"I vaccinated my dog and now he's obsessed with editing the Wikipedia page for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge"
Disabled disability and aging reporter at The 19th. Opinions are my own. Follows are not endorsements. Signal: slooterman.18 Email: sluterman at 19thnews dot org
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"I vaccinated my dog and now he's obsessed with editing the Wikipedia page for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge"
RFK JR WAS LIKE THIS LONG BEFORE 2020.
The secret to successful politics is to shun the specific people on the Internet who annoy me personally.
The secret to successful politics is to shun the specific people on the Internet who annoy me personally.
Nine former CDC directors, from Bill Foege onward, speak out about the incalculable harm that RFK, Jr. is doing to public health in the US and around the world. Gift link.
Frosted and it’s not close.
My colleague @bcrodriguez.bsky.social already wrote a not opinion news story about this, but weeks ago and better. I think pointing out the ideological inconsistency makes sense. That’s not the same thing as equating Let’s Move and MAHA.
I consider death to be significantly worse than disability.
It is very funny that President Trump’s followers were essentially able to polarize and bully him to be against one of his greatest accomplishments.
Operation Warp Speed was a good thing. It is, in my opinion, the best thing the Trump administration did. Developing a working vaccine in such a short amount of time was and is genuinely amazing.
See, this is where autism has primed me to be a good parent. I can listen to the same song or watch the same movie over and over and over and over again, no problem.
Aw, I actually do like Raffi. I wouldn’t listen to it on my own, but they’re fun to sing along to with a baby.
We are past cluster feeding and into teething. 😱
We’re not doing TV yet/I think she’s still too little for Bluey, but I am honestly looking forward to it. I’ve watched it with my friends’ kids and it’s actually really enjoyable (and has good messages!)
ABC News is still calling RFK Jr. a “vaccine skeptic.” The dude was one of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists for decades. There’s video of him in 2023 saying that there’s no vaccine which is safe and effective. You can call him an anti-vaccine activist!
This screenshot looks like it’s from Truth Social, so that is the fictional alternate reality.
The last time I looked at it they had started phasing out text blocks/paragraphs and adding swiping to make it more Tinder-y. What’s it like these days?
I think the “Israel is extremely powerful and controls world governments” thing is more than a little bit antisemitic, tbh.
“Mark represented the best of the White House press corps." - AP Executive Editor Julie Pace apnews.com/article/mark...
We’ll have been together for 11 years in December, so I’d count us as a success story.
It’s a bummer because I met my spouse on OK Cupid. I think it was great for me as an autistic person because you could be very upfront about what you were looking for — Less social guessing.
My parents gave me theirs and I want to learn how to blow it, but I also don’t want to bother Every Single One Of My Goyish Neighbors.
Symphonie Fantastique and Rite of Spring are a little hornier than what I’m going for, I think.
Yesssss
this is going to result in more holocaust denial as people start denouncing actual evidence as faked by a.i.
Willoughby Wallaby Woo is my favorite because when I sing it with my daughter I can add the names of people we know.
Sir, you are a Canadian icon and were a huge part of my childhood. I mean no disrespect. I just think it’s funnier to feed my baby mushed up green beans with a different soundtrack.
Are you snitch tagging me to Raffi?? Bluesky is wild.
Sex, on the other hand, was invented in 1963 (which was rather late for me), between the Chatterly ban and the Beatles’ first LP.
We’ve listened to Peter and the Wolf, just not during meal times.
Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra
Actually, Frankenstein is a doctor success at the Venice film festival
We’re going to listen to Copeland tomorrow.
I’ve started playing extremely dramatic classical music like Holst’s Mars, Bringer of War instead of Raffi when feeding my baby and it has made it like 700% funnier. She likes its I like it more than Raffi. 11/10 recommend.
“A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group”
Based, as the kids say.
If someone is gay and they choose to cut off contact with a parent who personally insults them, that doesn’t seem like it’s about free speech or tolerating difference in opinion, for example.
I’m also not sure I understand willingness to cut off relatives as a free speech issue. I think there are cultural factors that are a lot bigger, like religion, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.
New: @juliannemcshane.bsky.social and I took a deep dive into how Trump (and RFK Jr) is undermining mental health research at @motherjones.com–which could lead to fewer breakthroughs in early intervention strategies. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Is there data on this going back further? Because a sense of obligation to family, particularly one’s parents, is arguably a conservative idea. Making it about Harris or Trump seems potentially inaccurate.
Buying anything from overseas is about to get more expensive, more logistically complicated, slower, and overall more annoying. Film photography community, retro games community, people into skincare already seeing chaos on eBay. eBay sellers locking US buyers out. www.404media.co/trump-tariff...
Is DC one of the prescription ones?
Major update: As of this morning, CVS says it's decided it can offer the vax in 13 of the 16 states IF you get a prescription. Still a big new barrier for many people, but a change from its "no vaccines at all in these states" position yesterday. The three remaining absolute-nos are MA, NV and NM.
One of the four health agency leaders who quit the CDC has blasted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks over his use of the term “pregnant people.”
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
It’s not actually about the right to opt out, but making it harder for the rest of us to get vaccinated. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...
Like… It’s just such transparent nonsense. And yet here we are.
If autism is caused by inflammation, why doesn’t taking an NSAID improve my social skills, lol?
Shout out to all the health/policy reporters trying to stay on top of what's going on at the CDC. I hope you're caffeinated.
If you’re a current CDC employee and would like to share information anonymously, please reach out via Signal: @slooterman.18
New: In 7 months, Kennedy has broken the CDC, perhaps irreparably. For all he’s done with mass firings, gutting expertise, and attacking vaccines, Wednesday’s loss of its most senior and competent leaders—truly the CDC’s backbone—is the most consequential attack yet. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...
Breaking: BILL CASSIDY is calling for CDC's vaccine advisers meeting to be postponed. "If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership."
LEMONADE WAS WHILE SHE WAS MARRIED AND A MOM. I mean come on.
“Beyoncé isn’t *that* popular right now” is honestly a completely bananas position for anyone to have. Was this person asleep for Cowboy Carter?
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back. "The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
so there’s gonna potentially be a pod save america “debate” on democrats future support for trans rights in the near future i had to back out because of scheduling conflicts, and for some reason they didn’t want my help finding a replacement on the other side of the “debate” is… matt yglesias
SCOOP BREAKING: CDC director being ousted weeks into job. Me @ddiamond @LaurenWeberHP www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
National Guard soldiers called into service for President Trump's law enforcement surge in D.C. have been assigned to spread mulch at federal monuments. Normally the Park Service does that, but the administration laid off the workers. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
I'm glad that the White House is at least as serious as I am
The CDC has scaled back its program to monitor foodborne illnesses. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
It also used to come up when discussing red flag laws, but gun control advocates have adjusted their rhetoric and goals to be less offensive to disability rights organizations.
I mean, that is an actual argument people make against banning bump stocks specifically — They help people who want to shoot a gun but who have difficulty with finger dexterity.
Wow. On NPR, @gbrumfiel.bsky.social reports a Social Security official “copied the Social Security numbers, names and birthdays of over 300 million Americans to a private section of the agency's cloud.” The source is a whistleblower, who is named: Charles Borges, SSN chief data officer.
Scooplet here from me: RFK Jr.'s HHS says it terminated a grant studying zebrafish to study autism therapies. But when I called the principal investigator, he told me that his grant had not been terminated. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
It’s not even something I believe. It’s just very, very funny and would make a lot of people mad on the Internet.
I just thought of the trolliest disability take humanly possible and I am trying to resist tossing it out like Eris’s golden apple.
Opinion: Mental illness in Black people is criminalized, and Lil Nas X being thrown to the ground and arrested is no laughing matter, Mey Rude writes.
Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...
I had to go to two different, new pediatrician’s offices and paid $150 out of pocket because my pediatrician has decided to stop doing them and I can’t get my baby into a different practice until her 9 month well visit. I think the vaccination rate for younger kids is going to fall off a cliff.
I wish more online disabled/chronically ill people would spend even a little bit of time talking to people who actually are/were the most impacted — People in residential care facilities and the people who take care of them. It is one of my biggest disability community pet peeves.
I still wear a mask and get regular boosters because I’m asthmatic and my spouse is moderately immunocompromised, but I’m not willing to pretend everything right now is exactly as bad as when corpses were were literally stacking up.
FWIW I’m on like five different “COVID denial” lists because I can look at a chart/the lack of refrigerator trucks parked outside hospitals and see the death rate has gone down since 2020/the advent of vaccination. So y’all are in good company lol.
My toddler must’ve turned on speech to text, but honestly a lot of posters do need to hear this.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
I cannot stress how much this particular trend sucks for me personally, from a disability and accessibility perspective.
It’s up to the discretion of RFK Jr to define what ”medically frail” is when it comes to potential Medicaid work requirement exemptions—which may play a huge role in deciding which chronically ill and disabled people could qualify. My latest for @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
MAHA turned 1 over the weekend, and it's hard to believe it's only been one year since Kennedy endorsed Trump and kickstarted this movement. I talked with nearly two dozen people to try and make sense of all that has happened — or not. Lots to unpack! www.statnews.com/2025/08/25/r...
I got my 7 month old her first COVID shot on Friday. She’s got a little bruise/swelling at the injection site and was fussy on Saturday, but otherwise fine. I’m deeply grateful her first contact with COVID will not be getting sick.
I dunno probably also some other stuff but I used to do the MIT Mystery Hunt in college and one of my exes was a Chicago Scav judge. We all deserve more puzzles and whimsy.
My main takeaway from the Zohran Mamdani scavenger hunt is that my local officials should up their campaign game. I want a scavenger hunt too!
Cue @infinitescream.bsky.social.
“All of us at CDC train for this moment, a massive outbreak. All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.” Just one of the quotes/email excerpts from @amymaxmen.bsky.social investigation of CDC’s response to the Texas measles outbreak kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
“Community colleges, along with regional public universities, are the workhorses of higher education in the United States, which has roughly 4,000 degree-granting schools. Some nine million students are enrolled at community colleges, accounting for 43 percent of America’s undergraduates.”
DC is a beautiful place to live.
I threw up inside my mask once while pregnant and dealing with morning sickness. It was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my entire life. 0/10 do not recommend.
I still don’t know how to fix anything in the house that is broken. Do not ask me.
My summer project was to learn how to grill. I felt like leveling up my butchness.
I feel inclined to point out that plenty of disabled people can’t actually wear masks.
I mean most of them don’t prevent transmission altogether — Measles is one of the best and it only prevents 97%.
Have you tried not being afraid?
You know, I feel like maybe all the world could be a little less narrow of a bridge. I have poor balance a lot of the time. Please give me a break!!
The ruling, celebrated by a group of interfaith families, affirms that public schools cannot force religious doctrine on children.
Alarmed by Republicans’ deep cuts to health care and restrictions on reproductive rights, advocates are supporting California’s effort to counter gerrymandering in Texas. From @kffhealthnews.org:
Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low: “Mayor Bowser better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor very long because we’ll take it over with the federal government,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday, calling the city a “crime-infested rat hole.” 19thnews.org/2025/08/blac...
Through testimony and a Capitol bathroom sit-in, trans Texans, activists and a constable argued that the state’s latest bathroom bill doesn’t make anyone safer. https://bit.ly/47HaNIM
Climate change smacking of gender is why @19thnews.org has a climate reporter. She’s great. Everyone follow @jkutzie.bsky.social.
I sound insane when I say this but I truly believe a big part of the Trump admin’s approach to energy policy is driven by gender anxiety. They think coal and oil are manly and renewables are effeminate.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard an elected official use the word “deadname” or variations thereof.
I personally overheard this call, and I am so proud of our intern for how calm and cool he remained, asking politely for the mayor's spokesperson to stop yelling at him while continuing the discussion. www.lpm.org/investigate/...