(1/2) Please join us in congratulating these members who continue to be the #SourceForScience on abortion and contraception! @alisongemmill.bsky.social @caitlinmyers.bsky.social @imaddowzimet.bsky.social @jstrasser.bsky.social @ellendschenk.bsky.social @juliemaslowsky.bsky.social

This is quite the all-star lineup of demographers with expertise in fertility. Period fertility (or mortality) rates are not destiny. If we are really that concerned about future population growth, perhaps we should just make it easier for people to have families? It's in our power

Hi friends! Some bittersweet news to share: I’m thrilled to be coming back to California to join UCLA as an Associate Professor in the Dept of Epidemiology! 🌴🔵🟡 Immensely grateful to my Hopkins colleagues & students who made the past 6 years so rewarding. ❤️

We cannot rely on private philanthropy to address structural and systemic issues over the long run because the changing whims of private donors means investments are piecemeal and seldom sustained for long enough to make a difference. wapo.st/3ZRonor

The Chan-Zuckerbergs stopped funding social causes. 400 kids lost their school.

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg’s retreat from funding social issues forced the closure of a school Chan opened for disadvantaged families in Silicon Valley.

wapo.st

Does this mean I get my NIH grant back?? The one that was terminated bc I said incarceration was a form of “structural inequality”?

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious. "The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]." Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

Our latest paper is now in print, showing ⬆️ prevalence of adverse perinatal health outcomes in the wake of pandemic. This suggests potential lasting impacts on future generations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... @societyforepi.bsky.social @dkarasek.bsky.social @alisongemmill.bsky.social 1/

Worries over low birth rates are nothing new. Everything @lesja.bsky.social, @alisongemmill.bsky.social, & I wrote in this op-ed *SIX* years ago is still true. These worries have coalesced into a well-funded & influential pronatalist movement w/in an admin that is deeply anti-family.

Opinion | Don’t panic over declining fertility rates — and don’t let anyone guilt you

Lower fertility rates aren’t necessarily a bad thing.

washingtonpost.com

🧵It’s #BlackMaternalHealthWeek -a time to center Black moms & a need for action. I’m reflecting on what this means in a year when our #NIH grant “Looking Back to Look Forward: Social Environment Across the Lifecourse, Epigenetics, & Birth Outcomes in Black Families” was terminated. #MedSky #EpiSky

My favorite is placing pregnancy, infertility, maternal health, and child health (I.e., NICHD) in the Institute of Disability Research. What are we doing here??

Dave Levitan@davelevitan.bsky.social · last yr.

Folding 27 NIH institutes and centers down into *8*, which is even worse than the rumored plan for 15, is catastrophic for American biomedical research. Completely insane.

Packed room for our session on #perinatal-demography at #paa2025 with Payal Hathi, @alisongemmill.bsky.social, Tim Bruckner, Haley Comfort @ihmeuw.bsky.social, and @jnobles.bsky.social as inspiring discussant. You can download their submissions here: submissions.mirasmart.com/PAA2025/Itin...

Hi from @popassocamerica.bsky.social meeting! These past few weeks have been incredibly tough, but I am so inspired by my colleagues and our community.

BSPH Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health@hopkinspfrh.bsky.social · last yr.

PFRH faculty Alison Gemmill, Suzanne Bell, Linnea Zimmerman, and Dana Sarnak at the @popassocamerica.bsky.social #PAA2025 conference in DC where over the next three days they and many PFRH faculty are presenting on a variety of critical population health topics. Have a great conference!

NEW: Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is the decades old data collection program focusing on the health of infants and mothers at CDC. Critical source of data for all aspects of health thru process of pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum etc. In the first weeks of the admin I ...

Timeline cleanse Go see my brother’s old school animation movie that was released this weekend—he was a co-writer and head of story. Proud of him!

While working on these studies, this was the finding that I couldn't stop thinking about. Reproductive justice folks warned us about this.

Rachel Maddow@maddow.bsky.social · 2y ago

after the overturning of roe, black infant mortality has spiked nearly 11% in states with abortion bans: www.reuters.com/world/us/inf...

If you are one of the #CDC #HHS #FDA #NIH employees who have learned today that your employment is being abruptly ended, we want to hear from you. @altcdc.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/f...

Are you affected by firings at federal health agencies?

Have you been affected by firings at federal health agencies? @statnews would like to hear from you.

statnews.com

Our two papers on abortion bans and fertility/infant mortality are now out. In 14 states w/ abortion bans, fertility increased 1.7% and infant mortality increased 6%. Key takeaway is that these impacts were disproportionately felt among those w/ greatest structural disadvantages. Links below.

JAMA@jama.com · 2y ago

🧵 US states that implemented abortion bans saw higher than expected infant mortality rates, with larger increases among Black infants and those in southern states, according to this analysis of US national vital statistics data from 2012–2023. ja.ma/4aVchPn #MedSky

• increase prospects for government stability that accompany shifts in age structure. I am APPALLED by Natsios' lack of recognition of the life-saving benefits of contraceptive programming. Perhaps he should read this 2012 @thelancet.bsky.social analysis: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Maternal deaths averted by contraceptive use: an analysis of 172 countries

Numbers of unwanted pregnancies and unmet contraceptive need are still high in many developing countries. We provide evidence that use of contraception is a substantial and effective primary preventio...

thelancet.com

in case it's helpful to anyone, here are the email drafts I just sent to my mom and sister (both non-scientists) to have them contact their reps: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

NIH Indirect Rate Caps - Email Draft

Subject: Urgent Request to Reverse Proposed NIH Indirect Rate Changes Dear Representative [NAME], I hope this message finds you well. My name is [NAME], and I am a resident of [STATE], a dedicated c...

docs.google.com

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 2y ago

I wish we could reach the average American and let them know that with Trump’s cuts to the NSF, NIH, and CDC, they will no longer have access to cutting-edge medicine. U.S. physicians won’t have access to new technology. New cancer treatments will be available in other countries but not to them.

This is a de facto massive budget cut to research universities. We are talking Great Recession size impacts.

David F. Warner@dwarnersoc.bsky.social · 2y ago

⚠️ Effective Monday 2/10/25, NIH indirect rate capped at 15%. Applies to existing & future grants. —> Deep budget cuts & program closures coming to a university near you. Is this the break the glass moment for university administrators who have been silent so far about the attack on science?

Every email: "I hope you are managing during these uncertain times."

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has monitored the wellbeing of America’s high school students since 1991. Since 2015, it’s been a vital source of data on LGBQ youth. In 2023, it provided the first ever nationally representative sample of transgender teens. As of this morning, it’s gone.

The CDC has begun purging data. Example: The youth risk behavior survey...

Nsikan Akpan@monscience.bsky.social · 2y ago

Resurfacing in the light of day: People should archive their favorite CDC datasets today, namely ones around race/ethnic diversity, LGBTQ, flu, covid, reproductive health...

In case folks are looking for a place to archive the data: www.datalumos.org/datalumos/

I’m very tangentially involved in our (BU and Harvard) efforts to archive data and am happy to connect you w/ the core team of folks working on this. Just let me know. A lot of what they’re archiving is / will be preserved on dataverse.harvard.edu

A colleague asked whether I thought the government would continue the public release of its data products. The data from CDC health monitoring surveys, decades of data on mortality, crime data, climate data of a variety of types that go back for years, etc. 1/

Anyone else working now to download as many public use cdc data files as possible? 🫠

Just got e-mail. The NIA study section I am on Jan 31st "will not meet as planned". Quoting SRO: "At the present time, all Federal advisory committee meetings are cancelled... We will be back in touch with you when we have further information."

According to this article, they have ordered CDC/NCHS to stop releasing data. Make sure you've downloaded what you need, #EpiSky. Some of the executive orders affect variables in these datasets.

Michelle Kelly-Irving@mkellyirving.bsky.social · 2y ago

Trump stops health agencies from communication on health & vital statistics www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...