excellent commitment to this bit
Health/science + Arctic journalist. Stories for the Guardian, the New Republic, NPR, etc. Book enthusiast and sometimes reviewer. Email: melodyschreiber@proton.me Signal: melodyschreiber.06 Newsletter: notadoctor.news
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excellent commitment to this bit
Everyone who slept in that apartment needs a rabies shot! You often cannot tell when you've been bitten
I'm not talking about why a strategy was effective, I'm talking about the rationale for taking that approach
They argued for keeping schools closed *because* community rates were so high. If rates had been better controlled (by, for instance, limiting those businesses), then teaching in person would not have been the threat it was.
All indications point to a belief that people who get sick and die were inferior and deserved it. Just built different, etc
There's a good bit of misinformation about the effectiveness of preventing infection with vaccines. They're not perfect, but they do stop infection to some degree (especially soon after getting each booster).
Teachers' unions were very much in favor of stopping the spread first, which keeping bars/restaurants closed would have done
it was a Whole Thing
Delayed vaccine meeting, shifting policies make it difficult for people to get Covid shot at pharmacies. One pregnant woman in Florida says a pharmacist refused to give her a Covid shot, citing new CDC guidelines. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
I would add, though, that Covid is still a major cause of hospitalization and death for kids. They aren't worse off than adults, as with some viruses. But it still hits kids. <1s are the worst-hit demographic after 65+, for instance.
As Michael gets at in this thread, the real problem was a lack of major investment in education. When schools necessarily closed, families were left to handle it on their own. Blue states should have created outdoor programs for kids to socialize and learn safely. Ah, but that would have cost money.
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.
YES
Yes and happy to have done so! Notadoctor.news
"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...
it is underdiscussed how "learning loss" can also be attributed to the fact that millions of people were dying and the kids were fucking terrified all the time - not just that they were on Zoom
Steve Bannon is concerned that the controversies around RFK Jr. are pulling attention away: "My concern is that next week could turn into the ‘Save Bobby Kennedy’ campaign, when we should be talking about making more changes to the CDC, when we should be releasing the data on mRNA vaccines."
I hope you're feeling better soon!
Is he talking about vaccines or Paxlovid/monoclonal antibodies? The mention of Pfizer makes me think it could be Paxlovid, which would be a new line of attack from the admin.
Younger me dreamed of being a writer -- I read books every chance I got -- but I didn't know you could get paid to do it! bsky.app/profile/sirb...
I worked at my dad's tire shop and started getting paid $5 a day when I was 9. Hardest work I'll ever do, rolling and stacking tires.
The evisceration of CDC is happening at the same time global disease prevention funding like PEPFAR dries up after being line-item deleted by the WH and DOGE. If we can’t contain something we already eradicated and have no more global infrastructure, we have no defense left against another pandemic.
Even with the drastically reduced disease surveillance and deliberate undercount, official CDC sources are already reporting the highest number of measles cases in more than 30 years, after it was officially declared “eliminated” in the US in 2000. Also, school is about to start.
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...
The Guardian has today printed the names, and where possible, images, of all the media workers killed in Gaza, as part of an international day of action involving more than 150 media organisations. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
I hope you understand that if you show up at a hospital with an infection no one has ever seen before that the US had somewhere you could call. That place would answer, offer testing you can’t get anywhere else and come visit you to solve if necessary.
I think so! It doesn't make me any grumpier, and I have lower odds of ruining an otherwise good day later on
When I'm having a grumpy day I decide to do as many tasks that I hate as possible, gotta lean into the pain
But it meant apple???
I love sheet mulching! So much easier
Re: last repost: anti-vaccine activists talk about vaccines as a medical freedom issue. But what about everyone else's freedom to move through the world without contracting preventable disease? That's true bodily autonomy.
at their core, trans rights, abortion rights, and vaccine rights are actually all the same issue: they’re all about bodily autonomy, and the willingness to concede any of them puts the others at risk.
Deaths from a disease with a nearly 100% effective vaccine (if given before symptom onset) are at highest level in years? Shocked. Just shocked. Disinformation kills. 🤦🏻♂️
wow
It's great!
"People don't like fragility. It makes them nervous. They're scared thinking things just happen. They think there's always something you can do to keep monsters from getting under the bed." @lindaholmes.bsky.social, Evvie Drake Starts Over
union station today, looks like they are ratcheting up efforts to intimidate protesters. big vehicles are back and a handful now sporting “military police” vests
😍
Whereeeee
Must be Gruden’s favorite golf outfit since he wore it last week at Trump’s club in Virginia.
Seen on my run in Rock Creek Park today. Parking lot near Beach and Tilden. Paper taped on over a Harris 2024 sign.
It was so awful!!
Gah paying for it would have made it so much more frustrating!
Nothing like complaining about government censorship and then becoming part of the government and promptly censoring ::checks notes:: yourself www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
"you know what everyone loved about the first two movies? Let's forget about all of that and have two people argue viciously the entire time"
I loved Before Sunrise and After Sunset so I finally watched Before Midnight lolol
The CDC quietly did lots of work that keeps everyone safe. RFK ruining it is something that can negatively impact the health of millions of people. It’s both tragic and scary. www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
Her new book sounds HEAVY but good
New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them. States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.
🧵 I know it's ridiculous, but when he's talking mitochondrial challenges & inflammation, he's again referring to his idea of vaccine-induced autism. Let me explain.
"Mr. Kennedy has criticized the C.D.C. for decades, at times comparing its immunization policies to medical experiments committed in Nazi camps. He has continued after taking office as health secretary, calling the agency diseased and its employees and advisers corrupt."
I didn't have a chance to read when it came out, but now I want to!
Current situation with COVID19 vaccines at CVS. ACIP is meeting September 18-19 so it will likely become available at pharmacies w/o a prescription then, unless ACIP pulls the rug out. Prescription requirement related to state laws requiring ACIP approval for pharmacist administration.
Uh oh what did I miss
Who is this about??
Not a surprise, of course -- work, like love, doesn't fill emptiness. But it's a reminder that success can sometimes make it harder to grow in the ways we need.
I keep thinking about Elizabeth Gilbert. I was becoming a professional writer as she was getting famous, and her name has been synonymous with runaway professional success for women. All that money, all that recognition, and it still didn't make her whole.
I can
💯 (signed, another cis person)
I'm working on such a cool science story and I can't wait to share it. It's a topic I've been following for years and it's kind of surreal to write about it for the first time in a while.
I liked when they started asking them how the pieces felt
The @status.news newsletter looks into the current president's "visible bruises" and asks: Why are the country’s biggest newsrooms silent? www.status.news/p/trump-heal... [paywall likely]
Elizabeth Gilbert is one hell of a writer www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
Trump was spotted this morning in a white polo, MAGA hat and black pants as he heads to a golf course in Virginia, per pool
“.. if, God forbid, there's a terrible tragedy, I can't think of better on-the-job training than what I've gotten over the last 200 days,” he added. @usatoday.com www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
You asked me to confirm Trump sightings Went through all pool reports. This is the last activity involving second party that confirmed that this occurred. “On background from a WH Official: Can confirm the President has spoken with Governor Walz. Wed, 12:32pm ET”
The Gilded Rage
Mayor Muriel Bowser has praised the surge and reserved her criticisms for ICE wearing masks. But tonight at a local school it was MPD who pulled up their gaiter, put on gloves, and approached me masked.
Well this is sobering : “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... >
Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC says that RFKJr said he believes that Avian flu should be allowed to "burn through" the chickens and then children and others, so we can propagate a "stronger species". RFKJr believes in eugenics. RFKJr needs to resign or be fired.
…well, it would appear he hasn’t been up to much on any fronts the last 2 days, which may prove to be its own can of worms. Long live CDC Director Monarez, who remains in place until the President fires her!
My husband asked me to put on a Radiohead song and then got mad I put on Fitter Happier?!
there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
With O'Neill (apparently) taking over CDC (if they ever get around to firing Monarez), I think it's worth looking back to Project 2025 and asking what they actually intend to *do* to CDC. So, I went to remind myself today. Here's what's in store:
everyone who liked my post is invited
Can you make that a group chat please
Oh my GOD
I am not a Politics Knower but I do not understand the posters who say "Dems should do something!!!" and when they speak up to condemn something -- which, as the minority party, is the main course of action right now -- they say "not that!"
Deb said that they all got on a teams call yesterday afternoon and agreed to submit their resignations together, since they all work closely together on issues of vaccines, outbreaks, infectious disease. That they knew any one person leaving wouldn’t make an impact, but a joint announcement would
"Kennedy restricted access to Covid-19 jabs, sacked a committee of 17 expert advisers and brought in vaccine-sceptic replacements, and announced plans to set out his findings on the causes of autism next month... he was considering a ban on Covid jabs that use mRNA technology"
casual reminder that "get politics out of public health" is interpreted by the public less literally than policy bluesky. the public reads it as a defense of transparency, integrity, and expert-led, evidence-based policy/practice. these leaders are *very* aware that public health is political. :)
This is an extremely important point
2020, and 2021, and 2022...
This is illegal. www.gao.gov/blog/what-po...
Schumer is calling for Kennedy' termination
This story has it all: aquaculture, Black Flag, Bernie Sanders, Star Trek as policy, John Hodgman, male tears, and a candidate citing Luthen’s monologue from Andor. Meet Graham Platner, the Maine oysterman trying to crack the senate. @grahamformaine.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1996...
Kennedy "compared immunizing children to practices in Nazi death camps"
Oh, good -- ahead of flu season, and start of school.
No, chain pharmacies have been offering appointments in hopes of getting vaccines out as soon as they arrive. If vaccines haven't shipped yet, they cancel the appointment.
Trump has scrapped another $5 billion in U.S. aid, according to NYPost nypost.com/2025/08/28/u...
Don't do this
That's awesome!
No one is acting as if this in an emergency, except those of us who work in these fields. But we see the tsunami approaching--a wave of sickness and death that will wash over us all in growing numbers down the months, down the years. 15/
Gregg Gonsalves knows what he's talking about
Between last fall and today, there have been over 3 million out-patient visits, over 300,000 hospitalizations and over 30,000 deaths from COVID. This data comes from a presentation at the the June ACIP meeting extrapolated forward. Now there will likely be more as RFK Jr. consolidates his power. 4/
This is an extremely widespread view in public health. Daskalakis is one of the most respected health officials we have.
They object to saying "pregnant people" and insist instead on "pregnant women"
they think they can just erase trans joy and trans freedom. they can't. they can make things a lot harder and more painful. but that joy and that freedom is not theirs to take and it is incumbent on all good people to say so.
the "radical" part is that they're not feminists
I still can't believe that one TERF talking point is "are you still a person if you're pregnant"