Sign in

benjaminlinas.bsky.social

@benjaminlinas.bsky.social
85 followers 80 following 57 posts

Physician scientist focused on improving the health of all people. PI Syndemics Lab (www.syndemicslab.org), Medical Director Clinical Research Network, Boston Medical Center (tinyurl.com/yc5wvs6m). Prof. of Medicine and Epi BU

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @benjaminlinas.bsky.social
PennLDI @pennldi.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
📉 Medicaid cuts could strip opioid treatment from 150,000 people, LDI and @bostonu.bsky.social researchers warn. A @nytimes.com editorial says this threatens the 25% drop in overdose deaths since 2023. Progress is fragile — and lives are at risk. Read the editorial: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | America Was Finally Turning a Corner on Opioids. Until Now.
113
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... This is: 1) A heinous human rights violation, 2) Horrible and wasteful policy that ignores 40 years of data, 3)Totally nihlist with no solutions proposed, only punishment, 4) A fascist power grab that provides a mechanism to imprison anyone deemed "unwell."
whitehouse.gov
Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and
120
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
I am having a Trump era nihilist moment of rage, indignation, depression, and fear. I HATE this feeling and I HATE the fact that it is the President of the United States creating it. I do not have the words to articulate this state of mind. Can a professional writer (or therapist) please help me…
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Can we all agree that the Pope smoke was the best marketing concept ever in the history of marketing? How many video cameras are trained on it 24 hours a day? It certainly captures my imagination - and I am Jewish! They could give the chimney a glow-up however…
020
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Pesach has never felt more contemporary and relevant to me than it does today. These are Jewish values, not arresting and deporting people with whom we disagree. Chag semeach to all.
020
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Nothing humble about this brag. I am very proud of this! But it is not really my accomplishment. This represents the commitment and passion of an exceptional group of people at MA community Engagement Alliance of the NIH and Boston Medical Center.
030
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
This is what makes America great - inclusive work and community that benefit from diverse perspectives and lived experience. We ALL have something to learn from each other and we all are a better version of ourselves when we share our stories.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Here is a post with a change of pace from typical these days.... The Syndics lab is hiring! We seek an experienced (2-3 years) master degree level data analyst to help with our policy research. I like to think it is a good job and a supportive workplace. bmc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/BMC/job/Bost...
bmc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Research Data Analyst II, Infectious Diseases Syndemics Lab
Position: Research Data Analyst II, Infectious Diseases Syndemics Lab Location: Boston, MA Schedule: 40 hours per week, Hybrid (On-site Mondays and Thursdays) ABOUT BMC: At Boston Medical Center (BMC)...
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
It continues to shock me how this administration is asking the scientists to self-evaluate and report back to them to facilitate the MAGA agenda. Isn't the clear resistance strategy to simply provide the "good" answers regardless of the work? Why participate in good faith?
3300
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
He also pretended that he had never heard of the shocking idea that NIH would end research that is misaligned with the MAGA political agenda - at literally the same moment that stop orders are going out. He is a pants on fire liar. Or, he is so detached from reality that he is disqualified.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/u... Yes, cutting funds to univ. is fascist hate-based policy that is making America suck all over. AND WTF “Universities.” You are sitting on tens of billions of $ in endowments, but cutting students rather than investing in them? Are you education institutions or not?
nytimes.com
As Trump Goes After Universities, Students Are Now on the Chopping Block
Uncertainty about how much money colleges and universities stand to lose has led some schools to reduce the number of doctoral students, in some cases reneging on offers.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I found this in the office kitchen. No idea who left it there, but I bet it was a team leader, like me, who has a tendency to conflate talking in the meeting with “getting things done” and “leading.” I put this pen right in front of me in my last meeting…
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... We have work to do if we are going to eliminate HCV. Most women NOT screened for HCV, even when providers code their risk factors! Proud of my mentee, Rachel Epstein, and her mentee, Roshni Singh, for this work. FYI, join BU CHART and you could publish in JAMA too!
jamanetwork.com
Hepatitis C Virus Screening in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women After Universal Screening Guidelines
This study examines whether hepatitis C virus screening differs among pregnant and nonpregnant women.
021
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
With Elon Musk playing the role of the superpower henchman - in the legacy of Odd Job and Jaws.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/w... This could literally be the premise for a James Bond film. 007 disrupts the schemes of a corrupt U.S. leader, a Russian oligarch, and their petrostate implementation partner.
nytimes.com
U.S.-Russia Talks in Saudi Arabia Set to Go Beyond Ukraine
The two sides met in Saudi Arabia for their most extensive discussions in years. In addition to Ukraine, business ties are on the table.
120
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
This, this, this, this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Thanks for sharing this! At age 52, I am getting more serious about my guitar playing. I love it, but have assumed that I missed my boat on being any kind of actual musician. Good to know I have some time to cut my first albumn.
120
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
That is the point, right? If we are not aware of an epidemic, then it is not happening... Reality can be very inconvenient when it leads to citizens pushing back on the fascist agenda.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I do not have words for this evil. Several of the most important people in my life suffer in misery without mental health meds. I suffer with them. Have you ever heard you child say they want to be dead? I have. I can never unhear that. First they came for the trans...
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... "assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs" Deep state now coming for our kids' mental health.
whitehouse.gov
Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.
200
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I do not understand which part of the pre-antibiotics, pre-vaccine era is so appealing? Is it the idea that everyone knows at least one person who has lost a child? Maybe it’s the excitement that any summer day could be the day that your kid gets paralytic polio?
180
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/o... “Over the next few years, Americans who hope for something better will have to go toe-to-toe with this administration, at all levels of government…” ❤️ you @gregggonsalves.bsky.social My toes will be steel tipped and filed down.
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Shudder to Imagine Kennedy Running Our Health Agencies.
We have to go toe-to-toe with this administration and resist its attacks on public health.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
If you are a person and are experiencing homelessness, where are you allowed to stand? Any time I see 2 people experiencing homelessness standing together, the next day I see a barricade in that spot. Are we saying that your very existence is a crime if you do not have a house?
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
This is important work. Thank you. I would also comment that it is not simply that the majority believes that measles vaccine saves lives, it is that the majority understands that vaccines DO save lives. I believe the sky is blue - because it IS!!!!
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
It is poignant to read an old grant submission. Like discovering a professional time capsule. I am renewing our BU-CHART T32 and am reading the 2021 submission now. One faculty member tragically passed away. A few trainees are now famous faculty. It is surprisingly emotional work.
010
Reposted by @benjaminlinas.bsky.social
Physicians for a Healthy Democracy @physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 31/01/2025
Where is the fierce, vocal, widespread OPPOSITION from our medical orgs? Where are the AMA, ABIM, AAP, ACS etc?
cnn.com
CDC websites, datasets taken down as agency complies with Trump executive order | CNN
Several US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites and datasets related to HIV, LGBTQ people, youth health behaviors and more have been removed after the agency was directed to comply with...
30498154
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Thank you for this important statement. It is critical that our #HIV research community react, and resist this censorship. It is more than unfortunate. It does more than create gaps. It makes it impossible to effectively do the work of ending the HIV epidemic.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Over the last hour I wrote - and then deleted without posting - two posts about developments I think are important and want to share, but worried could bring harm to colleagues and my community if the wrong people saw them. Are we in the deep state yet? Tell me one way this differs from fascism.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
The last two candies from the office post-Halloween candy drawer. I would generally say these are the evidence-based two “worst” candies. But maybe there is bias introduced by the fact that we are in office and both of these are a little messy and sticky? Please design causal inference evaluation!
020
Reposted by @benjaminlinas.bsky.social
Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Yes. Yes she is.
411512
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Thank you! This 1,000,000%. The ADL response to what was literally a Hitler dupe was the most terrifying thing to me. I feel totally abandoned and betrayed by ADL. “calling in instead of calling out” is important,” but not here and not for ADL! Classic response to a fascist regime.
031
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Or simply does not care about people with addiction. I know, it is likely that he simply does not care. But then who DOES he care about? Addictions affect all of us - across all ages, races, sexes, and economic strata. “Those people” are YOU and those you love.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
And this is not virtue signaling or effort to cancel uncomfortable thoughts. When the nominee for HHS uses the word “addict” instead of “people with substance use disorder,” it means that he is either totally unaware of developments in the field of addictions
110
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
One survival strategy for me is allowing myself small indulgences to make the day even a tiny bit better. Today, it is a full-onMcDonald’s lunch! …and yes, I can see the irony, but F those MFers.
000
Reposted by @benjaminlinas.bsky.social
Jane Liebschutz, MD MPH (she/her) @liebschutz.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
If you want to work with my amazing research team, we have a job opening for a senior research administrator at University of Pittsburgh. Need someone enthusiastic and experienced. cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...
cfopitt.taleo.net
Manager - Clinical Research Operations
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
15517
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
www.reuters.com/business/hea... Inclusive clinical trial enrollment is important to ensure the generalizability of discovery. Without it, our science is crap and we are wasting money. This makes no sense, even if you hate DEIB initiatives.
reuters.com
US FDA drops web pages on improving clinical trial diversity
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has pulled draft guidance from its website requiring companies to test medicines and devices in diverse populations as part of a purge of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at U.S. health agencies.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
In this era of “government efficiency,” how much does it cost to unleash an uncoordinated tirade of half-baked orders in an orgy of hate? Based on the number of meetings I am in and their size, it has to be measured in the tens of billions of dollars. And that is before we cost the real harms.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
I saw this today at my daughter’s school and it resonated with me.
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/m... This piece completely misinterprets the political environment today. An end to “hyper-politics” would be wonderful, but this is fascism- the stage when the opposition self-mutes and the fascist agenda seemingly becomes a law of nature.
nytimes.com
Goodbye, ‘Resistance.’ The Era of Hyperpolitics Is Over.
Where has the anti-Trump energy gone?
000
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
^^^^^^^
000
Reposted by @benjaminlinas.bsky.social
IAS - the International AIDS Society @iasociety.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
The immediate halting of funding to #PEPFAR places millions of lives in jeopardy. The IAS urgently calls on policy makers and stakeholders to restore the funding lifeline to this pivotal programme. Lives depend on it, right now. Read our full statement:
iasociety.org
IAS statement: PEPFAR freeze threatens millions of lives
25 January 2025 (
26550
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
My personal favorite robotics geek - snacks duty today❤️❤️
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
#FTC robotics time! This is one of my favorite high school activities. I am standing in a room of 200 teenagers who are doing what they love because it is fun. It is f’ing awesome to be a geek, especially in a room full of fun-loving, kind, other geeks. #firstrobotics - check it out!
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
This is a great example of one way that the Trump approach is dangerous. I really doubt that Trump wants to cut off food from NIH study participants. But none of the people making these decisions understands the full ramifications of what they do and say. Strap-in. 1,455 days to go.
7243
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Hospital systems must provide clear SOPs to providers about what to do and not do if ICE shows up in clinic. Reports of ICE activity are surfacing already. Leaving providers out on a limb to navigate such a high-stakes, ethically and legally fraught decision is unconscionable.
010
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Arguably, there is nothing sudden in the fact that the billionaire club believes that because they were very successful in one thing, they are expert in all things. Remember Musk and the kids trapped in an underwater cave saga? Oh, He also wants to buy Hasbro - because he’s angry with new D&D rules!
050
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Do you know what leads to accelerated physician burn out and makes America not so great - having to live the trauma and anxiety of immigration agents arriving at your clinic and abducting patients seeking your care. Whatever your view of immigration policy, this is friction and leads to burnout.
160
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
This pain is acute for me - having submitted an $8 million award proposal literally yesterday - and it is just the tip of the iceberg. Note that a POTUS appointee must review and censor every health focused guidance document coming from HHS. That is the true poison, wrapped up in the funding pause.
0234
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
To eliminate HCV, we need to worry less about the specter of undiagnosed cirrhosis and more about treating as many people as possible. Insisting on gold standard disease staging before HCV treatment paradoxically leads to worse outcomes. academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Clinical- and Cost-Effectiveness of Liver Disease Staging in Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Microsimulation Study
Fibrosis-4 index is the most clinically and cost-effective method for staging chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), with superior outcomes compared to transient
011
benjaminlinas.bsky.social @benjaminlinas.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Over 20 years of failed/non-existent housing policy and allowing pharma companies to operate as a sanctioned drug cartel, but let’s blame migrants for our housing crisis. That’s clearly the leadership we need. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/u...
nytimes.com
Migrants and End of Covid Restrictions Fuel Jump in U.S. Homelessness
The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year.
020