Matt Wynia
@mattwynia.bsky.social
ID doc. Dad. Ethics in disasters, which is a lot lately. Professor of medicine and of public health. Posts mine, not my employer’s.
"The only way for the United States to rebuild its global leadership is by recommitting to the values our enemies hoped to make us abandon: truth, accountability, law, decency, and the protection of innocent life. " www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
America Has Forfeited Its Greatest Strength
Osama bin Laden wanted to eradicate faith in American power. Twenty-five years later, his dream is on the verge of coming true.
theatlantic.com
US cancer treatment centers regularly experience shortages of critical chemotherapy agents, with some shortages lasting years, and "nearly all the centers said that state and federal efforts have failed to meaningfully address the problem..." www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20... via @statnews.com
Cancer medicines remain in short supply across the U.S., survey finds
An ongoing shortage of cancer medications continues to force leading cancer centers around the U.S. to seek work-around strategies to treat patients and a
statnews.com
FWIW - I've had COVID and I've had the vaccine. I'd rather get the vaccine again, even though I'm low risk for severe disease. Call me crazy, but I don't enjoy being sick for a week, I'd rather have a sore arm for a day. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
FDA Approves Four Updated COVID Shots Targeting XFG Variant
Approvals come as the CDC's vaccine advisory panel remains in legal limbo
medpagetoday.com
I predict this will be like the Trump-aligned folks who are very sure there is voting fraud, then they get in power, have access to all the data, and find nothing. She will find nothing, and her work will be quietly buried. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/u...
Kennedy Hires Covid Vaccine Skeptic to Look at Dubious Claims of Military Deaths
In a legal deposition, the doctor, Theresa Long, compared immunizing service members against Covid to Nazi doctors experimenting on concentration camp prisoners.
nytimes.com
“Powerful AI models have demonstrated an ability to not only lie to users but also to rewrite their own code to avoid being shut down.” Demonic, maybe. Frightening, definitely. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/vanc...
Vance Called AI Satanic. He Struck a Chord Among Christian Republicans.
Trump administration officials are wrestling with the spiritual consequences of AI as the president embraces it as an economic engine.
wsj.com
Crazy. Billions to be redirected from NIAID infectious disease research to the pentagon, with no details released, and just a 4-day comment period. So much for transparency. www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
Docs Alarmed by NIH Plan to Redirect Medical Research $$ to Pentagon
Few details are available on the proposal, which has a 5-day comment period
medpagetoday.com
Yep, this resonates: “Even if you could do all the work yourself, you need colleagues to brainstorm with, to talk you out of stupid decisions and to cheer you up when things go wrong,” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/o...
Opinion | I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common.
Being a successful self-starter doesn’t mean pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
nytimes.com
“This is a risk for the whole world,” said Col. Serhiy Minaiev, the commander of air defenses in Zaporizhzhia. “In a few years, we will be living in a ‘Terminator’ movie. It’s no joke. Machines are making decisions to strike.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/w...
A Drone Killed Three Ukrainians. It Was Guided Entirely by A.I.
An attack by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone with an Nvidia chip presages a dystopian future of weaponry untethered to humans.
nytimes.com
“You might agree or disagree with any given person’s career choices (the Puritan work ethic has its dark side), but I question the role of the vice president of the United States in that argument. My wife’s career is, quite frankly, none of his business.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/o...
Opinion | JD Vance Has a Mind-Bending Vision for America
According to the vice president, we are wasting our freedom.
nytimes.com
Important article: “Decisions aren’t always made with the best needs of the patients in mind. The bottom line is another reason…” kffhealthnews.org/health-indus...
How Much of a Cancer Drug Is Too Much? Patients, Researchers Challenge FDA-Approved Dosages - KFF Health News
Patients and researchers point to evidence that many cancer drug dosages are excessive, and that reducing the amount and frequency could save billions of dollars and prevent some of the worst side eff...
kffhealthnews.org
“research supported by AHRQ has led to improvements in medication safety; …approaches to enhance teamwork and communication, including safe transitions from hospital to home; and prevention of diagnostic errors…” www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
Opinion | We're Former AHRQ Leaders. Patient Safety Must Never Be Partisan.
The recent wave of research grant cancellations is cause for concern
medpagetoday.com
It's wasteful and stupid to cancel grants midway through, except under very limited circumstances. Also, its flagrantly unethical, since patients enroll in trials on the promise that doing so will produce results. www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
Senators Blast RFK Jr. Over AHRQ Grant Cancellations
'We demand that you immediately rescind these cancellations,' says group of Democrats
medpagetoday.com
"Mosquera saw himself as one of the working-class Americans whom Trump said he would defend. [His sister] remembered [him] practically stumping for Trump. “He would sit on the patio and say, ‘Trump is going to change everything, you’ll see,’” she said." He was right www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/m...
He Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of. He May Never Go Free.
As the Trump administration sends a growing number of immigrants to countries they have no connection to, some find themselves imprisoned with no way out.
nytimes.com
Farewell essay includes this gem: “I would venture to say that soul searching is the rare endeavor for which AI is inherently and categorically unqualified.” www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Farewell to All This | NEJM
After 23 years of leading the Perspective section, and a tenure at the Journal that began when typescripts were edited in pencil and ends with the invasion of AI, Debra Malina says goodbye to readers.
nejm.org
Bottom line: the mRNA flu vaccine is probably a bit better than regular flu vaccine, albeit with a few more sore arms and muscle aches (which, TBH, I expect of a more effective vaccine). I'll be asking for it this year. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
What to Know About the New mRNA Flu Vaccine
This Medical News article discusses the role of the first messenger RNA influenza vaccine to receive US Food and Drug Administration approval.
jamanetwork.com
Love this!🙏 (See, I must be young b/c I didn't use the thumbs up emoji!) 🗿 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
😭 or 😂: Do Your Emojis Make You Look Old?
When it comes to emoji usage, we’re all just following teen girls.
nytimes.com
@idsainfo.bsky.social President: "This is not an argument against accountability. It is an argument for the kind of accountability that prepares us for the next crisis: honest, rigorous, nonpartisan, and focused on systems rather than spectacle." www.statnews.com/2026/08/06/c... via @statnews.com
The U.S. needs a 9/11 Commission-style independent body to investigate Covid response
“A transparent evaluation of Covid would separate what happened from competing political narratives and help us improve for the future,” writes IDSA President Ronald Nahass.
statnews.com
In Japan, their version of the MMR vaccine was removed from the market in 1989, so they moved to individual shots for measles, mumps and rubella. Guess what happened next? www.statnews.com/2026/08/11/h... via @statnews.com
How we know that splitting up the MMR vaccine could be dangerous
It's no mystery. History tells us that President Trump’s executive order calling for the MMR to be split into separate shots could do real harm.
statnews.com
"Here is what keeps me up at night: rather than focusing on fighting the [Ebola] outbreak at the source, significant U.S. time and effort has been spent on domestic measures that do nothing to protect Americans." www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
Opinion | I Thought the CDC Shooting Was Rock Bottom. We're Still Sinking.
The gunman may be gone but the people who fueled him remain in charge
medpagetoday.com
The truly hilarious part of this ongoing conversation is that Fred Brancati completely made up the historical origins of pimping in his classic humorous article, The Art of Pimping, in 1989. And today, respected authors, publishing in JAMA, don't get the joke! www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
Opinion | A Precarious Moment for 'Pimping' in Medicine
In defense of questioning medical students and trainees on the wards
medpagetoday.com
New from NASEM - what did we learn during the pandemic about implementing (or not) crisis standards of care strategies? How can we use our experiences to do better? www.nationalacademies.org/projects/CHP...
Updating Crisis Standards of Care
Few situations in health care are more consequential than determining how limited resources are used to care for patients. Crisis standards of care (CSC) describe the substantial adaptations to usual ...
nationalacademies.org
“I’ve had trouble describing the anguish I’ve experienced. Grief? Shock? Like I’m living through some sort of hallucination? Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won...
theatlantic.com
I started writing this one for myself when I realized how easy it is for me to judge others as being complicit, and to feel self-satisfied thinking I would or could do better and be braver if I were in their shoes… www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Resistance, Strategic Compromise, or Complicity? Physicians’ Choices under Ethical Pressure | NEJM
Faced with pressure to violate professional ethics, how can physicians tell the difference between a strategic compromise and complicity in undermining science or harming patients and public health?
nejm.org
Out today: Resistance, Strategic Compromise, or Complicity? Physicians’ Choices under Ethical Pressure | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Resistance, Strategic Compromise, or Complicity? Physicians’ Choices under Ethical Pressure | NEJM
Faced with pressure to violate professional ethics, how can physicians tell the difference between a strategic compromise and complicity in undermining science or harming patients and public health?
nejm.org
OK, so she passes through LAX, goes to Disney, Universal, the Chinese Theatre, Madame Tussauds and the Santa Monica pier over 4 days (August 11-15). Sick the whole time? If so, incubation period for measles is ~10-14 days, so it's way too early to provide reassurance... nypost.com/2019/08/23/t...
Teen with measles may have exposed visitors at Disneyland, Universal Studios
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A New Zealand teenager who visited Disneyland, Universal Studios, Hollywood tourist hotspots and the beach this month had measles and may have exposed others, public health agen…
nypost.com
Larry Gostin: "If serving the nation during a public health emergency carries the threat of personal legal jeopardy and public vilification, why would highly qualified professionals work in the public sector?" www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/the-...
Opinion | Seeking to Prosecute Fauci Is Disgraceful
The Senate committee's actions are legally flawed and set a dangerous precedent
medpagetoday.com
As Dr Erica Schwartz takes the lead at CDC, let's recall she is inheriting a decimated organization and facing incalculable ongoing headwinds from her boss and her bosses boss, who regularly denigrate the work of public health professionals and clinicians alike. Let's all give her some grace.
When we are bothered by a family's absence from the bedside of a dying patient, Hauser asks, first, “What is the differential diagnosis of why they aren't here?” and then "what is the “differential diagnosis”...of our discomfort with their absence?" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
“Where are they?” The Range and Implications of Clinician Reactions to Absent Families
In “Can I Get a Witness? The Ethical Dimensions of Family Presence in Patient Suffering,” Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby and colleagues ask us to scrutinize “the instinct to blame families” who are absent...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
“It just felt like the obvious next step…”said Dr Moreau. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/s...
This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature
Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.
nytimes.com
How much did it cost big tobacco to buy a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for manufacturers of flavored vapes? A $5m donation and a fancy lunch. www.statnews.com/2026/08/05/s... via @statnews.com
Senate inquiry suggests Trump administration softened kratom and tobacco policies in quid pro quo
The Senate investigation includes RFK Jr. as well as the heads of Reynolds American and kratom company Botanic Tonics, asking for written responses and documentation by Aug. 31.
statnews.com