Anything we can do together is a great day and having @murray.senate.gov makes it even better - we are still left with a shutdown and a worse outlook for potentially millions who need health care that is dignified - Americans deserve that much

Former President Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer on Friday. The cancer has metastasized to the bone, according to the former president's personal office. @drkavitapatel.bsky.social joins @anacabrera.bsky.social to explain more. www.msnbc.com/ana-cabrera-...

This post is dedicated to all the frontline workers before, during and whatever now is called in the pandemic: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

this is just awful

first measles patient - unvaccinated child - dies - sadly won’t be the last in this recent outbreak- expect cases to increase to the mid to high 100s if not higher depending on when we hit a community wall of immunity (generally when we have 95% vax rate in an area) it’s never to late to vaccinate

Many have written about the House Bill that just passed, but so many outside the beltway are not aware 🧵 What’s "Budget Reconciliation"? It’s Congress’s turbo button for passing $$$ bills with just 51 Senate votes (no 60 needed!) Used for tax cuts, healthcare, climate ⚡ #BudgetReconciliation

House Rs just passed the budget resolution, the first step in their process to enact a bill that'd kick millions off Medicaid & cut SNAP down to just $1.60 per person per meal on avg while cutting taxes for the top 0.1% by $278k - all while increasing the debt 🧵on what's to come and WHERE TO FIGHT

“A sane government would never do this.” — the former dean of Harvard Medical School Universities are reeling. Elon Musk’s allies are celebrating. Looking at the major cut to federal research funding — which many scientists predict will be devastating With @lenasun.bsky.social and Carolyn Johnson

In case you wondered what depths our democracy has sunk to

this isn’t getting enough attention - please share widely

So in looking back for a quote from the Kennedy hearing today, I just realized I missed the part where Sen. Tuberville appears to endorse "butt whipping" via belt over medication for ADHD in children.

'Confused medicare and medicaid' @drkavitapatel.bsky.social joins Andrea Mitchell to share concerns on RFK Jr. www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitch...

#rfkhearing strong work to sen young (r-indiana) for talking and advocating for long covid devastating to millions with little to no research and utter desperation

#rfkhearing ok my bad i said there were only 2 docs in the senate - Marshall (r-ks) is no 3 and also home to the largest tb outbreak which interestingly he is NOT talking about

#rfkhearing Lujan (D-NM) finally getting to equity and inclusion (only took about 2.5 and 21 senators)- he is asking about how rfk will improve diversity in clinical trials and inclusion of staff who were fired for roles around diversity

#rfkhearing Blackburn (R-TN) asks a series of detailed questions that again reveal lack of knowledge around relevant programs: 1. area wage index- accounts for differences in payment based on geography www.cms.gov/medicare/pay...

#rfkhearing repeat themes of rfk following the science but zero follow up on how scientists can conduct work when grants and funding are under threat / the word equity is scrubbed and federal workforce are being essentially forced out

#rfkhearing mic drop award goes to Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “kids might die but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in”

#rfkhearing now is the time when the committee probably should take a break because it’s all just blending together … but we do have johnson (R) ranting quite a bit about thousands of pages of response from faucis email and lack of response from biden re myocarditis and the covid vaccine

#rfkhearing Cortez-Masto asking about EMTALA and ability to enforce emtala in cases of medical emergencies - supreme court weighed in on this and punted to states - so states like texas for example can enforce a ban even in emergency situations

#rfkhearing Hassan (D-NH) strong work with the large posters (a technique used in the senate to make a point) enshrining his own words onto a poster board on an easel rfk repeating the trump quote “every abortion is a tragedy” - hassan illustrating that rfk will simply do what trump says

#rfkhearing issues that still deserve more attention (we are only about 1/3 thru) 1. equity (or the elimination of it in current trump actions) 2. patient safety 3. nih research 4. workforce 5. 340b 6. electronic health records 7. indian health service 8. tobacco

#rfkhearing Whitehouse (D-RI) is also a policy wonk- starts with asking for more definitive statements around vaccines as well as talking about the perverse aspects of cms reimbursement based on geography

#rfkhearing Lankford (R-OK)-directly getting to abortion and title x (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215...)

#rfkhearing Warner (D-Va) asking questions germaine to the massive federal workforce in his home state- federal employee buyout/grant freeze/communication freeze- rfk jr unable to commit around anything but “not firing anyone who is doing their job” based on his opinion

#rfkhearing Cassidy also has some of the best health staff and he is a scholar of health care in his own right - he is asking all the right questions about medicaid and medicare and it’s clear rfk jr does not have familiarity

#rfkhearing Cassidy (R-La) 1 of 2 doctors on the committee asks about a super wonky and important issue- dual eligibles and it’s clear al rfk jr knows about duals is how to spell it

#rfkhearing Bennet (D-CO)-he is a smart sophisticated senator with seats on both major health committees-works across the aisle- look to him to see what most centrists are thinking

#rfkhearing Cornyn (R-TX)-talking about hhs office of refugee resettlement-now shifting to mental health 1. cornyn has strong health care staff and shows in the sophistication of his questions - he is asking about primary care behavioral health services

#rfkhearing rfk jr response to grassley - “radical transparency” - note lots of talk about cdc and fda and nih (clearly his sweet spots) but zero mention of cms so far as well as other important agencies

#rfkhearing Grassley (r) going thru 7 issues he cares about: 1. HHS oversight 2. pharmacy benefit managers 3. drug pricing 4.rural health (shade on biden) 5. agriculture- showing his iowa roots here telling rfk to back off 6.dietary guidelines-conflict transparency 7. refugee resettlement

#rfkhearing Wyden pushing hard on samoa - see excellent @nbcnews.com article on this here: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

one lesson here - statistics are effective and alarming but the idea that for decades many (myself included) have sat around doing nothing is an obfuscation

#rfkhearing the questions begin- GOP up first- expect questions that are friendly and allow for rfk jr to elaborate on his positions and opine on issues

#rfkhearing RFK jr- so far he is offering what sound like reasonable statements that if in isolation are noteworthy- reverse chronic disease etc but managing a 83k person department requires more

#rfkhearing protester interrupted rfk clarifying that he is pro-safety not anti vaccine of note @washingtonpost.com did an evaluation of past statements and found at least 3 dozen documented instances of anti vaccine comments

#rfkHearing beginning with 4 obligatory questions but now we hear the oral statement - and here we go…

#rfk hearing Committee chair Sen Crapo mentioning rfk and jfk and omitting emk (Sen Ted Kennedy) whose dais presence was legendary is noteworthy

#rfk hearing - look for staff (used to be my job) behind the senators to: 1. hand notes to senators 2. make funny faces 3. try not to fall asleep

I used to work in the Senate for RFK Jrs uncle Ted Kennedy- so i will talk about some of what we are witnessing live

hello live from the @nbcnews.com @msnbc.com studios in dc for the rfk hearing !

right in time for many health guidance to be paused www.kshb.com/news/local-n...

reminder that there are great people on this earth 6 yrs old but relevant esp today -for 25 years Matthew Shepard had no permanent resting place due to concerns his grave would be vandalized & Reverend Budde learned of this, invited the Shepards to inter him inside the Washington National Cathedral

The Trump admin has cancelled the panels that approve NIH grants, & is also banning scientists from communicating with the public, attending conferences, and hiring. NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. This will severely halt the development of many lifesaving treatments.

emails like this went out across all agencies with zero understanding or insight into how much this damages the ability for anyone coming in to lead an agency to be able to do their job or even have the faith of the career staff