Remember when RFK Jr. unilaterally decided that COVID19 vaccines should no longer be recommended during pregnancy? Well, COVID19 increases the risk of preeclampsia. And it turns out that getting boosted, either before or during pregnancy, significantly reduces the risk of preeclampsia.

COVID-19 vaccination status during pregnancy and preeclampsia risk: the pandemic-era cohort of the INTERCOVID consortium

COVID-19 vaccination with a booster reduces the odds of PE by 30% approaching 60% reduction among women with pre-existing morbidities.

thelancet.com

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

The great @sulliview.bsky.social on the news media: “It’s as if a five-alarm fire is consuming a city and the mainstream outlets are saying they might smell something burning — but perhaps it’s just a bonfire on the beach. Some people in a bar think so.” open.substack.com/pub/margaret...

With democracy in free fall, the media must (finally) wake up

Plus: a piece of heartening news amid the barrage of horrors

open.substack.com

Truly damning investigative reporting in @rollingstone.com on how Danish researchers long favored by RFK.Jr for their studies which cast doubt on vaccines,secured a no bid grant to fund the unethical trial in Guinea Bissau. This read is worth your time. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

HHS Gave a $1.6 Million Grant to a Controversial Vaccine Study. These Emails Show How That Happened

Two Danish researchers faced accusations of “questionable research practices” as RFK Jr.’s top appointees made their study a “funding priority.”

rollingstone.com

A Republican-led congressional subcommittee is leading a new investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Do their claims add up? n.pr/4b4dXIA

House Republicans are investigating Jan. 6. NPR fact-checked the first hearing

A Republican-led congressional subcommittee is leading a new investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Do their claims add up?

n.pr

There is a crisis of impunity. The Musk/Grok stuff is just one f many examples of people who are counting on there never being any consequences. And it all makes me just incandescently mad.

Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This

If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists.

theatlantic.com

Seventy years ago, Jonas Salk and his team worked in a lab between a morgue and a darkroom to develop the world’s first successful polio vaccine. A filmmaker who made a documentary on Salk’s work explains why forgetting life before vaccines has real consequences: buff.ly/VYpqOy4 #vaccineswork

The world risks forgetting one of humanity’s greatest triumphs as polio nears global eradication − 70 years after Jonas Salk developed the vaccine in a Pittsburgh lab

Polio may finally be defeated in the next 5 years. Will the world recognize what an extraordinary achievement that is?

theconversation.com

Facebook knows that it is committing fraud and does not care. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.

reuters.com

microsoft word, this feels personal...

‘Reading Rainbow’ is being revived on YouTube with new host Mychal Threets taking over from LeVar Burton. A new generation of public-media defenders is about to rise up.

Reading Rainbow Is Back for a Reread

‘Reading Rainbow’ is being revived on YouTube with new host Mychal Threets taking over from LeVar Burton. A new generation of public-media defenders is about to rise up.

vulture.com

Are you with us in the battle against misinformation? If so, we’d appreciate your support. Just this week, we’ve explained the importance and safety of vaccines… 🧵 buff.ly/cRsOxNT 🩺 🧪 #VaccinesWork

Hepatitis B shot for newborns has nearly eliminated childhood infections with this virus in the US

Before universal vaccination for hepatitis B began in 1991, 18,000 children contracted the virus by age 10 each year, and most of them developed chronic illness and liver damage. Vaccination reduced…

theconversation.com

AP gets it right

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 11mo ago

BREAKING: President Trump promotes unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism without new evidence.

The debate around what is or isn’t “cancel culture” really just obscures a simple truth that it’s BAD to be massively racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic and it’s GOOD to speak out against injustice. Some things are good and some things are bad and it’s okay to say which you think are which.

Oof. The power of that kicker. 🥺 bsky.app/profile/petr...

Alexandra Petri@petridishes.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Florida Decided There Were Too Many Children

We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline. Read Julie Gerstein and Margaret Sullivan. www.cjr.org/feature/thir...

Thirteen Journalists on How They Are Rethinking Ethics

We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline.

cjr.org

‘Staying engaged is better than tuning out altogether. But many are really not using their time or energy in a way that could create change or make a difference.’ @sulliview.bsky.social offers ways to to move beyond hobbyism and into citizen action. margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/dont-be-a-...

Don't be a 'political hobbyist.' Here's how to harness your power.

Plus, three eye-rolling media goofs (or actual travesties) of the week

margaretsullivan.substack.com

“We are watching the collapse of the checks and balances in the Constitution by Congress and by the Supreme Court that were central to holding a president’s abuse of office and abuse of power and abuse of civil liberties to account…” bsky.app/profile/verm...

Garrett M. Graff@vermontgmg.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I had the chance to talk with @scottdetrow.bsky.social for “All Things Considered” about my belief that an important line was crossed in America this month: www.npr.org/2025/08/30/n...

“A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group.” This is on Trump. Gift link here: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding

nytimes.com

American Academy of Pediatrics not holding back: “It differs from recent recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, which was overhauled this year & replaced with individuals who have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation.” www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/h...

In break with current CDC recommendations, leading pediatrics group recommends Covid-19 shots for young children | CNN

The American Academy of Pediatrics released its updated recommendations for vaccines on Tuesday, including Covid-19 shots for infants and young children – a break from the current US for Centers for D...

cnn.com

“Local residents said a more comprehensive strategy to combat crime in the city would involve bigger investments in recreation centers, arts and youth job programs. But that will be difficult after Republicans in Congress forced a $1 billion hole in the district’s budget.” bsky.app/profile/jame...

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 12mo ago

look what happens when you actually speak to the people living in these neighborhoods instead of ventriloquizing them to make an ideological point: you get a good story www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/u...

I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy

Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines

As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the public’s trust.

washingtonpost.com

“… Mr. Trump’s approach is more of a pyramid scheme than a plan. Cuts to research will starve innovation. Tariffs are likely to drive trade to China. Tax cuts will almost certainly widen inequality. Mass deportations predictably divide communities ...” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

Opinion | We’re Trapped in Trump’s Reality. This Is How We Escape It.

nytimes.com

The worst single-day crime spree in modern Washington history, of course, took place on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump issued no order to the National Guard to intervene -- Mike Pence did -- and later pardoned the perpetrators.

Peter Baker@peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Citing a nonexistent crime crisis, Trump plans to take over the Washington DC police and put troops in the streets of the nation's capital. Contrary to his claims, violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low. @katierogersnyt.bsky.social Campbell Robertson Chris Cameron www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

You know how people called women hysterical for predicting the right wing would take down Roe v. Wade (which they've done) and then attack access to birth control (which they're doing)? Hear me when I say that women's very right to vote is next. www.npr.org/2025/08/09/n...

RFK Jr. backs down all the time when he gets push back, so if anyone wants to call, here's the HHS number 1-877-696-6775. I'd also call your senators/reps as well.

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · last yr.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he will cancel $500 million in vaccine development projects.

Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social · last yr.

Release from HHS: HHS will wind down its development of the mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

"One of the reasons the epidemic of violence against women is so unacknowledged is because cases like these are talked about individually, and often treated as though they are shocking aberrations rather than part of a pervasive pattern that operates at all levels of society."

The problem is far bigger than Jeffrey Epstein | Rebecca Solnit

Treating the scandal as an aberration misunderstands the global epidemic of violence against women

theguardian.com

In what (other) world would such unhinged behavior ever be acceptable from a president? bsky.app/profile/nyma...

New York Magazine@nymag.com · last yr.

The Obama arrest video is Trump’s most unhinged Epstein diversion. Here’s a brief guide to how Trump’s deranged Truth Social posts, including an AI video calling for Obama’s arrest, helped him flip the Epstein scandal back on his enemies.

They keep demolishing anything that could inform/educate the populace. I wonder why?

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · last yr.

The Senate voted early Thursday to strip $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a severe blow to 1,500 local public stations, as well as PBS and NPR