tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world

This is the definition of the Merchants of Doubt strategy: Amplifying 3% of experts with fringe opinions to make it look like the debate is a 50/50 proposition.

Well, this is awful. www.404media.co/this-company... via @404media.co It relies on the "books.google.com" Author's Guild case as to why it can scrape & play other's presentations w/o consent [theoretically 'opt-out']. Further article here: cyberalberta.ca/zooming-out-...

Big legal/public health news. Punitive damages judgment still to come. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/t...

"It could take 20 years before birth defects from rubella become common again. Unvaccinated children have to grow old enough to become pregnant. The long lag time can give a false sense of security." www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...

I got irritated with reading another assertion that AI can outperform social scientists at our jobs. I find these arguments reveal both an intellectual laziness and a lack of appreciation for good writing, which is the heart of our work. I had thoughts. mirandayaver.substack.com/p/in-defense...

State of Florida's new mandate for public college Intro Sociology curriculum: "The following should not be included in any course content... "Discussions arguing a causal association between institutional sexism and unequal outcomes between men and women" Indoctrination, not education nor science

Yes, all this and more, including the wonton destruction of CDC's Office of Smoking and Health.

I fear this is being treated as background noise rather than the 5 alarm emergency it is. Absolutely terrifying. Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/h...

Spot on, from @petridishes.bsky.social: "For a while...we, as a nation, thought to ourselves: Life is too short for everyone to inspect their own food. Let the government handle this. But then along came the Trump administration to wonder: What if we didn’t?" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

ICE observers recording with phones are heroes, and are the reason we know the truth about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In public health, we make observations by collecting and analyzing data. But RFK Jr. is taking the equivalent of our “phone”. Without data, he can lie with abandon.

So sad that Bill Foege saw the US formally withdraw from the WHO in his final days.

A public health icon and a national hero. William H. Foege, Key Figure in the Eradication of Smallpox, Dies at 89 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

This is, quite literally, our collective duty.

📣 Join us for our next #TobaccoEndgame CRE #Webinar on FDA regulation and nicotine reduction! Prof Micah Berman will present 'Taking the Nicotine Out of Cigarettes: Lessons from the US FDA's Attempt'. 📆02 February ⏰1pm AEST 🔗 tobacco-endgame.centre.uq.edu.au/event/sessio... @micahberman.bsky.social

New annual tobacco prevention spending report from @tobaccofreekids.bsky.social. www.tobaccofreekids.org/what-we-do/u... #Ohio now ranked 43rd, spending $6 million on tobacco prevention & cessation annually. This is less than the tobacco industry spends on marketing in Ohio in a WEEK.

Read the details here. RFK’s Hep B vax “trial” in Guinea-Bissau is not just a Tuskegee-level ethical travesty. It’s also skewed to make the vax (which has been proven to save lives) look unsafe and ineffective. And it funnels money to RFK cronies. open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

👇🎯💯

“The goal of this administration is to basically make vaccines optional,” said @pauloffit.bsky.social. “And we’re paying the price.” www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

For her part Machado said on X that the guy who actually won the election — Edmundo González Urrutia — should be the leader

Oh wow — an article about where my family tree overlaps with @stevevladeck.bsky.social’s.

More on the continuing purges at #NIH. Now 13 out of 27 institute directors have been gotten rid of. This is not normal. @jonathanwosen.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/12/27/n...

ugh

It was all so obvious & uninteresting in its clear bad faith & bad intentions, & the willingness of so many senior folks in academia & society to tolerate the clear bad faith & bad intentions over the last 25 years has been incredibly depressing.

This has flown below the radar, but it’s a low-key outrage that Trump’s FDA has withdrawn the rule to regulate asbestos in talc products. It’s the opposite of making America healthy. www.notus.org/health-scien...

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.

This executive order is a lot of bluster and doublespeak, but the reporting (here and elsewhere) needs to be better. EOs cannot preempt state laws; EOs can't create new grounds for lawsuits; the funding threats are almost certainly unlawful, etc., etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/t...

Do you know an amazing post-doc interested in FDA policy and maybe even with some Delphi experience? Send them our way - we're looking to hire on our new project ASAP! postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2025-1...

Every day it's something new. Another terrible precedent in the ongoing politicization of the FDA. www.statnews.com/2025/11/21/t...

Horrific

There is no difference between Trump destroying the East Wing and using a wrecking ball on the Washington Monument or Smithsonian. Just because he (temporarily) lives there doesn't give him the right to demolish the White House without Congressional approval.

An AP investigation found that more than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses this year, part of a campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law. https://to.pbs.org/43dxCkD

"Tiburon could become just the third municipality in the country to ban all sales of tobacco products. The idea originated from a group of high school students in town." www.ktvu.com/news/tiburon...

Inside FDA, career staffers describe how political pressure is influencing their work www.statnews.com/2025/10/14/f... via @statnews.com

“What we’re seeing is what happens when individuals who have don’t have a basic understanding about how vaccines are delivered are making these crucial policy decisions for the American public. They don’t know what they’re doing” -Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases

Very well said -- with lessons for other fields as well.

If you believe free speech rights aren't important when the government is moving towards authoritarianism, you never actually believed free speech rights were important.

Hepatitis B can lead to cirrhosis, cancer, death We have reduced its incidence among children by 99% — a huge achievement Today RFK Jr’s hand-picked vaccine committee could unravel it www.thebulwark.com/p/rfk-jr-ken...

One of the newly-announced ACIP members... ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/02/22/s...

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

It should not be up to John Oliver to be publicly making the argument that university presidents should be making loudly & collectively on the news & in front of the US Capitol every day.

As a lawyer, I'll tell you that there's nobody who knows this law better than Ryan and Brian. Sure looks like murder or war crime to me. But as a human, I'll tell you that the Rubio statement -- we could have stopped the boat but we blew it up to send a message -- is sickening and depraved.

Truly no words to describe how stunningly irresponsible and dangerous this is.

The Ohio Capital Journal talked to two parents who send their children to private school — one who uses school vouchers and the other who refuses to use vouchers. @ohiocapitaljournal.com bit.ly/3JVzlE1

Resignations of CDC staff directly related to misinformation, weaponizing of public health, which is coming from RFK Jr. Untenable situation for them to serve under these conditions. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

At @defendpublichealth.bsky.social, in anticipation of the next MAHA report, we wrote on what it would actually take to maker Americans healthy. It demands that we examine the root causes of illness, malnutrition, etc. & invest in health-promoting programs. www.defendpublichealth.org/resource/imp...

Perhaps there is more context, but numerous outlets reporting that CDC Director Monarez told CDC staff that "misinformation can be dangerous" without clarifying WHAT misinformation and WHO is spreading it. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

The data package HHS offered to defend Kennedy’s decision is not the work of U.S. government scientists… “The compilation originated as material for a book titled “TOXIC SHOT: Facing the Dangers of the COVID ‘Vaccines’,” an anthology of essays by prominent anti-vaxxers.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

Disgraceful.