Earlier this week, a new page titled “Vaccines and Autism” appeared on the CDC website. The agency's employees are not happy about it. “The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane.”

Some vaccines like COVID and flu don’t stop completely stop infection. But they do reduce the risk of getting infected and greatly reduce severe illness risk. They are still worth getting. Since they are not 100% effective it’s also wise to add another layer of protection by wearing a mask.

Utterly ludicrous framing from @nytimes.com here, treating Pete Hegseth's arguments as if they're legitimate. The casual reader will be left with no inkling whatsoever of how unusual and corrupt an abuse of the process this truly is:

I was late to read this, but it is such an important piece. Taking stock of ask that has been done, even when there is still much to do, can fuel forward momentum. Thank you @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social (& @strictscrutiny.bsky.social for mentioning it)

@sanders.senate.gov: "Even if by some miracle you got 60 votes, where do you think that amendment would go? Speaker Johnson has made it very clear that he's not going to entertain it. Trump would never sign it. So it is an empty gesture. It bothers me that people want to raise false hopes."

In the most predictable development ever, Mike Johnson is not committing to hold a House vote on ACA subsidies

This is the facility that I and many others have been protesting. We’ve been hit, thrown, gassed, and shot with pepper bullets but none of that holds a candle to what is being done to people *in* the actual facility. Read this thread. Don’t look away. Keep your eyes and the pressure on Broadview.

Another awful decision in which “The assertion without any deep analytical support that the lower-court ruling at issue is inflicting “irreparable harm” on the executive branch” rules the day w/o considering the real harm to plaintiffs. footnote 1 -SCOTUS is also ignoring Article 1 altogether

To put this in scale, Elon Musk's salary from Tesla alone could fund the SNAP program for the entire country into 2034.

Every time one anti-vaxxer is quoted in the media, one million scientists and healthcare workers should also be quoted in support of vaccines. False equivalence in the media is killing us.

WOW. A federal judge says he's going to issue a Temporary Restraining Order requiring ICE to make changes at the Broadview facility in Chicago, a facility that until January was only for stays under 12 hours "absent exceptional circumstances," but has become, in Judge Gettleman's words, "a prison."

A Maine ballot measure to add new election restrictions failed because — and hear me out on this — voters like voting.

Interdictions beyond our borders have been controversial, with courts expressing skepticism about the constitutionality of prosecuting (not killing!) drug traffickers captured in international waters. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-targ...

Judge Talwani: "Defendants are statutorily mandated to use the previously appropriated SNAP contingency reserve when necessary and also have discretion to use other previously appropriated funds as detailed below" The admin has to report back Monday whether/when they will authorize benefits

Empirical evidence shows that public expenditures like SNAP are associated with better child outcomes @kristenharknett.bsky.social et al published just one of the papers to prove this @spssi.bsky.social Fund #SNAP Fund #ACA subsidies Reverse restrictions on access to #Medicaid bit.ly/4oMjerx

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

- What is the current "boat strike" death toll? (43) - How much of cocaine supplies (est) actually transit Venezuela? (10-13%) - How much US-bound fentanyl comes from South America? (none) We all need credibly sourced information right now. And here is a new @wola-org.bsky.social fact sheet:

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

"...global vaccine efforts have saved >150 million lives since 1974, cavities have declined dramatically since community water fluoridation began in 1945, and milk pasteurization has saved millions from foodborne illness" We need #evidencebased policies, not conspiracies & junk science #publichealth

1/ The chaos at our nation’s public health agencies continues. Last Friday, amidst an ongoing government shutdown, roughly 1,300 CDC employees were fired with no warning.

If conversion therapy bans are ruled illegal, so much harm will be done Contrast: 9th circuit said "States do not lose the power to regulate the safety of medical txs performed under the authority of a state license merely because those txs are implemented through speech rather than through scalpel"

Study in JAMA Pediatrics estimates that vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19 prevented 7,000 hospitalizations in infants and 3,000 in pregnant women from January 2024 to May 2025.  #Medsky www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/cov...

Let's be clear: no one should be taking medical advice from the man who told Americans to inject bleach. To moms worried about the Tylenol they took while pregnant: you deserve better than being RFK Jr's scapegoat. And to the autism community: you are loved exactly as you are.

@nationalacademies.org has issued a report that examines the sources, spread, & consequences of science #misinformation & presents evidence-based strategies to help mitigate its harms. Right now, this seems more important than ever. Register for free for in-person or virtual symposium attendance:

In December 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to grant cert before judgement to hear Trump’s immunity appeal. The court rejected that request and didn’t issue its immunity decision until July 2024. Trump’s federal cases never made it to trial before the November 2024 election.

We must continue to follow the science, despite the administration sharing misinformation. Acetaminophen is safe during pregnancy. #defendscience #StandUpForScience #ScienceNotSilence #EvidenceBasedPractice

Kagan: "Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation's separation of powers."

#BREAKING: Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan & Jackson, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the Slaughter case (allowing President Trump to remove the last Dem member of the FTC), *and* grants certiorari "before judgment" to decide whether to formally overrule its 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor.

The president's recommendations could put children in harm's way. Even if clinical guidance does not change, pregnant people risk hurting themselves and their children when they run fevers and do not treat them. This is a completely avoidable & self-inflicted public health crisis in the making.

These findings in the new Washington Post poll jump off the page: Trump is underwater by 19 points on his handling of the economy (40/59) and underwater by 30 points on his handling of tariffs. By contrast, the same poll found him at +14 net approval on the economy in Oct. 2020.

Border Czar Tom Homan was caught by the FBI accepting bribes - on camera - to deliver government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash. Pam Bondi knew. Kash Patel knew. Emil Bove knew. And they made the investigation go away. A corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.

Ok my cis friends, we are going to need a lot of you to step the fuck up and fight hard for us www.them.us/story/trump-...

The ABC10 news station in Sacramento was shot at today, with at least three rounds making it through the front window and into the lobby. No one injured, no clear motive; still, chilling:

Comedians are far quieter today than I would have hoped.

A man caged by ICE was found dead in his cell inside a Long Island jail 18 hours after arriving there.

162,000 doctors strong: The American College of Physicians demands RFK Jr. be removed as HHS Secretary, warning he is undermining vaccines, science, and public health. www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom... #BlueSky #MedSky #NewsSky #NurseSky #SciSky

Colleges and universities save lives, build futures, and power our economy. Our campaign with @AAUP.org is to strengthen higher education for everyone, regardless of ideology, because #HigherEdBenefitsEveryone. spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee...

I don’t understand why this is not getting more attention. The Trump administration is killing people with no legal basis.

Breaking: A CDC advisory panel filled with RFK Jr.'s handpicked vaccine skeptics just unanimously recommended limiting the COVID shot to people 65 and older or those with underlying health conditions, based on a decision individually or with their doctor.

From the letter's demands: 1-Defend healthcare, science, safety, & public health 2-Stop the lawless impoundment of congressionally appropriated funds 3-Protect the federal workforce needed to carry out our agency missions from unlawful purges, retaliation, & reorganizations 4-Protect civil liberties

Luckily, Sinclair has a helpful database of all their stations, so you can see if they're operating in your area and respond accordingly. sbgi.net/tv-stations/

Trump’s allies now control X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, & TikTok. They own Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ & NY Post. They own Sinclair Broadcasting which has 200 tv stations and local news in 100 markets. “Freedom of speech” is now what Trump and his billionaire pals say it is.

@wkamaubell.bsky.social warns that folks who fall between celebrities being targeted & immigrants being illegally detained are encouraged to tell ourselves "it will be fine" When anyone is silenced, we can all be silenced When anyone doesn't get due process, we can all be detained w/o due process

As Dr. Monarez made clear from her testimony, these votes were essentially pre-determined by RFK Jr and his careful selection of like-minded supporters to staff ACIP. He asked her to guarantee in advance she would approve the votes, no matter the science.

@timmiller.bsky.social: “This is the federal government pressuring media companies to silence critics of the president. I mean, this is a straight out of the authoritarian playbook. It is an attempt to silence speech directly from the government.”

Pentagon lawyers tell Hegseth that the killing of fishermen in the Caribbean is an unlawful extrajudicial execution which is a violation of US and international law. Hegseth makes clear he could care less what the laws says because he's about "lethality, not legality." WSJ reports.

11 N.Y. Officials Arrested Trying to Access ICE Detention Cells www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/n...

Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc

NEW: Senate Dems ask FCC chairman to turn over any communications w/ ABC re: Jimmy Kimmel “..unacceptable for the FCC Chairman to threaten a media organization because he does not like the content of its programming—it violates the 1st Amendment that you claim to champion”