MIT has lost 500 international grad students relative to last year. Caused directly by the White House. Closing America's doors to the very best, most brilliant people on the planet is like dropping a bomb directly on America's capacity to innovate. On the prosperity of our children's future.

Baric, who is among the most-cited coronavirus researchers in the world, says his lab’s work played pivotal roles in helping companies bring COVID drugs and vaccines to market, saving millions of lives. “My payment for this is to be debarred?” he asks. “I’m being strung out for being a scientist.“ 🧪

“.. The use of terms related to ‘American decline’ in official Chinese sources nearly doubled in 2025 ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...

Goodbye to my sweet, sweet Sloopy, who has been by my side (literally) for 7 years-- too short a time. 💔

Q&A #Health 1 Gigi Gronvall/PhD asks Q 2 Answer from 📺 NIH Dir. 🔴Jay Bhattacharrya Who Says •public trust is lost, Only 10% or 30% get vax’d •So that’s why we should stop funding vax research & •definitely ✔️not inform the public with PSA about facts 3 Support Science 🥾replace Jay

Happening today! Come hear about spillovers, pandemic risks, and biosecurity’s dangerous distractions

Excited to be hosted by the Johns Hopkins Planetary Health hub to give a seminar Thursday May 7 11am "Spillover Is Happening: H5N1, Pandemic Risk, and Biosecurity’s Dangerous Distractions." Come join us, it's hybrid and open to all.. just need to fill out this form: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Very important & moving letters to the editor: “I had measles when I was 12. I almost died. I am now 78, and I remember every horrific moment … well, except when I was hallucinating with a 104-degree fever and unable to recognize my parents. It is the sickest I have ever been in my now long life”

Happy Caturday! —at Fed Hill Ace Hardware

Their destructive ideology trumps scientific fact and people’s health, every time.

Jay Bhattacharya is trying to destroy the future of US science.

The task of de-Trumpification of science and public health will take a generation and a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild. Without a bold, expansive vision to guide us, there is no coming back. Small-bore, poll-tested versions of the future will not help us. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Listen to how Jay Bhattacharya sidesteps his responsibility to protect the health of the American people.

Have you ever seen a cow? Been in a barn? Milked a cow? In your mind’s eye, visit that cow, and take a moment to notice all the poop around. Do you want to eat that poop? No? Then don’t drink raw milk. And don’t feed poop to your children and pets.

Children in places that don't fluoridate get more cavities, those without private dentists can wait for months in pain until community clinics have room, and it is a major reason for general anesthesia for kids. Calgary stopped fluoridation, it was a major failure, and they voted to bring it back.

HHS can do A LOT more to prevent suffering— thanks for having me on to talk about measles and other diseases we are not preparing for.

The last time I tried to engage with Jay Bhattacharya in dialogue I ended up on administrative leave. 🤷‍♀️

CBS News has a bombshell interview with a U.S. soldier who survived the deadly attack in Kuwait on the first day of the way -- he says Pete Hegseth is lying about the attack and that the base "was unprepared to provide any defense for itself." www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-wa...

Sitting here and wondering what DA would make of it all.

As it is decidedly uncivil to accuse people of starting a pandemic that killed 20 million people without any evidence to support the allegation, here are five compelling reasons why SARS-CoV-2 came from Nature. @angierasmussen.bsky.social

Every story has a quote left on the cutting room floor. For this one, it's this: Me: The U.S. has sequenced 1000 measles genomes from our outbreak. Virologist @eddieholmes.bsky.social: "This is 2026! There shouldn't be 1000 measles genomes. That's disastrous." kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Since I'm getting a questions about the new data - a few _preliminary_ comments: 1️⃣ Are the outbreaks in the US connected? 👉 Very likely. 2️⃣ Does this mean US will lose elimination status? 👉 Yes, but that's been clear for a while. Data: nextstrain.org/measles/geno... A few details + caveats 🧵👇

Also, note that CDC/NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who everyone was thrilled said a nice thing about vaccines (because that is how bad things are now), is not actually using the powers of his office(s) to bring measles cases under control. This is causing suffering by choice.

Reminder: Kennedy fired people working on lead poisoning and smoking cessation, cut grants on diabetes and asthma and undermined those actually studying nutrition in NIH. If anything, his efforts will likely increase chronic diseases, at the same time he’s working to bring back preventable diseases.

TRUMP RUINED BAD TASTE John Waters at #NoKings in Provincetown (Pic via petermarietoto on X)

Baltimore (again) says NO KINGS. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

They have a lot to answer for. Statistically, it’s women who more often study the (neglected) diseases which affect women, which MAHA claims to care about.

I wake up each morning thinking about the carnage this Administration has inflicted on men, women and children in the US and around the world. The short and long-term effects should secure #Trump, #Vought, #Vance and the rest a solid reservation in one of the lower circles of hell. 1/

"RFK Jr. just wants to fight chronic disease!"

This is now the LOST generation for all doctoral research, from engineering to public health, from literature to psychology, from religion to economics. Some programs will suffer more than others, but this is a tremendous loss to the future. This is ALL on #RussellVought #DonaldTrump #JDVance.

Rasmussen Retorts: NIH FFS: The Freedom From Science Lab Leak Lecture Series discussion of Matt Ridley lecture at NIH hosted by Jay Bhattacharya w @angierasmussen.bsky.social @kgandersen.bsky.social @ggronvall.bsky.social 👉 bit.ly/4cWpiLF

Obama organized crippling oil sanctions and coordinated diplomatic pressure that forced Iran to give up 97% of its nuclear materials and kept it 1 year from a bomb. Trump launched a war, chaos, high oil, erosion of US power and made 6 bombs worth Iranian nuclear material vulnerable.

Tomorrow, Director Bhattacharya is hosting the inaugural "Scientific Freedom" Lecture with Matt Ridley sharing his perspectives on the search for the origin of Covid-19 (and hawking his book on the subject published in 2022). 1/3

lots of jarring statistics and heartbreaking stories I could share from this story, but this particular anecdote made me tear up when @jonathanwosen.bsky.social first shared this story with me For more details from our survey of ~1000 nih-funded researchers, read the report below

This is a tragedy and a crime. The people responsible should never, ever be allowed to forget it. They should pay for how they have gravely damaged the health and security of Americans. www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

I just finished The Deep Places by Ross Douthat and I have some thoughts. First: I am deeply sympathetic to anyone suffering from a chronic illness without clear answers or effective treatments. His experience- the pain, uncertainty, and dismissal is real, and too common.

I'm reading Ross Douthat's book on his Lyme experience (tho it's a little surprising that he wasn't ever actually diagnosed) and seeing a lot of blame of doctors/CDC for not being able to treat him but...where did he think medical innovation comes from? It comes from scientific research.

I posted a 1912 photo of a man with smallpox and someone asked if it was AI. That says something about the moment we’re living in: because of vaccination, we’re now so far removed from this virus that real images of it look fake. #medicalhistory #vaccines #vaccineswork #skystorians

Given that Casey Means will say or do anything at all to get confirmed as Surgeon General, I’d like to offer this easy peasy way to send your Senators a letter opposing her. This is an effort from @defendpublichealth.bsky.social that almost 5000 people have joined, we’d love to have you aboard.

Folks in Maine and Alaska: please call Collins and Murkowski to oppose the confirmation of Casey Means for Surgeon General. They are apparently still on the fence and MAHA is pushing them hard to vote in favor.

Public health people tend to be very, very nice. They want so badly to build trust and show what good things can come from their work. But antivaxxers are well funded and organized and they will never be satisfied by evidence or scientific fact.

Gift article about the spate of FDA rejections at the hands of Vinay Prasad— this is taking away reasonable hope from people with serious rare diseases. Remarkable that Janet Woodcock described the Huntington’s therapy dispute as “evil.” Prasad needs to go. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/h...

Commentary: Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course?

It's Monday morning and Casey Means still doesn't have the votes to become Surgeon General. Let's keep it that way. Send a letter to your Senators now. If you have friends, famiy, colleagues who can do so, urge them on to act now. actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo...

The point is to destroy the administrative state, centers of knowledge and all civic institutions that stand in the way of Russell Vought’s vision of an authoritarian theocracy. It sounds insane and something out of Atwood. But this is where we are. Under his eye.

This piece by Elizabeth Ginexi is a must read. Trump, Vought, RFK and Bhattacharya are destroying the NIH simply ignoring the law and the US Congress. It’s illegal and immoral. The NIH Restructuring Congress Rejected Is Happening Anyway open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

Indeed. New grants are not getting funded, already funded grants are not getting paid, and non-competitive renewals are being held up. Focusing on the top line budget, instead of looking at what is really happening on “the ground” is deeply misguided.

Public investment in NIH research helped turn cystic fibrosis from a childhood killer into a survivable disease. Russ Vought is now withholding funding from the very system that made that made that future possible for his daughter.

Cover of The Lancet: @thelancet.com www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

But there is a trend. And the therapy for Huntington’s sure looked promising. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...