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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 17h

NHANES identified pediatric lead exposure in the ‘70s, considered one of the most significant health interventions ever.

NHANES also gave us pediatric growth charts and nutritional fortification to prevent harmful deficiencies like iodine & folate, to name a few.

h/t @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 17h

NHANES runs mobile clinics that travel the country measuring height, weight, & blood pressure while collecting blood and urine samples. These samples are our only national source for tracking everything from blood sugar to hormones, heavy metals, and more.

The entire operation has been eliminated.

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 22h

Everyone across biomedicine should be very loud about this so this team's RIF status gets reversed. Nhanes has been key for tracking obesity & diabetes rates, identifying high blood lead levels in kids in the 70s, tracking progress on cholesterol lowering, guiding nutrient fortification programs etc

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 22h

If you're on IG, plz share this deck that me and a few other creators made last night breaking the story

www.instagram.com/p/DPxRPGADP3...

unbiasedscipod on Instagram: "The entire team that oversees NHANES mobile examination operations was RIFed. NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Sur…"

The entire team that oversees NHANES mobile examination operations was RIFed. NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) is our national program that sends mobile clinics across America to collect blood, urine, and health data from thousands of Americans each year. Unlike some other CDC cuts that have been reversed, this one hasn't - at least not yet. And there's no alternative plan in place.Without this team, the NHANES survey is unlikely to be able to continue. They don't just do planning for the next cycle (which their name might suggest) - they primarily conduct the day-to-day operations that keep the mobile units running.Why does this matter? NHANES is our only nationally representative source for:➡️Dietary intake data➡️Biomarkers of environmental toxins (pesticides, heavy metals, PFAS in blood/urine)➡️Population-level cardiovascular risk factors measured through actual blood work➡️Nutritional biomarkers (not self-reported)The data from NHANES is key for monitoring, surveillance, and discovery. It's how we know about diet quality & nutritional status, rates of obesity, and trends in blood glucose and cholesterol control. It's also how we monitor the prevalence of established and emerging toxins - everything from lead to PFAS. Continual collection of data is essential for tracking progress on public health goals, where we are falling short, and identifying the next link between exposures and health. Experts have readily called for an INVESTMENT in NHANES - so that we can sample broader populations, measure novel biomarkers & capture more environmental exposures. These cuts threaten the continuity of this key engine of public health, and we should all be concerned, regardless of party or politics.

www.instagram.com

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 22h

NHANES has been facing funding challenges and needs an infusion of cash to be modernized, not cut. These samples are a key dataset for the field of medicine, nutrition, metabolism, endocrinology, aging, etc.
So much innovation that could be brought to Nhanes!
ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S000...

Workshop summary: building an NHANES for the future

The American Society for Nutrition’s (ASN) Committee on Advocacy and Science Policy (CASP) organized a workshop, “Building a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the Future,” ...

ajcn.nutrition.org

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 22h

Everyone across biomedicine should be very loud about this so this team's RIF status gets reversed. Nhanes has been key for tracking obesity & diabetes rates, identifying high blood lead levels in kids in the 70s, tracking progress on cholesterol lowering, guiding nutrient fortification programs etc

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 22h

MMWR stole the show in the first round of headlines about CDC cuts but in the chaos, many missed that the NHANES mobile team remains RIF'd. This is the backbone of this key survey that contains some of the only representative anthropometric, biochemical, clinical and dietary data on the country.

STAT @statnews.com · 1d

Protecting the nation’s public health demands data, whether it be new measles cases, a surge in ER visits, or shifting patterns in obesity. The most recent job cuts at the CDC threaten the mostly unseen foundation of that research enterprise.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/14/c...

CDC team running top survey on health and nutrition is laid off

NHANES has collected data on eating patterns, diabetes and other common diseases for decades. The CDC team that runs it has been fired.

www.statnews.com

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 1d

Agree 100% @stanfordaaup.bsky.social!

“When it inevitably comes time for Stanford to choose, we must remember that we owe our loyalty not to any executive branch official but to our own foundational principles. We must be ready, when it’s our turn, to walk away.”

stanforddaily.com/2025/10/12/f...

From the Community | We must refuse the 'Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education'

Associate professor Greg Martin writes on behalf of the Stanford's AAUP chapter to condemn the White House's compact on higher education.

stanforddaily.com

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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 2d

Www.hidinginplainsightbook.com

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 2d

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · 3d

A unique database complied by @acleddata.bsky.social allowed them to put together this deep dive into the extent of war-related violence
acleddata.com/report/two-y...

Two years since 7 October: Israel’s forever wars across the Middle East

Two years after the 7 October 2023 attacks, Israel’s war with Hamas has spilled beyond Gaza. Scroll through this report to learn about the conflict in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and I...

acleddata.com

Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 5d

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Todd Wolfson @proftwolf.bsky.social · 4d

I am proud to say that MIT has rejected Trump's poison compact. MIT President Sally Kornbluth: "Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education."
@aaup.org @aft.org @higheredlabor.bsky.social @uaw.org
links.mit.edu/nl3/N5Jy2cKq...

Regarding the Compact

links.mit.edu

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · 5d

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-...

Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

AAUP @aaup.org · 6d

"We can make a difference if we unite together, organize, and fight together."

— Sang Hea Kil

Dr. Kil is a tenured professor in the Justice Department at San Jose State University. She explains that she was suspended for her support of students organizing encampments and exercising free speech.

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Anat Shenker-Osorio @anatosaurus.bsky.social · 19d

You are also basically guaranteed to never be heard because that rhetoric is Charlie Brown adults. Sounds like everything else. Instead, you must frame flip to centering evils of regime:
No dollars for dictatorship
No funding for fascism
No payout for pedophile protectors (to go ALL the way there)

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Washington State Department of Health @doh.wa.gov · Sep 12

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Anat Shenker-Osorio @anatosaurus.bsky.social · Sep 10

No matter our background, origin, or party, most of us believe violence has no place in our politics. Yet, the MAGA regime fans flames of violence, trying to turn government into a weapon against us. We must make this a country where no one fears for our lives or our loved ones.

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Sep 9

Campus Reform tried to get me fired from being a *postdoc in physics* in 2015 because I said Thomas Jefferson was a rapist

Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · Sep 9

When Campus Reform and Turning point came after professors and created the professor watchlist, administrators didn't pay attention..Now they are being fired and attacked. Maybe institutions should have done more to protect academic freedom....

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Sep 5

West Coast Health Alliance expands to include Hawaii. Who else is in?

Dr. Vin Gupta @vinguptamd.bsky.social · Sep 5

Deep gratitude and appreciation to the West Coast Health Alliance and medical societies like @ameracadpeds.bsky.social for filling the void in rational health leadership while the federal government abdicates its role.

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Sep 4

5 minute video about this work
youtu.be/NFGulHJFNIE?...

Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Sep 4

"HIV-related mortality for all children and young adolescents (aged 0–14 years) decreased over time, between 2000 and 2020 globally"

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Sep 4

New @ihmeuw.bsky.social paper today --- "HIV-related mortality time trends among children and young adolescents on antiretroviral therapy by age, treatment duration, and region: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Past cohort studies have examined mortality among children and young adolescents (aged 0–14 years) who have received antiretroviral therapy (ART), but…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Abraham D. Flaxman

Washington State Department of Health @doh.wa.gov · Sep 3

Today, WA joins CA and OR in forming the West Coast Health Alliance to ensure our residents continue receiving science-based #PublicHealth recommendations. This partnership ensures our states will continue working with trusted medical orgs to protect our communities' health and safety.

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Aug 21

There was a baby boom of elephants in 2020 and now they are turning 5
www.elephanttrust.org/wp-content/u...

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Abraham D. Flaxman @healthyalgo.bsky.social · Aug 19

Cost of medical care in USA: the percent increase last month is the third highest in the last 30 years. Will next month break this record?

Plot of percent increase in medical care costs by month in USA for the last 30 years