Alarming NPR report and NIOSH study on the backslide of coal miners' health. Reemergence of black lung was made possible by lawmakers' inaction. The administration's attack on public health will make things worse. Kudos to the NIOSH scientists whose work was not censored by RFK Jr and Bhattacharya.

Allen Orr@allenorr.bsky.social · 14h ago

www.npr.org/2026/08/05/n...

So you want to do your “own research”...? A biostatistician shares a step-by-step method for researching health questions like a scientist: theconversation.com/how-to-do-yo...

I wonder if it's the same for faculty. Increasing my typing speed to 110+ wpm was my academic productivity hack, so I can imagine the hunt-and-peck faculty seeing AI as a way to get more writing done.

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · 3d ago

I wonder if students today would be less likely to lean on AI for writing assignments if schools had made sure they could touch-type (at least 60wpm) before having them submit all their assignments online. 1/🧵

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE POWER ACCOMPLISHES! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who wrote comments, contacted Congress, and yelled! This is OUR WIN! @standupforscience.net www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul

Language is included to delay the president’s move to put political appointees in charge of grant approval.

politico.com

🚨🚨 FEDS and everyone else 🚨🚨 🧵Tomorrow is the last day to comment on the Office of Personnel Management rule, “Promoting Employee Accountability" at www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP... This rule eliminates employee protections and rights, and hastens the firing process. Specifically, it... 1/4

I got a flu booster today and it made me reflect on the sense of national accomplishment I felt when I drove to a public facility, waited in my car until my number was called on an app, and got my first covid jab. It's fucked the right gets to erase what a moment of technological liberation that was

The application for the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship, which places scientists & engineers into roles in Congress and in the Executive Branch, opened today. This program is essential for building technical policy capacity in the US. If interested, apply: fellowshipapp.aaas.org/app/main

I wrote last year about the US Administration's plans to eviscerate Optional Practical Training, America's largest single source of global STEM talent: www.piie.com/blogs/realti... That came to pass. The White House is sharpening its tools to shatter OPT, and thus kneecap many US universities.

Exclusive | U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation

The proposed policy would particularly affect Silicon Valley, Wall Street and universities.

wsj.com

I don't know why Peggy Honein was removed from her position, but there is no one I would trust more to lead the Ebola response. I've known her for more than 15 years and she's one of the best epidemiologists and leaders I've had the honor of working with.

Liz Szabo@lizszabo.bsky.social · 7d ago

Leadership Shakeup at CDC's Ebola Response Team www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...

But there's a difference between accountability and making one person the vessel for every frustration with an impossibly complicated crisis. Over time, Fauci became a symbol for everything people felt had gone wrong, whether he was responsible for it or not.

re cyclospora and every other outbreak: no one’s talking about the most critical part of CDC that RFK Jr destroyed — the purge of senior leadership and all their years of experience. outbreak responses are fundamentally broken without the head attached and he intentionally decapitated the agency

Grab one or all. A pin for everyone, science lovers, vax champions, public health defenders, & those who are just "le tired." Every purchase helps support efforts to advocate for & strengthen public health when it's needed most. 🧷 Support public health. 🛒 Shop now at FiredButFighting.org/shop

🎉Some great news Congress appropriated $600M for Gavi, the organization that funds vaccines for half the world’s kids But the anti-vaxx activist RFK Jr froze the money—which would have caused an estimated 600,000 child deaths The State Dept will now over-ride RFK Jr & give Gavi the money 👏 1/2

This is a well-produced segment. I encourage you to watch so you can hear the noise for yourself. The professor of environmental health science that they interviewed called it an “unprecedented new noise source.”

Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives

One Michigan community has been experiencing the reality of a data center next door for a couple of years now, and they say the sound has changed their lives.

wxyz.com

📣 Job alert: We are looking for a PhD Candidate in causal inference & health data science🔎 📍 Berlin (Responsible Health Data Analysis Team, BIH-QUEST) 📅 Starting: Oct 1, 2026 (3 years) 💼 100% E13 position 🔗 Read more and apply (deadline Aug 17): karriere.charite.de/en/job-vacan... Please share!

PhD Candidate (all genders) BIH QUEST Center (Team “Responsible Health Data Analysis”)

full-time | 17.08.2026 | BIH Berlin Mitte

karriere.charite.de

Yes! Read David Michaels's books. You'll never look at epidemiology the same way again. For quicker reads, here are some of the readings I assign to my students when I teach about manufacturing doubt. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34139265/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16030337/

Anne Sosin@annesosin.bsky.social · last wk.

We should all take the time to learn from others who have done rigorous work to understand the well-worn playbooks being deployed to manufacture doubt and mistrust and undermine science.2/ @drdavidmichaels.bsky.social www.drdavidmichaels.com/books

💼 Boston University School of Public Health is hiring faculty in Environmental Health. 🔗 More information: https://members.iseepi.org/classifieds/moreinfo.php?cid=70736371 💻 ISEE Job Board: https://members.iseepi.org/members/classifieds5.php?org_id=ISEE

#EpiSky

Tarini Grace@candidkitten.bsky.social · last wk.

@publichealthpod.bsky.social I tried to email you guys, but it goes undelivered, I’m a 34yo polio survivor and vaccine advocate that would love to collaborate!

Happy 🎂William Carter Jenkins b #OTD 1945 (d 17 Feb 2019) The Tuskegee whistle-blower epidemiologist, he was first to publicize the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (“the most unethical study in US history”) in the Drum (an anti-discrimination newsletter). 1/3 🧵

Anyway, running a “MAHA is right about public health” editorial the week CDC finally starts explicitly spreading the vaccine-autism link is a choice, and unfortunately some people in public health have gotten where they are by making bad, loud choices. Posting isn’t the work folks….

As a commenter pointed out - misses in public health kill people. That's why data and evidence are so important.

Melody Schreiber@melodyschreiber.com · 2w ago

Name ONE hit. In what ways has MAHA positively informed public health policy? I very much want to know!

Once you see this, you can’t unsee it. The Motte and Bailey gambit is powering the attacks on NIH. IDC Replication crisis Risk averse peer review Translation Incremental research …

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD@prasad.bsky.social · 2w ago

these are glib strawman arguments put forth to justify a motte-and-bailey fallacy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-a...

Further analysis of Packalen & Bhattacharya article, where they claimed #NIH-funded research was slow to pick up on new ideas. I argue that their approach is flawed, and I present an analysis that shows the exact opposite. pubpeer.com/publications...

AcademyHealth is working to understand a significant new development affecting AHRQ-funded research. Researchers across the country are reaching out after receiving notices from AHRQ regarding grant funding changes. If you received a notice, please contact us: advocacy@academyhealth.org

Huge, important job. Comms and leadership at NIH. Please apply. This is public service. “…responsible for planning, directing, and executing nat’l health and research communication efforts…” Civil service SES position. Please share- this one is important for NIH. hr.nih.gov/careers/open...

"In little-noticed court documents, federal officials acknowledged this month that they had terminated the funding 'based solely' on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

nytimes.com

🚨Breaking🚨: NIH is terminating health disparities research grants again. This time, they may successfully avoid legal challenges by giving specific reasons for their decisions. One grant so far, more to come. Exclusive @science.org by me and @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes

With cancellation of health disparities project, agency may be testing new way to legally kill politically sensitive grants

science.org

And the graph of measles cases in the US (ref Johns Hopkins)

boehninglab@boehninglab.com · 2w ago

This is quite the graph (gift link). wapo.st/4gVF8bl

40% of disabled cancer patients die during the wait period to enroll in medicare — and the rate is rising

Stacie Dusetzina@dusetzinas.bsky.social · 2w ago

Good reminder of how hard it is to access health insurance for people who are disabled by their conditions but in the waiting period for coverage for SSDI/Medicare. The mortality during the wait period for people with cancer (neoplasms) is nearly 40%. www.healthaffairs.org/doi/epdf/10....

always good to be cognizant of the fault line between the career public health workers in government trying to do their jobs and the incompetent trump loyalists holding HHS hostage. it's a helpful lens for understanding issues in outbreak responses and policy work this term.