Trash panda family night on my front porch! Please party responsibly. 🤣🦝

No, this is not AI. It’s an actual CDC website. Our nation’s health is in serious jeopardy. www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...

My front porch here in Austin, TX, seems like it’s on an animal trail. Here are some grey foxes (which can also climb trees!). In addition to the foxes we also have trash pandas by the dozens.

For folks interested in the impact of the Trump administration on our nation’s scientific enterprise. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains

A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.

nature.com

I am experiencing severe pain (9 level) because of pinched nerves in the spine. I was part of a team studying pain, but now I’m my own lab rat with my prior self as the control. All I can say is I’m impaired physically and cognitively. I may have enough data points to publish a few JAMA articles.

@bsky.app At least one news outlet is reporting the slowdown in grant funding at NIH. What better way to attack science than starve its essential funding. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets

The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

nature.com

Congress has appropriated funds for the NIH budget, but Russell Vought, the head of OMB and co-Author of Project 2025 is only releasing funds to pay NIH staff. The money to fund new grants and continuing studies is not being released.

The folks who still work at CDC, NIH and FDA are heroes. Everyday, they confront the madness of the administration while struggling to protect our nation’s health, quality science, and people’s lives. Someday, our nation will realize that we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

The administration’s war on children won’t be a surprise to a lot of folks but here is a nice summary of the major attacks children are experiencing.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Trump Administration, including RFK Jr., claim they care about children’s health, but their actions reveal quite the opposite. Wrote this with my friend @jimalwine.bsky.social, a virologist.

Some days-maybe most days-it feels like academia and science are being asphyxiated.

I think it’s time to re-read Orwell’s 1984. Best to be prepared for the 2nd year of the Trump regime.

There is increasing interest in whether vaccines have broader benefits for aging and health beyond their specific disease infection. Here's a recent study linking the shingles vaccine with biological aging, pointing to systemic benefits of a vaccine. academic.oup.com/biomedgeront...

Association between shingles vaccination and slower biological aging: Evidence from a U.S. population-based cohort study

Abstract. There is growing interest in whether adult vaccines such as shingles vaccine may slow biological aging beyond preventing acute infections. Using

academic.oup.com

I just wrote my first external tenure review letter for 2026. I don’t want any of my academic colleagues to assume that I will be equally available (or quick) in the months ahead. Just saying.

As an IU alum (PhD 1980), I’m happily stunned by the Rose Bowl halftime score. I have too much respect for Bama to assume they won’t come back. But this is a once in a lifetime event. The program with almost the worst historical record up on a legendary successful program. I’ll relish this moment.

I’m a demographer who studies US mortality. Looks like 2026 is shaping up to be a banner year, with vaccination rates crumbling and people foregoing health insurance because of rising costs. Why isn’t health an American value?

Today was Pearl Harbor Day. Not a peep in the NYTs or Washington Post. It was a day that changed our country and the world. But now it’s invisible since history has become passe.

I’m a Boomer who has watched the US come apart at the seams (eg, Vietnam), then lace itself together, only to come apart at the seams!(Watergate)…and it still continues. This dynamic is crazy making both domestically and internationally. But at least I have perspective LOL.

My research team has published research showing that malnutrition and hunger in childhood are long-term risk factors for dementia decades later in life. Makes me think about the long-term health consequences of withholding SNAP benefits from families.

I asked one set of kids who came to our door on Halloween if theyd already been at my house. They said yes they had…but their mom said it was OK to swing by a second time. Hmmm…some parents need parenting lessons.

I never realized that Trump owned cattle ranches and soy bean farms in Argentina. Who would have guessed?

I gave a keynote at a conference & have been relaxing at the hotel bar. I struck up a conversation with a guy next to me. He asked what I do for a living and I hesitated. I’m a biodemographer and social epidemiologist. This led to an amazing conversation about our nation’s health.

My lab group met today. Grad students and postdocs engaged in cutting edge research on health and aging topics. Every meeting it seems that they have a new article accepted or fascinating results. They’re provocative and fun! The next generation in this area of science. I love it!

I continue to be stunned at how poor health literacy is in the US. You’d think folks would have learned something during the worst of the pandemic. It almost seems the opposite. Perhaps the COVID “worm” ate people’s brains.

Today in my mortality grad seminar, we focused on what transpired in the US & comparisons with high income countries.The students were shocked by how devastating COVID was to US life expectancy compare to Europe. Then we discussed the Great Barringron Declaration. They were stunned.

New evidence showing that educational attainment has a dose-response association with dementia risk throughout the entire distribution of education. 🧪 read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

If you think the far rights’ proposals to raise US birth rates will work, think again. www.newsweek.com/low-birth-ra...

Low Birth Rates Are Here To Stay | Opinion

Individuals and families need to be supported by a strong social safety net that includes paid leave and a robust child care infrastructure. There are no quick fixes.

newsweek.com

I was thinking about 9/11 today as I was traipsing around airports. I was surprised by the lack of government attention and the media. 9/11 was a turning point in our history and had wide consequences, e.g., the War on Terror, the establishment of Homeland Security and wars in the Middle East. 1/2

#IAPHS I’m at a population health science conference in Pittsburgh. Researchers from many disciplines have gathered to talk about ways of improving health, bringing in “cells to society” perspectives. So wonderful at a time when HHS has declared war on the health sciences. Science will triumph.

I’m traveling for biz. Staying at the Westin in Pittsburgh. I’m in the bar and just watched the bartender help out a street person fill their thermos with ice water. I love this place even more. Kindness. It still exists.

My head spins when I see vaccine resistance—especially for children. Children’s lives in today’s world are at serious risk because of vaccine resistance. How do I know?Because of a real life counterfactual. Yeah, science