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Ed Cara

@edcara.bsky.social
288 followers 130 following 162 posts

Health and science journalist. Seen at the Atlantic, Vice, Undark Magazine and Pacific Standard. Currently at Gizmodo.

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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Hey guys, sorry about this! Was told that Giz took action yesterday and has fixed the issue. Don't think they've posted the explanation here yet, but this Twitter post has full details: x.com/gizmodo/stat...
x.com
Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) on X
We identified and resolved a security incident on our site earlier today. A compromised account was exploited to inject a malicious script, briefly exposing users to scam content. The site was taken o...
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LymeScience @lymescience.org · 19/06/2026
Thanks for the article. "chronic Lyme" has become part of an ecosystem of quackery, often marketed using terms like integrative, functional, naturopathic, and chiropractic. A recent study showed how widespread the clinics are: doi.org/10.1093/ofid...
doi.org
Characteristics of Clinics Offering Nontraditional Lyme Disease Therapies in Lyme Endemic States of the United States
Abstract. In this cross-sectional analysis, we analyzed 117 US clinics in Lyme endemic states that provide nontraditional care for Lyme disease. We found t
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Wrote about the pseudoscience and conspiracy theory beliefs underlying RFK Jr.'s supposed plan to tackle Lyme disease for good. My thanks to @awgaffney.bsky.social for some of his thoughts! gizmodo.com/rfk-jr-s-new...
gizmodo.com
RFK Jr.'s New Lyme Plan Is More Conspiracy Than Science
Chronic Lyme disease is a dubious medical diagnosis, but that isn't stopping RFK Jr. from boosting it.
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UMD Science @umdscience.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics Associate Professor Brantley Hall developed Smart Underwear to shed light on a vital biological function: flatulence. @gizmodo.com's @edcara.bsky.social wrote about his experience wearing the device ⤵️
gizmodo.com
I Wore a Smart Fart Wearable for Three Days. Here's What I Learned
Researchers at the University of Maryland are trying to get to the bottom of our farts.
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Tom Bradley Jr. @tbradleywrites.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Listen, not to imply I'm excessively gassy, but I'm convinced that given the opportunity, I'd blow a hole in their research. gizmodo.com/i-wore-a-sma... by @edcara.bsky.social via @gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
I Wore a Smart Fart Wearable for Three Days. Here's What I Learned
Researchers at the University of Maryland are trying to get to the bottom of our farts.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Had a blast learning about my gas by testing out the Smart Underwear wearable being developed by scientists at the University of Maryland. Read all about my farting journey below. gizmodo.com/i-wore-a-sma...
gizmodo.com
I Wore a Smart Fart Wearable for Three Days. Here's What I Learned
Researchers at the University of Maryland are trying to get to the bottom of our farts.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
A cautionary tale for our modern times...a 32-year-old man experienced horrific bouts of "intractable" diarrhea, up to 30 times a day, after he took too much of an experimental peptide he bought online. gizmodo.com/man-gets-wor...
gizmodo.com
Man Gets World's Worst Diarrhea After Overdosing on Experimental GLP-1
The man was going to the bathroom up to 30 times a day.
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Dept of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Johns Hopkins @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Check out science writer Ed Cara's @edcara.bsky.social piece 'Should We Finally Ditch Artificial Sweeteners?' Ed talks to @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social & @jhu.edu molecular microbiologist & microbiome expert Jotham Suez @suez.bsky.social gizmodo.com/should-we-fi...
gizmodo.com
Should We Finally Ditch Artificial Sweeteners for Good?
Recent studies have suggested that sugar substitutes might not be the free lunch they're advertised as. We asked experts what they thought.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Just in case you were having a good week, here's some insane body horror that you now know can happen in real life! gizmodo.com/the-biologic...
gizmodo.com
The 'Biologically Implausible' Case of the Woman Who Sneezed Maggots
The woman started to see
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
A classic boner. gizmodo.com/chocolate-bo...
gizmodo.com
Chocolate 'Boner' Syrup Recalled for Actually Containing Viagra Ingredient
This week, Lockout Supplements issued a voluntary recall of its "Boner Bears Chocolate Syrup" for having unlabeled amounts of sildenafil.
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Aftermath @aftermath.site · 11/02/2026
I'm not that Nicole Carpenter aftermath.site/nicole-carpent...
A person in silhouette
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Last Sept, RFK Jr. announced the govt had linked autism to taking Tylenol during pregnancy, to much derision. But he also stated the govt would approve an old drug, leucovorin, for autism. For my latest feature, I took a deep dive into why leucovorin's probably a dud. gizmodo.com/what-rfk-jr-...
gizmodo.com
What RFK Jr.’s Unproven Autism Treatment Could Mean for Autistic Patients and Their Families
RFK Jr. has stated leucovorin will help
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Over the weekend, Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo endorsed the use of “structured” water—a fictional form of water that doesn't seem to actually exist, much less have any added health benefits. gizmodo.com/floridas-sur...
gizmodo.com
Florida's Surgeon General Is Now Peddling Fake Water
In a recent social media post, Joseph Ladapo endorsed the use of structured water, which doesn't actually seem to exist.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
@drdemetre.bsky.social added: "Decisions about your child’s health should be grounded in medical expertise and familiarity with your circumstances, not dictated by federal political appointees."
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
The Trump administration's unilateral decision to shrink the childhood vaccine schedule is "dangerous and unnecessary," Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told me. gizmodo.com/trump-rfk-jr...
gizmodo.com
Trump, RFK Jr. Are Officially Tearing Down the Childhood Vaccine Schedule
Vaccines for diseases like rotavirus and meningococcal disease will no longer be universally recommended by the CDC.
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Rudbeckia @rudbeckia.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
uh holy SHIT?
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
My latest on the ACIP's tearing down of a policy that has kept kids safe from hepatitis B for 30 years: gizmodo.com/we-are-doing...
gizmodo.com
'We Are Doing Harm': RFK Jr.'s ACIP Guts Universal Hep B Vaccination at Birth
Outside experts and groups widely condemned the decision.
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
As for the #ACIP meeting today, this is the only thing you need to watch. And, to be clear, you do need to watch this.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
finally back
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
yep!
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
ACIP just took an unplanned break, in part because its own members are complaining that they're not sure about what they're voting on today. So things are going great so far.
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WTVR CBS 6 News Richmond, Virginia @cbs6-richmond.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
A raccoon was found passed out in the bathroom of the Virginia ABC Store in Ashland after breaking in and ransacking shelves, according to Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter.
wtvr.com
Raccoon found passed out in bathroom of Virginia ABC Store after breaking in, ransacking shelves
A raccoon was found passed out in the bathroom of the Virginia ABC Store in Ashland after breaking in and ransacking shelves, according to Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 02/12/2025
yeah, this gets at the problem with these despicable cretins www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | A Serious Journalism Scandal Hiding Inside a Frivolous Sexual One
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
You may have heard that the tale of cat domestication began some 10,000 years ago. But new research today throws a furry wrench into that assumption, suggesting our pet cats aren't quite as ancient as we thought. gizmodo.com/the-story-of...
gizmodo.com
The Story of How Cats Conquered the World Just Got Weirder
Scientists have found genetic evidence that cat domestication didn't start as early as commonly assumed.
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Heather Souvaine Horn @hsouvainehorn.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Don't get so distracted by the Nuzzi sex stuff, @melodyschreiber.com writes, that you forget about the dead kids. newrepublic.com/article/2035...
newrepublic.com
Olivia Nuzzi’s Real Victims
More than her fiancé, or fellow female journalists, the public will pay the price for these misdeeds. RFK Jr. will see to that.
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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
The CDC is lying to you about vaccines and autism sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-cdc-is-l... by @gorskon.bsky.social "The CDC webpage about vaccines and autism now misrepresents the science and lies to the public about vaccines and autism. It’s all part of RFK Jr’s "continuing war on vaccines."
sciencebasedmedicine.org
The CDC is lying to you about vaccines and autism
The CDC webpage about vaccines and autism now misrepresents the science and lies to the public about vaccines and autism. It's just part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s continuing war on vacc
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Danielle Ohl @dtohl.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
underrated bit of handwaving in the lizza blog
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
ben smith’s take from last year when the nuzzi/rfk story first broke aged like cheese on a dashboard
But now that we are in the full fury of American media prurience and self-righteousness, I am going to risk my neck on a slightly contrarian view.

Reporters have all sorts of compromising relationships with sources. The most compromising of all, and the most common, is a reporter’s fealty to someone who gives them information. That’s the real coin of this realm. Sex barely rates.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Olivia Nuzzi is an overwrought writer, frequently unethical journalist, and quite possibly the world's dumbest adulterer. www.telos.news/p/part-1-how...
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Kate Glenn @findingtangle.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Nothing - and I mean nothing - will prepare you for how this ends
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
The experts I spoke to would appreciate more research looking into the causes of mass shootings, and the data at the CDC's disposal could certainly yield a lot of important observations. But with RFK Jr.'s track record, it's unlikely we will get any reliable answers from this fishing expedition.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
That's not to say that poorer mental health can't be a contributor to mass shootings. But other research has suggested the most relevant factor isn't severe mental illness or even depression, but suicide ideation.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Just this past September, Columbia researchers examined one of the largest databases on mass shootings. And they actually found a substantially lower rate of antidepressant use among shooters than the general public. The exact opposite pattern you would expect if these drugs had any role.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Kennedy has been hinting at this study since the summer, following a mass shooting in Minnesota. Contrary to his accusation that this is a "taboo" question scientists won't touch, though, research on this topic dates back at least a half decade. And most, if not all of it, hasn't shown a clear link.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Earlier this month, RFK Jr. said he would task the government to study whether SSRIs are fueling mass shootings, while implying that scientists have been afraid to find out. But several studies have already tried to look for this link and haven't found much of anything. gizmodo.com/rfk-jr-wants...
gizmodo.com
RFK Jr. Wants to Link Antidepressants Like SSRIs to Mass Shootings. Experts Aren’t Buying It
Studies show that people who commit mass shootings aren't more likely to be taking antidepressants. But is RFK Jr. paying any attention?
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Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 08/11/2025
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫
statnews.com
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
If you read one thing today about public health, make it this one from Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, on the CDC under RFK Jr and how we go forward. “We should practice detachment from the organizations and focus on the mission. And the mission is the health of the public.”
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Marina Galperina @mfortki.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
halloween couples costume: monday 6am embargo and friday night news drop
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Wendy Fall @wendyfall.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Truth. Local and state public health are doing their level best to hold the line, and to build multi-state cooperation. Also: you’ll need to increase your state’s public health budget in the next few years. They are taking up an enormous new burden and likely losing their federal funding.
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Angie the Optimist @angietheoptimus.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
I love the sobriety of this message. It’s all fucked but we must plan for a brighter day. “what we can do is turn to local jurisdictions, states, and other professional organizations outside the federal government. They’re going to have to be the renaissance that will follow after the dark ages”
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Patrick Hickey, MD @pwhickey.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Bleak. Dangerous. Those are the words that come to mind while reading this- and actions like those of Desantis and Lapado in Florida with a legislature considering the end of school vaccine requirements will hasten and compound the harms.
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Ben Bellows @benbellows.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Very good framing here on where to draw strength to continue advancing public health.
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
great interview with some really important points
So my simple answer is that federal public health has now been compromised-it has been taken over by ideology, it's been weaponized. If you look at the CDC website, the "About" webpage is literally propaganda around extremely partisan views. My advice to the world is that we should practice detachment from the organizations and focus or the mission. And the mission
is the health of the public. And so I think that focusing a lot of energy in trying to repair CDC is actually the wrong direction, because that damage has been done.
And for me, the bottom line isn't just that there's no political will to fix it, it's the opposite-there's a strong political will to break it.There's nothing that we're going to be able to do at this moment to resist the breaking of CDC. But what we can do is turn to local jurisdictions, states, and other professional organizations outside the federal government. They're going to have to be the renaissance that will follow after the dark ages. I don't know what that renaissance will look like, but I know it's not going to come from the feds down. It's going to come from the states, the jurisdictions, the organizations, and the people on the ground. Because there will be something that can be rebuilt or built up, but it's not going to be out of the minds of the people who are literally trying to destroy public health.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
I spoke with one of these former officials, @drdemetre.bsky.social, for a lengthy interview covering the early days of the second Trump term, the RFK-fueled implosion of the CDC, and the future that lies ahead for America's public health. gizmodo.com/irreparably-...
gizmodo.com
'Irreparably Damaged': Former Senior Official Details the Darkest Days of the CDC Under RFK Jr.
Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, argues the public health agency has been weaponized into a political tool.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
A month ago, the White House fired Susan Monarez as CDC director just four weeks into taking the role—allegedly for refusing to rubber-stamp the sketchy recommendations of RFK Jr's vaccine advisors. In response, several senior CDC officials resigned in protest.
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Mindy Weisberger @laminda.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Happy 6-month birthday to Rise of the Zombie Bugs! I still kermitflail if I see it on a shelf or in someone's hands & I've had a blast talking about all the lovely zombifying parasites You can get it online at @hopkinspress.bsky.social & all the usual places for books, links at mindyweisberger.com
vimeo.com
TRAILER: Rise of the Zombie Bugs
Trailer for the book Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind Control. By Mindy Weisberger, published by Hopkins Press, April 15, 2025.…
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
A dash of stevia just might help the rogaine go down... gizmodo.com/this-sweet-t...
gizmodo.com
This Sweet Trick Could Make Hair Loss Treatments More Potent
New research in mice suggests that stevia can boost the potency of minoxidil, the active ingredient in popular hair loss treatments like Rogaine.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/10/2025
perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.
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Ed Cara @edcara.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The big ticket item during yesterday's autism announcement might have been Tylenol, but make no mistake; Trump and RFK Jr. are still looking to pin some blame on vaccines, too. gizmodo.com/its-too-much...
gizmodo.com
'It's Too Much Liquid': Trump, RFK Jr. Still Gunning for Vaccines as Autism Cause
Despite the advertised focus on acetaminophen, Trump repeatedly brought up vaccines during his big autism announcement yesterday.
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