Pulitzer prize winning journalist and author of several books, and contributor to multiple others. Scientific consultant for the film, "Contagion," directed by Stephen Soderbergh. (See www.lauriegarrett.com for further professional details.)
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There's an expression in Italy -- "fascist architecture," referring the enormous, ugly buildings erected by Mussolini, imitating those built by ancient Roman dictators; meant to make people feel tiny. Now, Trump commands that all new bldgs in Wash DC do the same. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Trump is waging all-out war against renewable energy and energy infrastructure in USA. Meanwhile, our grids are failing and electricity costs are soaring, 3 years in a row, with no end to energy inflation in sight. futurism.com/electricity-...
Some new street art spotted in DC 🤣
I am 76 & I have had most of these vaccinations at one time or another. Also vaccinations against Covid, Tetanus, plus Cholera & Yellow Fever when travelling in foreign countries. These prevented me catching horrible diseases & dying a gruesome death. They did not harm me, they protected me!
Remember the HUGE scandal in Obama Admin of Gen. David Petraeus having a love affair? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeu... Well, what about Trump's UnderSecretary for Defense? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Multi-year mega survey of viruses found in subways, metros and transit systems in 6 cities -- Denver, Hong Kong, London, New York City, Oslo, and Stockholm -- reveals about 1/3rd of viruses can't be identified. microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Devastating
And if fired from Russia's far east, these missiles cld reach Alaskan & northern Canadian targets in 5 minutes. If mounted w/WMD payloads -- CBW or nuke -- the carnage would be astounding. This isn't just a new level of Russian threat to Europe -- it's anti-North America, too. x.com/i/status/196...
🌍 The next pandemic is most likely to emerge from regions already burdened by infectious diseases, writes Institut Pasteur Dakar's Ibrahima Socé Fall. Africa's scientific leadership is driving critical progress but more health security investments are needed. 👉🏽 www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Court ruling: Trump is in violation of Posse Comitatus in Los Angeles. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.450934/gov.uscourts.cand.450934.176.0_1.pdf
By blocking and de-funding alternative energy R&D and tax incentives for use of solar, wind, nuclear and other renewables, Trump is handing the future on a gold platter to China. Xi says, "非常感謝". [Thank you very much.] (And what do today's children say in the USA?)
As New York marks a milestone birthday, historians believe that Americans should pause to consider how the city vaulted to global pre-eminence
The time between fucking around and finding out for messing with the climate and environment is long, and attribution is sometimes difficult. So conservative politicians have gotten away with appointing imbeciles to positions of power in these areas. However, no such luck for them in public health.
Ennui shared this. I am thankful for science.
www.instagram.com/p/DN71fEHE_-...
Is this AI generated or enhanced? I know RFK went swimming in sewage with his kids, but this shot makes him look good.
"Home-based business", that's a good one ;) I've spent 42+ years in the OR and we've had some scary times. AIDS was the 1st one. I've been accidently stabbed by needles and once by a knife over the years fortunately without any serious problems, but nothing scares me as much as this incompetence.
The USA isn't the only country with a right-wing government that openly supports anti-vaccine conspiracies and policies. Italy is going backwards, fast, on nearly every aspect of vaccine research, production, use and policy initiatives. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
He is a LITIGATOR. He sues people for a living. What's that got to do with diagnosing your ilness?
“We built our house with our own hands, and now it’s gone.” The Punjab floods, which have killed hundreds of people, are the latest in a string of extreme weather events this year that have devastated Pakistan. Many businesses that rely on agriculture have seen their impending harvest washed away.
Seems about right to me.
21/In the Americas, "years of foreign aid have failed to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the hemisphere. Poverty, joblessness, and social unrest have led to leftist electoral victories from Mexico to Chile. These regimes are hostile to American interests and private enterprise..."
20/In Africa, "the agency’s efforts to reduce poverty and hunger have failed as it spends ever-higher amounts of aid partnering with a costly and ineffective aid industrial complex that has little interest in 'working itself out of a job'.”
19/"Foreign aid must advance the Abraham Accords. Increased trade and investment between Israel and its Arab neighbors represent the most effective path toward reducing poverty, fostering the emergence of a middle class, and solidifying peace."
18 cont./ "USAID’s implementers—U.N. agencies, international NGOs, and contractors—often fail to credit the American people for the billions of dollars in assistance they provide the rest of the world even as they engage in self-promoting public relations to raise other donor funds."
18/"A deeply embedded culture within the foreign aid bureaucracy views public recognition of U.S. assistance as secondary to a larger philanthropic mission and is embarrassed by the American flag."
17/"In effect, humanitarian aid is sustaining war economies, creating financial incentives for warring parties to continue fighting, discouraging governments from reforming, and propping up malign regimes." MORE
16/"should remove all references...and language...that include the following terms: gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender diverse individuals, gender aware, gender sensitive, etc. "also remove references to abortion, reproductive health, and sexual & reproductive rights..." MORE
15/"Instead of protecting women’s and children’s unalienable human rights and propelling their ability to thrive in society, past Democrat Administrations have nearly erased what females are and what femininity is through 'gender' policies and practices." MORE
14/ Chap 9, Project2025 manifesto is on foreign aid. Key quotes: "The aid industry claims that climate change causes poverty, which is false...USAID’s response to man-made food insecurity is to provide more billions of dollars—a recipe that will keep scores of poor countries dependent on aid." MORE
13/There is a great deal of confusion right now for global health, humanitarian responses, food aid, development and other overseas efforts: How much money remains? Can Trump rescind Congressionally-approved funds? But one thing is clear: This man seeks aid annihilation. MORE
12/“Save the Children is often told that its aims are impossible – that there has always been child suffering & there always will be. We know it’s impossible only if we make it so. It’s impossible only if we refuse to attempt it." savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do
11/Mercy Corps: "Our mission: to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities." mercycorps.org/who-we-are MORE
10/ "World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor & oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, & bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God." worldvision.org/about-us/mis...
9/Catholic Relief Serv Mission "PROMOTE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT by responding to major emergencies, fighting disease & poverty, & nurturing peaceful & just societies; SERVE CATHOLICS IN THE US as they live their faith in solidarity w/their brothers & sisters around the world." crs.org/about-us/mis... MORE
8/Catholic Relief Services tops the list, receiving (until now) $4.6 billion. Save the Children garners $1.5B; WorldVision $1.2B; Mercy Corps $1.1B. In February Trump called the govt USAID workers and these NGOs, “a bunch of radical lunatics.” forbes.com/sites/sarado... MORE
7/Cutting foreign aid has never been about saving $$ -- the entire 2024 aid budget, including HIV, PEPFAR, global health, famine relief -- was less than 1% of the U.S. budget. kff.org/global-healt... Moreover, the top NGO recipients are Christian. MORE
6/White House honcho Stephen Miller: "We looked at #USAID as an example...98% of the workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left wing candidate." Firing PEPFAR & USAID workers purges "left-wingers" out of government, Vought & Miller insist. wbur.org/onpoint/2025... MORE
5/Project 2025 isn't "conservative" about foreign aid, development & global health programs -- no, it is militantly opposed, claiming ALL such programs push climate change, gender and vaccine "propaganda" and line the corrupt pockets of NGOs. t.co/M4GTfC8jZi MORE
4/Vought's a self-described Christian Nationalist who headed Project 2025. He's out to fire people. theguardian.com/us-news/2025... “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want to put them in trauma.” MORE
3/ By moving foreign aid out of State & into OMB, programs for saving starving children, rescuing families from catastrophes, teaching kids to read, stopping epidemics -- ALL of that now falls under the control of Russell Vought. trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/people/russe... Who is Vought? MORE
2/US programs for everything from #famine relief & #HIV care to safe pregnancy efforts & building electricity grids have won America friends in the world & saved 100s of millions of lives. They were nested in the State Dept so our diplomats on the ground can oversee them. MORE
On Friday, when most of America wasn't paying attention, heading out for the holidays, Trump signed an Exec Order transferring ALL control over foreign aid from State to OMB. whitehouse.gov/presidential... This will destroy American overseas programs. Here's why (MORE)
Shall we discuss the phrase "total failure?" Let's apply it to these words: Russia, Ukraine, Alaska Summit, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin. Now, what does "total failure" look like? abcnews.go.com/Internationa... and www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/u...
Climate change is a hoax. Right.
REPORTER: Do you plan to investigate Chris Christie? TRUMP: Uhhhh. Look, Chris is a slob. Everybody knows it. I always felt he was guilty. If they want to look at it they can. I always thought he got away with murder.
Masked ICE agents without badges or proof of identities of any kind risk being shot in states with open-carry laws. The George Zimmerman v Trayvon Martin 2012 case boomerangs.
RFK & MAHA: "Such censorship of scientists has been attempted by failed govts of the past -- Nazi Germany, USSR & communist China -- always w/disastrous consequences... 'Restoring Gold Standard Science' needs to be rescinded to avoid catastrophic..." agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
A video that will lift spirits. Quitting MAGA..... x.com/i/status/195...
The @NYTimes has done a fantastic job on explaining what the Trump administration’s savage cuts to biomedical research mean: cures that won’t happen. Please share this widely. This is a catastrophe. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...
đź—ŁHeads up #StayReady crew! How are small businesses supposed to survive like this? Do folks know how many OTC meds come from India? www.cbsnews.com/news/europea...
Remember Trump and Arnold Palmer? www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-...
“The Office of Management and Budget approved a fiscal 2025 spending plan for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that would claw back remaining funds at most of the agency’s line offices.”
„Such censorship of scientists has been attempted by failed governments of the past such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and early communist China, always with disastrous consequences for their citizens.“ Watching MAGA-US sleepwalking into disaster. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Lancet: RFK Jr and MAHA: dangerous, emboldened, and escalating bit.ly/3UMbfho @SecKennedy @NIHDirector_Jay mrna
Clear need for National Guard protection. Danger lurks on every corner. Run for your life!
“peer reviewed doctors”
This feels like a spot of good news www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
the government is trying to disappear a man who can testify to torture committed at the direction and payment of the government
After 2024 became the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers—breaking 2023’s previous high—2025 is on a similar trajectory. Recent data paints a grim picture: humanitarian workers are being attacked at rates historically unseen. www.cfr.org/article/acro...
This is dangerous. Russia and Estonia are separated by a small river and bridge. Only 1.5 million people live in Estonia. Estonia has only 7,000 active duty military personnel. Estonia is a member of NATO. Russian invasion would absolutely violate Article 5. x.com/i/status/195...
Malcolm Turnbull of Australia nails it. "He has put his own narcissistic self-interested agenda ahead of everything else." 🎥 TikTok - vm.tiktok.com/ZNdX4CNW9/
Sickening
The Daily Show takes down Stephen Miller x.com/TheDailyShow...
Lymphedema, high salt intake (those McDonalds French fries), fluid edema due to peripheral vascular disease? The White House has previously confirmed Trump has vascular disease in his feet/legs. This looks more serious than previously noted. Photos taken today. MDs, comments?
ATTN MAGA followers: When you, or a loved one, take ill with a currently incurable disease, please remember that you supported termination of NIH research that might have saved your, or your loved ones', lives. Just saying.
Trump says of Putin -- "He's been very respectful of me and of our country." SERIOUSLY? Note his hat. Every leader in the world knows that Donald Trump's ego is so voracious, that all one has to do is feed it, and get whatever you want our of the guy. x.com/i/status/195...
The @ametsoc.org State of the Climate Report for 2024 is now published: doi.org/10.1175/2025... I am happy to have contributed again to this year's issue - see our section in 'The Arctic' chapter: doi.org/10.1175/BAMS... Another historic year for Earth's climate... 🚨
The attack on Amb. John Bolton is nothing short of an effort to silence a critic. Given Bolton's prior service as Trump's National Security Advisor, Bolton can hardly be accused of being "liberal" or a "communist" -- the usual Trump Admin canards. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...
I hope your community is never occupied like LA or DC. But if it is, you’ll quickly find that people don’t take kindly to having their city under federal control. And folks are just getting started. 📌 Protesters gathered near a checkpoint in the U Street corridor in Northwest Washington.
I am congenitally resistant to conspiracy thinking, but this really does feel like a eugenic plot. There is some dark, pseudo-Darwinian thinking on the right that equates illness with moral unfitness, and prefers that the weak die, indeed demands that they be culled. Truly a death cult.
Center-left governments in Australia, Canada, France, and UK are moving toward recognition of Palestinian statehood in hope of diminishing pro-Palestinian violence on their own soil. My latest in @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Politics around Israel and Gaza have shifted — answers that once won applause among mainline Dems are now out of step with the party’s zeitgeist. Just ask Buttigieg. His "friendship" metaphor for the US-Israel relationship landed well in 2019. This time, not so much.
Have the National Guard focus here
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.
Problem is, thanks to RFK Jr you will probably have to go to Canada or Mexico to get the vaccine.
Unbelievable. Just days after the tragic flooding in Texas, NOAA is demanding that public TV stations remove equipment from towers that is critical for these stations to send weather alerts. Trump’s ideological crusade against public broadcasting will cost lives.
Who is really benefiting so far from Trumpenomics? Ten companies. Not you, not me, not mom-&-pop stores nearby, not the folks who grow your food or make your clothes. Nope. TEN companies, all tech or financial. ft.com/content/aefa...
Congestion pricing in Manhattan is a predictable success https://www.europesays.com/us/26010/ MAURA RYAN, a speech therapist in New York City, was dreading the introduction of congestion pricing. To see…#ny #nyc #newyork #nynews #nycnews #newyorknews #us #news #usnews
I hope that everyone contributes to celebrating Canada Day! It is the best country, if we can keep it #quilts
Due to the ongoing U.S. measles outbreak, a Texas man worried that his young son was at risk and took him to get vaccinated. The cost of the shot? $1,400.
As a science nerd, I had the hardest time using "cis" and "trans" LGTQ+ language, because there are 3 position s on a benzene ring: cis, ortho and trans. Well, not any more........
“This is how you kill an industry,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, a nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors. “And at a time when electricity prices and demand are soaring.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/c...
After being starved for over 20 hrs, inmates at Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark tore down a wall. They’ve been gassed, denied food, visits, & basic rights for weeks. Outside, New Jersey locals showed up and forced ICE to retreat despite being maced, assaulted, and nearly run down by vans.
In today’s episode of What Are They Thinking: “If you don’t see a hurricane coming… does it really exist?” 🚨 The Dept of Defense is shutting down its weather satellite program. No more data. No more updates. Meteorologists are scrambling—and we’re heading into peak storm season. Brilliant timing.
If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029: - $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion - $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million - $8 billion for hiring/retention - Billions more.
“Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho. This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more. Teresa and I are heartbroken." www.khq.com/news/idaho_n...
I was on MSNBC this morning with #AliVelshi and Dr. Irwin Redlener talking about RFK Jr's devastation of American public health and vaccines. www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/w...
DUH! Sen Bill Cassidy says that many of the new ACIP members do not have significant experience in microbiology, epidemiology or immunology. The current enshittified ACIP panel is a farce. There are growing calls to cancel the upcoming meeting & dissolve the panel. 🧪 arstechnica.com/health/2025/...