Bénédicte C
@benecal.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2.5K following 6.2K posts
Biosciences & Tech policy Post about research, innovation, public health, politics & policy making, regulation, disinfo She/Her/Antifacist
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Reposted by Bénédicte C
Pritzker: "Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. So he should know that yeah, it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget."
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Friday gamechanger news:

An injection to prevent HIV is to be offered to patients on the NHS in England & Wales for the first time.

The long-acting shot, given every other month, is an alternative to taking daily pills to protect against the virus.

🧪💉 #medsky

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
First injection to stop HIV approved
The shot, given six times a year or every other month, is an alternative to taking daily pills to protect against ever catching the virus.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Belatedly reading this, prompted by the Nexperia dust up this week. And im very certain im not the first saying this but it’s uncanny how western worries and explanations of Japan’s industrial success in the 1980s prefigure those about China today.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
It costs ~$70 to produce a year’s supply of insulin.

Yet, the average annual cost of insulin went from $2,864 in 2012 to $5,705 in 2016 to $18,000 in 2025. A 25,714% markup. That isn’t inflation or supply chain—It’s corporate greed.

Now—California will sell insulin for $11. Make this nationwide!
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Today, I convened a group of former military generals and veterans to hear perspectives on deploying troops in American cities.

Their commitment is to our nation. That’s why they’re speaking out against what the President's doing as uncalled-for, unprecedented, and un-American.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
We need to talk about how social media algorithms push moms down a slippery slope of distrust.

From "Are my kids getting enough support in school?" To "Maybe I should homeschool." To "Maybe modern medicine is bad."

I've seen this first-hand in research I'm doing on parenting apps. 1/🧵
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Man it is just so weird how attempts to police the boundaries of womanhood end up hurting women. Over and over again.
Marie McGowan, 89, has died 3 years after a brutal assault during which she was put headfirst into a rubbish bin. Her attacker, Alex Bailey, believed she was "a man dressed as a woman."

This is the world the transphobes are creating "to protect women."

RIP Marie. share.google/PFaI5YTh9tBw...
Woman, 80s, dies three years after Dublin attack
A woman in her 80s who was attacked in south Dublin just over three years ago has passed away.
share.google
What does it say about shadows
that they only come out
in the sun?

-- Josh Ritter
Reposted by Bénédicte C
NEW: A huge ice sculpture of the word “DEMOCRACY” is currently melting away in front of the US Capitol.

Organized by artists and activists, it was commissioned by the Up In Arms campaign, an effort led by Ben Cohen, the cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
It’s grandpa Brooks, no surprise.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
"Really, he doesn't mind, at all."

Thanks to Jake Goldsbie for noticing this.
Cheryl Hines explains that the worm only ate a little bit of RFK, Jr's brain.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Feels quaint, almost cliché, to say this about a Trump action, but just for the record:

This is all illegal, the President can't simply disregard the laws passed and agencies created by Congress, and both Vought & Trump would be impeached if the Constitution or the rule of law mattered to the GOP.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.

Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.
Map: Governors Public Health Alliance
* Guam is also a member of the alliance
Updated October 15, 2025
Map: @luckytran • Created with Datawrapper
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/
How much does the Argentinian muppet siphon for himself?
Reposted by Bénédicte C
In light of the fact that students protested the university's participation in genocide, Cole argues that the university should reinstate disciplined students, ask NYC to drop criminal charges, and reopen campus gates to the public. All very reasonable points.
Reposted by Bénédicte C
The entire Republican Party strategy for achieving what are comprehensively & wildly unpopular policy objectives now consists entirely of bypassing Article I of the Constitution through wildly illegal abuses of both Article II and Article III.
Whatever you think about CFPB, it was created by Congress (as part of the Dodd-Frank Act) and can only be abolished by Congress, not by the President acting as a dictator.
White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT