For people in need of food help this month, @chicagohealth.bsky.social put together a list of local mutual aid groups, food pantries, and restaurants offering free/discounted meals: chicagohealthonline.com/its-been-rea...

After firing hundreds of meteorologists, the National Weather Service announced it is filling vacant positions. Applicants are being asked to detail their support for Trump’s policies.

“We don’t need more research to help the disadvantaged live longer. We just need to get them access to what we already know works.” chicagocaregiving.com/live-long-an...

“These billionaires think they can buy anything, but they come in here & destroy our neighborhood,” said one woman as Weiss Memorial closed. The safety net hospital served an immigrant & senior population, with 87% of its 2024 income from Medicare, Medicaid. chicagohealthonline.com/how-did-this...

Four Al Jazeera staff, including reporter Anas Al Sharif, were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside the main gate of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital aje.io/onll19

Medicaid covers 83 million people, including +60% of nursing home residents, 20% of assisted living facility residents, and half of long-term care residents. Yet many Medicaid recipients don’t realize they’re enrolled because the program goes by so many nicknames - via @chicagohealth.bsky.social

EPA To Drop 'E,' 'P' From Name theonion.com/epa-to-...

NIH funding cuts are putting rare disease research — and lives — at risk. For Milan Afshar, a young Chicagoan living with stiff-person syndrome, life turned upside down after his clinical trial abruptly ended. This isn’t just a budget issue. It’s a human one. Read the full story:

Major medical organizations are suing RFK Jr. + HHS: “This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started." At risk: vaccine guidance integrity, vulnerable populations' health, public trust.

RFK ousted the vaccine advisory committee (ACIP). What are the chances he'll fill it w/ anti-vaxxers who change the immunization schedule, prompting insurers not to cover vaccines? Here's how the vaccine process typically works: chicagohealthonline.com/whos-in-char... cc: @chicagohealth.bsky.social

Read our 2024 award-winning stories and latest recognitions! We’re excited to share the honors that @caregivingmag.bsky.social and @chicagohealth.bsky.social have received this past year for outstanding work. Congratulations to all, and please enjoy! chicagohealthonline.com/awards-fello...

Cuts to the Older Americans Act risk fall-prevention programs, respite care, adult protective services, and more. How we treat older adults reflects who we are as a society — and previews the future we're building for ourselves. @caregivingmag.bsky.social chicagocaregiving.com/older-americans-act/

It appears Sec. Kennedy is getting ready to over-ride vaccine policy experts & scrub Covid shot recommendations for children, teens & pregnant people. Having a HHS secretary reset vaccine policy without hearings or expert advice is unprecedented, experts tell STAT. www.statnews.com/2025/05/15/c...

Social media - what's not to love?!

A former criminal court judge, Mariela says the Venezuelan govt removed her b/c she refused to align with its agenda. “They did the same to many other judges.” Here, she works as a delivery driver. "It feels like nothing is guaranteed.” @clavelrangel.bsky.social for @caregivingmag.bsky.social

“Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”

"We may be teens & 20-somethings today, but our parents, and we, are the older adults of the future. Cuts to Medicaid & the elimination of the ACL are crumbling a system that one day we too will rely on for our well-being & our economic security." Excellent op-ed, Arielle Galinsky in @teenvogue.com

How many people in his lab could do embryology, modeling, data analysis, and bioinformatics? Only her. Petrova developed computer scripts to analyze the 100k images from a one-of-a-kind microscope. “Without her, I fully believe that all the insights into cures that we could make will not be made.”

For our next issue of @caregivingmag.bsky.social, we're asking readers: What would you tell your younger self about aging? Respond here, or message me if you'd like to be included!

The closure of the CDC’s entire FOIA office is unacceptable and in fact, illegal. Americans shouldn't be left in the dark about how the CDC is operating. Transparency matters. So we're suing.

So proud of our latest @chicagohealth.bsky.social. Here's my editor's letter, starting here and continuing in the comments: I’ve been thinking back to those early days of Covid-19, what it was like to be a journalist then. Every day brought something new.

MD vs. DO: What's the difference? Quite a bit actually! (Though, in my experience, it depends on the specialty.) An interesting history in our latest issue of @chicagohealth.bsky.social: chicagohealthonline.com/md-do-what-k...

For @propublica.org: measles vaccination rates were *below herd immunity* in most states in the 2023-24 school year. Read the story on vaccine hesitancy & rising cases of measles and whooping cough by @deldeib.bsky.social: www.propublica.org/article/whoo...

CDC's entire FOIA office is gone, and @crew.bsky.social has filed a complaint. If you're a journalist or nonprofit staffer awaiting pending or litigated FOIA requests, please let them know.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump White House must admit the AP's journalists to news events - ruling its exclusion was "unlawful." Almost two hours later, two AP journalists were rejected from the WH pool to cover a Trump speech. My NPR story: www.npr.org/2025/04/08/n...

This pic of Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren reminded me of a series I wrote during Trump 1.0, about the energy tribes' ongoing battles for sovereignty. My editor challenged me to take the issue beyond black-and-white, and I felt that in every interview. www.instagram.com/p/DINFTd3yLX...

Measles update: 607 cases across 21 states as of Friday. 3 confirmed deaths as of this morning. “The best thing you can do is make sure you and your family are protected,” a local infectious disease doctor told @chicagohealth.bsky.social. “Measles is preventable — if people get vaccinated.”

Immunotherapy for cancer is one of the biggest medical advances of our lifetimes. It gave Jimmy Carter another decade of life. A new trial shows how it could treat solid tumors, but Trump's cuts to HHS and NIH are disrupting this work 🧪 wapo.st/4j8Hwd1 by @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social

We are once again incredibly honored to be a finalist in the Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Awards. Congratulations to our design team for their work on our gun violence issue.

This is the story of thousands of families, violently uprooted from their homeland, struggling to build new opportunities for their children. As families face ongoing hardships, the support systems they've developed here are tested daily. By @katiehappens.bsky.social, @clavelrangel.bsky.social

While HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy argues that skipping public comment streamlines operations, critics warn that doing so limits transparency and shuts out healthcare stakeholders from shaping policy. via @chicagohealth.bsky.social

Texas' bussing of displaced migrants to sanctuary cities was a political move. But there were thousands of children aboard who had been through significant trauma. How have cities responded to their mental health needs? darien.tiempocompany.com @clavelrangel.bsky.social, @tibizea.bsky.social, and me

22 states have filed a lawsuit against the NIH over the Trump administration's new 15% cap. The suit contends that because of the policy, lifesaving research “will grind to a halt.” Chicago researchers weigh in on the freeze, via @chicagohealth.bsky.social: chicagohealthonline.com/theres-just-...

wow, many thanks to the amazing @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social for the kind words. and i share in your frustration. www.facebook.com/share/p/19vX...

Update: The letter now has 24,300 signatures It cites Kennedy’s 2019 visit to Samoa, where he fueled doubts about the measles vax. Vaccination rates fell (60% to 31%) following the visit. Within four months, a measles outbreak killed 83, hospitalized 1,868. chicagohealthonline.com/physicians-r...

Advice for journalists covering changes in rules, regulations, codes, standards, and oversight: Find out why they were instituted in the first place. Learn the origin story of what they were in response to, their goals, who benefitted, and the process by which they came about. History matters.