Miriam Rabkin
@miriam2024.bsky.social
Physician, feminist, North Carolinian, born at 321 ppm. Global Health consultant working on HIV and health systems. Mostly lurking/reposting for now… #ImpeachRFK
Between this and gutting AHRQ, this admin is essentially starving the field of health services research
Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 4h agoNEW: The NIH is quietly restricting funding for research that evaluates how public policy impacts human health. According to internal documents I obtained, the agency no longer considers policymakers "mission relevant" — a massive shift for the biomedical funder. My latest for @nature.com:
At a time when measles outbreaks are already threatening communities across the country, making vaccination more complicated and burdensome risks leaving more children vulnerable. Our response to the vaccine executive order: www.idsociety.org/news--public...
July was the hottest month in the US since records began in 1895 www.cnn.com/2026/08/10/c...
July was the hottest month in the US since records began in 1895 | CNN
July was the hottest month ever recorded in the United States, according to data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
cnn.com
This fucking timeline.
Dan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social · yesterdayBREAKING — Trump is planning to sign an executive order today that calls for spacing out childhood vaccines, breaking the MMR into three separate shots and making other key vaccine changes. @lenasun.bsky.social @rachelroubein.bsky.social
I wrote about a reason not to use generative AI in your writing that I haven't seen anyone talking about. Once I realized this, banning GenAI in our lab's writing became a no-brainer. Feel free to share, I think this is probably useful especially for trainees: www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...
carlsonlab.bio
If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of our future innovation capacity, prosperity, and national security crumbling. Shattering our university research system and international student pipeline will harm all Conservative & Liberal Americans. From the American Institute of Physics—>
Physics PhDs Are Leaving the US at a Record-high Rate
The exodus of non-US citizens has “certainly” been influenced by science funding and visa policy changes under Trump, a new AIP report says.
aip.org
“There are dark days ahead. If we are to fight against those with untold financial wealth, we will need untold intellectual wealth….Reading for pleasure and delight are vital – but alongside that and even more urgently: reading for power”
Philip Ball@philipcball.bsky.social · 3d agoI thought I'd repost this piece quoting the first sentence. Then I thought, no, the first paragraph. No, the first three. And I went on doing that until the final word. www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
DOGE ‘did not provide sufficient information to verify the method used to calculate 96% of Doge-reported savings’ says the Government Accountability Office www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Doge overstated claims to have saved Americans $110bn, watchdog finds
A review of the body formerly charged with reducing government spending has found several issues with its calculations.
bbc.co.uk
Thx to @bmj.com for commissioning me & my inspirational colleague @boghuma.bsky.social to write this piece on Republicans' shameful show trial of Dr Fauci Sure, cursing at him & spouting kooky conspiracies got the MAGA base energized, but it will harm public health 1/5 www.bmj.com/content/394/...
Fauci’s Senate hearing riled up the MAGA base—but at the cost of damaging public health
The vilification of Anthony Fauci by Senate Republicans will erode trust in science, curtail international research collaborations, and deter scientists and health experts from entering public service...
bmj.com
I am so triggered by RJK Jr's comment about ICU's being empty during #COVID. I re-read what I wrote after one of the surges. How do others forget. The trauma was--and is--real.
I'm An ICU Doctor. I’m Haunted By What I’ve Seen During The Recent COVID-19 Surge.
“I can’t stop thinking about the 40-something man who told me, ‘I can’t die like this. I just got engaged and have a 6-month-old baby.’ I encouraged him to be positive, but that didn’t stop him from d...
huffpost.com
Why should you care if childhood vaccination rates are dropping in your community? 1. All kids deserve to be protected from vaccine-preventable disease. 2. There are people who can’t be vaccinated, such as babies who are too young. If everyone around them is vaccinated, they’re protected.
“This is an extraordinarily good way to distract people from the very deliberate destruction of the US public health system”. Great quote by @gavinyamey.bsky.social in a great article by @melodyschreiber.com.
Why making Anthony Fauci the enemy will harm US public health for years
Republicans are trying to scapegoat the infectious disease expert, even as they have gutted healthcare amid outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis and Ebola
theguardian.com
Republicans are trying to scapegoat the infectious disease expert, even as they have gutted healthcare amid outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis and Ebola
Why making Anthony Fauci the enemy will harm US public health for years
theguardian.com
Republican elected officials, particularly Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, are a disgrace. Aside from their repeated attacks on Dr. Fauci, I ask you this: Who in their right mind will ever try to lead an American pandemic response again if the consequence is being harassed for the rest of your life?
Senators vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for pleading the Fifth during tense hearing
Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions more than 100 times during last week’s hearing, angering Republican lawmakers who have targeted him for years.
nbcnews.com
Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service consistently overstated its savings, taking credit for lease cancellations initiated before the group existed, a government watchdog found. DOGE also claimed contracts were terminated that had not been, the report said.
Elon Musk's DOGE made big errors in claims of government savings, GAO finds
The government watchdog found that billions of dollars in DOGE’s public tally could not be verified and that some claimed cuts never happened.
washingtonpost.com
“A broad-based coalition for public health can be built, but if your starting place is kicking back a cup of coffee in the Ohio diner w/ MAHA influencers, rather than with the miners in Belmont County dying of black lung disease while the feds block new silica protection rule…Which side are you on?”
Gregg Gonsalves@gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 5d agoThere are lots of ways to build a coalition to fight for public health. But a new collaborationist politics is sprouting up which excuses too much & pretends that MAHA is something other than it is: a movement built to destroy & built on lies by its founders. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Nothing screams Party of Family Values like making it harder for children to keep their health insurance.
Joan Alker@joanalker1.bsky.social · 6d agoWe’ve update our Medicaid enrollment tracker and the news for children isn’t good. Since January 2025 there has been a shocking drop of 2.3 million kids enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. This means the child uninsured rate is likely going up.
Your occasional reminder that anti - #abortion laws endanger women's lives. https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/publichealth/122421?
State's Abortion Drug Law Heightens Hemorrhage Risk for Pregnant Patients
Misoprostol in Louisiana is now kept locked in a secure room
medpagetoday.com
There are lots of ways to build a coalition to fight for public health. But a new collaborationist politics is sprouting up which excuses too much & pretends that MAHA is something other than it is: a movement built to destroy & built on lies by its founders. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Collaborating With the MAHA Movement Is a Terrible Idea
Some pundits are pushing a strategic alliance with parts of RFK Jr.’s base. Here’s why they’re wrong.
thenation.com
It’s Wednesday so it’s time for @defendpublichealth.bsky.social’s Whopper of the Week! This time the team takes on the truth about RFK Jr.‘s cuts to public health and how this made the Cyclospora outbreak worse.
Whopper of the Week: Yes, RFK Jr., your cuts did weaken the Cyclospora response | Defend Public Health
The United States is struggling to contain the largest Cyclospora outbreak in US history but RFK Jr. claims the outbreak is under control and unrelated to cuts made to the US food safety surveillance ...
defendpublichealth.org
This weeks whopper refutes RFK Jr's claim that the cyclospora outbreak is "under control" and that there have been no damaging cuts to key programs at CDC, FDA and USDA. Dwindling government support for food safety have created a perfect storm and endanger the nation's food safety programs.
Whopper of the Week: Yes, RFK Jr., your cuts did weaken the Cyclospora response | Defend Public Health
The United States is struggling to contain the largest Cyclospora outbreak in US history but RFK Jr. claims the outbreak is under control and unrelated to cuts made to the US food safety surveillance ...
defendpublichealth.org
"It seems that many Trump officials don’t really want to do the hard work that comes with being a government official; they’d rather play one on TV." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
RFK Jr has a new cooking show. Are any Trump officials doing their actual jobs? | Arwa Mahdawi
Shouldn’t the health secretary have his hands full with the cyclosporiasis outbreak, measles or rabbit fever? Not when there are crispy salmon cakes to prepare, writes Arwa Mahdawi
theguardian.com
For perspective, that means infant mortality in Mississippi is about the same as in Iran and Tunisia data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP...
World Bank Open Data
Free and open access to global development data
data.worldbank.org
Mississippi Free Press@mississippifreepress.org · last wk.Mississippi recorded an infant mortality rate of 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024, the highest the state has seen in more than a decade, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
