I can't imagine this 9/22 press briefing at 4pm ET/1PT to be anything but a mess with regard to #autism. Background here: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru... If it's about Tylenol, then anyone's guess as to how much RFK Jr. will pull the pharma shill gambit to deflect criticism of his claims. 🛟medsky

Dems need to be in front of every single tv screen possible this week with a simple unified message. My message would be, “I will not vote for any budget that doesn’t protect healthcare access & cost. If the GOP continues to put healthcare at risk, I can’t vote for yes.”Say it again & again & again!

Fabulous thread. Read in full.

“White House border czar Tom Homan was investigated by federal law enforcement last year and allegedly accepted $50,000 in cash from agents who were posing as business executives seeking government contracts…”

Cancelling the Netherlands in 3… 2… 1… 😂

Holy shit scorched earth motherfucker

wtf is @cnn.com doing? They have Kasie Hunt’s show with a discussion panel, and next to it on the screen is a side conversation over text with a separate panel! Doesn’t that just say, this first panel sucks so much that they can’t hold your attention or say something important?!

I like this. Since under RFK Jr, Covid shots are now for people with underlying conditions that put them at risk, Michigan’s chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian states that not having the most recent Covid shot constitutes such an underlying condition. www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside...

Who would have thought em and en dash could be so controversial - btw, I love a good em dash. Although I probably use them incorrectly 50% of the time. And, I was once told by a professional author that I use semi-colons like an academic. I think that was an insult. 🤷‍♂️😂

Sidestepping ACIP and RFK jr's influence as best they can. In many ways this makes sense as most PH authority lies with states not the Fed Gov. Will be interesting to see if this becomes a permanent move or a stop-gap until (hopefully) we move beyond our current national PH mess.

“Allowing [access to vaccines] to be limited based on anecdote, whim, or flawed research is reckless and irresponsible.” That’s exactly what the CDC's ACIP risks doing. This isn’t just policy—it’s people’s lives.

And this guy has a vote on setting CDC vaccine policy. 🤯

Imagine the 19th century headline: "automobile hurts the prosperity of the horse drawn carriage industry." Although we could do with fewer cars in the world, technological advancement is almost always a boon for prosperity - least for firm owners and that's all the GOP cares about, anyway.

Spineless rich guys that are worried about losing a few million $ when they already have enough wealth for them and their families to live extravagantly for ten lives.

Many of our econ troubles are in this graph. It's not all abt ⬇️ union membership (tho that's part of the problem) it's the big gap between productivity and compensation. And, outside of this graph, a need for a broader social safety net as homes, health and education become unaffordable for many.

By this time, it's an old story that the Trump White House doesn't care about our health and you can see where Trump's priorities (don't) lie here. At least Congress appears to have found a minimal backbone on this topic - can they keep him in check on this important funding issue?

Dangerous potential here. "If 'regulate' can include tariffs, it could... include any tax. 'Any tax with foreign-policy implications would be within his authority,' said John Brooks, prof...at Fordham University. 'Why wouldn’t that apply to any tax he can conceive of, not just the tariffs?'" 1/2

If blue as can be NY state is forced to cut medical insurance eligibility bc of federal funding cuts creating a budget shortfall, imagine what red states are going to do.

LATimes released details of Trump admin's >7300 word doc of demands to UCLA. Signs of hasty drafting: Nouns & verbs sometimes don't match tense, ref's to UCLA "president" (not "chancellor"), ref to its med facilities uses (Northwestern U's) “Feinberg School of Med.” www.latimes.com/california/s...

On women's (and men's) participation in the labor market from @pkrugman.bsky.social this morniing.

New FDA guidance too?

Important thread to view how ACA subsidies are changing. Good luck if you make 400% of the fed poverty rate (only about $85,000 for a family of 2).

The Golden Age

Best case, Trump funding cuts will cause 100k additional TB deaths in the next 5 years (if funding restored within 3 months - unlikely). Worst case, 2.2 million additional TB deaths.

NYers, It appears that Covid vaccines are now available in pharmacies (until Oct 5 at least) “This ExOrder now changes that... It allows pharmacists to both prescribe and administer vaccines to anyone 3 & older, regardless of shifting CDC/ACIP recommendations.” Thanks @marisadonnelly.bsky.social

From @pkrugman.bsky.social below.I think there is a larger point. The right sees almost all things as zero-sum. Jobs held by an immigrants, gains in foreign GDP, $s earned by rival firms, etc are all things taken from them. They don't see benefits of cooperation or concessions as mutually beneficial

New from Yale Budget Lab: Trump’s tariffs would push an extra 650,000-875,000 people into poverty, including 375,000 kids. This is just the tariffs, says nothing about additional effects of snap or health insurance reductions. (Cite below.)

FoxNews thinks the choice is binary, let drugs in or kill them all. From a career CG officer in my family, its standard procedure to incapacitate the boat (shoot up the engines) if they won't stop.Then inspect. That's the middle ground. You only kill them if you are directly threatened or fired upon

Yet another tell that GOP knows the damage it did in the Big Ugly Bill. Some now want to extend the ACA subsidies until after the 2026 elections. They know what will happen to them at the Nov. '26 ballot box if ACA subsidies expire and premiums go up 20% on average.

Sotomayor sums it up: “The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”

What book do you love to teach? What book do you wish you had encountered earlier? For me it’s M Desmond: Poverty, by America. Love when students realize rich & poor receive subsidies, but (example) housing vouchers are seen entirely different from mtg int deductions. Then ask why & let them debate.

So the kid on the playground that tried to be a bully & nobody wanted to play w/ responds by saying “good riddance I want to play alone.” And that’s where we will be when Europe & other allies decide the same. Going it alone is no way to survive, politically, diplomatically, or economically.

At a time when vaccines are under attack at HHS, we have 278 pediatric influenza deaths, 90% unvaccinated.

Just remembering how RFK Jr. described $20,000-40,000/month rehab as affordable: www.tiktok.com/@moreperfect...

This is such an important point. With uneven access to vaccines across states, we will further create a two tier health system. Those with privilege will always find their protections, safety, and care.

More here: with easily available vaccine exemptions you create schools with up to 1/3 of students unvaxed. Like Gaines County, they become the hotspots that allow small outbreaks to become big ones.

Dr Gupta just said on cnn that nationally only 2% of parents take vax exemption for their kids. We can’t look at nat or st avgs. Local rates matter more. For ex: TX has about 91% mmr coverage. But Gaines County had about 82% coverage. That created the hotspot that gave us over 1400 measles cases.

A little visual reminder for DeSantis and Ladapo. These look much better in a museum than in a pediatric hospital unit.

Facts!

Waiting for someone to ask RFK jr why they are ending mRNA research funding if Trump’s brilliance in leading Op Warp Speed depended on the mRNA technology. We don’t have warp speed w/out an mRNA vax.

Just so everyone is clear. RFK jr is lying to Sen Warren right now. I CANNOT get a Covid vax at my local pharmacy. As a healthy person under age 65 has made me ineligible.

NY State is providing free lunches to all public and charter school students. An example of a Blue State Gov stepping up when the Fed Gov fails to take care of people. (Somehow I missed this going through last spring!)

And vaccine vacations will be reserved for those with the resources and time to travel and pay out of pocket.

Paging Columbia. 👇👇👇👇👇👇

A little visual reminder for DeSantis and Ladapo. These look much better in a museum than in a pediatric hospital unit.

I guess they missed the news out of Gaines County, Texas this spring or the 266 pediatric flu deaths (90% unvaccinated). Teetering on a cliff and they want to push us off.

Lays bare all the crap RFK jr has pulled during his tenure. Long but informative read.

If the Nat Guard goes into Chicago, there will be sig protests (as there should be). Then we're only one mis-step by a protester or a guardsperson from a Kent St tradgedy... & then Trump will claim the necessity to double down & incite more violence. It's the end game he wants to broaden his power.

BREAKING: Gov. JB Pritzker says the Trump administration has sent the Texas National Guard to Great Lakes Naval Base outside Chicago, awaiting orders to deploy to Chicago. Trump administration officials will target Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) celebrations. @wttw.bsky.social

Don't forget, the "tough on crime/ eliminate Medicare/Medicaid watse, fraud, and abuse" president commuted the sentence of the grifter who stole $87 million from Medicare. Every action, including the National Guard deployments, are performative and self-serving.