What a horrific tragedy. This is what happens when people decide it’s acceptable for drug users to die, and when we allow law enforcement to pretend to be experts on drugs and how drugs work. It’s very likely that this man would be alive today if he had received medical care instead of imprisonment.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

New @ntrjournal.bsky.social pub from @joemcclernon.bsky.social @otg2014.bsky.social @danarubenstein.bsky.social Patrick Barnwell & me We identified 2 latent classes of dual cig/ENDS users based on motivations for ENDS use, w/ implications for research, treatment, & regulation tinyurl.com/bddvdn4a

A new study led by Cristine Delnevo, Director of Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies (INTS), suggests that nicotine pouches may offer a path to reduced tobacco harm ➡️ jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

FORTUNATELY, for everyone we have a fun way to tell your House rep that you think Bobby Jr is a quack and has to go… For $3 we will hand deliver (by a man in a duck costume) a rubber ducky with a message to “impeach the quack” to your rep! QUACK-O-GRAMS! act.standupforscience.net/fundraising/...

He called the CDC a cesspool of corruption that lied about the COVID vaccines. Now someone has committed violence because of the same misinformation.

The NIH can’t award ANY grants to outside researchers under new WH restriction, reports @wsj.com. The pause came in the form of a footnote from OMB Director Vought, in a document that doles out federal funds to the NIH. Prelude to rescissions, especially after his comments over the weekend?

This technology is so incredible

I wrote today about why we should shudder about ICE and CBP adding 19,000 new agents and officers — because we should terrified of WHO would want to join CBP and ICE amid politicized authoritarian images like this: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/four-fears...

“Historically, no one lived past age 35” "I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"

Excited that my JAMA Pediatrics article with @jeremyfaust.bsky.social @bhrenton.bsky.social @hmkyale.bsky.social and others is now published. It turns out that permissive firearm laws aren’t great if you want to reduce pediatric firearm deaths. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take. thebullshitmachines.com

From the makers of Zyn. How is this Rocket Pop Cigar ok? Who knew summer could taste like a carcinogen?

This is your friendly reminder that generative A.I. is not "intelligence" and it's not the "wave of the future." No. Large Language Models (LLMs) are super-expensive bullshit machines that suck up a fuck-ton of stolen data, including private info and creative content, in order to badly mimic it.

2025 ESIL awardee, @juliachensankey.bsky.social, will deliver her lecture in the second of three NIH ODP Early Stage Investigator Lectures of 2025 on June 5 at 10 a.m. ET. Register now ➡️ prevention.nih.gov/news-events/early-stage-investigator-lecture/2025-awardees @rutgerssph.bsky.social

Only 34 vape products—just 4 flavored—are FDA-authorized, yet thousands are still sold. @kevinrjschroth.bsky.social of @ru-ints.bsky.social @rutgerssph.bsky.social proposes targeting distributors through lawsuits to stop illegal vape sales & bring shelves into compliance. Read more: loom.ly/oG8aE8k

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

I hope everyone working on LLMs has reckoned with their role in building a technology that, so far, has offered little to no benefit to humanity — while causing real harm by degrading art, undermining labor in creative industries, and straight up automating political propaganda

At this point I'm honestly just calling my reps and bluntly saying you're old between the two of us I'm the one more likely to survive an ecoli infection. Maybe do something about this.

There are few things as cost effective as Narcan, especially in a country where (entirely preventable) opioid overdoses have been a leading cause of death for years. For every 6 kits distributed 1 OD is prevented. The $56M in this grant trained >66K people and distributed >282,500 kits in 2024 alone

Out today in @jama.com, me and @nathancortez.bsky.social examine how the drastic staffing cuts at FDA run counter to FDA's many statutory obligations and the bargains embodied in user fee provisions - and put public health, innovation, and all of us at risk. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Well, my main thought is that it is too mid to be destroying labor and the earth for.

These are all good questions. Important to note that the user fees that fund FDA's Center for Tobacco Products ($712 million/year) are set by statute and can ONLY be used for purposes relating to tobacco regulation.

Don’t want unqualified political appointees across NIH? Comments can be made at www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Gonna keep repeating this: 1) Fluoride added for dental health (which improves cardiovascular health, neurologic functioning, and more) is NOT toxic. 2) Water with naturally high levels of fluoride (not added, levels are much higher) can be a risk for toxicity. He is going after 1 and ignoring 2.

Do not normalize children dying from measles. Measles was previously eliminated in the US, thanks to vaccines. When children die from measles, it means that adults have catastrophically failed to protect them because they have rejected basic science.

🚨🐊FINAL (FOUR): (1) Florida #Gators advance to National Championship Game for first time since 2007 with 79-73 win over (1) Auburn! 🔹Walter Clayton Jr.: CAREER-HIGH 34 points

Go #Gators

@jesskingjensen.bsky.social and @crisdelnevo.bsky.social are authors of a new Preventive Medicine paper that examines the impact of cigar pack policies on cigar sales. @rutgerssph.bsky.social @rwjms.bsky.social Learn more ➡️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cigarettes are the only consumer product that when used correctly kills the user. If you’re worried about chemicals in cereal and food, wait until you find out about the 7,000 chemicals in cigarettes, including at least 69 known to cause cancer.

CDC’s tobacco program wasn’t eliminated to save money. Federal employee salaries are only about 4% of the Federal budget. The Office on Smoking & Health was eliminated BECAUSE our work is highly efficient and cost effective. Make no mistake that tobacco companies won today.

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 🧵

Here NIH officials target contracts that "may be related to any form of censorship at all or *directing people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes*." Directing people to believe one idea over another regarding health outcomes IS public health. It's also education.

From 1968 to 1999 women had to undergo a chromosome test to compete at the Olympics. Athletes, doctors, and ethicists worked hard to end the testing. Now Sebastian Coe says World Athletics is bringing it back, in time for the World Championships in September. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/m...

This is the wildest story I have literally ever read. In any normal circumstances, a half-dozen senior officials would be forced to resign over this—starting with the National Security Advisor. And I doubt anyone will face any accountability at all.

They are dismantling education so that public education fails and it can be privatized for them to profit from

The contempt they have for disabled children is rooted in a mistaken belief that there aren't too many of them. Estimates show that between 1-in-8 and 1-in-5 students in America have some kind of learning disability. There are an awful lot of SPED families out here, and we will *fight* this shit.

You want to see an octopus riding a shark. 🎥: University of Auckland www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/s...

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco (SRNT) was a success! INTS members presented over 40 presentations across a wide range of research over the 3 1/2 day conference in New Orleans, LA. We will see you next year, SRNT!

The INTS team will present posters, symposiums, and more at this week's SRNT conference! View our schedule of presentations ➡️ ints.rutgers.edu/ints-srnt-20... #SRNT2025

INTS Associate Professor, Kevin Schroth, discusses the FDA's impact on tobacco harm reduction with Regulator Watch ➡️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJic...

This is a very thoughtful and detailed piece by Julie Scofield @juelzly.bsky.social and colleagues about the quandary faced by public health professionals when given an order to do something that is against their code of ethics. www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

DO IT tobaccoreporter.com/2025/03/03/p... the egregiousness of White Owl & Game makes PMI's so called 'smoke free' mission a farce. In 2024 PMI sold $540+million in US C-stores - that’s 800 million cigars- 55% were heavily flavored w/names like Iced Donut, Tropical Twist, White Russian & Rocky Road

I'm delighted to reenter the academic writing fray with my @osucccjames.bsky.social colleagues Ted Wagener & @micahberman.bsky.social! Check our @nejm.org piece about the very strong legal and scientific footing on which FDA's landmark nicotine proposed rule rests. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Giving cash is about giving people the respect to make their own decisions and budget tradeoffs. There may be extreme cases where people need caseworkers and guidance, but what the vast majority of SNAP recipients need is more purchasing power, and for that, cash is simply better in every way.

#4 - FDA cuts include scientists, engineers and an attorney, we heard this *includes* workers for centers funded largely by user fees, like tobacco and medical device centers

11 short years ago, public health was revered. People understood that infectious diseases could and should be prevented. EIS officers were named "Person of the Year" instead of an entire cohort laid off, while the country fights measles and bird flu crossover. Ignorance will be the death of us.

One of our supporters shared this with us—people are getting creative tonight!