I have a list of things we can do to change this tempo of tragedy The proposals are based on real data They have had signals of efficacy It may feel hopeless today but: I refuse to give up. Because - Our babies & our communities deserve better than a rolling litany of horrors.

The CDC has discontinued its surveillance program or food borne dz caused by As you friendly infectious disease physician, I regret to inform you that this decision is bad news for your food safety. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Check out our new article on why people who use fentanyl may be intentionally seeking out xylazine. Thanks Katie Hill for this important work! @yaleadm.bsky.social “Everybody’s Liking It”—Intentional Use of Xylazine in Fentanyl Among People Who Use Drugs www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I just.... can't express how disgusted and hopeless and exhausted I feel at the notion of my tax dollars going to criminalize and incarcerate my unhoused patients intead of - supporting affordable housing - services for people with mental illness and disabilities - or even opening shelters

Per a recent study from Ontario, "prescribed safer opioid supply and methadone both lead to better health outcomes among patients who use opioids." Says @drkimsue.bsky.social in conversation with @medscape.com, "this is a very promising finding." Read more: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

I’ll be presenting with my @cocoalition.bsky.social colleagues at this year’s National Healthcare for the Homeless Conference in Baltimore! If you’re attending the conference, come learn about no barrier buprenorphine dispensing on street medicine. 🔥

A must-read. All of us in addiction medicine have seen the devastating consequences of staph aureus bacteremia. A reminder of the importance of educating our patients who use drugs on harm reduction (sterile equipment, not sharing works, cleaning skin every time w/alcohol swabs, washing hands).

New @science.org Hedonic eating (eating for pleasure, not need) is mediated by dopamine neurons (in the brain ventral segmental area, VTA) and they are antagonized by GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide, leading to weight loss www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Exciting to see the overdose prevention center pilot bill move out of the Public Health Committee in Connecticut, much more work to be done (!) Read more about @amersa.org position statement on overdose prevention centers here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Medicaid is the largest source of insurance for addiction treatment. Easily the single greatest policy change to actually make a difference in our overdose crisis has been Medicaid/Medicare guaranteeing coverage for medical treatment of addiction. Any reduction in coverage will lead to more deaths.

Today! Pls join us @yaleadm.bsky.social. Especially relevant to hear Dr. Lasco's comments on the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court for charges of murder as a crime against humanity.

A new study suggests xylazine is spreading to the U.S.-Mexico border area. Says @drkimsue.bsky.social, harm reduction strategies to address xylazine exposure are urgently needed + research on prevalence, effects, use patterns, & characteristics of dependence + withdrawal. www.upi.com/Health_News/...

If anyone is able to help out a leader of the National Survivors Union/national drug users union, please consider donating to assist our friend and leader in the harm reduction movement Robert. And pls share 🙏 www.gofundme.com/f/assist-rob...

We’re hiring an experienced attorney to help further our work fighting pregnancy-related prosecutions! pregnancyjustice.bamboohr.com/careers/44?s...

I love this photo that @melissabender.bsky.social captured of me at the #standupforscience rally yesterday in NYC. I wonder if I could make this my official faculty photo lol @jackiantonovich.bsky.social @kimberlywheiman.bsky.social @archaeoscape.bsky.social @sarahruncie.bsky.social

A serious challenge to Grants Pass, a potential huge win for unhoused people, and a great example of leveraging ADA protections so I'm sure conservatives will get their knickers in a twist over it.

Texas is experiencing a measles outbreak. Here’s why measles is a disease you don’t want to mess with ⬇️ 🧵1/7

The community note 🤌😘

Follow @bronxmovil.bsky.social and check out their website at www.bronxmovil.org (en español). #harmreduction saves lives #drugsky #lareducciòndedaños salva vidas

Got some time on your hands? Make this tipline useless. I used to work for CFPB. Do me a solid and make sure to give this man hell

Harm reduction is love in action. Shower love 💕 on your local harm reduction and syringe 💉 service programs. They’re out every day saving lives 😍

It’s going to be a long and dangerous four years ahead + massive long-standing consequences for public health and medicine. I will be organizing and fighting for all, prioritizing the most structurally vulnerable groups.

Since RFK Jr just got confirmed today, I am taking this chance to share this wonderful @sciam.bsky.social piece on The Staggering Success of Vaccines www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

Abrupt PEPFAR cutbacks would have immediate and long-term detrimental effects on epidemiologic and clinical HIV outcomes in South Africa. www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...

Egg prices in the U.S. will remain high so long as the #birdflu #H5N1 outbreak is not under control. Ignoring outbreaks does not magically make them disappear. Pass it on.

Really important piece by @stahlidarity.bsky.social on the urgent and pressing need for more methadone access in the US featuring drug user health activists Nick Voyles and Caty Simon of @methadonelib.bsky.social - www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This is a rather telling statement. Nearly a third of women in Louisiana are Black. www.businessinsider.com/gop-senator-...

This is VERY good news. Love bookshop.org and all the stuff they do! www.salon.com/2025/01/28/b...

I voted to reject RFK Jr.'s nomination to HHS. I cannot in good conscience support someone who denies and will dilute our public health protections, sow distrust in science, and oversee massive cuts to health care programs for vulnerable Americans.

Time to disobey hospital bureaucrats to protect our patients

This feels like we’re living in every episode of the twilight zone at once

Oppose RFK. Flood Senate offices with calls from now until the end of the week. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected. These are key Senators to target and if you live in these states please call their offices.

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/u... !!!

Kassandra Frederique and I talked to USA Today about fentanyl and the border. Opioid overdose is a public health crisis that demands harm reduction sustainable funding as well as the expansion of methadone not by blaming immigration or fueling xenophobia. www.usatoday.com/story/life/h...

I had a lot of people asking me so I wrote an explainer: Here's how you can help the incarcerated firefighter battling the blazes in Southern California this week: www.latimes.com/california/s...

This is just devastating Y’all Altadena was one of the few areas African-Americans could buy in during the redlining era Whole neighborhoods of black equity and wealth gone

This is a huge but not surprising shame that the US has the highest overdose rate among 30 countries. We know opioid overdose deaths are preventable. US drug policy has to fund and scale up harm reduction and low threshold treatment ASAP. We know what works. www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2025/us...

New research is out today! We interviewed 30 patients who had telehealth abortions. By reducing various logistical hurdles and the potential of stigma at a clinic, telehealth mitigates what call structural abortion stigma.

In more than 700 cases over five years, Georgia reported inadequate housing as the sole reason for taking a child into foster care, a @wabe.org and ProPublica analysis found. Advocates say it would be cheaper to help families get housing. (Published Jan. 2024)

Check out this guide recently published by the San Fransisco Dept. of Public Health on methadone treatment including; rapid inductions, missed dosing, take-home recommendations, & MORE dub.sh/SFDPH.Methad... #LiberateMethadone #NCLM

To all anti-harm reduction activists when someone isn't ready, willing or wanting recovery treatment. People can't recover if they're not alive!

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens theonion.com/no-way-to-pr...

RFK Jr. has bragged that he’d tell researchers at the National Institutes of Health to give “infectious disease a break for about eight years.” Well, he isn’t giving infectious disease a break but leading its promotional tour. My latest for the Nation. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

🚨CALLING CLINIC DEFENDERS!🚨Charlotte for Choice had their storage sheds broken into & patient care items, walkie-talkies, & more stolen. They need donations to buy materials & replace items. Let’s push them over the finish line so they can get back to protecting patients. https://buff.ly/49JMwRE

Prohibition has not worked. Humane, evidence-based strategies are the only way forward.

Outraged by the for-profit insurance and healthcare systems that decide who can live or die, who is covered or not? So are many of us physicians, nurses and healthcare workers. Check out the movement of PNHP pnhp.org/blog/ and others advocating for a more efficient and just system for all.