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Biosciences & Tech policy Post about research, innovation, public health, politics & policy making, regulation, disinfo She/Her/Antifacist
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"Kennedy “seems to be pursuing two opposite theories” on changing VICP, ... Make it easier and compensate more, versus blow it all up." via @theguardian.com @melodyschreiber.com with @annakirkland.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Both. But really, he's talking to Trump and telling him there is no way in hell he's going to play nice on vaccines. He's all dressed up, with a real shirt and smart looking books. Very serious and Secretary like. This is a FU clap-back to the WH who signaled they wanted the vax "mess" fixed.
See the Trump original post on X here: bsky.app/profile/eliz...
Trump to RFK: Stop being a jerk about vaccines. RFK then explains the "little trick" he tells followers so they won't trust clinical trial data. RFK to Trump: I'm not fixing anything. Look at my books, I'm dead serious. The vax go or I go...
This is Kennedy's explanation for Trump about why his followers (the public) don't believe clinical trial data for the Covid vax. Trump earlier today wondered why Pharma had showed him data that Covid vax worked great but the CDC & "public" hasn't seen it, yet . Trump wants the vax "mess" fixed.
House LHHC bill is out. Lots of hits to HHS, but the top line number for NIH is 1% decrease, mostly due to cuts ARPA-H. This seems like a huge rejection of the president's budget request.
Countries on track to eliminate cervical cancer: -Australia by 2028 -Sweden by 2027 -Rwanda by 2030 -UK by 2040 -Indonesia by 2030 -Bhutan 2030 -El Salvador by 2030 -Canada by 2040 How? HPV vaccine. Same one RFK Jr is trying to ban. You will note USA is not on this list.
Good news. The House of Representatives stands behind the NIH budget with no cuts.
The 2026 House bill with NIH budget preserved but elimination of ARPA-H democrats-appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Anasimova is on fire 🎾
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Well, well, could that be a NYT headline that actually criticizes MAGA???
Wolff claims Kennedy is going to run for prez in 2028. He feels entitled. He has already become a very significant MAGA personality. But that he is a very weird and broken person.
Trump's relationship to RFK is complicated. Trump likes the Kennedy brand name. The WH staff apparently thinks RFK is nuts... but politically necessary, even if he destroys American public health. America's health is being held hostage to Trump's political future?
promoted HCQ & IVM by downplaying vaccines... his involvement w Warp Speed was at a distance. Nevertheless.... Wolff says Trump advisors felt they had to chase the anti-vax fringe harder, and RFK was their ticket.
The discussion of WHY MAGA is antivax is a bit too simple. Right wing embrace of antivax predates Trump and is based in arguments about states' right, religious rights, anti-regulatory ideas. Also no one saw Trump as a pro-vax president. He told poisoned kid stories; played footsy w RFK in 2016;
Interesting interview with Michael Wolff about Trump & RFK. Polling showed that RFK running as an independent would pull Trump voters more than Harris ones. So RFK was offered the VP slot but turned it down. Then offered free rein as Sec of HHS. Problem solved www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXTx...
Someone is whetting their libertarian knives!
Satire is dead.
Very, very interesting. There's a rift in the White House. Trump cannot be wrong, so MAHA "public" or pharma must be wrong?
I think he is also both more fragile and dangerous now that he is in a position of power. In the past many ignored his antics, but experts now can/do/must contradict him publicly, taking him down a few pegs. To protect himself he has to be surrounded by loyalists and take down his perceived enemies.
You are trying to explain infectious disease control to an MD-PhD physician researcher? Mind boggling.
Every age is lovely. It's all amazing... Enjoy!
In the richest country in the world people are baking to death at home. Richard Chamblee died in Arizona two days after the central AC broke and the family couldn’t afford to repair it. His core temp was 108F/42C. He was just 52 years old. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Another indictment of the #BrokenTimes, now by @charlesmblow.bsky.social : "My last years at the paper weren’t my most pleasant...The zombie thing that came to be published under my name had a dwindling trace of my breath in it. It was no longer fully my voice." substack.com/inbox/post/1...
He didn’t know about the the CDC decision on COVID shots until the announcement, even though he led division on vaccination & respiratory disease He kept asking to see the justifying evidence, or hear from experts who supported the move RFK’s team kept saying no www.thebulwark.com/p/kennedy-rf...
The pre-vaccine era was HELL for kids. We have already failed them on gun safety, we cannot fail them on the issue of vaccines. #VACCINES cause Adults!
Encouraged to see Cassidy retort against Paul’s nonsense!
Newborn vaccination provides decades of protection against hepatitis B. academic.oup.com/jid/article/...
Senator Cassidy has recently posted his points about newborn hepatitis B vaccination on social media. It reminded of a couple of points I didn't mention on my thread 3 days ago. Again the TL;DR version is that children, adolescents and young adults are protected - #IDSky + #PedSky + #MedSky
This is nothing else but a hybrid war that Russia wages against Europe Let's name things as they really are:Russia has made an assassination attempt of the President of the European Commission Russia has been jamming GPS-signals over many Eastern Europe countries that are in its immediate vicinity
Moreover, the author--William J. Broad--as a senior science reporter for the Times, has expended copious amounts of ink in the "Gray Lady" at the height of the climate science wars of the 2000s, promoting climate change denialism & contrarianism. Here's one example: www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/s...
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Europe will only give a top safety rating to cars w/buttons (not just touchscreens): “The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road.” etsc.eu/cars-will-ne...
When GOP controls govt, it supports govt ownership stakes in big U.S. corps. For now, the shares are non-voting shares. Could change in future. Basically it is setting firm-specific, higher corporate tax rates. Now, targeting highly govt dependent firms. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
"The first wave of grocery-price increases will likely hit this winter. Roberson predicted produce prices could rise 50% to 100% by early next year as inventories clear and new contracts kick in." fortune.com/2025/08/28/t...
Keep up the pressure everyone. Trump is fickle, MAGA eat their own, RFK has gotta go.
Just a coinkydink, right? 🧐 The most recent labor statistics show that nationwide, Black women lost 319K jobs in the public & private sectors between Feb & July. - White women saw a job increase of 142K; - Hispanic women a 176K increase; - White men saw the largest increase, 365K. 🧾 is.gd/x7RUAc
#CDC directors going back to 1977 tell the truth about #RFKJr: he is endangering the health of every American. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Bears repeating that protecting the health of citizen falls under the police powers of States. OTOH Public health is underfunded and relied heavily on federal $.
Will anybody be display rubber duckies at FRK’s hearing on Thursday? Rubber ducky t-shirts?
German technologist Sebastian Majstorovic has taken it upon himself to save the data Trump and his henchmen are deleted in the US at portal.datarescueproject.org Ein Back-up der Realität www.zeit.de/2025/37/date...
Vielen dank!
My quote of the day Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn't know they were going to get. William Foege
Los científicos ya no encuentran que Twitter sea profesionalmente útil y se han cambiado a Bluesky academic.oup.com/icb/advance-...
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British baby dies from whooping cough as vaccination rates fall Infant’s mother had not been vaccinated against the highly infectious disease “Vaccine rates among pregnant women for whooping cough reached a peak of 76% in 2016 but fell to 59% by March last year”
Nihilism isn't a scientific objective... But yeah, the priority for all of these characters is to essentially bring the entire scientific enterprise to a halt. Didn't realize that space exploration was an evangelical no-no... learn something stupid every day!
He is so weird.
I get the impression they've outsourced "science" to 1) RFK, 2) Thiel & co, 3) Heritage Foundation. Like is there ANY actual science priority that has been articulated? A topic in which they hope to advance the frontiers of knowledge. Other than AI.
2,500+ words on Trump's science policy and not a word about Russ Vought, RFK Jr., Chris Wright, Stephen Miller, etc.
Self-recommending: Isaac Chotiner interviews Paul Offit on RFK Jr.'s campaign against vaccines
He's the one who is malignant.
Forgot to link to Sunday Times: www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
My main point is that there are professional cranks, and this lady has been hitching her wagon to a whole load of anti-corporate causes. Not "just" vaccines. Not a new convert to MAHA. A long time collaborator of Kennedy's.
Helpfully lists all of the articles and interviews she's been featured in too. www.momsacrossamerica.com/news
She has been writing in newspapers (eg The Hill) and appearing on shows (Oz, Bigtree) to talk about food issues since around 2013. She has a long connection to RFK's world. Here's one of her early blog entries: www.momsacrossamerica.com/blog?image=h...
Moms Across America is touted as a part of MAHA. Zen Honeycutt, the founder, claims her 3 children have autism caused by vaccines. She was featured in the Sunday Times. But from 2013-2017, if u look at her website, she was anti-GMO, anti-glyphosate, not vax. She sounds nuttier than a fruitcake.
So this article highlights the Trump-Kennedy alliance and discourages those who are outraged by the dangerous destructive policies of RFK from advocating for his ouster. RFK has a hearing in Congress this week. Bat signal sent: Trump wants Rs to play nice. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
They are such hypocrites. But they also learned from suing the government & social media companies for having been "censored" during Covid. RFK, FL, TX, etc lost all their censorship cases. Private companies can drop content. Hard to prove collusion bt govt & companies. VP learned he can do it too.
Florida and Texas made a quiet move that could have huge implications nationwide: They asked to join a lawsuit against the FDA seeking to drastically roll back access to the abortion drug mifepristone. But unlike the states before them, they seek to rescind the drug's approval. Me in @slate.com:
Illinois is currently exploring the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines in bulk straight from manufacturers to make sure everyone will still have access.
Amazing new work and video from Pleuni!
NM order instructs groups to "remove barriers" to access to Covid vaccines at pharmacies.
New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!
www.rawstory.com/trump-infuri... lmao they’re activating them for 29 days over and over so they don’t get full active duty pay
Maybe an illustration of Internet Hippo's point. bsky.app/profile/inte...
#Medsky🧪 #IDsky #virosky #Immunosky #episky #Cardiosky #publichealth @jama.com #Influenza is associated with an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events, including #atherosclerotic events, #heartfailure events & #atrialfibrillation
@theguardian.com covers Prasad's censorship of @joho.bsky.social
For a man who doesn't want to have to deal with health issues, Trump could have chosen someone way less drama prone...
it's fast and horrible. feel better.
In Sunstein's past work on admin law, he seemed to believe these organizations were doing good things for the country, but could be improved. To have him be this uneven in his treatment of who is more illiberal and what is destructive is sad, but clarifying. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
The interview ends with Sunstein blaming universities, again. (But not his universities.) And by saying that the chaos of the last few years (what chaos?) led people to want authoritarianism. He seems ambivalent about authoritarianism, maybe defeated, maybe sympathetic?
It's just pathetic that Sunstein does not mention that Trump is illiberally cutting funding for and firing any person that works on topics that fall outside the bounds of his Christo-facist ideology, or has created lists of forbidden words, or uses lawsuits to stop media from criticizing him...
Sunstein thinks it's fine to shift control of the administrative agencies to the President. To downplay how dramatic Trump's cuts have been he assures us that the agencies will not disappear entirely, because of SCOTUS precedents (lol).
Sunstein delicately declines to discuss "current" politicians but he is upset at the extortion (by Trump) of law firms and thinks it is illegal. Why he does not feel that way of Universities is a mystery. Nor does he express dismay at the dismantling of administrative agencies.
His examples of illiberalism are about universities. A student cracked a joke about flag-flying Alito (horrors). Another wanted to write about how the law controls people's bodies (ridiculous). Silly girl, she was led astray in an "illiberal" class, he tut-tuts. He was mildly inconvenienced.
Sunstein worked in Reagan and Obama administrations. He was an advocate for "nudging" people to make the right decisions. He clerked for Thurgood Marshall. I assumed he was a centrist conservative. I was wrong. Or rather, even they support Trump.
Cass Sunstein is interviewed by Politico this week about his new book on Liberalism. If you ever wondered if old fashioned Republicans are on board with the Trump destruction of the administrative state, Sunstein seems fine with it. The methods might be illegal, but the intent is OK?
It's mind boggling...
"The change shows how ambitious policymaking can directly improve health in large cities." I visited Paris this month briefly and it was striking how clean the air was - and how much quieter it was - compared to visits a decade or more ago.
www.nbc4i.com/news/state-n... Ohio Department of Health concerned about drop in back-to-school vaccinations
UC Berkeley Depart of History tenure-track asst prof job in Global History of Technology. History of technological artifacts & infrastructures through a global & transnational lens. All fields, areas, & periods of #HistTech considered For more info: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065 #HPS 🗃️
The referenced headline is: Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Funding. This is one of the primary groups studying childhood brain cancers- among the hardest to treat; they need more, not less. Says a lot about this administration’s priorities
Just finished this great book about the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC by @marynmck.bsky.social. Worth a read! #MedSky #IDSky #BookSky
The Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University invites applications for a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the area of “Science, Technology, and Governance.” #HPS #STS #PhilJobs academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30301
What happened to VRBPAC?
OK, thanks!
I'm pretty sure I just read one school closed for that exact reason this week... and we're in year 5!
He's dragged that name through the mud. Not that he was the only bad boy in the family, but he tarnished its prestige for me forever.
From NJ Rep Bonnie Watson Coleman on Sec Kennedy. Proposes calling "an emergency declaration" and "calling for the removal" of RFK. Not sure what a Congressional emergency declaration actually entails...
Trying to figure out if it is possible for someone in one state to go to a pharmacy in another with more liberal pharmacy scope of practice laws? (eg NY to NJ) I assume yes, but I was told insurers would not cover out of state off-label preventive services. Does that seem right?
#NJ #VisibilityBrigade
www.startribune.com/minneapolis-... Here is a gift link to my Strib commentary on the need to end the delay and act now on high capacity magazines and firearms in MN.
Oh (no), Booker alert. Not sure why Dems want to collaborate. Does explain some of the recent op-eds however. Really good overview of the MAHA factions, who is organizing them, under what themes & lines of fracture. www.statnews.com/2025/08/25/r...
Amazing how ignorant the doctor is who was interviewed in this report. COVID is predominantly AIRBORNE SPREAD, so HAND WASHING WILL NOT HELP. Ways to prevent repeated COVID infection: 1. Get vaccinated with updated vaccine. 2. Wear a well-fitting N95 3. Run #CRboxes or HEPAS 4. Open windows/doors
I would have thought coverage was dependent on the insurance, and that for the moment private insurance does cover boosters. Anyhow the general confusion will impede access…