Audrey Vernick

Progress!

America's Reading Crisis That No One Wants to Talk About “There’s this focus on K-3 without a lot of resources dedicated to helping the kids in secondary school who fell through the cracks."

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress results, only 30% of eighth-grade students are reading at a “proficient” level. Fourth-grade students had similar scores.

Both scores were not significantly different when the data collection first began in 1992.

United States Completes WHO Withdrawal WASHINGTON —  January 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State today announced the United States’ completion of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.

The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization.

This is a shameful move that puts both Americans and people all over the world at greater risk from disease outbreaks, which require international collaboration to contain.

019: The Surgery - The Brain Ablaze Epilepsy Podcast This episode walks through the events leading up to our host's neurosurgery in 2017.

Our theme for Day 24 of #NationalEpilepsyAwarenessMonth (or #NEAM) is "Neurosurgery". -- Have you considered it? Why did it make (or didn't) sense for you? -- Listen to our founder's neurosurgery story:

brainablaze.com/the-brain-ab...

012: Status Epilepticus - The Brain Ablaze Epilepsy Podcast Do you know the warning signs of Status Epilepticus? Our host, David Clifford, walks through his experience with a Status Epilepticus event he experienced in 2015.

Our theme for day 28 of #NationalEpilepsyAwarenessMonth (or #NEAM) is "Status Epilepticus". -- Do you know why an ambulance should be called if a seizure lasts more than 5 minutes? Have you had an SE event? #EpilepsyAwareness

More on Status:
brainablaze.com/the-brain-ab...

1 in 26 people in the US will develop #epilepsy in their lifetime.
You can help change their future. 🌟
Support innovative epilepsy research this November during #epilepsyawareness month:
👉 my.aesnet.org/aes-donate-n...

#EndEpilepsy

What Trump's Medicaid cuts mean for two podcasters with Down syndrome Medicaid-funded services are their lifeline—and make their work possible.

Medicaid-funded services are their lifeline—and make their work possible. But the Trump cuts to the program could change it all.

Meet Audrey and Jeremy, who went viral for talking about how the GOP's Medicaid cuts could devastate their everyday.

i am saddled with the thought of how different our world would be if we believed women.

🤮

I’ve never seen an American elected official fight so hard to starve people.

Not pro-life.

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Millions of Americans are already learning that their health insurance costs for 2026 are going way up.

I want to hear from you so we can make this impossible for the GOP to ignore the consequences of their policies.

If your premiums are going up, reply below and please share your story.

How an ACA Premium Spike Will Affect Family Budgets, and Voters In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman shows how spiking premiums, which may come if the enhanced ACA tax credits are not extended, will hit people in the context of their family budg...

🔥PLEASE REPOST🔥

🚨If ACA tax credits are NOT extended, premium payments will increase by more than 100% for many of the 24M Americans who buy their own coverage & it's on top of rising food & housing costs among other inflationary pressures that are adding major STRESS.🚨

www.kff.org/from-drew-al...

This is why gutting support for mRNA will compromise such remarkable progress vs autoimmune diseases
And cancer
And genome editing for rare disease

Opinion | We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

"We will never know what diseases might have been cured or what advances in technology might have been invented had the lights not gone out in the labs."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Thank you @michaelgranovetter.bsky.social for your interest in this population and moving this research forward!

Child cognition, behavior, and treatment complexity are key predictors of parental stress, beyond seizure-related factors alone.
doi.org/10.1111/epi....

#epilepsy #epilepsia #ILAE #behavioralproblems #caregiverburden #cognitiveimpairment #drugresistant #parentingstress #pediatric

At #AGBTPH25, @hcmefford.bsky.social of @stjuderesearch.bsky.social shared how gene replacement and antisense therapies are advancing treatments for rare pediatric epilepsies and neurological diseases — bringing new hope to patients and families.

#PrecisionHealth #Genomics #RareDisease #Epilepsy

Awake craniotomy appears feasible and safe in patients with medically drug-resistant focal epilepsy.
doi.org/10.1111/epi....

#epilepsy #ILAE #epilepsia #awakesurgery #drugresistantfocalepilepsy #feasibility #safety

This study assessed neurologists' practices and barriers to epilepsy genetic testing/counseling compared to guidelines published in 2022.
doi.org/10.1002/epi4...

#epilepsy #ILAE #epilepsiaopen #adultneurologists #bestpractices #genomics #unexplainedepilepsy

Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advoc...

Citing concerns about DEI, the Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states.

“How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”

By @jodiscohen.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advoc...

"How low can you go?"
"How can you do this to children?"

Education Dept. Halts Funds to Programs for Deafblind Students Over DEI Concerns, by @jodiscohen.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

Pregnancy is a minefield when you're disabled Few OB-GYNs get disability training—and their disabled patients are far likelier to die.

Few OB-GYNs get disability training—and their disabled patients are far likelier to die.

An idea:

These parents don't only fear the death of their child. They fear dying first. Danny Groff is 39 and needs 24/7 care. His parents, both 66 and retired educators, are planning for what happens if they die before he does.

These parents don't only fear the death of their child. They fear dying first. - Madeline Mitchell

Findings support earlier surgical referral and long-term risk stratification in drug-resistant epilepsy.
doi.org/10.1111/epi....

#epilepsy #epilepsia #ILAE #mortality #SUDEP #surgery #survival

Scalp Implant Improves Real-World Epilepsy Tracking THURSDAY, Aug. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — An under-the-scalp implant can improve monitoring of a person’s epilepsy, giving doctors data they need to improve co

An under-the-scalp implant can improve monitoring of a person’s #epilepsy, giving doctors data they need to improve control over seizures, a new pilot study says.
www.healthday.com/health-news/...

Some day explorers from another galaxy will happen upon Earth and sift through the bizarre wreckage. In whatever language they use, one will say to another: “Amazing. These creatures did something called ‘voting,’ and 77 million of them voted to destroy themselves and everyone else on the planet.”

Overall, 55.4% of patients with LGS achieved ≥50% seizure reduction with neuromodulation therapies.
doi.org/10.1111/epi....

#epilepsy #Epilepsia #ILAE #adverseeffects #DEE #drugresistant #neurostimulation #qualityoflife #treatment