This report sanitizes and normalizes the profound assaults on the FDA/CDC and the inevitable harmful impacts (morbidity and death) of antiscience. The first paragraphs are pure stenography devoid of context or critical analysis. This opening is as much a press release as it is a “scoop”. 3/

A🧵 This is profoundly irresponsible by AGSulzberger’s NYT, @by-cjewett.bsky.social +eds. The normalization, “view-from-nowhere”, “born-yesterday”, stenography, “both-sides”, irresponsible headline are disgraceful. THE story is the CDC&FDA are being destroyed by antiscience & Americans will die. 1/n

Honestly, when there is a reporter on the story with the expertise to say it, they can simply say it. Some things are just true. Like "FDA offical makes unprecedented claim, with no evidence, that Covid vaccines killed children." Nothing here needs an "experts say" to back it.

Arctic sea-ice extent on November 30th was about 400,000 square kilometers below the previous record low for the date, set in 2016.

Many journalists are tracking the procurement and deployment of new technologies and tactics, but it's hard to get the entire picture. A generational threat to civil liberties that I suspect future governments will struggle (or refuse) to roll back. Dramatic reform/abolition will be required.

The world has lost a giant of virology, molecular biology and science advocacy David Baltimore’s obituary by Stephen Goff www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Great thread by one of the folks who brought you “The strain on scientific publishing” direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Since AI slop is again all over Scientific Reports, a thread on the economics of grey-zone publishing. Why does slop keep getting published? What does it mean for science? How can we stop this? Background readings: Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy

People don’t know that you can be a silent carrier of Hep B and as such, you could spread the infection. We HAVE to stop RFK Jr.

“Americans are on track not to have to worry about hepatitis B. But if the committee decides to derail our trajectory, I fear I will meet patients and their families shattered by it in the years to come.“ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

This is the most important op-ed you'll read this week. The Trump administration is about to get rid of the birth-dose of hepatitis B vaccine. That is a deadly choice for many families. @helenouyang.bsky.social tells her story. Now call your member of Congress. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

The news has entirely failed to grasp the unprecedented scope of the ICE and DHS budgets. Nothing like it in modern history. A galaxy of public/private surveillance and caging institutions for $100,000,000,000s unleashed on a public that will be forever changed. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

„…we have worked for free to lock ourselves collectively into a paid system when we are all aware of its biases and incompleteness. Institutions have been trapped in the WoS system …“🧪🎓🔓

From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science, along with the Core Collection and Journal Citation Reports.

Since our fucking government isn’t observing World AIDS Day, I will. In 1990, I started taking care of people in the last stages of AIDS in their homes. I did this for nearly two years. The home care company I worked for had meetings for those of us who solely (or nearly solely) took care of PWAs.

In the 9 months since the election, AfD has become Germany's most popular party. This massive surge is a political earthquake for Europe. Will a Germany with AfD in power defend the Baltics or Poland if Russia attacks? Will it take Germany out of the Euro? robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-politi...

Last week I checked in on a friend, someone who I thought would be one of the very last immigrants (who have any other options) to leave Germany, only to find that they and their family are already in the process of leaving. Their explicit reason: the rise of fascism. Very, very disturbing times.

We have a cabinet level Secretary of State, a diplomatic corps, Special Envoys, and Defense team to do this work. “Son-in-law” is not a government job. Kushner does not represent us.

I wish all figures of authority cared about moms and babies. But some don’t. Some even want you to hurt. And those are the people who cast doubt on the vaccination miracle that has allowed so many of us to live longer and better. kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...

The AP didn’t used to be known for saucy headlines, but that whole Gulf of Mexico thing must have unleashed their AhFuckIt gene. apnews.com/article/dona...

Chief Bovino is not a political appointee. He is a civil servant, subject to the same requirements to be nonpartisan as any other employee. These messages are being broadcast from an official government account.

Has this been posted yet

conservatives basically want to implement the caricature of affirmative action for conservative students. acceptance without meeting qualifications, good grades and degrees without having to do the work.

6 years today the first COVID case was identified in a man in Wuhan marking the beginning of a global pandemic that changed the world. We are way less prepared today to face another pandemic than we were back then. This fact makes me sad.

What is Jared Kushner's job in the administration?

I told y’all that the thing about the lesser of two evils is that it’s less evil.

There was 0 data about the pediatric vaccine at the time. Journalists, please remind your readers that Prasad was always against the covid vaccine for kids. Always.

It’s useful to think about things like this in numbers of tenure track professors. $33M is 358 assistant professors. Or about fourteen percent of the total number of full-time faculty at Michigan State.

Also a reminder: a number of graduate programs at MSU have suspended intake for the coming fall, including 21 in the College of Arts and Letters.

We can't really say this enough... > Anastasia Berg [at UCL Irvine] said that new research — and what she's hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate. www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-are...

Don't use LLMs for ANYTHING. Not your grants, not your papers. NOTHING. You were hired because of your mind. Use it for god's sake

They are going for numbers. I’m convinced they’ll try green card holders next. Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

LSU is paying its previous football coach over $50 million NOT to coach there while likely guaranteeing Kiffin something approaching double that, all while having an academic hiring freeze and budget cuts across the board. What is the purpose of a university (rhetorical)?

It’s always fun to see the clips of the Sunday political shows because you get to go “yep the news lets people lie to them for an hour and airs it”

We are living at a time when university leadership amplifies anti-intellectual tropes and technologies These are very troubling times

If only they would be willing to learn from existing role models en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Kr...

Trump is invading American cities to nominally address crime, and I think the scale of his pardon-sprees should be given more political salience

When this criminal was jailed, the judge told David Gentile and America: ‘This is a warning to would-be fraudsters that seeking to get rich by taking advantage of investors gets you only a one-way ticket to jail.’ I guess not

I don’t think many people realize how infinitely complex the human brain is and the difficulty level of many of the basic tasks it performs in relation to interacting with the world. With less data in less organized blocks than any LLM has ever received, human toddlers can speak multiple languages.

Opinion from Tevis Garrett Graddy-Lovelace: As US hunger rises, Trump administration’s ‘efficiency’ goals cause massive food waste #ksleg

“Staggering rise of the Working Homeless” In the richest country on earth. This is a policy choice.

I really appreciate that @pbsnews.org ended the interview with this graphic. It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.

"Homelessness today isn't just the person sleeping outside a Walmart. It's often the cashier or worker stocking the shelves inside." I joined @pbsnews.org to talk about There Is No Place for Us and the staggering rise of the "working homeless": www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

As Trump offers amnesty, Putin intensifies his war crimes: Two people were killed and 37 injured by a Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital that cut power half of the city, leaving at least 500,000 residents without electricity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Even a decade ago I'd have far sooner predicted that the US would succumb to authoritarian rule than that it would become a state where vaccines were unavailable. But if we don't throw RFK Jr. out on his ass, we're headed there fast.

One of the features of the Trump era is a formalization of the use of enemies lists to induce terror. It is one thing when MAGA influencers or organizations are naming you as an enemy of the state, but it takes on a different cast when its the White House. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/governing-...

Finally got around to reading Prasad's actual memo about the purported deaths in children from COVID-19 vaccines, and it's kind of amazing in the worst ways possible. At one point, he says (regarding rare adverse events): "Causality is easy to assess in a randomized trial..."

Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.

Trump has created at least 675,000 "illegal immigrants" who are now at risk for deportation - IMO, Congress needs to reform the immigration system and take back its power so these swings from one President to another stop. www.axios.com/2025/11/24/t...

RFK Jr. is against vaccines that have been proven to be safe and effective, because he claims they aren’t tested enough. At the same time, he promotes supplements and IV peptides that aren’t approved or regulated by the FDA or any other body.