In 1995, among women 40-49, 64% w/ a PhD had ever married & had kids. In 2024, that share had risen to 78%. No changes b/w 2024 & 1995 among those w/ a 4 yr degree, at 75%. In 1995, among women 40-49 w/ just a HS degree, 85% had ever married & had kids. In 2024, that share had fallen to 69%.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo@karenguzzo.bsky.social · 2w ago

Jesse Waters is such a vile misogynist. What a loser.

A propos of the current news cycle, your regular reminder that over a million Americans died of COVID. And yes, we have very reliable estimates of that... open.substack.com/pub/jenndowd...

How many people died of COVID?

We likely undercounted, not overcounted COVID deaths

open.substack.com

I'm interested in finding and potentially supporting people who are interested in doing long-form writing on the big efforts in global health: Gavi, Global Fund, PEPFAR, etc. If this is you or someone you know, please make yourself known!

Fantastic piece by @iliyagutin.bsky.social on the tension between new GLP-1 meds & population prevention of obesity...GLP-1s may just be the breakthrough that levels the playing field against our default obesogenic environment. #publichealth #demography #healthpolicy www.milbank.org/quarterly/op...

Fighting Fire with Fire: GLP-1s and the Political Economy of Population Health | Milbank Memorial Fund

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists have been adopted faster and more widely than any anti-obesity therapy prior.

milbank.org

Last few places going fast

Trish Greenhalgh@trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 2w ago

Come to Oxford for our three-day Summer Academy in August! Exciting programme, heavily subsidised, a taster for postgraduate study: www.phc.ox.ac.uk/events/oxfor...

A pleasure to work with the brilliant @polizzan.bsky.social @andreatilstra.bsky.social & @luyinz.bsky.social on this paper! #demography #mortality #episky

Antonino Polizzi@polizzan.bsky.social · last wk.

Just out! 📢 "Why is life expectancy in England & Wales falling behind?" We used a decomposition approach to understand why life expectancy improvements in E&W lagged behind other European countries between 2011 and 2019. 📉 The findings might surprise you. 🔍📄 doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2026.2682462 1/N

Remember when NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said there were no banned words and NIH Program Officers were making them up? Here’s the proof he lied: apnews.com/article/cali... I know, Jay Bhattacharya lying is not news. But it’s still really validating to have the admission.

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...

apnews.com

1/ A New (and Possibly Better) Flu Vaccine Coming Your Way Moderna's mRNA flu shot outperformed the standard vaccine in trials and just got the blessing of the US FDA's vaccine advisory committee. @drjenndowd.bsky.social

A New (and Possibly Better) Flu Vaccine Coming Your Way

Moderna's mRNA flu shot outperformed the standard vaccine in trials and just got the blessing of the US FDA's vaccine advisory committee.

jenndowd.substack.com

In the backlash to the freewheeling 1920s, German fascists and eugenicists said you could identify sexual deviants (including masturbators) - and Jews - by their "nervousness." That's exactly what this is.

PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · 3w ago

Miller: "It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent Antifa demonstrations not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one looks normal. They're all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism." #cdnpoli

Love this timeline where we are fact-checking government claims about teenage sperm count… But glad that @alisongemmill.bsky.social & @srhayford.bsky.social answered the call! www.factcheck.org/2026/07/rfk-... #demography #fertility #publichealth

RFK Jr.’s Flawed Claims About Sperm Count and Fertility - FactCheck.org

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has baselessly tied alleged declines in sperm counts among teenagers to a “fertility crisis” or an “explosion in infertility.”

factcheck.org

Everyone is saying he's best known for Jurassic Park, but "I would like to have seen Montana" will live rent free in my brain forever. RIP Sam Neil 💔

"In a democratic society, intolerance toward bigotry, of course, does not mean persecuting people for holding noxious views, but rather speaking out against them, and not using our platforms and institutions to promote them or their ideas." 🎯

Philip N Cohen@philipncohen.com · 3w ago

At the risk of stating the obvious: It’s not bigotry to say Lyman Stone is a bigot

This is a really useful post about what you need to know about Cyclospora. I learned things. You will too

Explosive foodborne outbreak

It's a real shit show out there: What we know, don't know, and what it means for you.

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

I can write a gazillion well-researched, peer-reviewed, respected-by-actual-experts articles on the causes and consequences of low fertility and place them in high-profile academic outlets, and I'll never have the exposure or reach that a Christian Nationalist aligned with Heritage will have.

Cruella: God, It's All So Depressing

ALT: Cruella: God, It's All So Depressing

static.klipy.com

Some thoughts from me on World Population Day for @prbdata.bsky.social ....let's work on actually testing those biological limits of life expectancy already! www.prb.org/news/progres... #demography @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social @oxforddemsci.bsky.social @oxpop.bsky.social

Things the author of this op-ed have also proudly put out into world.

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 4w ago

Interesting choice by NYT to publish an op-ed bemoaning America’s projected population decline by a guy who’s massively racist against immigrants and compares IVF to “Nazi eugenics.” The “pronatalists” only want more of a very specific kind of person in this country. It gives the game away.

Interesting choice by NYT to publish an op-ed bemoaning America’s projected population decline by a guy who’s massively racist against immigrants and compares IVF to “Nazi eugenics.” The “pronatalists” only want more of a very specific kind of person in this country. It gives the game away.

Great post from @drjenndowd.bsky.social about what's wrong with these 'turning point' in aging studies jenndowd.substack.com/p/does-adole... with a great example by @adamjkucharski.bsky.social:

“you really can’t biohack your way completely out of disease or death,” said Jennifer Dowd, a professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford. www.statnews.com/2026/07/08/b...

Bryan Johnson’s chronic disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose

Why longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s chronic disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose.

statnews.com

N-IUSSP: Can we really predict individual-level longevity? by Casey F. Breen and Nathan Seltzer www.niussp.org/health-and-m... #demography #populationstudies

Can we really predict individual-level longevity? - N-IUSSP

Disparities in life expectancy across sociodemographic groups are large in the U.S. Still, using linked Census and mortality records for men born in 1910, Casey Breen and Nathan Seltzer find ... Read ...

niussp.org

Need a break from the heat? Cool spaces across London will welcome you in for a cool down, rest, and some respite from the sun. Find your nearest one with our Cool Spaces map:

Cool Spaces

Cool Spaces Map displays indoor venues open to all where Londoners can take respite on hot days.

apps.london.gov.uk

Great explainer by @drjenndowd.bsky.social on this hopeful news. 🧪😷🛟 Sociology health policy demography idsky

A New (and Possibly Better) Flu Vaccine Coming Your Way

Moderna's mRNA flu shot outperformed the standard vaccine in trials and just got the blessing of the US FDA's vaccine advisory committee.

substack.com

👉 "Johnson’s announcement is a reminder that no matter how much anyone strives to optimize their health, “you can’t biohack your way completely out of disease or death,” said Jennifer Dowd, a professor of demography & population health at the University of Oxford." www.statnews.com/2026/07/08/b...

Bryan Johnson’s chronic disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose

Why longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s chronic disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose.

statnews.com

Social media makes the anti science, anti vax crowd seem much larger than it is. Surveys show it’s actually a very small share of the public greatly outnumbered by science believers. My new column: on.kff.org/4wthpni

Americans May Be Smarter About Vaccines Than You Think

In a new column that analyzes recent KFF polling, Founding President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman concludes that only a sliver of the public hold definitive anti-science, anti-vaccine views, and are greatl...

on.kff.org

New research by @lauragimeno.bsky.social, Charis Bridger Staatz, Alice Goisis, @drjenndowd.bsky.social and @georgeploubidis.bsky.social examines how chronic health conditions in midlife are linked to later health-related economic inactivity in the UK. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Can't remember if I already shared this, but the oddly smooth vampire man (Bryan Johnson) being in the news for giving himself(?) an autoimmune condition reminded me of this great longevity writeup @drjenndowd.bsky.social posted a few weeks ago: substack.com/home/post/p-...

How much longer will Trump (or any of us) live?

Turns out, death is really hard to predict.

substack.com

I can't make heads or tails of this analysis (in the Guardian today). The methods section is one paragraph. Putting aside assumptions about health econ and NHS decision making, it doesn't seem to consider population growth, ageing, or mortality displacement... (1/7) www.bmj.com/content/394/...

Most people know that richer people tend to be thinner. Less appreciated is that this divide is largely driven by women. My column: The economics of women's weight 300 free clicks: as.ft.com/r/feaaaacf-8...

Low-educated groups die at higher rates from nearly every cause, yet the share of deaths from each cause is almost the same as in high-educated groups. So the common idea that they die mostly of "avoidable" diseases doesn't quite hold. Denmark and the US both 🇩🇰🇺🇸 Open Access 👇

Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher@mpbergeron.bsky.social · last mo.

New paper with @cosmostrozza.bsky.social in European Journal of Epidemiology: Education attainment influences when we die much more than what we die from link.springer.com/article/10.1...