In our latest @milbankfund.bsky.social Quarterly Opinion, "Public Concern about Threats to Public Health and Science Remains Modest," COMM members @rebekahnagler.bsky.social, @efranklinfowler.bsky.social, and @sarahgollust.bsky.social reveal key findings from a new national follow-up survey.

US adults’ awareness of actions threatening public health and science declined between March and September 2025, according to a new survey from @commhsp.bsky.social.

Thread 🧵 relevant to #wesgov372 #wesgov366 and #wesqac380

We’re hiring! @oii.ox.ac.uk, The Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods and @politicsoxford.bsky.social are seeking to appoint an Associate Professor of Politics, Technology and Computational Social Sciences. Post in association with @reubencollege.bsky.social. 1/2

Record-breaking turnout at the campus voting precinct today. the energy was unreal, all day.

It's like LLMs in the past few months realized that little reprexes are cool, but people aren't realizing that and just going with the fake code. Can't wait for this to inevitably make it into published stuff.

Did you know? About 4.5 million SNAP recipients are babies and toddlers under age 5. About 11.1 million SNAP recipients are kids aged 5 to 17 years, who need food for healthy growth, learning, & development. The federal government has the capacity to continue funding SNAP during a shutdown.

Relevant for our #wesgov372 discussions this week!

I haven't spent a ton of time working through this, but it draws heavily on national party insights to make recommendations for Dem candidates... who are already doing these things? Over three-quarters of Ds discuss economics, healthcare etc.... campaignview.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We at JHPPL are now 50! (So much for getting to stay 49 again...) Our former editor @oberlanderunc.bsky.social & new editor @sarahgollust.bsky.social trace our interdisciplinary origins & the many health politics/policy/law challenges we've faced the last 50 yrs. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

Happy birthday @jhppl.bsky.social! 🎉Our special issue celebrating 50 years of JHPPL and the past and future of health politics and policy just dropped. Start with our opening essay w/ @oberlanderunc.bsky.social and follow along for more. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

50% of American adults are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life. Just 10% are more excited than concerned. 🧪

Relevant for #wesgov372 #wesgov366 and #wesgov380

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.” Among those RIFd: —leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases; —leadership of global health center —leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

The new EU rules on political advertising online take effect October 10. Google and Meta (FB, Insta) will stop political ads on their platforms 🛑 But when??? FB is now very explicit about when it takes effect: October 6 www.facebook.com/business/hel...

If you've done in-person research at any of the following presidential libraries in the last 8 months, can you please follow me/contact me—soon—for a story I'm working on (can be off the record)? Hoover FDR Truman Eisenhower JFK LBJ Ford Carter And either way, can you please share this request? 🙏

New, and a big deal: Based on updated data and changes made by the Trump administration, we now estimate that ACA enrollees would see their out-of-pocket premiums increase by 114% if enhanced premium tax credits are allowed to expire. www.kff.org/affordable-c...

In news that the HHS should be shouting from the rooftops: Availability of the RSV vaccine for pregnant people and RSV shots for infants lead to a 50% reduction in RSV-associated hospitalization of newborns during the last year! 🥳 Spread the good word, folks! #Episky

These estimates of public support for violence (from www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/o...) are inflated - *much* higher than what we and others have found using question wording that reduces acquiescence bias: brightlinewatch.org/accelerated-... The vast majority of Americans reject political violence.

Pertinent to #wesgov214 #wesgov372

Are you an R-user looking for a ✨reproducible and free✨ solution to use #machine-translation in your #text-as-data project? Try out my new #rstats package #easieRnmt that wraps around the EasyNMT py-library for local machine tranlsation: github.com/thieled/easi...

What can the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine PSAs teach us about public health communication? In our newest COMM blog post, first author Margaret Tait breaks down her recently published research on the critical messaging missteps in federally-sponsored PSAs.

Some evidence pertinent to our #wesgov372 discussion today.

Research: Believing that the mass public in the opposing party supports undemocratic tactics leads people to be more supportive of undemocratic tactics themselves. Being assured that a majority of your opponents oppose such radical tactics increases support for democratic norms osf.io/my987/download

Social media undercuts public health and institutional trust A new study finds causal evidence that morally charged attacks generate anger and social media engagement which exacerbates the political polarization of public health www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

If you didn't see Marion Nestle analyze the MAHA children's health strategy report on PBS NewsHour last night, I urge you to watch at this link: open.substack.com/pub/garyschw...

POQ's 2025 special issue underlines the importance of qualitative research in the social sciences. Roller & Smith outline different methodological approaches to qualitative research and its critical role in social and behavioral sciences. Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

Most people in Mexico and Canada say the United States is their country's greatest threat. www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

Here's a scenario that someone should ask RFK Jr. about: an under-65 person with no major health conditions who is providing some in-person support for an older family member undergoing treatments that weaken the immune system. Can that person get a COVID shot? It's me, and I can't.

Great job at the Pew Research Center for a Computational Social Science Assistant: pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Center...

🚨🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨🚨 We have 3 lines open in CP, IR and IPE — all tenure-track. We offer competitive salaries, a 2:1 teaching load, in a friendly (and fully in English) environment, at one of Europe’s most sought-after cities.

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

BREAKING: US job growth slowed to a crawl in August, adding only 22,000 positions. It's another indication the US labor market is stagnating. Follow live updates: https://cnn.it/4nlRiu9

Oooooh…look what was waiting for me when I got home. I’ve been hearing/reading about this from @juliaazari.bsky.social for some time, and after reading part of the first chapter, I gotta say I think this book hits at the absolute right moment. Thanks Julia!

Medical groups call on US Health Secretary Kennedy to step down reut.rs/4neBOrN

William & Mary is conducting a search for a tenure track assistant professor in comparative politics, with a focus on Europe. Deadline for applications is early October, although there's some flexibility. Reposts appreciated. williammary.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WM/det... .

Single member legislative districts are just such a bad system, especially when parties are polarized (i.e., in any modern political system) Forthcoming APSR shows firms, not just voters, are gerrymandered into/out of districts for partisan gain ungated SSRN version papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

In my NORC 2024 panel, respondents who didn't match to the voter file were *18.5 percentage points* more pro-Trump than the sample overall. My guess: Trump voters were less willing to give the information needed to match to voter records.

Notre Dame is investing in democracy research in lots of exciting ways, including these hires. Happy to talk to senior folks about working at Notre Dame and living in South Bend. (Spoiler: There are lots of good reasons I've spent my entire career here).

NEW STUDY: Types of science🧪 articles shared on Bluesky: Health 29% Social 25% Physical 23% Life 23% arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18840 Worth reading--lots of other insights! Lately, I've been sharing our new article on global religious decline www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Among those laid off in the CDC include employees who help other countries track violence against children as well as those who work to prevent child abuse and teen dating violence. “There are nationally and internationally recognized experts that will be impossible to replace”

NEW Economist/YouGov Aug 15-18 % who think federal funding for scientific research done by American universities should increase | decrease U.S. adult citizens 39% | 13% Democrats 63% | 2% Independents 39% | 14% Republicans 17% | 22% today.yougov.com/politics/art...

Cuts to public media and higher education may create the perfect storm to impact one group of learners in particular: student journalists Mine for @insidehighered.com www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

We’ve updated our estimates! We used likely the best data for this for adults and youth. And sadly, it might be the last time for a very long while. The federal government has STOPPED data collection on gender identity and transgender people. It could take 8+ years before we can do this again.

New: As Trump's approval rating slips, his signature tariffs and tax bill face more opposition than support among the public. Most also disapprove of the administration's handling of information related to the Epstein investigation -- including 53% of Republicans. www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

New CBO estimates of the coverage impact of reconciliation law. Its #Medicaid cuts will raise uninsured by 7.5M in 2034 out of total 10M uninsured increase under law. 87% of coverage losses from Medicaid cuts are result of work requirements & provider tax restrictions. www.cbo.gov/system/files...

We know that a consensus of opinions is persuasive, but how reliable is this effect across people and types of consensus, and are there any kinds of claims where people care less about what other people think? This is what we tested in our new(ish) paper in @psychscience.bsky.social