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Michelle Silver

@michellesilver.bsky.social
188 followers 504 following 3 posts

She/her| Epidemiologist and health services researcher| HPV, cancer prevention, global health, D&I| Asst Prof @ WUSTL| love scuba and all things ocean| Stanford & Hopkins Alum| mom 💕 | 🌈

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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Iris Gorfinkel, M.D. @drgorfinkel.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
At long last... While the U.S. Govt FAILS on vaccine policy, the VACCINE INTEGRITY PROJECT offers HOPE -Made up of 80+ top experts -Will provide scientific briefs on the epidemiology, virology & vaccine safety/efficacy for INFLUENZA, COVID-19 & RSV www.statnews.com/2025/07/03/v...
statnews.com
The U.S. government is failing on vaccine policy. The Vaccine Integrity Project is here to help
The Vaccine Integrity Project will convene experts to assess the evidence on influenza, RSV, and Covid-19 to equip clinicians with reliable, evidence-based information.
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Steve Sikora @artofangles.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
“One of the areas they’re preparing to address is flagging federal support for vaccines, but the member states also have efforts underway to address pandemic preparedness, laboratory services, epidemiology and other key public health priorities.” #PublicHealth👇🏽
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Still COVIDing Canada @stillcovidingca.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Childhood vaccines were a global success story. Misinformation and other obstacles are slowing that progress, a study shows CNN June 25, 2025 By Jen Christensen stillcoviding.ca/en/news/chil... #vaccines #COVID #measles #polio #CovidIsNotOver
stillcoviding.ca
Childhood vaccines were a global success story. Misinformation and other obstacles are slowing that progress, a study shows
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
politico.com
RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort
Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.
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Jen Christiansen @jenchristiansen.com · 25/06/2025
Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪
scientificamerican.com
Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science
These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
STAT @statnews.com · 25/06/2025
News: The American Academy of Pediatrics says it will no longer take part in the process of ACIP meetings. “We won’t lend our name or our expertise to a system that is being politicized at the expense of children’s health,” the group's president says. www.statnews.com/2025/06/25/c...
statnews.com
CDC vaccine advisory committee to review long-approved immunizations
A leader of the CDC's reconstituted vaccine advisory committee said the panel would start a review of long-approved shots.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Ruth Ann Crystal @drruth.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
✨WATCH THIS NOW!✨ Pediatrician Dr. Schrier teaches HHS Secretary about specific cases of vaccine preventable diseases (measles, meningitis, whooping cough) that she has treated. All of these terrible diseases are preventable with available vaccines. #medsky #pedsky 🛟😷🧪 @ameracadpeds.bsky.social
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
This week’s presentation to RFK’s new CDC vaccine advisory committee on Thimerosal, which RFK has pushed for, was posted online yesterday after he answered questions from Congress about fake citations in the MAHA report. It also has multiple fake citations and included falsified and nonexistent data
Dr. David B @boulware_dr

Correction: this CDC #ACIP slide 20 has two fake citations. Neither citation is an actual journal article. The first is completely fake.
The second might correspond to a different article published in 2011 that was animal study in rats using levels > 1000-fold higher than humans

Dr. David B @boulware_dr
Here is one of the slides, which quotes a 2008 non-existant article. There is an actual Berman RF et al 2008 article which reports no developmental neurotoxicity in a rat model.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17977901/

“Evidence From Animal Research
• Berman RF, et al, (2008) Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long term consequences in the brain. Newborn rats given ethylmercury doses equivalent to the vaccine schedule showed persistent microglial activation, particularly in the cerebellum and hippocampus. Suggests long-tern neuroimmune effects.
• Olczak M, et al, (2010) Neurodevelopmental disorders after neonatal thimerosal vaccination: Roles of glial activation and oxidative stress. Thimerosal exposure in neonata rats induced persistent glial activation and oxidative damage in regions critical for motor and cognitive development.”
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 24/06/2025
In response to RFK loading up the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee with anti-vaxxers, medical societies, local health departments, and advocacy groups are working to preserve vaccine access by ordering vaccines directly from manufacturers and emphasizing vaccine guidance from medical associations.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 24/06/2025
Schrier to RFK Jr: You gave Cassidy the answer he needed to hear in order to get his confirmation vote, then as soon as you were secretary you turned around & fired all 17 members. You lied. I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every vaccine-preventable death at your feet.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
E.R. LeVar @erlevar1031.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
A customer told me she couldn't believe this store would put up a Pride display, because what if children see it?? Anyway, it was my display, and I'm proud of it, and you (and your children) should all see it. #BookSky 📚💙
First shelf: The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School (Reyes), Learning to Fall (Morris), I Love You S'more (Desombre), She Gets the Girl (Lippincott & Derrick)

Second Shelf: All That's Left in the World (Brown), Caught in a Bad Fauxmance (Rose), Heartstopper Vol. 1 (Oseman), The Darkness Between Us (Schaeffer)

Third Shelf: Going Bicoastal (Adler), Where the Dark Stands Still (Poranek), Never Ever Getting Back Together (Gonzales), Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (Hibbert), Flowerheart (Bakewell)

Fourth Shelf: Hell Followed With Us (White), I Wish You All the Best (Deaver), The Sunbearer Trials (Thomas), Dead End Girls (Heard), The Sacrifice (Chupeco)

Fifth Shelf: Loveless (Oseman), Icarus (Ancrum), Summer Bird Blue (Bowman), Radio Silence (Oseman), The Weight of Stars (Dow), Sawkill Girls (Legrand)

Bottom Shelf: I Kissed Shara Wheeler (McQuiston), Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Albertelli), Nimona (Stevenson), Forget Me Not (Derrick)
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
RFK Jr. is going to kill thousands of people. That’s not hyperbole.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 17/06/2025
You want to talk about government efficiency? Every $1 spent on childhood immunizations in the US returns a savings of $11, thanks to preventing illnesses, and saving millions of lives.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 17/06/2025
👀 Hot off the press: A scathing open letter co-authored by all 17 former ACIP members. It's a frank look at ACIP history and the hard truths America will grapple with in the upcoming months. Turns out the former ACIP members have more spine than CDC leadership 🙄 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at a Crossroads
In this Viewpoint, former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) caution that the sudden change in the ACIP may reverse the achievements of US immunization policy, includin...
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
ProPublica @propublica.org · 14/06/2025
We heard directly from more than 150 researchers, scientists and investigators about their terminated NIH grants and the science that’s being lost. Full story ⤵️
projects.propublica.org
Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding
The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with ProPu...
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
"Experts say the FAQ's citations distort some legitimate studies and cite others that are disputed and unpublished. "In two instances, the HHS memo makes claims about dangers to pregnant women that are actively refuted by the papers it cites to back them up..." www.npr.org/2025/06/13/n...
npr.org
RFK Jr. sent Congress 'medical disinformation' to defend COVID vaccine schedule change
A document circulated to members of Congress misinterprets studies and cites debunked research, scientists say. It could influence congressional perceptions of vaccine safety.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Dr. Curmudgeon @altgovdoc.altgov.info · 13/06/2025
Devastating changes to vaccine policy will be catastrophic for the fall/winter flu and covid season. Last season 2500 covid deaths per week. There will likely be a significant increase Mask 😷 up, air quality, isolate when ill, spread the word, take care of each other www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
nejm.org
An Evidence-Based Approach to Covid-19 Vaccination | NEJM
This article from the FDA compares broad U.S. recommendations on Covid vaccination with those from other countries and announces the adoption of an evidence-based approach to such recommendations.
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
“I’m very, very worried about young children in this country,” said Dr. Helen Chu, professor of medicine at the University of Washington and one of the committee members who was fired. If the panel’s new members “don’t believe in vaccines, then I think it puts us in a very dangerous place.”
nytimes.com
How a Purge at One Obscure Panel Could Disrupt U.S. Vaccinations
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Michelle Silver @michellesilver.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
apple.news/AecAYM-MwTZe...
apple.news
HHS reverses hundreds of CDC firings — STAT
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has reversed the firings of hundreds of staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including those who work in divisions that handle cruise ship ...
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 11/06/2025
CDC all-hands pushed to next week. Questions now must be emailed — no more anonymous submissions. Will we be penalized for asking: ❓Who is our acting CDC director? ❓Why are scientists being pushed out? Ending anonymity — oversight or effort to stifle dissent?
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Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Ousted CDC vaccine adviser says RFK Jr.’s message is clear: ‘Scientific expertise is no longer of use’ www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/c...
statnews.com
Ousted CDC vaccine adviser says RFK Jr.'s message is clear: ‘Scientific expertise is no longer of use’
Terminated CDC vaccine adviser Helen Chu spoke with STAT about her fears for the future of vaccine policy
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Reposted by Michelle Silver
BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
#ACIP determines who should get vaccines, when, & how often. Its guidance shapes U.S. immunization schedules for children & adults. It influences: - What vaccines schools require - What insurers cover - What doctors recommend - How the U.S. responds to outbreaks A weakened ACIP is bad for everyone.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"These are scientists, physicians, epidemiologists & other experts who are honored to serve their country because they care deeply about public health." @richbesser.bsky.social in defense of #ACIP and on the risks posed by political interference in its critical work. www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/a...
statnews.com
RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccine experts endangers every American
“Our nation’s top health official cannot be trusted to protect America’s children and their families,” writes Richard Besser, pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Ed Belongia MD @belongia.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"Kennedy has accused ACIP members of serving industry interests over public health. Nothing could be further from the truth. ACIP meetings are live-streamed. All votes & records are fully accessible....Members must disclose [COI] & recuse themselves...if any conflicts arise" @richbesser.bsky.social
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10/06/2025
Durbin to Bhattacharya: "I can't understand it. I disagree w/ this admin on so many things. But this is the one that really gets to me personally. To think this nation would walk away from medical research. For God's sake...cancer, your budget requests a 38% cut to the National Cancer Institute"
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
This is the roster of ACIP committee fired yesterday. Bios included - highly qualified and vetted scientists and physicians. Worth saving this before it gets taken down for comparison with those who will be selected to replace them. We are going backwards at speed. www.cdc.gov/acip/members...
cdc.gov
ACIP Membership Roster
See the ACIP membership roster.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 10/06/2025
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations for the United States. wapo.st/43zDOE2
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on the Autism report by the CDC at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 16, 2025. The text reads, “RFK Jr. removes all members of key vaccine committee, will replace them with his own picks.” AP Photo by Jose Luis Magana.
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Caitlin Rivers @cmyeaton.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Welp, there it is. RFK Jr. has removed all 17 members that comprise CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and will make new appointments. I said on PBS News Hour in February that this was a red line for me. www.hhs.gov/press-room/h...
hhs.gov
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Delthia Ricks @dricks.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
US measles cases are nearing 30-year high. At least 1168 measles cases have been confirmed across 33 states. Last year, the US had just 285 measles cases, CDC data shows. The nation is on track to surpass the 1274 cases of 2019 & is expected to have the highest number of cases since 1992👇
abcnews.go.com
US measles cases nearing 30-year high
The U.S. has seen four times as many measles cases this year compared to all of last year, nearing a 30-year high, according to CDC data.
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Still COVIDing Canada @stillcovidingca.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Kennedy dismisses entire US CDC vaccine panel, replacing all 17 members Reuters June 9, 2025 By Ahmed Aboulenein, Michael Erman, Julie Steenhuysen stillcoviding.ca/en/news/kenn... #COVID #CovidIsNotOver #USPoli #vaccines
stillcoviding.ca
Kennedy dismisses entire US CDC vaccine panel, replacing all 17 members
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Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
I know this is too general and context-free but if I never again see the words "low-hanging fruit" to describe research, it will be too soon. At this point, it might be safer to assume that all low-hanging fruits of science are already picked and whatever we collect with such ease is rotten.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
"Tanner, a chemist at the Univ. of Mississippi working to develop a novel approach for treating glioblastoma, was notified in April that the grant was terminated. “I would like to cure brain cancer,” Dr. Tanner said. “I think that's not particularly controversial.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
The Gutting of America’s Medical Research: Here Is Every Canceled or Delayed N.I.H. Grant
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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Prof Tanya Parish @proftanya13.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Why using impact factor as a surrogate for research quality is flawed (biased). "Women make up around 34% of corresponding authors globally" but only 16% for the journal Nature. 🧪🦠 #WomenInStem
nature.com
Gender equality in research publishing is a responsibility for everyone
A concerted effort is needed to support women in their choice of journal when submitting their manuscript.
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Attorney General Jennifer Davenport @newjerseyoag.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Limiting access to medication abortion threatens reproductive freedom and puts women in harm’s way. That’s why I’m co-leading a petition urging FDA to expand access to mifepristone. Make no mistake: I’ll fight any attempt to deny access to this essential medication.
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UW Medicine Newsroom @uwmnewsroom.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
An obstetrician warns that CDC changes to its guidance on vaccine protection could pose serious risks to mothers and their newborns. @drlindaeckert.bsky.social says, "Pregnant women develop more serious illness when they contract COVID than non-pregnant women." @uwmedicine.bsky.social
bit.ly
OB-GYN: Pregnant women need COVID vaccine
OB-GYNs consider the vaccine crucial to protect pregnant people, fetuses and babies in the first six months of life from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year eliminates funding for programs that provide lifesaving vaccines around the world, including immunizations for polio. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/h...
nytimes.com
Trump Budget Eliminates Funding for Crucial Global Vaccination Programs
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 04/06/2025
POCAN: Is the federal govt currently spending less this year than it did last year? VOUGHT: No, it's not POCAN: Part of that is because you've sent us a recession package worth $9b that goes after Big Bird and Cookie Monster, but you've added $200b to Defense and Homeland Security.
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Informed Citizens @johnrwilder.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Yikes
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
"My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role,” Dr. Panagiotakopoulos wrote following RFK Jr.’s order to force an update to the agency's guidance.
cbsnews.com
RFK Jr. says CDC will no longer recommend COVID vaccine for children and pregnant women
Kennedy's move appears to shortcut the CDC's outside vaccine advisers, dropping COVID vaccines from the list recommended for children and pregnant women.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
RFK Jr. is absolutely poisonous. He has now caused Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, the person in charge of COVID19 vaccinations at the CDC, to resign. She did so because RFK Jr. demanded that the experts in charge of vaccine guidance listen to him and not to the scientific evidence.
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Good News! The National Weather Service is hiring again, after DOGE’s “brilliant” decision to lay off essential staff. Apparently, round-the-clock weather alerts don’t send themselves. Who would’ve guessed?
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Dr Pamela L Gay @starstryder.space · 03/06/2025
The research scientists in your life are not okay. We might be pretending to be ok, but I think it's fair to say we are all dealing with grief over the careers we can no longer have, because so many of the institutions and funding bodies that defined our profession are being wiped out.
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Of all the targets why HIV? I do not understand this. HIV research has been so aggressively pummeled by the ongoing cuts. Did we forget how things were with antiretroviral drugs and preventative measures? Since 1981 an estimated 42 million people have died from HIV. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH funding policy deals new blow to HIV-related trial networks
Halt to foreign “subawards” disrupts ongoing global studies and has researchers scrambling to fulfill ethical obligations to trial volunteers
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Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
"... scientists are now so hemmed in by writing grant applications, administrative duties and teaching, that they have little time for original thought." Also we write too much and think too little. #metascience #academicchatter
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Norm Eisen @normeisen.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
BREAKING: Over 130 former federal & state judges have filed an amicus brief urging the court to drop charges against Judge Dugan in Wisconsin The charges seek to criminalize judicial discretion & set a dangerous precedent for executive overreach We MUST defend judicial independence👇
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
How bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)
NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Texas is ground zero for the US measles outbreak. TX has also just approved a bill making it easier to get an exemption from childhood vaccines for school. I published a paper a few years back showing that the easier it is to get an exemption, the lower the vaccination coverage is in that state.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
In some ways an even worse indictment than the use of AI is that simply having a couple of humans read and fact check the report before release cld have mostly or entirely removed the evidence. Just sloppy dumbfucks, basically. The guys who are getting rid of all the vaccines.
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Hesitantly Hopeful @leann-notrimes.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Is it just the ones who are inside someone’s womb? Asking for a friend. FFS.
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Tee Vixen Sutton @vixenbite.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
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