@ezralevin.bsky.social is onto something. I am less charitable: political leaders ask so little because they think so little of us. We are partners in democracy yet they poll-test, hire PR firms to message us rather than meaningfully engage. Mamdani’s appeal: he organized people in common purpose.
I am so so sorry, Beth. Sending virtual hugs.
Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.
White. Hot. Rage.
I am so sorry, Dimitri. Heartbroken.
Bad-faith actors have employed a well-worn playbook to advance their commercial, political, and personal agendas. Analyses that do not account for the underlying political economy of these scientifically irrational but commercially logical policy decisions are incomplete.
bsky.app/profile/char...
In 1933 a plurality of Germans voted for the NSDAP -- winning an election doesn't make your actions moral.
2/ Hepatitis B is a serious disease, and can lead to fulminant infection and death particularly in infants. I should note that said author was also wrong about Hepatitis B in a prior paper.
1/The newspapers of the day are complicit in the erosion of public health in the US. In their quest for “diverse” views and ”both sides”, what they have failed to ask is whether said opinion writers (in this case Emily Oster) actually have the foundational expertise to comment on public health.
Thank you for telling it as it should be told. That leaders in the academy use DEI, and co-opt the language of justice and rights when it is expedient and brings funding and quickly jump ship when it’s no longer either of these is even more glaring now.
@gregggonsalves.bsky.social details the ouster of Dr. Bassett from HSPH’s FXB Center for Human Rights as it should be told. Leaders in academia using DEI & language of justice when it brings funding but abandoning these when inconvenient is even more glaring now.
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
I just finished a stretch of hospital clinical service and anecdotally was struck by how many children who were in for other reasons had yet to receive the flu vaccine. It is not too late to get a flu vaccine this year. The flu kills the healthy, including children.
@gavinyamey.bsky.social and @jonshaffer.bsky.social write reminding physicians of the commitment to doing no harm..."Trump and RFK Jr are dismantling the core institutions of public health—doctors should be resisting their damaging health policies, not supporting them."
You cannot simultaneously care about maintaining measles elimination status while actively campaigning against the vaccine that allowed this elimination status to be achieved in the first place.
That's not how any of this works 🤷🏽♀️
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
Yesterday, I had an exchange w a scholar who defended Bhattacharya & Makary as reasonable thinkers after the vaccine schedule change announcement, arguing for the need for civility.
I argue here that we shouldn't prioritize civility over sound health policy
mirandayaver.substack.com/p/bless-thei...
Thx for the kind words—& for amplifying
While some physicians have pursued power by collaborating with Trump & RFK Jr to dismantle public health, many physicians, nurses, & public health workers are FIGHTING BACK
@defendpublichealth.bsky.social & @standupforscience.bsky.social are DOING THE WORK💪
“The present administration will continue to destroy evidence based public health programmes and policies unless clinicians, public health workers, and citizens fight back”.
Excellent article by @jonshaffer.bsky.social and @gavinyamey.bsky.social on the phenomenon of doctors who broke bad.
I discussed that essay here...
sciencebasedmedicine.org/science-base...
Infectious Diseases.
4/ The dismantling of vaccines contravenes the same fundamentals of public health. We get vaccinated not just for ourselves but to protect others. Public health principles do not change. Those who failed to uphold these principles during Covid, who cry wolf now or remain mum have much to reckon.
3/ They framed approach to public health as differing values. Rather the battle was always about upholding the principles of public health (as a collective public good we all contribute to) versus a constant onslaught that prized individualism and guarding individual privileges above all.
2/ But the truth is there‘s a direct line from then to now. Public health relies on a fundamental principle: it is collective. Instead all these experts, propped up wishy washy “You do you” health, and fueled the notion that the public had lost faith in public health.
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
🧵This needs to be said. There were many in ID who during Covid agreed along with the current leaders of NIH & FDA in their naysaying, and collaborated with them (remember urgency of normal?) who are now being quoted in the press saying, “By golly we don’t agree now!” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...
Good to see Trump chain Makary, Oz, and Bhattacharya to this policy.
Leaves no doubt moving forward that every sick child moving forward is on their hands too.
And all the people in the fraternity who propped Prasad, Makary, Hoeg and colleagues up during COVID, you don’t get to now cry about the destruction of public health in the U.S.
Pediatric ID Physician here. I‘ll never forget the young adult who lost her limbs to disseminated meningococcal ds, I‘ll never forget the healthy children who did not get the flu vaccine and were well one day, and dead the next. The HHS is the biggest threat to children’s health.
Today’s announcement that HHS is drastically altering the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule without a transparent process or clear scientific justification represents the latest reckless step in Secretary Kennedy’s assault on the national vaccine infrastructure.
Our statement: https://bit.ly/497Tj8V
1). The US is in the middle of the worst flu season in a decade.
2). Pertussis cases are the highest they have been in 20 years.
3). Measles has rebounded and elimination status has been lost.
RFK.Jr. has not recommended vaccination, instead he is aggressively rolling back vaccine policy.
What direction will we take the future of our field of public health?
We are at a crossroads
Dr. Mary Bassett represents the best of us, and I hope will continue to be supported in leading the way forward
Heartened to see much support for her on this petition
docs.google.com/document/d/e...
Incredibly depressing capitulation by an organization that could do a hell of a lot better
The New York City Dept of Health staff clap for Dr. Mary Bassett on her last day as Health Commissioner
It's difficult to convey the magnitude of appreciation I have for Dr. Mary Bassett's principled leadership and contributions to public health, but
This video from her last day as the New York City Department of Health
Commissioner comes close
fb.watch/DVGL9J9Ew1/?...
