Looking forward to this session next week!

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

Reporting from war-torn Portland. Dropped my daughter off for theater class and now drinking a vegan sipping chocolate & reading a book while watching people exit the symphony. A guy in a care bear onesie just scootered past. It's rough out here.

We are alive at time of massive self-organization of systems. If you look you'll see the responses everywhere, where the pieces of projects for the common good are caught and lifted back up before they fall fully to pieces. I'm excited to watch this one develop and maybe help it along.

Seeking scientist volunteers for this fall! Want to practice science communication and help author a 🌟comic🌟 about your research? I need collaborators for the next cohort of SciComm & Comics art and design students. All countries and scientific fields eligible.

Between 35 -40% of pregnant women and parents of young kids in the U.S. plan to fully vaccinate their child according to medical guidance. Dean @meganranney.bsky.social discusses the current challenges of promoting important vaccines. Read more ⬇️ accuracy.org/release...

Heard from #AHRQ that the entire grants staff has been let go! They are unable to issue funds for grants already funded, let alone fund new grants. This is outrageous and will make Americans poorer and sicker. Why? A brief thread about just some recent AHRQ-funded research: #MedSky #HealthPolicy

This is bonkers. And a very bad sign for science.

We simply cannot afford a doom loop for TriMet. Reduction in service will lead to a reduction in ridership, leading to declining fares, more cuts, 🔁 The cost will be increased congestion, further deterioration in PBOT assets and of course emissions. We can’t afford that. Call your state reps.

I wanted to show support for these brave public servants and to allow others, including the scientific community, to join me. In partnership with @standupforscience.bsky.social‬, we have a way for you to do that... www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

LLMs as mansplainers. That tracks. Helpful thread about limits of LLM historical knowledge:

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

You use federal science every day—whether you know it or not. Weather forecasts, food safety alerts, job reports—these are powered by federal data. NPR just did a great piece on how deeply this science shapes our daily lives.

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

This guy is trying to dismantle vaccination in the US 😳 If there is no vaccine against a disease, of course a new vaccine is tested against placebo (as was the case with COVID vaccines). But if there is an existing vaccine, and a company brings out a new product, it’s unethical to use a placebo 🤦🏻‍♂️

BTW. If you’re a scientist and are feeling hollowed out, depressed, fried, frustrated, confused, and simply exhausted by everything, I understand you. You are perfectly sane and you are not alone.

You want to hear what "return on investment" means in relation to NSF funding? I know you do...

This feels like getting my hair cut on March 7, 2020 and knowing it was my last normal outing for a long time because the world was about to change.

I’m a virologist who has been studying HIV in one way or another since 1997. In the last 2-3 years there has been a sea change. The new drugs spearheaded by LENC show that we can make the tools to halt HIV with will and commitment. And just as we arrive at this point, MAGA is killing that hope.

🧵1/N New study published in @jama.com on re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US. We model long-term risk and conditions for return to endemicity for measles, rubella, polio, & diphtheria. Collab w/ @Mathewkiang.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I made a timeline of all the actions in Trump's (almost) first 100 days that have upended science and health. It was staggering to me to see it all in one place, even though I reported on many on these events. www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/t...

NEW: The total loss of NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research —a nerve center of global climate science, data collection and modeling — represents a setback for climate preparedness that experts warn the nation may never recover from. By @abrahm.bsky.social

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM Implementation of Schedule F This is what a lot of us have been worried about. This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs. BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD... 1/n

I have discovered over the last 94 days that the cancellation of longitudinal scientific studies is deeply gutting to me. The very fact that humanity ever got its shit together enough to collaboratively study the world around us, passing the torch btw generations, is evidence that we can be better

Even if this gets challenged in court, damage will be done. People from universities will avoid applying for NIH funding out of fear that funding will be clawed back or tied up in litigation, if even awarded. Shoddy biased think tanks will emerge to snatch up funding and churn out hack "studies."

A Lancet preprint estimates that if US funding is cut and not replaced, from 2025-2040 there will be 15.2 mil add'l AIDS deaths, 2.2 mil add'l TB deaths, 7.9 mil add'l child deaths from other causes, and 40-55 mil add'l unplanned pregnancies. @altusaid.altgov.info papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The proposal by Bhattacharya to use data from Indian Health Services to study autism is outrageous and should be fought tooth and nail. I have had the honor of working with Tribes on research projects. The steps for approval are many and lengthy, as they should be for this vulnerable population.

This is scary and goes far beyond "just tweak the language."

What’s the point in accumulating influence if you only use it to advocate positions that are already popular? What does it say about you when you’re unwilling to expend your clout to stop a humanitarian catastrophe because the moral, decent position is polling 5 points underwater?

This statement from the NSF is insane. Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false. Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

Everyone who every worked with, volunteered for, or was supported by @americorps.bsky.social, please share and sign. This is both a public petition but also an effort to find and connect anyone tied to AmeriCorps - access to the alumni database managed by the program was cut off.

The plan for NIH is in, source with full 64 page proposal for all of HHS is linked. Reported in WaPo. This is catastrophic. Reduction to 8 centers. 40% cut in budget. 15% IDC cap. This will decimate science across America open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his wife and their three children, and has never been charged with any crime. The Department of Homeland Security issued him a work permit, and he joined a union, working full time as a sheet metal apprentice.

This should be the template for every university’s website: let the public know what they gain from research and what they stand to lose. www.harvard.edu

This part

All Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists who provided training on concussions in youth sports were fired last week. scim.ag/4jsdSiL

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die. Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

Oh wow: Portland Oregon is NOT KIDDING #handsoff

For the people who used to ask 'Why do you have to be so political?' I hope that it's now obvious why. Healthcare is political. Housing is political. Education is political. The air we breathe, the water we drink —it's all shaped by policy and power. Ignoring that is a political choice.

"America’s young scientists [...] want to imagine a better world, and they want to pursue that dream here in the United States. If the country’s leadership continues with its plans, however, we will see the brightest minds of the next generation disappear with their dreams."

I swear to fucking god some of y'all need to learn the social psychological importance of narrative construction and the sociopolitical dynamics and mechanics of myth

A hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was <50. Today, it is ~80. What made the difference? Public Health. Public health, however, is not some magic entity happening in a vacuum - it requires people. Without those people, there can be no Public Health. That serves no one. Wake up.

The sheer volume of time and energy being spent by thousands of university-based researchers in *every* field right now to figure out if their funding will exist next month or next year, if their careers can even continue… just citing dollar values doesn’t do it justice, it is full-scale upheaval.

Fascinating paper. The former philosophy major in me is always excited to see smart philosophy of science work break into the biomedical bubble. I'll definitely consider this in future systems modeling of TBI recovery: doi.org/10.3389/fneu...

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

Just a reminder: having a functional moral compass right now is going to make you feel bad all the time; don’t mistakenly hate yourself for that.

The National Institutes of Health will no longer be funding work on the health effects of climate change, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica. www.propublica.org/article/nih-...

For a @motherjones.com story, I am looking to speak to a veteran whose healthcare was interrupted as a result of VA firings/people being put on administrative leave. My email is [email protected] and my signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts appreciated.

You know you're looking at data from Norway when the rate of injury from "wind-thrown tree" matches the rate of gunshot injuries.

a few things you can do to help queer health research: - call your reps - contact your local media ** for both, highlight the value of this work to your community - donate to state AGs - donate to relevant legal orgs - amplify what's happening & thank you to everyone who has reached out, truly 💗