Life is so short and so precious.

Sophia Stuart is also working with Professor Hoopsick and a mentor from CUPHD on a study examining nitrous oxide misuse among young adults.

Emily Depke and Gurneer Sidhu are working with Professor Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES and the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) on a study examining how to best support healthcare worker well-being.

🎉🎊Join us in celebrating our inaugural cohort of Illinois-Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research (I-SUMMER) scholars🎉🎊 IHSI's new summer research experience focuses on substance use and mental health comorbidities. Learn more: healthinstitute.illinois.edu/news-events/...

If you’re a healthcare provider or community health worker and you’ve worked with women who use drugs, consider participating in my PhD student’s dissertation research to understand more about the barriers and opportunities for working together: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Social Media Portrayals of Nitrous Oxide Normalize Use and Encourage Youth Exposure (just accepted in @jsadjournal.bsky.social) by R. Andrew Yockey, Bria Singleton, et al. @yockeyandrew.bsky.social @rachelhoopsick.bsky.social @news.illinois.edu @olemiss.bsky.social www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Social Media Portrayals of Nitrous Oxide Normalize Use and Encourage Youth Exposure: Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs: Vol 0, No ja

Background: Recreational nitrous oxide use is an emerging public health concern in the U.S., particularly among adolescents and young adults. Given its status as legal marketable product and varying l...

jsad.com

I never thought Leana Wen would spend an entire interview talking about my research, but here we are: www.cnn.com/2026/05/15/h...

The dangerous teen drug trend that parents may not recognize | CNN

CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen explains why some teenagers are turning to inhalant use and why this trend can be dangerous.

cnn.com

Two new studies find widespread social media exposure to inhalants is impacting young teens, especially girls. youtu.be/sOW_d-jreJM #InhalantAbuse #NitrousOxide #LaughingGas #TeenDrugUse #SubstanceAbuse #Huffing

Social Media Videos, Easy Access Raise Risk of Teen Inhalant Use

YouTube video by HealthDay

youtu.be

Social media promotes use of, access to nitrous oxide inhalants. Adolescents are at risk. New research from @rachelhoopsick.bsky.social reported in @healthday.bsky.social and @usnews.com

"Reducing restrictions [on marijuana, psychedelics] is not enough... If you pull back prohibition without building strong consumer protections and a real public health framework, you simply trade one set of harms for another," says Rachel Hoopsick. go.illinois.edu/hoopsickEV @news.illinois.edu

Sharing Principles of Epidemiology: A Primer, an open-access textbook I had the opportunity to co-author with an amazing group of colleagues. We developed this book to make introductory epidemiologic information more accessible, understandable, and useful for (undergrad) students and professionals.

The definition of “veteran” quietly determines who gets care and who doesn’t. With the release of the VA’s latest suicide prevention report, I’m sharing a new op-ed in Stars and Stripes, co-authored with Jeni Hunniecutt as a part of The OpEd Project:

The VA’s definition of ‘veteran’ Is out of step with modern military service

Never deploying, or never serving on federal active duty, does not mean never being affected by military service.

stripes.com

The real work of equity is not expanding opportunity within unchanged systems but interrogating the systems themselves — especially when those systems quietly reward conformity.

The Other Side of Opportunity: What Immigrants Contribute to US Institutions | Common Dreams

​We often talk about immigrants as beneficiaries of American opportunity. But in higher education, healthcare, research and beyond, immigrants are also architects of institutional improvement.

commondreams.org

A great summary of our recent work with reservists on PTSD and alcohol: www.psypost.org/hyperarousal...

Hyperarousal symptoms drive alcohol problems in male soldiers, new research suggest

A new longitudinal analysis suggests that specific PTSD symptoms, particularly hyperarousal, drive hazardous drinking in military reservists. The findings indicate that male soldiers are uniquely at r...

psypost.org

This is shameful. The man spent years working to undermine faith in public health, amplified by right-wing think tanks backed by big money to oppose anything big business doesn’t like. His contribution to our discourse was a declaration that we should let people get mass infected for herd immunity.

New York Times Opinion@nytopinion.nytimes.com · 6mo ago

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of N.I.H., was called a “fringe epidemiologist” during the Covid era. On this episode of “Interesting Times,” he tells Ross Douthat that the elites broke the public’s trust, and now it’s up to outsiders to restore it.

The nursing home industry donated $4.8m to MAGA, Inc. Soon after, HHS withdrew a proposal to set standards on nurse-to-patient ratios. By the data, abandoning standards means more nurses and more nursing home residents will suffer. And god forbid another pandemic... www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

After Donations, Trump Administration Revoked Rule Requiring More Nursing Home Staff

nytimes.com

Our latest paper, published in @acerjournal.bsky.social, suggests that specific PTSD symptom clusters, rather than overall PTSD severity, may influence hazardous drinking among military reservists, with greater risk observed among male soldiers experiencing hyperarousal features of PTSD.

Longitudinal associations between PTSD symptom clusters and domains of hazardous drinking among a cohort of United States Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers

Among Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers, PTSD symptom clusters, particularly hyperarousal, avoidance, and negative cognitions and mood, were linked to hazardous drinking over time. Findings re...

dx.doi.org

Sharing this piece I wrote on “Dry January” and stigma published in @medpagetoday.com as a part of my fellowship with The OpEd Project: www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Opinion | 'Dry January' Offers a Shot of Stigma

It's meant to celebrate abstinence, but it also adds to substance use judgement

medpagetoday.com

Our latest study shows that methamphetamine-related mortality has intensified nationally, with pronounced geographic variation in timing and magnitude. Recent indications of stabilization in some divisions have occurred at historically high levels. journals.lww.com/journaladdic...

And as with all wars, the war on drugs sustains itself through its failures. Every overdose, every new cartel, every surge in trafficking is treated not as evidence of policy collapse but as justification for more of the same. thehill.com/opinion/crim...

‘Tis the season to resurrect the epicookies from #EpiTwitter circa 2021

One of my team’s newest articles highlighting suicidal behaviors among LGB+ youth. Check it out! Collaborating with the excellent @rachelhoopsick.bsky.social is always a plus! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This is not good news if you believe we need a steady supply of public health experts in occupational health and safety. aspph.org/department-o...

Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition

Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.

aspph.org

The real threat to the "dignity of work" isn’t entitlement benefits like Medicaid — it’s the policy failings that continue to leave jobs unsafe, wages flat, and healthcare out of reach. theopinionpages.com/2025/11/real...

Real Threat to Dignity of Work?  Not Medicaid, It’s Policy | The Opinion Pages

As the federal government is poised to end the longest shutdown in history, it is noteworthy that Rep. Erin Houcin (R-Ind.) recently claimed that reinstating Medicaid work requirements would restore t...

theopinionpages.com

The new, 7th edition of 'A Dictionary of Epidemiology' will be published in April 2026. As previous editions, it is sponsored by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA), and published in New York by Oxford University Press. The book will be published online on www.oxfordreference.com.

The deepest wounds don’t always come from combat. Sharing this piece I wrote in @thefulcrum-us.bsky.social on the National Guard as a fellow of The OpEd Project and the @uofilsystem.bsky.social: thefulcrum.us/governance-l...

Guarding What? The Moral Cost of Militarizing Our Cities

A federal judge recently blocked plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. But the battle over militarizing American streets is far from over. On Monday, a federal appeals court lifted a temporar...

thefulcrum.us

No surprises here - removed or altered data sets include health data, and other data related to climate change, air pollution, etc., which enable threats to health and wellbeing and health inequities to be tracked and intervened upon.

A Shortlist of Federal Data the Trump Administration Has Tampered With or Destroyed

The scale and scope of federal data and statistics that have been...

talkingpointsmemo.com

The CDC was destroyed last night. Our federal public health infrastructure will no longer exist. It has major & long-lasting repercussions that will impact the health of everyday people in the U.S. &beyond💔 Trump administration lays off thousands of federal workers during government shutdown - CNN

I'd love to hear from anyone who has been at agencies protecting public health this year (eg CDC, HHS, HRSA, HUD, NIH, OSHA). Privacy respected. Signal is AmyMaxmen.25 🧵Here's a thread of some of my stories this year on the impact of the Trump administration on America's public health.

Amy Maxmen, PhD@amymaxmen.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hi! I'm a public health reporter moving from THERE to here. Give me a follow if you're interested in my writing & take: Public health isn't only about outbreaks & vaccines. It's about making society healthier outside of clinics. It requires systemic change, equity, a belief in the common good.

No pizza party or company swag is going to fix the reality of what it’s like to be a healthcare worker in the US. Our pilot data suggest that moral injury is prevalent among HCWs and may affect suicidal thoughts and behaviors doi.org/10.1080/1555...