Author | Lightnews

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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · Sep 12

Anti-vaxxers have long weaponized VAERS, which, as this article notes, is just a repository of *unverified* reports. An adverse reaction found in VAERS is not necessarily indicative of anything, but anti-vaxxers prey on low health and information literacy to sow doubt.

George Pearkes @peark.es · Sep 12

WaPo: RFK Jr's CDC are planning to claim COVID vaccines killed 25 children and will use this as justification for limiting vaccine access.

Trump Officials to Link Child Deaths to Covid Shots, Alarming Career Scientists
By Lena H. Sun, Rachel Roubein and Dan Diamond
(Washington Post) -- Trump health officials plan to link coronavirus vaccines to the deaths of 25 children as they consider limiting which Americans should get the shots, according to four people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential information.
The findings appear to be based on information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which contains unverified reports of side effects or bad experiences with vaccines submitted by anyone, including patients, doctors, pharmacists or even someone who sees a report on social media. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that the database is not designed to assess whether a shot caused a death, a conclusion that requires thorough investigations by scientists and public health professionals.
Trump health officials plan to include the pediatric deaths claim in a presentation next week to an influential panel of advisers to the CDC that is considering new coronavirus vaccine recommendations, which affect access to the shots and whether they're free.
The plan has alarmed some career scientists who say coronavirus vaccines have been extensively studied, including in children, and that dangers of the virus itself are being underplayed. CDC staff in June presented data to the same vaccine committee showing that at least 25 children died who had covid-associated hospitalizations since July 2023 and that number was likely an undercount. Of the 16 old enough for vaccination, none was up-to-date on vaccines.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary confirmed on CNN last week that officials were investigating reports of possible child deaths from the vaccine, including reviewing autopsy reports and interviewing families. Such a review could take months, according to health officials, and it is unclear…

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Sep 11

One professor on the watchlist who 404 Media is granting anonymity for his safety said once he was added to the list, he started receiving anonymous letters in his campus mailbox.
''You're everything wrong with colleges,'
'watch your step, we're watching you' kind of stuff," he said, "One anonymous DM on Twitter had a picture of my house and driveway, which was chilling." His president and provost also received emails attempting to discredit him with "all the allegedly communist and subversive stuff I was up to," he said. "It was all certainly concerning, but compared to colleagues who are people of color and/or women, I feel like the volume was smaller for me. But it was certainly not a great feeling to experience that stuff. That watchlist fucked up careers and ruined lives."

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public health guy 🦃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · Sep 9

this needs to be a bigger story —

RFK is rushing to appoint SEVEN more anti-vaccine extremists to his phony vaccine panel so it’s packed with quacks.

my read? he’s panicking and accelerating his plans to take away all of our vaccines.

free to read: wapo.st/3JStzDh

RFK Jr. weighs adding critics of coronavirus shots to key vaccine panel

Two urged removal of mRNA coronavirus vaccines. One said physicians “blindly believed” in them. Another said covid isn’t scary, noting Jesus touched lepers.

wapo.st

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Molly Nowels @nollymowels.bsky.social · Sep 8

We found that staff do believe pall care is important but have varied knowledge, engagement, and clinical/training needs around it. Pain management, psych symptom management, and caregiver support were identified as top priority areas for pall care to support in nursing homes.

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Molly Nowels @nollymowels.bsky.social · Sep 8

More work with @pallipsych.bsky.social is out today! We asked nursing home staff about their perceptions of palliative care, their engagement with advance cafe planning and which components of pall care are most valuable to them. doi.org/10.1111/jgs....

Training and Practice Gaps in Nursing Home Palliative Care: A Cross‐Sectional Study

Background Palliative care needs are prevalent among nursing home (NH) residents. However, access to and integration of palliative care services remain limited. NHs often rely on a workforce with va...

doi.org

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Sep 4

RFK Jr. just implied that antidepressants cause suicide.

This is false.

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Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.bsky.social · Sep 2

If you are a woman who needs money for school, apply through my nonprofit The Thurman Perry Foundation on 11/15 at ThurmanPerryFoundation.org

We are awarding $50,000 ($10,000 each) to women nationwide

THE 2025-2026
SCHOLARSHIP CYCLE
IS COMING. IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START PREPARING!

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · Sep 1

This should be the lead story in all major national news outlets. Public health people prefer to stay out of the limelight unless there is no other choice. I can’t overstate how bad things have to be for 9 former CDC directors to band together and pen an op-ed in the NYT warning the entire country.

Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · Sep 1

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

www.nytimes.com

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Aug 31

New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them.

States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.

State steps in to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccine

Public health order counters potential limitations set by the USFDA

www.koat.com

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Zach Rabiroff @zachrabiroff.com · Aug 29

For 12 months, America had a limited proof of concept for universal healthcare, and it was so uniformly successful we had no choice but to obliterate our society

Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · Aug 29

I keep thinking about how the COVID vaccine was rolled out for free for all Americans in 2021 by the federal & state governments with support from local health departments & universities. Since, we have seen the privatization of delivery thru commercial pharmacies & the need for insurance coverage.

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 29

NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.

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Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · Aug 28

Latest Gallup poll data reveal, once again, that the main obstacles to unions in the the US are broken labor laws and employer aggression

Two-thirds of the US public approves of labor unions, but unions only represent about 11 percent of the workforce

Line plot showing the historical share of those who approve of unions in a Gallup poll from January 1936 to August 2025

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Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 29

Major update: As of this morning, CVS says it's decided it can offer the vax in 13 of the 16 states IF you get a prescription. Still a big new barrier for many people, but a change from its "no vaccines at all in these states" position yesterday.

The three remaining absolute-nos are MA, NV and NM.

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 29

NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.

CVS Holds Off on Offering Covid Vaccines in 16 States

www.nytimes.com

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Molly Nowels @nollymowels.bsky.social · Aug 29

Major thanks to @pallipsych.bsky.social and colleagues for helping this one across the finish line!

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Molly Nowels @nollymowels.bsky.social · Aug 29

We found that most PACE clinicians want palliative care access for their patients, and that patients have high unmet needs in multiple domains of palliative care, including advance care planning, family/caregiver support, and psychiatric symptom management.

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Molly Nowels @nollymowels.bsky.social · Aug 29

My latest paper is out!! In Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), we investigated areas that clinical staff identified needs for palliative care support. www.jamda.com/article/S152...

Staff-Identified Palliative Care Needs Among Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE): A Survey Study

The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) program provides nursing home–level care to older adults living in the community. We sought to characterize provider perceptions of PACE patien...

www.jamda.com

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alexis simpson @amutepiggy.bsky.social · Jul 1

the expression "never the twain shall meet" is about how Mark Twain will never hear Man! I Feel Like A Woman

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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · May 29

If any pro-vaccine study did something like this, the anti-vax movement would broadcast it so loud and make it the centerpiece of a documentary. But, bc the anti-vax movement is fundamentally about eugenics and propaganda, they'll just hand-wave it away, play the victim, and move on.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · May 29

The New York Times has found at least two more fake citations in the MAHA report.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

White House Health Report Included Fake Citations

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · May 28

I will never understand why the media feels the need to whitewash RFK Jr constantly.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

R.F.K., Jr., Anthony Fauci, and the Revolt Against Expertise

Citing evidence, ignoring appeals to authority, reserving judgment, demanding more research—these are potentially exhausting traits in a conversational partner, but they’re also marks of a scientific mind. Rather than being “anti-science,” Kennedy seems enchanted by it. His accusatory book “The Real Anthony Fauci” (2021) is packed with discussions of clinical studies, and it bears a blurb from a Nobel-winning virologist. (Anyone worried about the lack of public appetite for complex writing should contemplate the fact that this nearly five-hundred-page, data-drenched work of nonfiction has sold more than a million copies.) Kennedy has published two books with the subtitle “Let the Science Speak.”

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · May 12

this guy is out here proudly being a eugenicist freak while people at mainstream and "respectable publications" make excuses for him or even muse about whether he has a "few good points"

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · May 11

RFK Jr talking about the need for doctors to know how to treat measles for those who are unvaccinated.

“Only very sick kids should die from measles.”

No. They shouldn’t. That was the point of the vaccine. We eradicated the virus so children didn’t die.

Sick & disabled kids are not expendable!

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Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · May 6

tl;dr- egotistical edgelord intoxicatingly enamored with the (false) idea that he's far smarter than everyone else and therefore superior

Vinay Prasad, in his own words, outlines the philosophy he’ll bring to the FDA

Vinay Prasad, tapped to be a top official at the FDA, has never shied from speaking his mind.

www.statnews.com

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Leslie E. Wolf, JD, MPH @leslieewolf.bsky.social · May 2

As others have commented, this requirement has ethical problems. It would unethical to use a placebo as a control if an effective vaccine exists.

Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · May 2

HHS to require placebo testing of ‘all new vaccines,’ raising questions about approval of updated Covid-19 shots via @megtirrell.bsky.social www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/h...

HHS to require placebo testing of ‘all new vaccines,’ raising questions about approval of updated Covid-19 shots | CNN

The US Department of Health and Human Services said it will require that all new vaccines be tested in placebo-controlled trials before they’re licensed for use, raising urgent questions about the sys...

www.cnn.com

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · May 2

There has been a significant reduction in the number of kids getting the flu vaccine over the past 5 years—a drop from 64% to 49%.

Consequently, there have been 216 pediatric flu deaths so far this flu season, the highest number since the swine flu 15 years ago (link below).

Vaccinate.

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · Apr 30

"If you look at a long period of time, a lot of our increase in living standards seems to be coming from public investment in scientific research."

The devastating cuts to science funding aren't just academic, they threaten our livelihoods and wellbeing. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/b...

Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Could Hurt U.S. Economy, Study Shows (Gift Article)

Reducing federal support for research and development could cause long-run economic damage and reduce government revenue.

www.nytimes.com

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Richard M. Carpiano, PhD, MPH @rmcarpiano.medsky.social · Apr 30

6/ HHS Sec.'s job is to oversee med. product safety (e.g., FDA) & ensure public trust. Thus, RFK Jr. shld be saying, "HHS is here to protect your kids. Instead, he's saying the opposite: Parents (Moms): don't trust us to do this technical work. It's your parental responsibility to do it yourself.

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