People feeling hopeless about AI/LLMs spoiling all online polling and survey research should take a look at what @yamilrvelez.bsky.social is doing with “Pulse” — a tool to detect proof of life that’s compatible with Quatrics

The destruction of the enterprise of US academic science has been one of the most confounding aspects of a hugely confounding year. My @statnews.com colleagues are writing about the consequences for individuals & the country. You want to read this series. www.statnews.com/american-sci...

A must read from @neillewisjr.bsky.social, a scholar and friend I constantly learn from.

The Yale crew is awesome and doing incredibly innovative things in the Medicaid and SNAP space. If you're interested in health policy and a predoc, run, do not walk, to apply for this!

Social media ~ mental health meta-analysis: - Cited 7 times - The 45 included studies appear not to exist - The authors’ institution appears not to exist - The journal editors won’t respond

This excellent paper is now out - Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Code: github.com/kobihackenbu... A useful summary by @lpargyle.bsky.social: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Our analysis shows that in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve...highlighting increasing disparities in their built environments."

“The National Wildlife Health Center in Madison is the only center in the country dedicated to preventing and detecting wildlife disease. Research at the facility, which has already lost about 30% of staff, includes bird flu, chronic wasting disease and more.” www.jsonline.com/story/news/2...

🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵

Amazing opportunity ⬇️⬇️

Important 🧵 ⬇️

💬 Viewpoint: @kff.org polling indicates nearly three-quarters of US adults support congressional extension of #ACA premium tax credits, making health care affordability a decisive economic issue in upcoming elections and policy debates. ja.ma/4oZfvaB

ANES Data Release! electionstudies.org/data-center/... The 3-wave ANES panel is now available. It merges data from 3 election studies (2016-2020-2024), the first time the ANES has collected interviews of the same respondents across 3 presidential elections.

The American National Election Studies wants to hear from you. Take a short survey that will inform our future planning. bit.ly/43vgW8b

Thanks to all who have completed our user survey. But if you haven't, don't forget to take it. This feedback will inform our long-term planning. We really would like to hear from you! bit.ly/43vgW8b

People value free and fair elections, and prefer living in a country with free and fair elections but with less desirable outcomes (e.g. low levels of wealth) to living in a country without free and fair elections but with better outcomes journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00104140251392539

"The Consequences of Elite Action Against Elections" is now in print at BJPS (@bjpols.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1017/S000....

At Wesleyan University’s “Dialogue for Change: From Conflict to Action” seminar Anna Deavere Smith and @msroth.bsky.social explored how remembering the past and embracing critique sustain democracy and education. “We can’t go forward unless we remember, unless we confront these ghosts.” #HigherEd

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.