General Internist, Addiction Medicine specialist - faculty SEICHE Center for Health & Justice; Yale Program in Addiction Medicine, Yale School of Medicine. Fan of decarceration & harm reduction & New Haven https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/benjamin-howell/
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Host: There are new calls this morning for RFK Jr.'s resignation, and those calls coming from inside HHS itself. More than 1,000 current and former HHS workers are making this demand in a letter released this morning. They say his leadership has "put the health of all Americans at risk"
Drug trafficking is not a capital crime; it doesn’t carry a death sentence. I genuinely cannot think of anything under U.S. law that would permit premeditated government assassination of people suspected of drug trafficking.
This is criminal. Arrest and prosecute. Extra-judicial killings are abhorrent to the rule of law.
Also, the red light thing was true pre-COVID, but has gotten worse & persisted since, not sure how that tracks with other parts of the country.
The strong aversion to actually honoring red lights in New Haven is impressive (not sure about other parts of the state). It's generally assumed in practice that you have a good second after yellow goes to red to move through the intersection. I-91 has some crazy driving at speed too.
A decline like this would be huge news just in general. But given JUST how rapidly this drop happened makes it extra-newsworthy. Given it happened while Trump yells abt “crime!” to justify authoritarianism makes it even MORE newsworthy. Yet… mostly crickets and “ppl still think crime’s up.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVBt...
This is a joke, but then on the other hand New Haven's own Karen Carpenter *was* an amazing drummer & could have been a session musician...
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Kulldorff calls for the establishment of a CDC work group examining whether or not children today get too many vaccines and cumulative harms of that. This is explicitly anti-vaccine propaganda and senseless. When new vaccines are evaluated in prelicensure clinical trials, you do not...
public sector employment has historically been a more reliable path to the middle class for Black workers, especially Black women, than the private sector where discrimination is rampant, and this is another important reason why the Right wants to destroy the federal government
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s assault may have dealt lasting damage to the CDC, experts fear, with harsh consequences for public health. (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/h...
Had to explain to a patient that Medi-Cal actually IS the same thing as Medicaid. And that cuts to Medicaid are likely going to impact the ability of Medi-Cal to continue to cover him and people like him. I don't think we are collectively having enough conversations about this issue.
There are already concerns that the program, which allows opioid-use disorder medications to be covered by Medicaid, won’t go far enough to help a population that's at a dangerously high risk of fatally overdosing upon release. Read my latest for @baltimorebeat.bsky.social 🔽
*monkey-like shrieking* I CANNOT. The PROGRESS we've made in finally getting cash bail removed from the criminal justice systems in some places, only to have---- I'mma shut up before I end up on a list but UGH. Cash. Bail. Makes. No. Sense. And. Is. Unfair. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
The Budget Reconciliation Law "will increase the number of people without health insurance in 2034 by 10 million, because of changes to Medicaid (7.5 million), the ACA Marketplaces (2.1 million) & other policies and interactions among different provisions (0.4 million)." www.kff.org/uninsured/ho...
I would say that the MSM isn't looking for large marches. They barely cover them. What they want to cover are burning trash cans.
Want to see the impact of #NIH, #NSF and #EPA grant cuts in your community? Check out @noamross.net, @scott-delaney.bsky.social and colleagues' project here. Tell your friends and neighbors about what is happening. grant-witness.us
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
I would be pumped if a dem candidate really pushed hard on an anti-corruption platform given the amount of self-dealing, grift and corruption that permeates the admin, but I worry about the malleability of anti-corruption framing. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/w...
Biomedical research isn't a YouTube video, you cannot hit pause for an indefinite period of time and then hit play whenever the regime wants. Samples are destroyed, labs dismantled, scientists leave...
Ruby Sales, who Daniels saved, went on to get degrees at Tuskegee Institute, Manhattanville College, and Princeton University. She's still alive Daniels' murderer, who killed Daniels and wounded another activist (a Catholic priest), was never convicted and died peacefully in his late 80s
May this portion of the dissent by Ketanji Brown Jackson haunt John Roberts forever and be the final word on his tenure as Chief Justice.
BREAKING: A new experiment in Philly shows cash rental assistance slashed homelessness rates by 57–67%.
The Washington Post Editorial Board used to recognize the Texas GOP's extreme gerrymandering (which was just made much more extreme) is a threat to democracy. That was before the page started advocating solely for the Bezos version of "liberty" and "freedom."
not particularly exciting or surprising but I'm reading Middlemarch now and it's really good (classics be classicing)
If pundits would like to talk about violence, a terrorist recently shot up the CDC and another assassinated Democratic officials in Minnesota but they sort of let both stories disappear Not as threatening as motorbikes in DC I know but maybe we could circle back?
I've been saying this for a while now, but anti-immigration fascism is providing a spatial fix for the slow decay of the traditional carceral state. apnews.com/article/tenn...
Bluey dropping the Gallipoli reference in S3E2. Not bad.
In a recent piece for Health Affairs Forefront, Drs. Ben Howell, Lisa Puglisi, and colleagues discuss urine drug testing pitfalls and best practices in the context of parole and probation. Read more:
Very glad that a colleague happened to see this piece this morning. I have several projects right now relating to removing drug testing as a blanket condition of supervision. Looking forward to being able to share those results eventually! www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
Stagflation baby!
Comparing per-person rates over different cities that have wildly different denominators is crazy-making. Whatever inner-city, poverty-driven problem yr measuring - it's going to be *higher* in a city like Washington, DC that doesn't have the sub-urban, richer neighborhoods within city limits.
“using real concerns to put reactionary political views in the mouths of people i am not actually going to speak to or give the dignity of their own voices” is a classic move for this clique
This - he's the candidate chosen by D voters to represent the democrats. Party leadership should fall in line with the will of the D voters (not the other way around).
Misuse & misinterpretation of urine drug tests combined with the discretionary power of probation & parole officers is a mix that drives re-incarceration and creates harm. We need to rethink these systems. @seicheyale.bsky.social @yaleadm.bsky.social www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
We urgently need political education about involuntary commitment, because I am terrified by its increasingly consensus position in NYC political discourse.
"I think in Colorado right now, nearly 70% of rural hospitals are operating in a negative margin.”
Over 22 million people – parents, children, veterans, and seniors –will lose or have their food assistance gutted under Trump’s Big Ugly Law. Hunger is a policy choice. And this choice punishes the most vulnerable to enrich the wealthy.
"tough guy" cowboy senator owned my toddler mommy micro-blogger.
What’s craaaazy to me is that a Minnesota state rep was ASSASSINATED and nothing even remotely close to this happened there
🚨🗞️ JOURNALISTS: As the criminalization of homelessness runs rampant in DC & across the country, it's more important than ever to rely on data to get the story right. Here are some useful resources that can help you to fight through misinformation 🧵
"For months now, Dr. Chanelle Diaz, a primary care physician with roots in immigrant health, has noticed a troubling pattern: her undocumented patients [..] have stopped showing up." "They've just gone off the map." #NewYork #USA #Healthcare #Deportation #EthnicCleansing
This and the politics-motivated murder of democratic politicians in Minnesota. Why aren't these around the clock news items?
They recovered over 180 bullet shells at the CDC. Debris from shattered glass is still being cleaned up. I am completely stunned at how quickly the news cycle has moved on. This was an act of terrorism targeting public health experts, and the response seems to be a collective shrug.
In Connecticut, and across the country, the crunch on states and cities from disappearing federal funds will have them eyeing hard-won Opioid Settlement dollars to fill in gaps. We need to keep our policymakers honest to keep this from happening. @yaleadm.bsky.social ctmirror.org/2025/08/12/c...
Even if crime in DC weren't at historic lows, a military occupation is still bad.
No comment www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
Imagine if "combating homelessness" meant housing people, not brutalizing and disappearing them.
Democracy dies with billionaires buying the media so when the fascist President tells a lie so blatant it can't be massaged into truthiness the newspapers say the actual facts merely "paint a contrasting picture."
Just saw a bunch (20? 30?) adult spotted lanternflies on the sidewalk & facade of a building in downtown New Haven. Reported to DEEP but I didn’t know they had arrived here. #NewHaven #Connecticut
Missouri’s minoritarian red state government, which cemented its own rule 5 years ago by overturning an anti-gerrymandering law passed by a majority of Missourians, is now successfully clawing control of its blue urban centers by overturning minimum wage, sick pay, and control of our police.
1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely. Here's why.
1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years. Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.
What Trump is doing to the Census is similar to his strategy on gerrymandering and gov. economic data. He is going to change the formulas to maximally bias outcomes in his favor, at the cost of accuracy and fairness. At a fundamental level, Trump is a cheater www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-make...
Trump will sign an executive order today that allows your 401K money to be invested in private equity. Aside from what that means for your retirement fund, it will also roughly DOUBLE the amount of money P.E. firms have at their disposal to take over companies/hospitals/housing/etc.
That the federal child tax credit - which had a large effect on childhood poverty (unsurprisingly) - quietly died without a large fight from D's is another one. A *good* policy, like those that you mentioned, that should be loudly supported by D's as a win had a relatively unheralded death.
The Trump Admin’s attempts to whitewash these reports don’t change the facts. Instead, they only undermine US credibility. These reports are supposed to tell the truth, not sugarcoat it. It’s the latest example of Rubio’s MAGA lobotomy as he dismantles our standing on human rights.
Low key one of the worst anbuses of power ever? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Incarcerated patients face serious barriers to surgical care—like inconsistent access to pre and post-op care, restricted mobility, and poor patient-doctor privacy and communication. Clinician, health system, and policy reforms are urgently needed. Read more: ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/res...
Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.
To push back, while many Democrats wouldn't support single-payer/"Medicare for all" - most (all?) would support the ACA including Medicaid expansion and market-based plans. They should just say that the reason for that is that people, in the richest country in the world, deserve access to healthcare
It’d be great interesting to see throughline of folks I’ve connected w over AIM, ICQ, friendster, myspace, facebook, instagram, twitter, bluesky…
Wish more D politicians would put it this succinctly when this comes up. Yes people - regardless of ability or willingness to work - deserve basic level of health care.
“That meeting was a travesty, honestly.” Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned apnews.com/article/v...
Does anyone else remember a couple of months ago when a Republican terrorist shot four people killing two of them in an effort to give control of the Minnesota legislature to Republicans?
It's a travesty that you can't take the rail to Bradley - either from Hartford or New Haven. The transition from rail to long bus ride in Hartford is a real non-starter.
Pregnant veterans would no longer be allowed to receive abortions at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnancy threatens their health under a proposed rule from the Trump administration.
Threatening to expel and prosecute members of the opposition party for using their only available tool to prevent the government from rigging the congressional map is authoritarianism
Incredible piece of journalism from @ctmirror.org "Advocates in Connecticut say they already had the votes, and there was no public testimony opposing the concept, so they now face a different scenario: they must convince an audience of one, Gov. Lamont, to support the measure" Ned is infuriating
New, from me: Trump just fired the head of the BLS, accusing her of rigging data. The reality is that by shooting the messenger reporting on the negative effects of his economic policies, Trump pushed America further into banana republic territory. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-shoo...
I wrote about Ichiro as a player, a legend, and a stand-up comic. I don't imagine it'll spoil anything for me to say here that I think he's the coolest and most interesting baseball player I've ever seen. defector.com/ichiro-saved...
fun fact: Eric Adams is actually still the mayor. he’s actually running for re-election. :) few know this, including a metro politics reporter for the New York Times.
among many other major issues with this statement, the government is not a business and should not be run like a business no on expects the US Army to turn a profit we don't spin of Texas when they have a bad quarter anyway the ROI on NIH funding is positive: each $1 of NIH spending yields $2.46
It’s past time for politicians to push back on this framing of the work of NIMHD - or related work focused on equity - as some evil. Yes, there’s a whole institute focused on these topics and that’s a *good* thing we should be funding.
We are living through one of the biggest corporate gaslightings in history at the hands of established old guard tech reporters who, for whatever reason, think it's necessary to make stuff up like "Microsoft laid off 15,000 people because they're making money from AI" which is demonstrably false
Straight talk from Dr. Francis Collins on the devastating - and politically motivated - cuts to science and public health in the United States. Anybody who cares about their health or the future or science, technology, and innovation in this country should watch this. www.cnn.com/2025/07/25/T...
The USPSTF has been a paragon of improving care, preventing harm, and saving money for my career Yet again, this administration continues to be the most pro-cancer administration ever
Once the ACA tied reimbursement & mandates to the USPSTF recommendations it made it more politically vulnerable - in retrospect I don’t know if that was the right thing to do - but the *process* of the USPSTF has always been boring, robust, & rigorous
I really don’t know a way forward where the federal government gives up on empiricism and is run by anti-science cranks.
Larry Summers is not stupid and he knows this isn’t about anti-semitism. Revealing of elite collusion to squash dissent - whether it be your own students/faculty, workers demanding better pay, etc. Same w elite media.
Trump is making media orgs and universities pay him money like a protection racket and the press is trying so hard to not report this obvious fact.
Read this whole thread. The EO is a huge regressive step. And Brian's not wrong to be worried about this point in particular. The major theme of Trump II social policy is old-style Poor Law thinking, down to the indoor versus outdoor relief distinction.
Nothing good about this. The hospital I work at unable or unwilling to provide care to youth in concordance w professional society guidelines. ctmirror.org/2025/07/24/y...
Chuck Mangione bopped in his early days. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wa5...
I’ve heard rumored as much. Seems problematic that the board of a University favors & colludes with the bad faith feds over their own students and faculty.
“Making a deal with the White House brings its own risks for Columbia, challenging the limits of the private university’s independence & lending legitimacy to the Trump administration’s strategy of weaponizing research funding to accomplish an unrelated aim of reining in campus unrest.”
As a fellow alum, I am also dismayed with the capitulation of Columbia. To what end is power, privilege, or money if not brought to bear in a moment of crisis which threatens the very identity & values of the institution?
Another institution in our country caves to Trump. Again. Sad to see, especially as an alum. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/n...
Heard from #AHRQ that the entire grants staff has been let go! They are unable to issue funds for grants already funded, let alone fund new grants. This is outrageous and will make Americans poorer and sicker. Why? A brief thread about just some recent AHRQ-funded research: #MedSky #HealthPolicy
Trump won't always be the president, but Columbia will always be the prestigious university that willingly caved to the vindictive whims of a fascist administration.
Zia, an Afghan interpreter who risked his life to help U.S. troops, is being detained by ICE in Massachusetts. He's been living in the U.S. LEGALLY for fear of retribution if he returns to Afghanistan. Targeting Zia and other Afghan allies is dangerous and wrong.
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
This guy again? variety.com/2024/tv/news...
CBO now says there will be 10m more uninsured from the “OBBB.” But the estimate of 4.2m uninsured from the enhanced ACA tax credits expiring at the end of the year stands. So we are looking at 14+ million more uninsured over 10 years unless that changes.
