After I wrote last week's column, I learnt that a neighbour with severe disabilities, an extremely tough & resourceful woman who lived to the full, died in the heatwave. Everyone here is devastated. I can scarcely express my anger towards a mindset that treats people like her as collateral damage. 🧵

Happy Independence Day! It is a good time to reflect that our nation was founded in rebellion against an authority that was unresponsive to our needs. (OK, it’s more complicated than that, but still.) 1/3

🙁

One of the hallmarks of this administration is its inability to face scrutiny. It brands any examination of racial or economic contributions to unequal outcomes as “woke” that cannot inform policy and any questioning as a affront. Plus, Jenna is a badass, but for good. ❤️‍🔥

I think this makes “Peace with Honor” look like the Treaty of Paris.

All because scientists, physicians, other health and public health professionals, and the general public fought back.

Physics, biology, chemistry, math - there’s a reason we study these.

I do genealogy research on my own family and can see this in the pre-WWII records. An aunt who died at 36 within a month of a child’s death at birth, a census record where a great grandmother noted that 3 of 6 children born are still alive… the list goes on.

Timeline cleanse. Our yellow-crowned night heron neighbor.

I’ve attended a few workshops and conferences in the last month and what struck me were the names on the final acknowledgment slides. A very large proportion of them appeared to be Asian, Hispanic/Latino, or African. We’ve had the advantage of drawing the best and brightest from around the world.

The bottom line is that the forces of white supremacy cannot abide a multiracial country with equal rights for all. We are a nation bound by ideals, not a “blood and soul” country led by a “in” group. Not perfect, but we can hope and strive.

It is interesting how much more coverage this editorial, and the politicization of biomedical research, got as a result of the ADA’s initial actions. If the organization, and the AMA, want to join the fight there’s plenty of room for them.

“Measles running rampant, public health destroyed, a trillion dollars ripped from Medicaid, inadequate physician payment, stupid immigration rules,” Fryhofer told AMA members in promising to call out Kennedy and the Trump administration on all of it.

This is aging like vintage milk, @newsmax.bsky.social

Have things gotten better? As the saying goes, you make the call.

Just need everyone to know that the Belgium men's soccer team has new jerseys based on the art of Rene Magritte and this is the official photo shoot

A few days back I saw a flurry of news about two "foreign" virologists being charged by a DoJ attorney for an alleged "conspiracy to smuggle in monkeypox" into the use. The decided language of the DoJ press release felt off to me, so I started investigating. Full story here 🔽 Thread 🧵 1/

“In March 2025, funding was cut by USDA for animal disease control and prevention, including…New World Screwworm…from several agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). That funding supported more than 180 outbreak investigations and responses in 22 countries…”

Holden Thorp is an institutionalist. He's been a university chancellor, provost, now EiC of Science. When institutionalists pull the fire alarm, we listen, because the call to action he issued this week exposes the dire nature of the threat we are facing. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Biomedical research saves lives.

Bookmark this and refer to it often. Share widely with your colleagues.

A reminder that “biodefense” at the NIH has always included preparation for emerging infectious diseases. youtu.be/pTJzKJwtfDw

Our team of veterinarians, primatologists, and animal researchers have been heartbroken to see careless cuts to animal research which means fewer treatments and threats to animal safety. So we’re linking an action by our colleagues that can help.

Introduce yourself with 19 bands/artists you’ve seen live: Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra National Symphony Orchrstra Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Mstislav Rostropovich Jessye Norman Dizzy Gillespie Roy Eldridge/Zoot Syms/Milt Hinton/Al Cohn Elvis Costello Grateful Dead

I'm begging for one article--just one--that is "Trump says Iran war is worth the economic pain. These urban voters in Harlem say `We told you he'd screw everything up, why didn't you listen to us?'" Just one. Just one "diner" interview in a place w a density above 1 per 1000 sq mi and < 95% white.

What can scientists do? They can talk to the public (like family, friends, and neighbors) about their research and why it’s important. They can, as citizens, participate in resistance communities. Oh, and there have to be troublemakers.

David Morens' name should be trending. A 78-year-old doctor who worked in the NIH and has no criminal record was abducted from his home by armed federal agents and *stripped* before being transported away--all because the DOJ now works to validate right-wing conspiracy theories like the lab leak.

Pope Leo XIV: I am asking all people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence, to reject war. Let's remember the innocent people who have already become or will become victims of this continued warfare. Attacks on civilian infrastructure is against international law.

"What are we going to do with NASA? Are we going to have it be revived or shut it down? And I had very little hesitation." www.space.com/astronomy/de...

And it’s not just scientists leaving for greener pastures, it’s the number of young investigators who just give up or smart kids who decide not to go into science.

Science is under attack these days, maybe because scientists tells us things we don’t want to hear and doesn’t allow us to shade the truth. But advances due to scientific research are real.

Who is watching podcasts on video? What is the streaming thing? Why do people watch other people talk on YouTube? I cannot relate to this at all. Audio, yes. I can listen while I do other things. But watching people talk on video? No. This era is not for me.

The Boss.

I remember the shock, tears, and sadness among my friends and colleagues. And that the applied trauma was deliberate.

Oh. My. Goodness!

Excellent speeches today at the #NoKings Vigil outside the NIH campus. @michaeldgreen.phd gave us hope in these troubled times. It was a pleasure to meet him and to see so many of my other friends there. We're Stronger! Together!

😢

This thread is a must-read. @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social with a view of what it was like from the inside.

No lies here.

Oh my God!

The “lone scientist bucking the establishment” make for a nice story, but it isn’t always true.

We salute these VA workers for honoring #AlexPretti. As they say, "We are healthcare workers for veterans. We know what heroes look like." youtube.com/shorts/bgCcE...

The Strib has identified him. Alex Pretti. Another 37-year-old executed for standing up for our immigrant neighbors. For shame. www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

If one were to decide to eliminate vaccines in the US, the first place to start would be to attack the flu and Covid vaccines, talking up the “scary” mRNA vaccines. Next, question the need and schedules of early childhood vaccines. This latest move goes after a disease we have forgotten. 1/2

Important thread. I would just add that liability protection for vaccine manufacturers is in danger.

I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day. Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me. 🧵

This is what they call in the business, a “tell.” One of the tools of the fossil fuel industry has used to prevent action to prevent climate change due to the release of CO2 is to sow doubt, and one of their methods is to complain that the media do not present their side of the argument.

I’m sorry. I can’t let this Miller bullshit pass. After WWII “the West,” sometimes relatively quickly, sometimes not until the ‘70s, realized that the writing was on the wall: that they could spend vast sums in blood and treasure trying to defeat anti-colonial movements, and still lose.

Over 40 years ago, when I was starting to study immunology in grad school, I read where Lewis Thomas called vaccines high-tech medicine because a simple shot could tune the immune system to fight that one illness. This attack on vaccinations will not be the last one by this crew.

Happy New Year from Frederick, MD!