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catherine-lesko.bsky.social

@catherine-lesko.bsky.social
129 followers 96 following 26 posts
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Reposted by @catherine-lesko.bsky.social
Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you're preparing a NIH grant submission, you may have to re-download and re-certify your biosketch if you updated on/prior to Sept 18. And make sure NOT to change the file name.
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Paul Bleicher @pbleic.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Astonishing. RFK Jr. adds 8 members to a 6 member FDA advisory panel. 6 of them were sellers of peptides, and the 7th a compounding pharmacist. In an 8-6 vote with all 8 votes coming from these new panel members, the panel approved 4 peptides against the objections of FDA scientists.
nytimes.com
FDA Panel Supports Lifting Restrictions on Four Peptides (Gift Article)
In an all-day hearing, the agency’s scientists argued against allowing broad access to unproven drugs that the agency had banned three years ago.
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Judy Stone @drjudystone.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
New: How The OMB Rule Will Hurt You And Your Town via @forbes www.forbes.com/sites/judyst... #OMB #FederalGrants #Medicaid #Rural #DEI #disparities #race #DrugAbuse #MentalHealth @DefendPublicHealh
forbes.com
How The OMB Rule Will Hurt You And Your Town
The OMB proposal threatens scientific research and ALL federal funding for states, cities, and nonprofits. It politicizes ALL funding. Call your reps and write an objection.
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Ruth Ann Crystal @drruth.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A Guide to Writing Your Federal Comment on the Proposed Changes to OMB 2 CFR Part 200. drruth.substack.com/p/a-guide-to... Deadline is July 13th This could affect you, your family, and your community!
drruth.substack.com
A Guide to Writing Your Federal Comment on the Proposed Changes to OMB 2 CFR Part 200.
Deadline is July 13th
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Imagine you’re diagnosed with cancer. And then you find out the cancer center is 3 hours away. And it’s the middle of winter. Distance quickly becomes an access issue. The solution? Medicare for All.
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Valorie Nichols @meadowdays.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to figure out what was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going destroy American Science
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Reposted by @catherine-lesko.bsky.social
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I heard from several sources yesterday that NIH is planning to release a Request for Information (RFI) that apparently will include this: Scores and percentiles for NIH grant applications will not be shared with applicants although they will be provided to NIH program officers and staff. 1/3
static.klipy.com
Huh Kermit
ALT: Huh Kermit
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
"The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth acknowledged on Monday that he had included numerous made-up or misattributed quotes concocted by A.I." 🫠🫠🫠
nytimes.com
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.
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Forbes @forbes.com · 16/05/2026
The surge in cases marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the Congo since 1976.
forbes.com
Ebola Outbreak Kills At Least 80 In Congo
The surge in cases marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the Congo since 1976.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
@maxkozlov.bsky.social covered the staffing shortages at NIH. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 1/3
nature.com
NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year
Some units at the US funding giant are so understaffed, they are focusing on mandated grant renewals rather than new awards.
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
“The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.” hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
hsph.harvard.edu
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
The number of NIH competitive awards is down 50% from 2025, and down ~70% from prior years. Even if they catch up by the end of the year, only wealthy institutions can bridge these huge funding gaps.They're killing science-and violating the constitution-by weaponizing the bureaucracy
figure showing the trends I detail in the tweet text
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
As a recipient of federal grants from #NIH (for now! 😭) that funds research in my lab, I'd like to sincerely thank American taxpayers on #TaxDay for investing in scientific research that lays the foundation for medical and technological innovation in this country and keeps us ALL safe and healthy
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Shematologist, MD @shematologist.medsky.social · 18/01/2026
The rage you are feeling comes from the same place inside your heart as the love.
This is why you refuse to accept a world where cruelty reigns, and the fire consumes all.
You have known hope and joy and kindness like you have known water.
And justice is a river that demands you do not give up on it. 

Nikita Gill
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Half the battle with this guy is just reiterating government can and already does good things that are so ubiquitous they’ve become invisible. He’s able to remind you in a way that you understand that good government can exist outside of a 24/7 vengeance operation, and in NYC already does.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today. The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly. We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 30/08/2025
History shows us the opposite: Undermining and censoring scientists and experts is a central feature of authoritarianism.
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Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 29/08/2025
Them: “Cities are all rotting hellscapes!” Cities:
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Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC says that RFKJr said he believes that Avian flu should be allowed to "burn through" the chickens and then children and others, so we can propagate a "stronger species". RFKJr believes in eugenics. RFKJr needs to resign or be fired.
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Mark Zaid, Esq @markzaidesq.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Abbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
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Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), top Dem on the Senate health committee, on this evening's chaos at CDC: “We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground—he must be fired."
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Dr. Demetre, in his resignation from the CDC, said this: “I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people”. It is an outrage that RFK Jr. remains as head of HHS.
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catherine-lesko.bsky.social @catherine-lesko.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
🤞
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Have you benefited from a medical treatment or know someone who has? This one man wants to shut it all down. It sounds nonsensical and mad. And it is. But Russell Vought is head of the OMB, wants to and can do it. Call your members of Congress. Get rid of Vought, not medical research.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 30/07/2025
Outrageous. The White House is sidestepping Congress and halting up to $15 billion in NIH research funding, which would have gone to study diabetes, cancer & more. The order was issued through a four-sentence email sent to NIH directors from Office of Management & Budget Director Russell Vought.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Russell Vought has unilaterally decided today that he simply won’t allow anyone outside of NIH to receive research funding. $15 billion in NIH funding is now locked down. If not reversed, it will also take down many Universities in the United States. Forget new cancer treatments or vaccines.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Reporter: How do you feel about the Columbia settlement? Dominique: Let me tell you about public universities in Republican-led states... I appreciate that I get the kicker on a lot of these stories because I'm the most grim www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
Screenshot of article that reads: When looking beyond just Harvard and Columbia, one thing becomes clear, said Dominique Baker, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, the president is inciting an “outright attack” on higher education, and he has no plans of slowing down.

From the political ousting of University of Virginia president James Ryan to the legislative termination of countless academic programs in Indiana with little to no faculty input, Baker identified one defining thread: curtailing the power of democratic institutions.

“We are in a very dangerous time, both for U.S. higher education, but more importantly for our country,” she explained. “These types of outright attacks on colleges and universities are typically the moves of autocrats and dictators, often seen as signs of authoritarian takeovers.”

She later added, “if one wanted to overthrow our constitutional republic, these are the types of moves you would make.”
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catherine-lesko.bsky.social @catherine-lesko.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Omg. I’m shocked they finally admitted/acknowledged this impoundment by default but I’m not going to be so petty that i won’t feel grateful/relieved. It’s so nice to just not be gaslit (briefly).
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
No, a LOT of them think that. Science may be one of the most social forms of knowledge production we have. Arguably it’s at least as social as creative writing. Actual scientists will tell you this. Yet, millions of people think they can do science alone with an LLM.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 21/07/2025
Analysts report that cutting the NIH budget by 10% would prevent 30 additional new medications from coming to market in the next three decades. Trump is proposing a 40% cut to the NIH budget. We could potentially lose hundreds of life-saving treatments.
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Considerable coverage of the retaliation against the EPA staffers who signed the Declaration of Dissent yesterday. www.eenews.net/articles/epa...
eenews.net
EPA puts 139 employees on leave who criticized administration
The staff were put on administrative leave after signing a “declaration of dissent.”
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
After ruling the NIH grant cuts were illegal yesterday, Judge Young, a Reagan appointee on the bench since 1985, ended the hearing with a blistering 15-minute speech. I've cleaned up my notes — here are his remarks in full. 🧵
nature.com
Judge rules against NIH grant cuts — and calls them discriminatory
The decision means that the US biomedical agency has to restore funding to hundreds of research projects, but the government will likely appeal.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
I listened to the hearing this morning in the two cases (now linked) about NIH grant terminations. These cases are before Judge William Young, a very accomplished judge appointed by Ronald Reagan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William... 1/n
en.wikipedia.org
William G. Young - Wikipedia
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Sabina Vohra-Miller @sabivm.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
I am so effing mad. It's just lies upon lies from these grifting scoundrels. 1/4

IN TODAY'S BULLSHIT
RFK Jr LIED about the conflicts of interests of the
CDC ACIP panel

LEARN THE TRUTH
Swipe Left →
unambiguous
SCIENCE
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Bryan D. James, PhD @bryandjames.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
#SER2025 attendees you will see these slides advertising our new open access journal AJE Advances: Research in Epidemiology @ajeadvances.bsky.social As an editor, I’m happy to answer questions about why you should publish with us. Come find me!
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
🚨 NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya is testifying before the US Senate Appropriations Committee today. The hearing is bound to be spicy, after more than 300 agency staff wrote him a letter decrying his leadership and actions as director. 🔥 I'll be live-posting the hearing, so follow along here.
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 09/06/2025
RFK Jr.‘s extreme anti-vax views — and his related conflicts of interest — were a huge problem during his confirmation process. So he promised not to change the vaccine advisory panel. Today, he fired every single expert on that panel. It's a public health disaster.
apnews.com
RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
If you weren't angry enough already, here are the rates of non-competitive renewals through May. 4008 Non-competitive renewals were due to be funded in May. The total funded was 99! Some is due to terminations, but most is due to slow grant making due to DOGE review and other impediments. 1/2
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Benjamin Mazer @mazer.us · 09/06/2025
In test of NIH director’s support of dissent, NIH staff sign Bethesda Declaration urging reversal of grant cuts and freezes www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH staff and biomedical community sound alarm about agency politicization, funding slowdown
In test of NIH director’s support of dissent, NIH staff sign Bethesda Declaration urging reversal of grant cuts and freezes
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 09/06/2025
"We are speaking on behalf of hundreds of NIH staff who are standing up together to say: WE DISSENT. I am so scared about doing this but I am trying to be brave for my kids because it's only gonna get harder to speak up." Thank you to Dr. Jenna Norton and NIH scientists for your courage!
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/06/2025
This is your health on MAGA.
nytimes.com
Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article)
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.
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E. Rosalie @erosalie.infoepi.com · 31/05/2025
🧵New from me: MAHA Report Appears to Plagiarize a 2023 Document Published During RFK Jr.’s Tenure at CHD infoepi.substack.com/p/maha-plag...
infoepi.substack.com
MAHA Report Appears to Plagiarize a 2023 Document Published During RFK Jr.’s Tenure at CHD
The report maintains a veneer of inquiry, but its structure and many of its claims closely mirror those of a document produced under RFK Jr.'s leadership at another organization.
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catherine-lesko.bsky.social @catherine-lesko.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
This is why i tell my students not to use AI to write their papers.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 27/05/2025
Today RFK and co. removed the COVID vaccine from the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for children and pregnant people. This is junk science. COVID puts children and pregnant people at higher risk for ER visits and hospitalizations, and Long COVID can cause chronic health issues for anyone.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
+ ignores substantial evidence regarding the benefits of vaccination for older adults & immunocompromised people who live in multi-generational households, &/or have family members who work in the service industry or attend school
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