www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/micha...

"He pointed out that Saskatchewan has a lot of wind and among the highest sunlight hours in the country, and so SaskPower should be putting its money and efforts into solar and wind power instead of coal." larongenow.com/2025/09/02/s...

Late summer flowers from my garden

@caulfieldtim.bsky.social interesting study on preemptive interventions to reduce belief in misinformation

Health Canada has authorized the LP.8.1 variant adapted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 6 months and older. The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. It will be made available this Fall across Canada.

Nature: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility go.nature.com/3HDx4wD cc Jay Bhattacharya

Wow! Terrifyingly similar approaches to gaslighting public to the detriment of health and science

Mercia Maas "For Some reason this affected me so much and I’ve been crying all day, their intelligence and curiosity is something so rare and I wish I could do more to protect them and the ocean #oceanconservatio"

I've researched health & science policy for over 3 decades. It has never been THIS bad. Not even close. But we can't let the BS win! 💪 #GoScience! My take: Politics and vaccine misinformation – A horrifyingly bad mix healthydebate.ca/2024/09/topi... via ‪@healthydebate.bsky.social

Excellent review on cancer screening - and the hype and hope of new technologies - by Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

My statement on Canada-U.S. trade:

At @thelancet.com today, entitled: "A crisis of credibility: the global cost of US vaccine misinformation" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history

Excellent interview. Filled with the kind of common sense we need. And underscores the $$ motive behind the so-called wellness industry. (I like to think of it as the “woo-ness” industry)

And in Canada, southern prairies are optimal location for solar and wind power generation. We could be focusing on innovation and creating a healthy, successful new energy industry. Not staying with 20th century ideas around fossil fuels.

Ground Truths erictopol.substack.com?utm_campaign...

Pathways to an Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics: lessons from the IPCC and IPBES - The Lancet Microbe www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

Uk Biobank has become a case study for understanding how differential participation can distort apparent causal relationships in prospective studies. See e.g. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... academic.oup.com/ije/article/...

“Greatness” for individuals or nations may come from either: - lifting others up to ensure they thrive or - pushing others down to step over them The first is what I choose. And I hope Canada does as well.

Incredible article. Frightening to those of us who believe in robust clinical evidence to support new drug approvals. Threat is BOTH that drugs that DO work will be withdrawn, and those that DON’T work or are dangerous will be hastily approved. Guess an anti-science ideology isn’t good for anyone

So true - and it is not just the death of empathy (some individuals seem born with that gene suppressed). It is having leadership without empathy and thus normalizing its absence

Pleased to join colleagues like @ericmeyerowitz.bsky.social in the @nejm.org rebutting the COVID vaccine policy of Prasad and Makary www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

It's bleak. We're now in free-fall folks. It's still worth fighting back but things are bad, very bad. www.thenation.com/article/soci...