Stella Safo, MD MPH
@ammahstarr.bsky.social
HIV primary care doc. Care about healthcare delivery, education, and advocacy. Founder of Just Equity for Health.
Hello new followers and longtime supporters! Civic Health Alliance is a one-stop shop for health professionals and civic leaders who wants to mobilize healthcare institutions around civic engagement. Check out our website and follow us for resources, advocacy, and community! www.civichealthall.com
Hi, does anyone know of anyone with a public health or health background who is interested in social media management for a civic engagement group? If so, please ping me at stella@justequityforhealth.com. Thanks!
There is a rage to tweeting ratio that I am breaking so I’m putting my phone down. This country man, smh. We could have had so much better. But white supremacy, xenophobia and good ol misogyny won instead. A damn shame.
I end on a note of optimism- your doctors, nurses, healthcare techs, admins - we will fight like hell to keep you safe. None of us is giving us. I’m just sad that our job is made harder. But no patient of mine, no community member will suffer if I can help it. We are truly all we’ve got.
Yall do me a favor and brush off the maga that come into my comments for me please. I don’t have time for that pestilence today and I don’t want to see the asinine pretzel twisting they’ll put themselves into to justify making all of our health less safe.
I’m gonna need some kind of therapy to allow me to forgive what MAGA has done to us. Because it just gets harder to get over this. USAID- which literally keeps millions alive globally, just gutted. NIH funding- postponed and likely gone. HHS led by a quack so we all suffer. Absolute shame.
As an HIV doc, this confirmation especially hurts. Folks don’t appreciate how much HIV care and advocacy changed medicine for the better. For everyone. And we just put in charge some bro who doesn’t have the range or respect to acknowledge that. The insult is layered on this one.
When these health systems collapse and you’re begging healthcare workers to again sacrifice themselves to save lives, please reflect on how we’ve all shown thanks for the incredible sacrifice so many made in COVID. Fauci needs secuirty detail. And a hack is now HHS lead. That’s our thanks.
I watched a child almost die of tetanus in Ghana when I was a medical student. Never seen it before in real life. Only ever read about it in textbooks. Child had stepped on a nail in her village. No access to the tdap vaccine. Almost died from stepping on a nail. At age 8. That has never left me
And listen these messages are not for you if you’re coming to fight about wearing masks and vaccine harms. I don’t have the lung capacity or patience to try to talk sense into that subset right now. I’m talking to people with common sense who don’t want to die because their gov hates science.
The greatest country with the most scientific advancements the world has ever seen just voted to put a literal charlatan in charge. With rates of cancer, chronic disease, dementia, infectious diseases going up. Don’t let these people kill you please. Make a plan. Do it now.
As I write this, I am sick and I need to get off these inter webs to heal. But I can’t rest knowing the harm that is coming. Especially for our babies and children. Who don’t deserve to have repeat polio and measles and pertussis and God know what else infections bc the adults in the country suck.
I will never participate in ‘you do you’ public health. That’s not how it works. I will always always look out for the collective. But I want to be very real with people- if you think that ‘someone out there’ will magically make you healthy, you are wrong. The people in charge of health in the US
Are health professionals enraged about RFK? Absolutely. Why? Because the oath is first do no harm. You put blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice into getting these degrees to keep people safe and healthy. And then to have your country turn around and elect someone who will kill people. Just shameful
What can you do? Once you get over the shock, make sure you’re up to date w primary care, preventative care visits. Get all the vaccines you’re due for. Find trusted health sources you can use to get up to date health info. And prepare for hard times ahead.
Stella Safo, MD MPH@ammahstarr.bsky.social · last yr.R fucking F K Jr leading the HHS. I need the sun to run into the earth today. Let this mess end now please. I am sick at this news. Just disgusted.
R fucking F K Jr leading the HHS. I need the sun to run into the earth today. Let this mess end now please. I am sick at this news. Just disgusted.
1) do you have access to appropriate safety precautions (masks, air filters, cleaning agents)? 2) do you have some cash on hand? 3) do you have a plan for food if the supply chain is impacted? 4) in a worst case scenario setting, do you have a place to go that is safe?
Every smart person I know is making quiet plans for a bird flu pandemic to spread human to human. Business folks, medical doctors, public health folks- my network is preparing in big and small ways. That is a privilege I want all of us to have.
From a wise one, @oniblackstock.bsky.social - silence will absolutely not protect institutions. But guess they’ll need to find out the hard way 🤷🏾♀️
Oni Blackstock, MD MHS@oniblackstock.bsky.social · last yr.Under fascism, no one is safe. Universities stayed quiet as the admin targeted DEI & foreign aid, censored research, etc. Now, they face devastating cuts to indirect cost rates, threatening research & operations. Silence won’t protect institutions. It won’t protect people; it never does.
Me, a US based physician, going to Canada’s avian flu website to see what the latest data are. Because our own scientific communication platforms have been severely compromised or shuttered. In the year 2025. Never thought I’d see this day. Anyhoo, link here: www.canada.ca/en/public-he...
Avian influenza A(H5N1): For health professionals - Canada.ca
Get detailed information on avian influenza for health professionals.
canada.ca
Don’t know how many times we near to keep saying this but bears repeating. Replace DEI with Black (or trans or woman etc) and the racism/bigotry is as clear as day.
Scientific meetings are being canceled left and right. However you voted, you do not want science to be stalled. It benefits no one and harms us all. I am mentally exhausted, just like everyone else- but make noise. Call Congress and ask them to block these efforts to stall science and p-health.
What is scientific discovery without data?? The scrubbing of data from the CDC website is deeply worrisome. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Imagine if we had a party that stood up to the bs we are seeing from this regime? A party that fought for us as hard as Rs fight to take away rights? I get that Dems do a lot and mean well but I just need us to be LOUD about it. Aggressive even. This silence and acquiescence isn’t the way.
I will say this and then go back to minding my business- as a medical doctor, the purposeful defunding and obfuscation of scientific advancement with what’s being done to the NIH should scare us all. Medical and scientific research literally saves lives- that’s cancer research, cardiovascular care…
