Reposted by Cristina Costales
Tell the City of Arcadia:
Don't grant the permit.
Redesign the course. Save the Oaks!
To send a rapid email go to:
bit.ly/save-arcadia-oaks
Cristina Costales
@ccpathmd.bsky.social
1.3K followers 980 following 41 posts
Assistant Director Clinical Microbiology/Virology for kiddos @ CHLA🦋 AP/CP🔬trained/ 💜 ID Pathology
![Silence = Death Is Real Now More Than Ever, but Words Aren’t Enough—Action Is Needed!
Joseph Cherabie
Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaf243, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaf243
Published: 03 July 2025
TO THE EDITOR—Thanks to Meyerowitz and Schwartz [1] for their viewpoint article, which highlights all the jarring changes that President Trump and his administration have pushed through since they started dismantling elements of the US Department of Health and Human Services. I agree with the authors that we must “urgently find our voices and gather our strength to defend” the principles we believe in as a field. But there is one major point that the authors neglected to mention: We will get nowhere if our advocacy fails to rise above publishing strongly worded statements in scientific journals. By responding only in this way, we have become an echo chamber of our own creation. To change the hearts and minds of the populace, we need to replace beautiful speeches with meaningful action. That means learning from the group that inspired this article's title―ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power―and showing the true impact of these budget cuts to our field: People will die.
So here is what you can do:
1. Determine your risk tolerance and act accordingly. It's important to consider what “fighting back” means for you as an individual. If you have privilege in your position, use it to stand up for those who lack stable funding, such as early career folks and post docs. Speak to local news outlets, local governments, state governments, governors, affinity groups, and congress. Organize advocacy calling hours. Join a local protest. Support local organizations. And if you truly don't have the time or bandwidth to spare, donate money to legal organizations that are fighting for our patients and jobs in court. There are so many ways to help, but do something beyond simply saying that you stand for something.
2. Community disruption as advocacy. We must disrupt busine…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ifpfb7ltxahkp3g66s57jdqn/bafkreiezbc3vl5v3twznyyb3xlmgprhuisc3uoy7gqiaoycfcn7bnbtyny)
![When the Government Attacks Free Expression, the Pen is a Mighty Sword Free
Eric A Meyerowitz , Ilan S Schwartz
Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaf244, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaf244
Published: 03 July 2025
TO THE EDITOR—We wholeheartedly agree with Cherabie [1] that in these perilous times, words are not enough: infectious diseases professionals must be prepared to organize and act to defend science, patients, and public health. We hoped that our call to resistance [2] would spur urgent discourse in the face of the Trump administration's draconian attacks on principles, institutions, and people that we hold dear, and we are grateful to Cherabie for proposing actions, which we endorse completely.
We continue to emphasize the importance of standing up and speaking out against harmful actions of powerful people and institutions, particularly as the Trump administration wages war on free expression. The attacks surround us [3]. Noncitizen residents and visa holders are being stripped of their legal protections and dignity, detained in deplorable conditions, and/or deported for peacefully protesting government policies [4]. Social media accounts of foreign students and visa applicants are being scoured by the Department of Homeland Security for dissenting views to justify rejections [5], and academics have been reportedly denied entry for unflattering comments about the Trump administration uncovered on their personal electronic devices [6]. Universities are being threatened and billions of dollars in federal grant funding withheld in efforts to control what is taught and by whom [7]. Even the First Amendment rights of medical journals are under direct threat, with several publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Chest, receiving letters from a federal prosecutor inquiring about bias in editorial processes in a thinly veiled attempt at intimidation against free discourse [8]. In this context, we believe speech is an essential action in…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ifpfb7ltxahkp3g66s57jdqn/bafkreigvf6zix2mc66ienfmprfdwm3jfffzqofkqgse2ripflcpapujpaa)
