A tally of the damage www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/o...

Oh my God it just keeps getting worse. This #RFK sponsored #hepatitis vaccine trial in #Guinea-Bissau is being run by people whose research methods have been totally discredited. This isn’t research, it’s gun-for-hire antivax nonsense. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This Op Ed is a call to action from highly qualified experts who have served (and protected) all of us for decades. When they see the depth of the self inflicted wounds that SecDHHS’ is promulgating on all of us, they demand change. All of us should do same. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Abrego García Case Summary; Deport w/o Due Process > Ignore Injunction Stopping ✈️s > Admit Mistake in Court > Falsely Malign in Media > Ignore SCOTUS’ Demand 2 Facilitate Return > Claim Can’t Return 🇸🇻 Citizen 2 🇺🇸 > Quietly Get Fed Grand Jury 2 Indict for 3 y/o Traffic Stop > Magically Returns 2 🇺🇸

This NYT story, while describing a tech context, is relevant to my team’s poster preso at ASGCT this week - Do broad claims of trade secret protections create harm? We ask whether patient safety is impacted if/when the veil of trade secrets is unquestioned. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/t...

As usual, a lucid and thoughtful discussion and analysis by @alyssaburgart.bsky.social of an incredibly sad case that should concern EVERY American.

Póster #1857 is up @asgct New Orleans! Come and see us from 5:30-7p

Just a point of reference as to what Bainbridge Island (elected) Councilmembers and (voluntary committee and board members) are permitted to accept as gifts.

Why have the emoluments clause? Is that just for suckers and losers?

A tremendous story here. So personal, so well written. Please read and share broadly.

Until people are held accountable for the malicious lies they spread, sadly, I don’t see this changing. Huge props to JOliver and his researchers for debunking Sec DHHS’s patently absurd lexicon of LIES. If something seems shocking; check facts. Repetition of unchecked lies hurts ALL OF US

This is pretty deeply “F’d” and these “researchers” need a serious rebuke. Anyone who’s received a letter like that from an IRB knows it translates to; “Oh hell no you can’t do that”. & yet the Univ is compelled to protect their confidentiality. The lying to the AI about consent too…..chilling.

Scientists’ curiosity about “the how” is endless. Also; humble ones don’t presume/or make conclusions in areas where they aren’t experts…. So I’m crowdsourcing here. It sure SEEMS like passenger capacity far exceeds lifeboat capacity. I look forward to learning how there’s more behind the photo

I just landed in Dallas. TX is a huge state. But you know the only boundary measles knows? Vaccination

May the absolute GOAT pontiff who put HIS SERVICE TO OTHERS- to the weak, the persecuted, the vulnerable and the poor; Rest In Peace. As a LOOONNNNGGGG-Lapsed Catholic, I remain blown away at the example he set for service and humility. A new hi-water mark has been set for “Righteous Dudes.”

Today, on the most important day in Christian faith, how does POTUS’s Easter message the conform to Christ’s teachings? Luke 6; 27-28; I tell you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.

It’s condition upon arrival yesterday says a great deal….

SUCH a compelling story of how our differences in the definition of justice can be crushing. Yet can also be overcome. Just wow.

As a clinical ethicist, the bitterness of the ironies of this story are beyond description. A call to a consult on determination of death & working through that with a family is one of the most humbling experiences you will ever know. Here, its surname/age/status > Death. Just wow.

Thank you, coffee gods.

As an ethicist; file under “truth and justice”

Gorgeous piece here!

Worth the read

Another preventable pediatric death. And RFKjr attending the funeral? I’m SO troubled. Parents can invite anyone they choose, but pretext of Sec DHHS’s attendance should be seen for what it is; It’s exploiting another grieving family to promulgate his false beliefs. These deaths were PREVENTABLE

It’s interesting and inspiring to be on the ⛴️ headed into Seattle, with so many folks organizing to protest. It should not be overlooked by any that, in add’n to many other pressing concerns, our country permits one individual to bet (and lose) $6T from our economy in 2 days.

Grateful to @bmj.com Journal of Medical Ethics Blog for giving space for this piece.

This is so damned impressive what @booker.senate.gov Cory Booker is doing/has done here. Making new history. So, So, So important. Will be Proud to have the longest filibuster on record, now be assigned to a man who stands for citizens rights, versus standing for their denial.

When we describe truth telling as “courageous”, I’m pretty sure there’s something very very wrong with our political leadership. This, like current measles outbreak, was entirely preventable and clearly illustrates how the DHHS Sec lied in his confirmation. Senator (Dr) Cassidy?

May you Rest in Peace, Big George. A teacher of many lessons, but one of the greatest is to laugh at oneself/never take yourself too seriously. Humility of the highest order from a man who totally could have…

“Controversial Tactic” is a charitable description. Please pay attention, folks, to what’s happening here. Just bc things move incrementally doesn’t mean the direction they’re heading is the proper one. This is VERY CONCERNING

Redefining pettiness and immaturity; This is truly embarrassing. While critically important to analyze every aspect of the response, and each leader’s role in it - Beware of pandemic revisionism; most especially with this administration.

Quite a wonderful and comprehensive history of 25a and its uses.

Feelings captured perfectly. I feel exactly the same.

Excellent 8 mins of a real expert addressing DHHS Sec’s blatantly false claims. Sen (Dr) Cassidy claimed he would meet with DHHS Sec if he engaged in this precise behavior. Here is your call to action Senator. RFK Jr. Falsely Claims Measles Vax Causes Deaths 'Every Day’

I read a very disturbing substack yesterday which causes me to state the following: I recognize and support my friends and neighbors in Canada 🇨🇦 as the sovereign parliamentary democracy, constitutional monarchy, and great friend and neighbor as I have always known them to be.

Worth every second of your time.

The fear of getting accruals wrong (& restating earnings) hung over my group (of clinical researchers) like a boogeyman. W/O accounting degrees/MBA’s, the checks we designed would’ve caught such discrepancies in a ❤️beat. We’d all have been canned in that same ❤️beat if we’d made such errors as DOGE

Having served on many ethics boards; Conflicts of interest are the most common transgressions we see. If even the perception exists that undue influence is possible, its most appropriate to recuse.

Photo 1; My homage to Tom Beauchamp: (a name every bioethicist knows) comes from a piece he & wife wrote for the Baltimore Sun in 2000. Photo 2 is my poster yesterday @Seattle Children's & PNRI Rare Disease Day - I’m so proud to have been included. The pink post-it note (top left) is TB’s homage

This, This, THIS!

Nothing saddens me more than a preventable human loss. Something in our Pub Health messaging to our society is missing when an innocent child dies completely unnecessarily. I just don’t see how this child’s death is any sort of an even trade for some perception of parental autonomy.

Vance@ Munich: I’ll admit that sometimes the loudest voices 4 censorship….are from my country; where the prior admin threatened&bullied social media CO’s to censor so-called misinformation; like the idea that SARSCoV2 had leaked from a lab in China. 😣😣😣 Thanks to NATURE for this even handed piece

JD Vance, 2/14 Munich; “In DC there’s a new sheriff in town & under DJT’s leadership we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer them in the public square…..” Colin Kaepernick “Hold my beer 🍺”

With very few exceptions; We were all “probationary employees” once. Fun fact, that doesn’t mean you’re bad, it just means you’re new…..

If you didn’t believe my last post on this topic, maybe believe my former professors. Abruptly ending (USAID) funding of clinical trials imperils participants and forces sponsors to abdicate the responsibilities to be good stewards of research and ethics. Participants pay with their lives & health

Much to note here; 1)Descriptions are all over the map. 2)Gratuitous to attach VEEP to case. 3)Focus is entirely on “religious freedom”& not a word on use of limited resources 4)No mention of (12y/o minor) patient’s assent/dissent from parents beliefs 5)Martyrdom? Sadly, Tribalism abounds in 2025

Entirely. Entirely. Entirely avoidable

Worth the read. Ethicists have a role in this type of decision making. Such decisions are uncomplicated when one assigns appropriate weight to components and outcomes. Courageous IG report indeed.