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Justine Barron

@jewstein3000.bsky.social
1.5K followers 416 following 1.1K posts

Host, Bubble People Podcast, on disability and the media. Author, journalist, media critic. Long Covid etc.

PostsRepliesMedia
Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 11h
My timeline on X is filled with people saying that anti-Zionist Jews are just as complicit, need to take responsibility, etc and one person said “Hey just stop being Jews and you’re forgiven.” But then there’s a squirrel account saying we have fat pernicious faces so we need to do surgery too?
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Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
New from France Interesting long Covid research where all participants satisfy ME/CFS criteria Evidence for transcriptomic changes impacting muscle contraction in patients with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #LongCovid #MEcfs #PwME #CFS #postcovid #postcovid19
Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) overlaps with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) but, due to frequent muscle pain and exertional intolerance, neuromuscular disorders are often suspected. We report the results of a comprehensive neuromuscular evaluation in 27 PACS patients (22F/5M; median age 41 ys). All patients developed chronic fatigue (>6 months), post-exertional malaise, and cognitive impairment, with muscle pain in 88% but no neuromuscular deficits at clinical examination. 18/27 patients were unable to work. All patients fulfilled established ME/CFS diagnostic criteria (CDC 1994, ICC 2011, Inst Medicine 2015, NICE 2021). Electrophysiological studies and CK levels were normal. Brain 18FDG-PET/MRI (14/27) showed posterior hypometabolism in 8/14. Muscle biopsy (7/27) showed moderate dysimmune changes in 2/7. Exploratory transcriptomic analyses performed in muscle biopsies from PACS patients and pre-COVID controls unveiled in PACS differentially expressed genes in the cytokine and autophagy pathways. Interestingly, other genes were also differentially expressed in pathways affecting actin, the cytoskeleton, and contraction. Indeed, we found upregulated genes involved in the troponin-tropomyosin complex, a key regulator of muscle contraction through calcium binding. We also found downregulated genes involved in the formation and stabilization of actin bundles at sarcomere Z discs and in mechanical signaling. These findings indicate that PACS patients with prominent muscular symptoms do not exhibit overt neuromuscular involvement on standard investigations but may show subtle myopathic or dysimmune changes and central metabolic alterations. At the transcriptomic level, the data show an impact on key pathways involved in contraction. The overlap with ME/CFS highlights the importance of careful differential diagnosis and suggests a complex pathophysiology beyond a basic muscle disease.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A lot of Bluesky were progressive people escaping the right on X but a lot of it is also ableists escaping the powerful disability lobby on that site
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the residual haunting of erin @eehouls.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
it's so awesome to have this discussion when we don't even believe other people when they say they're in pain
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Are they measuring the gains in other cuddle devices or just the ones popular with autistic people?
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
So many people are blocking me right now. People hate having their ableism held up in front of them. I haven’t said anything other than be more empathetic to the disabled and chronically ill. I desperately wish people understood the hostility we get from all of society, including “allies.”
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hey so uhhhhh that Boston Globe story about the lesbian bar relaxing its covid rules is an *absolute fucking hit piece* targeting the disabled, chronically ill, and covid-conscious and it would be great if folks sharing and joking about it could recognize that framing.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
ICYMI relevant to the leftism ableism convo
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Aaaaaaanyway this whole thing is a perfect example of how disabled and chronically ill and marginalized people are forced out of society and then if they make a tiny enclave together where they try and make space for each other the society that forced them out tells them they can’t have that either.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW FROM ME: On Baltimore media and Covid. - Under scrutiny: the "progressive" @baltimorebeat.bsky.social, which keeps portraying Covid in the past tense. - A shoutout to @mercohn.bsky.social, health reporter at the Banner - Why Covid is still a danger in 2026.
justinebarron.substack.com
Covid isn’t over, Baltimore
How Baltimore’s supposedly progressive news outlet keeps taking a reactionary stance on Covid
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW FROM ME: On Baltimore media and Covid. - Under scrutiny: the "progressive" @baltimorebeat.bsky.social, which keeps portraying Covid in the past tense. - A shoutout to @mercohn.bsky.social, health reporter at the Banner - Why Covid is still a danger in 2026.
justinebarron.substack.com
Covid isn’t over, Baltimore
How Baltimore’s supposedly progressive news outlet keeps taking a reactionary stance on Covid
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Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🧵 I thought this 7-page introductory piece written by a medical doctor was very good "Understanding ME/CFS An Introduction to a Complex Illness" (August 2026) by @drmichaelabauer.bsky.social storage.e.jimdo.com/file/1caec72... #MEcfs #PwME #CFS #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigueSyndrome 1/
"Understanding ME/CFS An Introduction to a Complex Illness"
Dr. med. Michaela Bauer · August 2026

Image of a female reading a book entitled "ME/CFS Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
with 5 thought bubbles showing what she is thinking about
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Shared a bit about my experience caretaking for my father while dealing with my own chronic illness. There are gaps in the system. They want old people in homes.
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Heidi Kitrosser @heidikitrosser.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
FYI, I got Nuvavaxovid (formerly novavax) Covid shot yesterday. I’d only had mRNA shots previously. This is the 1st Covid shot for which I had no side effects, not even a sore arm. If you want to find a place that offers it, you can use the threaded link. I’d also call the place to double-check.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Look my life isn’t thrilling with long covid, but I’m here at CVS getting Nuvaxovid with no issues at all so that’s a pretty good day
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The coolest part of disability is how my friends all abandoned me or, if they stuck around, couldn’t stop saying offensive things about my body!
Article from the telegraph: how having a disability became cool. Subheading: young women, named “sickfluencers“are turning chronic illness into a lifestyle, trend and trenching a culture of economic and activity.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you’re talking about 9/11 air and not talking about masking, respectfully shut up. You don’t get to pretend to care about air quality. www.tiktok.com/@bubblepeopl...
tiktok.com
If you’re talking about 9/11 air and not talking about masking, shut up. You don’t get to pretend to care about air quality. #911 #wtc #longcovid #covid
TikTok video by bubblepeoplepodcast
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Sitcom idea: “Dead Senator.” A wacky bunch of staffers are being blackmailed to keep making their dead senator seem alive
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Anyone finding Novovax available yet?
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I like junk food
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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Photo caption: “Rodrigo, a 58-year-old Los Angeles green-card holder, was detained for 10 months and denied access to medical care as a tumor in his throat grew to the size of a lemon.”
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Joshua B. Hoe @joshuabhoe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
WTAF is wrong with these motherf*ckers...every day a new moral outrage...Look, I have been to prison and these people do things every day that I couldn't live with myself after doing
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Apparently if you’re a disabled person asking for accountability from a researcher you are “punching down” Does he know the meaning of that?
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
For the tenth time, Covid isn't over @baltimorebeat.bsky.social. Why are you the worst offender at this while pretending to care about marginalized people? Just sick of this faux-progressive bullshit rag.
In the bottom corner, it is signed with the names of its 18 makers, a small number of the collective’s nearly 70 members. Barnes, whose block honors the poet Adrienne Rich, has been quilting for over 35 years and says she has seen interest in Baltimore’s textile arts spike following the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Personal Life section on Nathan Fielder's wikipedia page is good.
Personal Life: Fielder was married to a children's librarian and they divorced in 2014.[48] He is incorrectly listed as a female on his U.S. green card.[49][50][non-primary source needed] While filming Season 2 of The Rehearsal, he lived in a neighborhood outside the Strip in Las Vegas. As of 2022, he lives in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.[51]
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Idea for British crime show: cops enlist the help of an American with a Britbox subscription who runs the Britbox reddit account to solve murders.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My 2023 book, "They Killed Freddie Gray," is a featured title in the Hunt Down We Read Storygraph community. FYI! hunt-down.lovable.app/authors/just...
hunt-down.lovable.app
Justine Barron - Author Spotlight | HDWR
Justine Barron, featured HDWR author of They Killed Freddie Gray: The Anatomy of a Police Brutality Cover-Up. Biography, featured book, community reception, and citations.
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SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @covid19disease.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
N95 Masks Nearly Perfect at Blocking COVID, UMD Study Shows Researchers Found Even Lower-Performing Masks Were Protective Maskswork today.umd.edu/n95-masks-ne...
today.umd.edu
Maryland Today | N95 Masks Nearly Perfect at Blocking COVID, UMD…
Researchers Found Even Lower-Performing Masks Were Protective
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
As a crime journalist who studied consent decrees, Elsbeth is bunk. For that matter "Patience" and all of those British shows where the cops let anyone solve their crimes.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
That California Starbucks paper straw-plastic cup combo should be challenged more
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
"My own mental health journey has given me a much deeper sense of empathy,” @francescahongwi.bsky.social told me. I wrote about the ridiculous attacks by right-wing media on Francesca Hong's mental health history for @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Right-wing media is attacking Francesca Hong for her mental health history
"My own mental health journey has given me a much deeper sense of empathy," Hong told Mother Jones.
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I guess what is really irritating me is that they have the scripts for these segments, right? Somebody wrote them. These aren’t off the cuff interviews. It would take two minutes to bung them up on the episode page.
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
If you believe this, and I hope you do, there is nothing stopping you from continuing to protect your vulnerable neighbors by wearing masks in crowded and indoor spaces, especially necessary spaces like healthcare facilities, grocery stores, and public transportation. Absolutely nothing.
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Emily Johnson @emilyrj.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Please boost this! I need many more donations to keep getting neurosurgery care I may need 1-2 more medical trips that this fundraiser currently can’t cover (even with patient flight assistance, even with my SSDI covering as much as possible) I’m worsening and need help
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Heroin chic at least had this aesthetic of the kids who spend all their money on drinks and drugs at the club, smoke to suppress appetite and don’t wear many clothes before leaving the house. It was at least a mood. I don’t get the mood going on with this skinny trend.
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
It’s a dog whistle
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 03/08/2026
people could respond to this framing around reporting deaths—"had significant underlying health conditions"—with more confidence if we weren't also living through a pandemic in which we have been told only people who have "underlying health issues" are "vulnerable" or "at risk"
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Dr Noor Bari @njbbari3.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Mystery™️ www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘It was like something was crawling over me’ – the worrying rise of shingles among millennial women
Stress, the cost of living, long working hours and even excessive exercise have all been touted as reasons the illness is rising among women in their 30s and 40s. What can be done to help them?
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Dr. Antje Gamble @drantjegamble.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Also, I never will accept that wearing a mask was impeding anyone’s ’freedom’. I still mask, esp at work when I’m around hundreds of co-eds (who are always sick). I lecture for hours in a mask. I still live my damn life.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
this was always how I understood masking. A simple thing to keep me safer in a world that really didn't care if I lived or died. But also an act of community care.
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Dr. Nicole Lee Schroeder @nicole-lee-sch.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I truly dont know how we can look around and pretend the same groups of people identified as likely to die or become disabled by Sars-Cov-2 no longer need protection. Sorry are you telling me there are no more pregnant people, disabled people, or elderly people in the world?
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Esther @elhopkins.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
👌
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Justine Barron @jewstein3000.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Putting off the Odyssey bc I wrote an essay on Odysseus’ scar freshman year that won an award and circulated. Then a few years later, I didn’t seem to be as good anymore and my professor said “what happened? Nothing like a little education to blunt the intellect I guess.”
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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 28/07/2026
putting a sex scene in oppenheimer but not the odyssey is wild though. can we all agree on that at least
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Chantal Britt @chantalbritt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Psychotherapy fails to reduce physical long covid symptoms. German researchers also show that childhood trauma doesn’t play a role. Nothing new for people like me but surely news for those who believe in central sensitisation and cognitive behavioural therapy. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Efficacy of a psychotherapeutic group intervention for patients with Post-COVID-19 condition: a randomized controlled trial (PsyLoCo study) - BMC Psychology
Background Persistent physical symptoms such as fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection are common and often accompanied by cognitive complaints. Alongside biological mechanisms, psychosocial processes...
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Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
“On my bad days I can’t walk properly. I can just about get out of bed. Some days I can just about lift my arm up.” 16 year old Olivia Cole talks about living with ME on Good Morning Britain in 2015. #MECFS
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Wayside Scribbles @waysidescribbles.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
– I’m just saying you shouldn’t rule out anxiety #longcovid #ableism #satire
A cartoon of a person standing impaled by a large spear. Another person standing opposite them ignores the weapon and says, “I’M JUST SAYING YOU SHOULDN’T RULE OUT ANXIETY”.
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Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This month is the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and it reminds me that the ADA could not be passed today. It probably couldn’t get a vote in committee today.
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series of gj tubes @ozarkhowling.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
gm friends! still stalled at $385 to go for housing with 2 days and 2 hours left, and $280 for pdoc copay and feeding tube supplies needed Tuesday! (unless apple refund comes thru before then) ko-fi.com/katiwithoutt...
ko-fi.com
Buy series of gj tubes a Coffee
Become a supporter of series of gj tubes today!
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