My redistricting take is that we have an incredibly narrow path back towards something like a constitutional republic, and it runs through Dems fighting pretty dirty in the short term.
I think war is a pretty good metaphor. All options are bad, we can't win and keep our hands completely clean.
Remember, Democrats have repeatedly advanced measures to ban partisan gerrymandering and Republicans have voted against them time after time.
This is the game Republicans wanted to play. OK, then.
No harm in letting airborne dseases rip through lots of young people in enclosed spaces, apparently? Guess meningococcal vax will be voluntary too?
Oh goodness. Will repost with the right author. thanks for the catch!
Title X clinic funding is being shifted from medical contraceptive methods to the rhythm method or Fertility Awareness-Based Methods, according to the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/o...
Went to a workshop this morning & one of the “fireside chat” speakers was former CDC Director Dr Mandy Cohen & it was painful to hear her say it’s going to take “generations” to undo the damage & rebuild CDC—she reflected on the amazing outbreak experts, eg Marburg experts, at CDC when she ran it
It's amazing how much potential public health data is locked behind a paywall. Looking at you Optum and BioFire.
“2/3 of mass shootings in the US are linked to domestic violence, & 40% of the victims in domestic violence-related mass shootings are children….
Research consistently shows that the period of separation & divorce is when the risk of intimate partner homicide is highest.”🧪🛟
“From agency chiefs like Marty Makary & Jay Bhattacharya to higher-ups like RFK Jr & Russell Vought, to low-level insiders like Matthew Memoli & Jon Lorsch at NIH, whose familiarity with the workings of their agency helped to bring it down from within, all of these men need to be held accountable”👏
“A small number of extreme users constantly post fringe opinions, which creates the illusion that these views are far more widely held than they really are.”
This is a critical concept.
The most powerful tool for deception today is “selected speech” — billionaires boosting ideas they like…
Nice coverage of what’s happening at NSF from @thehill.com!
Two points from me:
1. NSF staff are hanging in like a hair in a biscuit and the admin isn’t making it easy. It’s a psyop every day.
2. Jim O’Neill is not the one to run NSF. Full stop.
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
mRNA vaccines continue to show major promise.
In a small Phase 1 trial led by Dr. Balachandran, some patients with pancreatic cancer (one of the deadliest cancers) reached 6-year survival.
This is why sustained investment in science & research matters.
tinyurl.com/f4n4anhk
Some universal truths from your friendly neighborhood hematologist
-every baby should get vitamin K
-no baby needs a chiropractor
-all menstruating and pregnant people should be screened for iron deficiency
-vaccines save lives, prevent cancer, and are a fucking MIRACLE
this is an important report. MAHA political advocacy is ineffectual and largely irrelevant in its biggest election fight.
this is why some of us have been saying MAHA isn't really a political movement with coherent beliefs as much as it is a brand for marketing what everyone's selling.
In case anybody needs to hear this:
We can build a better country and shape a better world.
We have no choice but to win.
Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry, out today.
www.derekberes.com/well-enough....
🧵 New post: "How MAHA Fucked Up My Surgery"
I was catheterized by 2 new graduate nurses (one of whom had never done the procedure on a patient before), using incorrect technique, without adequate pain control, after a delay that doubled my volume past the hospital's own intervention threshold
We often get questions about what happens over time if fewer and fewer people are vaccinated.
Stanford research shows how potential childhood vaccine elimination could affect population health.
Wanna guess? It’s awful. So much avoidable death and disability.
Doesn’t have to go that way. Get 💉!
nearly all of these MAHA influencers are being compensated by tobacco companies, and very few disclose it. in many cases, they are marketing to children. nicotine pouches harm child brain development.
Here is a sneak preview of a workshop that we will run at the APS meeting in Barcelona in May, about how to cope with autocratization. It will be based on our Anti-Autocracy Handbook. I will be putting it on together with Prof Christina Pagel and Vera Kempe:
Federal Judge Vacates Kennedy Declaration, Permanently Blocks Trump's Trans Youth Care Hospital Threats • The judgment overturns the Kennedy Declaration which has been used to force 40 hospitals to drop trans youth care.
I'm excited to share that we've made a collection of historic Supreme Court Records and Briefs available via
@archive.org
I've written a blog post where I go into detail about the importance of this collection.
blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u...
New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally.
It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...
Another way to look at this is that billionaires have joined a war on professional administrative class of public servants precisely because of their proximity to formal mechanisms of accountability. Civil servants are sworn to uphold the constitution, report wrongdoing to officials, follow the rules. They are in most respects more accountable than our politicians to ethical and legal requirements, and more difficult to buy off. This makes government slower and more irritating for sure, and puts those officials at odds with the Musks, Andreessens, and Karps of the world, whose vision and interests benefits from reduced oversight and accountability.
I think the Palantir attacks on bureaucrats here is ideological - like the similarly despised professors, they are a potential source of criticism.
But it is also practical. The administrative class is tasked with imposing accountability, which Palantir - like the Trump administration - dislikes.
My story for @medscape.com: Cleveland Clinic is making it easy to track respiratory viruses in Florida, unlike the state's health department.
#IDsky #publichealth #epidemiology #healthpolicy #vaccines #immunology
Measles outbreak means my immunocompromised son can’t leave the house without extreme safety measures www.statnews.com/2026/04/20/i... via @statnews.com
Trump suggested the testimonies of those in the room should guide regulatory decisions: “To me, that’s the best research of all, frankly.”
According to @statnews.com Joe Rogan got Trump to issue an Executive Order on psychedelics and it was written in less than a week. It's a vibes-are-all-we-need as public health.
FDA fast track approvals, $50M for state programs, right to try access pathway.
www.statnews.com/2026/04/18/p...
So glad to see this RFK Jr whopper debunked, again! #DefendPublicHealth
www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...
Trump and RFK Jr. keep losing on autism. The FDA didn't approve their miracle cure, and a new study from Denmark shows no link between autism and taking Tylenol in pregnancy.
youtube.com/shorts/KUVlV...
