My new article in @jhppl.bsky.social situates the current attacks on public health in a historical perspective. What I found surprised me. We've seen this before, and it's not as unprecedented as it feels. Thanks to @sarahgollust.bsky.social @oberlanderunc.bsky.social for editing! Read free below.

Suing works and more institutions should have tried it. (This suit was filed, I believe, by faculty associations and unions.)

So much of the rot in this country stems from our failure to fund public goods and regulate private wealth. In that context, people who need your money won't care how terrible you are. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/n...

My #NCAAW basketball final four prediction: LSU, UConn, UCLA, Michigan! LSU and UConn in the final game.

My take on the backlash to DEI/health equity in the health sciences in @nejm.org roundtable: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

there is a world in which it would make sense for Dems to cave and help reopen the government, for example, if we just got crushed in VA/NJ and voters were blaming us for the shutdown we are not in that world. we are in the opposite world. trump is taking all the blame and flailing. jesus christ

Ezra Klein's NYT column leans on the trope of Manchin being better than a GOP senator in WV. He doesn't mention Manchin blocking the Build Back Better Act or For the People Act in 2021. Here I mention three Senate races where voters might have turned out for universal programs that Manchin killed:

I propose that we all agree to apologize to her if she does, in fact, cure all diseases by the end of the century. And in the interim, we should mock this for the absurdly self-aggrandizing, utterly un-self-aware bullshit it is.

Kudos to Sally Kornbluth/MIT for rejecting the government’s attempt at corrupting higher ed. Others should quickly follow suit. Even the folks at Cato agree—this isn’t a tough call!

US public health is in crisis. In this special JHPPL issue edited by @oberlanderunc.bsky.social & @sarahgollust.bsky.social, you’ll find articles that help contextualize the erosion of public health infrastructure & adoption of policies harmful to public health. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/advanc...

@merlinc2.bsky.social offers historical context for current public health backlash. Drawing on vax campaigns, air pollution control & occupational safety, public health traditions have been hard to eliminate once entrenched though 2nd Trump Admin may be different read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

Chris Mannix arguments about the WNBA and revenue. He’s so ignorant.

"[D]espair is the wrong choice. Much of Trump’s power is illusory. It depends on the rest of civil society obeying in advance and preemptively kowtowing to his threats." @davidoatkins.bsky.social share why "there are good reasons to be hopeful."

Five— five!!— grafs until the NYT suggests to readers it might not be lawful. Complete and total abidication of their responsibility to readers to inform and not parrot propaganda.

To sum up the judge's ruling: - The Trump administration's freezing of Harvard funds on or after 4/14 is arbitrary and capricious, and is set aside. It also violated the First Amendment. - The administration is also forbidden from implementing any freeze or termination of Harvard federal funding

I’m in this documentary on the history of smog, airing tonight on PBS: American Experience at 9 pm. And streaming here www.pbs.org/wgbh/america... check it out!

In the NIH funding case, Justice Gorsuch (joined by Justice Kavanaugh) claimed that this was the third time in recent weeks that lower courts had "defied" a #SCOTUS ruling. As today's "One First" explains, that claim is not only nonsense; it's enabling a dangerous anti-court narrative on the right:

"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!" Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.

Senate Approps proposes a $400 million increase to the NIH budget, pushing back on the by $18 billion (40%) decrease proposed in the President's budget. Watch this space.

This Mystics team is going to be monstrous in a couple seasons. Leonsis needs to find a way to break this ridiculous agreement with the city and get them to a real stadium.

The last 24 hours have been hard to believe. The outpouring of love & support has made me tear up again and again. My heart can barely contain it all. I thank everyone who has fought alongside us and helped make this moment possible. You are making a better future possible.

Mahmood is a social science god, what are you talking about

Judge Young’s written order released today, finding the Trump administration’s terminations of NIH grants illegal, null and void, along with validating the partial list of 16 AG state’s list of terminated grants. (This still omits the APHA /ACLU grant list- they proposed to keep under seal).

Vote Gabby Williams for All-Star!

I worry this thinking just amounts to fatalism. We have to use all of liberal democracy’s levers, and the legal system on this score is working a lot better than I expected.

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.

NEW: Harvard is the fifth largest employer in Massachusetts - Trump's retaliatory funding freeze against Harvard is an attack on our state and our economy. Today, I'm filing a brief urging the courts to stand against this unlawful action and protect academic freedom.

the nytimes doesn't get LA and never will

These Valkyries announces got to start pronouncing Vanloo right!

LOL they keep pronouncing Vanloo wrong #WNBA Come on Ion

Life as the kid of an accountant.

My #WNBA predictions (first two final): 1. Liberty 2. Storm 3. Aces 4. Lynx 5. Mercury 6. Fever 7. Dream 8. Wings

I'm a serious Leuchtenberg stan. We should all live so long urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

My thoughts on the passing of my favorite undergraduate professor, Herbert Gans, and two links in the comments. He was the greatest American social scientist of his generation, in my view.

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

For the next 2 weeks, @defendpublichealth.bsky.social is asking for everyone to call their members of Congress about the cuts to and political interference at NIH by the Trump White House. 1/ 5calls.org/issue/nation...

Before folks overreact to headlines about the judge’s ruling in the Khalil case, please note that (1) it was an immigration judge (IJ), not a federal district court; and (2) the IJ had no power to consider Khalil’s constitutional objections. This particular decision was a fait accompli.

Indeed, this is *exactly* what's wrong with last night's #SCOTUS ruling, as I wrote about in this morning's newsletter: www.stevevladeck.com/p/141-abrego... Everyone saw this coming. And yet the Court did what it did anyway.

Always a treat to be in the adlaw reading room! And in such good company!!

Publication day for HEALTH CARE CIVIL RIGHTS: How Discrimination Law Fails Patients from @ucpress.bsky.social! 118 in depth interviews, analysis of 1500 health insurance plan documents and dozens of legal cases, 8 years of research to explain why our laws fail us when we need them most.

Listen to the crowd as Paige Bueckers cuts down the net in Tampa 🔊 #WFinalFour

UConn’s Geno Auriemma ripped into the NCAA’s two regional format tonight following his team’s win against UCLA. No Cap Space’s full clip: youtu.be/9IV1g-XwjWk?...

Could I please ask the press to stop reporting Trump’s rather arbitrary numbers of the tariffs other countries impose as though this were real? The WTO has a tariff database. You can look up the real numbers there.

hardly the biggest issue but a 32% tariff on taiwan will immediately kill the bicycle industry

Yes--Germany invented the modern university. In the 1930s its universities were the best in the world until the Nazis destroyed them. German universities have never recovered their preeminence. We risk repeating this history here in the US.

Folks, doomerism is its own form of preening. A bid for a perverse form of cynical anti-clout. If that’s what works for you, whatever gets you through the night. But recognize it for what it is.

We are in the midst of what many consider the most promising pancreatic cancer cure research in decades. This is literally joining the War on Cancer on the side of cancer. It's happening in multiple departments. They're also attacking mRNA fax science which is the heart of the possible breakthrough.

UConn-Arkansas state 13-2. I love winners.