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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 4h

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientists lose jobs and grants as US government shutdown takes a toll

Hundreds of people at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have received layoff notices, and work at many federal laboratories has been suspended.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 1d

De las Casas was required reading in the fairly conservative catholic university I attended. And I can’t thank them enough for it.

George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 2d

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 4d

For some context the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report in addition to being just a good read, to quote wikipedia, "is the main vehicle for publishing public health information and recommendations that have been received by the CDC from state health departments. "

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 4d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Virginia Gewin @virginiagewin.bsky.social · 4d

Journalist here

I’m interested in talking to a federal agency scientist who was fired, then rehired. I can keep you anonymous. I’m on Signal ginnyg.04

Reposts are appreciated!

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 4d

CDC RIFs that we're hearing about:
OPHDST -Office of Public Health Data & Tech

Goals
✅improve access to & use of public health data (Wish Fake-CIP used them-they’d finally understand vaccine data)
✅Improve EFFICIENCY of data & tech systems ➡️
help states, etc. make informed public health decisions

About OPHDST

OPHDST works to improve the availability and use of public health data.

www.cdc.gov

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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 4d

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 12d

I’m onto you!!!

Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 13d

Y'all. This interview is sooo good. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired

“I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.

www.nature.com

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 13d

EXCLUSIVE: In her first interview all year, Susan Monarez, CDC director for only 29 days, tells me why Trump/RFK fired her and where this is all headed.

The CDC director is an “inherently political position, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be politically compromised”, she tells @nature.com.

Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired

“I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 15d

What does science have to say about getting a good night's sleep? Quite a lot, really. @lynnepeeps.bsky.social captures most of it nicely in this feature www.nature.com/articles/d41...?

How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says

Chuck the gadgets, the fads and the alarm. Circadian research reveals how important your body’s internal clock is to blissful slumber.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 20d

Seismic shifts are afoot for universities in the US and worldwide. @dangaristo.bsky.social captures the trends in four telling graphics. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The great university shake-up: four charts show how global higher education is changing

More students than ever are studying across international borders, but where and what they learn is shifting.

www.nature.com

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 21d

Against my better judgment, I contributed a feature about the state of global higher education to this package about the future of universities. No easy way to sum it all up—there's plenty of good news and bad news to be found—but the world is much bigger than the US its current problems.

The great university shake-up: four charts show how global higher education is changing

More students than ever are studying across international borders, but where and what they learn is shifting.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 25d

It was the right decision.

Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 26d

I feel like any meal out of this lunchbox needs to be eaten while making ‘Taz-like’ noises (Abu-dab -gab-gob) and gesticulating wildly.

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

I’m always inspired by the work of my colleagues @dangaristo.bsky.social @maxkozlov.bsky.social and @heidiledford.bsky.social But I’ve got to say that this one is special. 🧪🧵6/6 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientists take on Trump: these researchers are fighting back

Through lawsuits, grant tracking, whistle-blowing and more, resistance to the US war on science is growing.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

And we talk about how @audreydrotos.bsky.social @bnwolford.bsky.social and countless others are organizing to spread the word about the value of science that is being scaled back, and the impacts of that missing investment. 🧪🧵5/6

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

We talk about how @noamross.net and @scott-delaney.bsky.social started to gather deep information on all the science that was being unlawfully terminated. 🧪🧵4/6

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

We tell the story of @neuronikki.bsky.social who joined a national lawsuit to try and prevent NIH grant terminations. 🧪🧵3/6

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

These are the scientists fighting back against the Trump administration’s cuts to NIH and NSF funding. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪🧵2/6

Scientists take on Trump: these researchers are fighting back

Through lawsuits, grant tracking, whistle-blowing and more, resistance to the US war on science is growing.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Sep 10

Inspired by Fred Rogers, @nature.com asked readers to help us 'find the helpers' amid the crisis in American science. What emerged were inspiring stories of researchers, legal experts, data hounds and government scientists who are fighting the dismantling of the US research enterprise. 🧪🧵1/6

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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · Aug 29

NEW: Don't ask too many questions, but...

NIH may not re-terminate the 900ish grants at issue in the main NIH lawsuits after all.

To the PIs of reinstated grants, SPEND NOW!

🧵 Here's what NIH is probably thinking. Bear with me:

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Aug 26

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Autism is on the rise: what’s really behind the increase?

RFK Jr has vowed to find out what’s responsible, but scientists say he is ignoring answers from decades of research.

www.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Aug 25

“All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.” kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under Trump, No One Answered. - KFF Health News

Trump officials sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists, slowing their response to the measles outbreak in West Texas. Cases surged and sparked new outbreaks across the U.S. and Mexico. Together...

kffhealthnews.org

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · Aug 25

If you, like me, are still trying to put last week's complex SCOTUS decision on NIH funding into context, this great story by my colleagues is a great resource 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

US Supreme Court allows NIH to cut $2 billion in research grants

The decision will hinder lawsuits against grant terminations, legal specialists say.

www.nature.com

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Aug 22

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued a convoluted, 36-page emergency order about NIH grant terminations. Two main takeaways:
-$2 billion (not the government # of $780 million) in NIH grants will likely be re-terminated
-future legal challenges will be much harder

w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social:

US Supreme Court allows NIH to cut $2 billion in research grants

The decision will hinder lawsuits against grant terminations, legal specialists say.

www.nature.com

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