The @washingtonpost.com story on Tylenol & autism leaves out a MAJOR 2.5M sibling-controlled study of children in Denmark, which "found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Today, the New York Times published a long essay glorifying Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump NIH director. What?⁉️ Here’s the explanation: That essay was written by the editor of a Trumpist Republican journal, funded by a Trumpist org that hates science. SHAME on the Times. 🧪1/

Great clip. About PhDs here on H1B’s that “create entire industries.”

“The US scientific research system is being dismantled before our eyes” Correct @maddow.msnbc.com

This is the whole goal now for American patriots who love democracy and freedom: generate enough momentum and outrage in the public before Trump, Vought, and Miller consolidate authoritarianism. It’s a race. We can still win. Step up, everyone.

Jay Bhattacharya’s job is fulltime podcaster and propagandist. He’s not at #NIH to actually do anything about science, other than to lie about it to the press. Shame on anyone who invites him to speak.

Smart thread on billionaires and Congressional power 👇

Trump NIH director Jay Bhattacharya has written for and done many interviews with Reason Magazine. He loves Reason.

The road to authoritarianism is paved with cynicism

This is a good point- free speech is an important and simple principle. But the legal stuff around free speech is inscrutable, right?

Check out our trip to Capitol Hill yesterday with @fedsagainstdoge.bsky.social and @safa-science.bsky.social -- and sign the petition at bit.ly/FIGHTINGCR. It's up to 2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ signers! #FightingCR

One issue is that many elites are not saying “this violates the Constitution!! It violates our freedoms!” so that simple message is not getting out. Many people in the public don’t pay much attention to political news, and they certainly don’t know the limits of the powers of the FCC.

Let me just add to this: Nobody knew of him until he was amplified by a business-aligned dark money group for proposing mass infection as the path out of COVID. His ally at the group, by the way, is an anarcho-capitalist supporter of child labor and youth tobacco use.

The antivax destruction coming from RFK Jr is unspeakably bad. Many many people will die. Babies will be harmed for life. Unspeakably. Bad. Impeach RFK before it’s too late, Congress.

Good news! The Civil Servants’ Declaration we helped write urges including such language in the budget bill. “Use the power of the purse …, for ex by removing funds from OMB if indep commissioners, who were unlawfully fired, are not reinstated.” Now ~1500 fed worker signers. Bit.ly/fightingcr

“It is the sense of the committee that a prescription [should be required] for COVID vaccination” This would reduce uptake dramatically. This is the most SUCCESSFUL VACCINE IN HISTORY! It is miraculous and lifesaving! These antivaxxers will kill us all.

If the HepB testing rec passes, it also sets a weird precedent that ACIP can recommend things that don't provide immunization Will it do anything? Hopefully not. But is it confusing? Yup. Like how does universal testing get implemented? 🤷‍♂️

So now we have the Trump ACIP at the Trump CDC appointed by the Trump HHS Director RFK Jr. It’s all bad

I say this with my whole entire chest, as the mom of a toddler: THIS IS BULLSHIT. This will make lifesaving vaccines less available, confuse ppl, decrease vaccine uptake, and KILL CHILDREN. Everyone who supposed this has the blood of children on their hands. SEND SKEET.

The antivax destruction coming from RFK Jr is unspeakably bad. Many many people will die. Babies will be harmed for life. Unspeakably. Bad. Impeach RFK before it’s too late, Congress.

You asked for it! We delivered Quack-O-Grams to our members of Congress urging them to #ImpeachRFK, and get that Quack out of office! There's still time for you to get in on this fluffy, feathery action: Send your own duck at zurl.co/W1ZnB#ImpeachRFKand keep the momentum going! 🦆

This is a remarkable declaration and challenge to Congress: "We call on you to pass nothing less than a fighting CR: a funding bill that not only keeps the lights on, but that also includes statutory protections to rein in executive lawlessness." Spread the word.

Modifying or denying RAs will FURTHER reduce staff capacity and make it harder to get grants out the door. Scientists, look at your institute’s executive officer and consider emailing them and telling them to stand up to Trump.

Today a coalition of federal workers has released the Civil Servants’ Declaration. We have frequently asked questions here. “Why this letter? Because the Trump administration is engaged in an assault on the Constitution…” Please read!

Hearing today the Trumpers are asking for a list of ALL reasonable accommodations at NIH under the ADA — suggesting they’re looking to break the law and deny them. We also hear that some executive officers (EOs) at NIH are complying 😡 and assembling these lists. No. Stand up!

The Trump NIH director was hosted today by @researchamerica.bsky.social at @aaas.org for a speech. At that speech Bhattacharya spread Trumpy lies (“gold standard!”) designed to cover up his destruction of NIH. Shame on Sudip Parikh at AAAS for inviting him. It is collaboration. 🧪

#NIH did this. We fund medical research to help burn patients and benefit them and all Americans.

This is trampling on our freedoms. There are millions of people out in the public who have shirts that say “FREEDOM.” Our government is run by tyrants, and people need to hear more of that.

Every institution that has rolled over will regret it, they helped sow these seeds. The cowardice has been profound and the eye of Sauron now aimed at the last piers of free society. As was predictable when the first law firm caved.

the social substrate for science is one of the great “hacks” of humankind

This man has been paid to watch Fox News, full-time, for about a decade.

“We want Congress to pass a fighting [continuing resolution] that does not only keep the lights on, but includes checks on this administration’s authoritarian overreach and protections for our institutions" ... YES. 1/ www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

I’m more used to saying this to people on the Left than people on the Right, but, “hate speech” is not an exception to the First Amendment. “Hate speech” is protected by the First Amendment unless it falls into a traditional established exception.

This is right and all of us should make it our solemn responsibility to spread the word: get off Twitter. If you have time to take no other action, do this: get your friends and colleagues off of Twitter and onto Bluesky.

The goal of this account must be to get blocked, right? This isn’t Twitter where these ridiculous views get artificially boosted by the billionwire owner. Not sure what this account is trying to accomplish by following us and commenting.

It does feel like this is what’s going on. Why should the NFL say no to honoring Charlie Kirk when Schumer and Jeffries are not saying no very loudly? Half the country thinks things are normal because D leaders are acting like things are normal.

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

The core thing about Bezos’ ”leadership” at the Post: It’s built on big, fat lies. WaPo revamped the opinion page to focus on (lie incoming) free speech and personal liberties. But fired @karenattiah.bsky.social for speech—for telling the truth. Bezos REALLY is about pathetic groveling to Trump.

Firing a Black woman for quoting Kirk’s horrific statements about Black women is insane. It seems the Washington Post would rather perform politeness (and demand that the people Kirk harmed do it too) that tell the truth: karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin...

All best, and yes, the TV in public spaces at NIH has gotten terrible over the past few years. They used to switch between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, as if those were the same kind of thing. Now they mostly do NewsNation or the ABC “bothsides” news product. It’s all bad.

There are a lot of institutions that I think so need reform, but Trump going after them means we have to batten down the hatches and preserve what we can until hurricane MAGA dies down.

Charlie Kirk was a hateful person. He did bad things while alive, and he deserves no respect from the public, and no honor, in death. His politics were opposed to American ideals; they were un-American. All best to his family as they deal with their personal loss. There, we said it.

Important stuff for federal workers and scientists and academics alike:

Yes. The two parties have privileged access to political media. The whole business model of political media depends on quoting both sides! The press would LOVE for the Democratic leadership to say fighting words. We need the opposition party to get louder about all of this.

This is so true for science. Why did the US attract top minds from all over the world to want to study, work, stay, and start companies? Instead of go, say, to Germany, Japan, or China? In large part because the US was a multicultural, open, pluralistic democracy. People felt comfortable here.

Perhaps Vought did feel like NIH represented something he could not control and NIH and science needed to be destroyed. And maybe that was from his personal experience. it is possible

Interesting analysis. @jamellebouie.net wonders if Russ Vought hates NIH because science proved itself stronger than his far-right religious power system. Vought’s daughter had a terrible disease. Vought could not cure her or make her physical symptoms better. But science, and NIH, did that.

"Now an extraordinarily successful scientific research system — one that took decades to build, has saved millions of lives and generated billions of dollars in profits for American companies and investors — is being dismantled before our eyes."