🔔 When Trump posted a video of budget director Russell Vought as the grim reaper, public health workers recognized a kernel of truth. My latest piece @kffhealthnews.org couldn't be more important. Art by the incredible @oonazenda.bsky.social 🧵 kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

NEW: The entire staff supporting ACIP was laid off, and most working groups haven't met in months. That means the US may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and it could halt new vaccines in the pipeline. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

New foster pup, who dis? Apply to adopt Indie: forms.gle/v6EJ4dihwRaxDD1P8

"Until we go bankrupt or are fully devoured by one of the three beasts, things are going to be business as usual here. That means doing the job of two and a half employees without complaining."

Reshma Ramachandran “said the sequence of events is the antithesis of how the FDA is supposed to function. “What we’re seeing here is, ‘We believe this and we’re going to find the evidence to support that’ …That’s just inherently wrong in terms of how a scientific agency like the FDA operates.”

Japan tried this. They suspended MMR in 1993 and used monovalent vaccines. Result: coverage plummeted, measles and rubella cases shot up, they had multiple measles outbreaks (one with >100k cases), and they then switched back to MMR.

This is EXCELLENT. 1) this is spot-on analysis of the problem & a great immediate 1st thing a city can do to improve outcome. 2) as a 2 min clip? He's giving history, hope & change. Speaking to women, to Jewish & Black NYers, saying "abortion." & also naming eugenics in feminism. 100/10 no notes.

KFF: Tracking State Actions on Vaccine Policy and Access by Jennifer Kates, Clea Bell, Josh Michaud, Elizabeth Williams, and Jennifer Tolbert bit.ly/4myqENC

NEW: Approval of an old generic to treat autism symptoms upended the FDA's usual process. Some experts worry that the limits of the drug will get lost in the hype. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...

I'm having this surreal realization that standing up for evidence and data has become a politically polarizing position, and I don't know what to do about that.

“What has to be said is that given this performance, given the unhinged behavior of Kennedy, given the president’s total lack of knowledge about health and science, & given the sycophantic behavior of his top medical and science officials, one thing is clear: Americans cannot trust their government”

The astronomical new Skill Penalty on US work visas will hobble a core driver of productivity growth in the US economy. “H-1B visas cause innovation, they cause entrepreneurship, they cause more R&D investment,” I told the @wsj.com Very nice and balanced piece by @jdlahart.bsky.social —>

I sincerely believe the end of Google Reader was when the Internet started to get worse instead of better

Has anyone in the medical humanities written about the rhetoric of "gold standard" science as an epistemological signifier of mistrust in academic research? (See also: the original macroeconomic meaning and corresponding opposition to the Federal Reserve.)

Kennedy & co “are testing the waters, but they’re also accustoming the public both to the idea of fewer vaccines and to the routine of doubting vetted immunizations…Whether vaccine infrastructure disappears by erosion or rapid demolition, the end result will be the same: a nation far less protected”

The head of ACIP, the CDC vaccine advisory panel, comes out swinging, in a big way. Via @matthewherper.bsky.social @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/09/18/c...

None of the ACIP understand that they just voted to maintain VFC coverage for the MMRV vaccine for kids under 4 (50% of US kids) through one vote—a good thing!—while removing the overall recommendation for any kid to get it (and thus ending ACA coverage requirement for kids with private insurance).

It's only 30 minutes into the ACIP meeting and I already want to smash something

"Health plans will continue to cover all ACIP-recommended immunizations that were recommended as of September 1, 2025, including updated formulations of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, with no cost-sharing for patients through the end of 2026."

RFK Jr. has the federal vaccine court in his sights. Attacking it could threaten vaccine production in the U.S. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program created a special court for vaccine-related injuries. Kennedy has called it “broken” and vows to “fix it.” www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

‘Can we talk about RFK Jr.?’ Inside the chill sweeping vaccine makers wapo.st/3JVbyEz

We work hard at @kff.org to be experts who are communicators, too. It’s why I say “communications is everyone’s job” here. A great example today in JAMA from @larrylevitt.bsky.social Levitt — storylines for The Pitt.

This is the official spokesperson for the White House, stating that the President hopes to deploy the United States military to occupy every city controlled by the political party that opposes him. Explicitly.

Trump seems to distance himself from RFK Jr on vaccines

There are two big legal issues when states try to fill gaps in fed health insurance regulations: (1) the insurance issue is more likely to require new state legislation than the pharmacy issue & (2) states can’t touch two of the biggest types of insurance - “self-insured” employer plans & Medicare

Pubbed last night: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to nominate seven new advisers to a scientific committee that recommends which vaccines Americans should take and when. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/h...

"This report sets examples of Kennedy’s costly, chaotic, and corrupt actions from EVERY DAY he has served as Secretary." From Feb 13- Sept 4. 203 days of sowing chaos and spreading misinformation; dismantling HHS research, prevention and health care and more. www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Former infectious-diseases chief Jeanne Marrazzo and international-research chief Kathleen Neuzil allege in a whistleblower complaint they were removed from their posts after objecting to Trump administration efforts to undermine vaccines, flout court orders, withhold research money, NYT reports.

gift link to dr. susan monarez’s piece in the wall street journal this morning.

Dogs are getting vaccinated less and rabies rates are rising, in part because 37% of Americans think vaccines will give their dogs... pawtism. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Fermented horse milk is *the* staple drink of rural Central Asia and the amount of female labor that goes into make sure it is (relatively) safe to drink on the daily is *wild*

1/ #Policies shape our #health. But why? We usually think it has to do with how policies change material resources (e.g., access to food, health care, etc) and opportunities. In @nejm.org, we argue that policies can also affect health by shaping social #narratives. www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Cowardice incarnate

I go offline for just a couple hours and in that time the west coast formed a vaccine alliance, Florida yeeted school kids back to the pre-vaccine era entirely, and FDA arbitrarily revised coadmin guidance with absolutely no evidence base whatsoever.

Agreed. In meantime, gift article link www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

It's eugenics and that is a key component of fascism in all modern iterations. Both Trump and RFK Jr have been saying and doing explicitly eugenicist things things for years, but many didn't pay attention to them/probably bought in a little because they were "just" targeting disabled people🤷🏻

Pretty much every historically or comparatively informed political scientist I know was saying from 2019 onwards that authoritarians’ first try often fails, but the second reflects learning about how the state works and recruitment of people who are ride or die loyal to the leader, and often works.

These are CDC professionals with integrity and a commitment to serve the public. This administration will never understand that. RFK Jr needs to go. Now.

🧵 I know it's ridiculous, but when he's talking mitochondrial challenges & inflammation, he's again referring to his idea of vaccine-induced autism. Let me explain.

Everything is terrible but here is the view from my new workspace

NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...

I get it, rabbits with tentacles on their face are freaky! But this isn't a "And so it begins" moment. Actually, this is where the HPV vaccine came from. Here's an excerpt from my book "A Planet of Viruses" that explains it. www.wfsb.com/2025/08/09/r... & gizmodo.com/rabbits-with...

Why are universities contemplating closing entire humanities and foreign language programs, you ask? This. This is why. What? You haven't heard about this existential threat to these subjects across Every. Single. R1. Research. University. in the country? No, I suspect that you haven't:

🚨New peer-reviewed commentary that I co-authored with Chris Beyrer is now out in the journal Vaccine, gift link below We show the ways in which the MAHA & MAGA guys—RFK Jr, Makary, Bhattacharya, Prasad—have dismantled the US vaccine regulatory framework authors.elsevier.com/a/1lbDt,60n7... 1/5

Did you know that Alan Garber, the President of Harvard, was Jayanta Bhattacharya's undergraduate mentor and long-time colleague?... awkward A fascinating story from Ilya Marritz at the Boston Globe. archive.ph/lC0qe

Everybody should read this extraordinary piece and confront the shame of the kind of country we've become -- and honor the courage and resilience of Ozturk and the other folks she was locked up with.

New Danish cohort study with over 1 million kids confirms safety of aluminum in childhood vax. They looked at 50 different conditions, including autoimmune, allergic & neurodevelopmental (eg autism). This should end further debate on this topic (but probably won't). Annals Intern Med 15 July 2025

the feeling changes moment to moment, but the current feeling is that the u.s. government is unequivocally preparing to do a domestic genocide if they can get away with it, and everything else feels pretty stupid and surreal in light of that

BREAKING: Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the health dept, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/h...