J. Offir, PhD
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joffirphd.bsky.social
J. Offir, PhD
@joffirphd.bsky.social
Ph.D. in social psychology. Former researcher in pandemic behavioral risk reduction (non-pharma intervention). Only here to keep up. @[email protected]
Pinned
Updated 📌 list of my essays on the psychology of public health (inc. topics like covid, HIV & reproductive health). As of 8/22/25, there are *31* long-form pieces in this 🧵.

The list starts in reverse chrono. order, but in Oct. 2024 starts rolling forward, so oldest posts are in the middle. Doh.
In The Bad Place, I have a pinned thread of my covid essays & threads, w/ short descriptions of ea. Here's one for This Place, though w/o descriptions, b/c I'm tired. As is true there, I've put them in reverse chrono order, but anything new will post at the end. I flagged ones people liked best:
This is a nightmare; a horror cult. Yes, many women have medical trauma, but this is not the way. Charlatans are taking advantage of women suckered into the wellness movement, & are putting their lives, & those of their children, at risk.

Excerpts below:

1/21

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy, is living with an incurable case of leukemia. In this essay, she boldly speaks truth to power. I know we all wish her the very best in her battle with this terrible disease.

Excerpts below:

1/9

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
A Battle with My Blood
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.
www.newyorker.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Giving helps the giver, too.

"These may feel like grim times. Perhaps you feel powerless, even paralyzed. But we’re not at all helpless. Each of us has almost miraculous powers to save or transform lives, and this column is a guide to exercising those powers...

1/3

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/o...
Opinion | Gifts You Can Give That Save Lives
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Gift 🎁 link.

I wish the public would pay more attention to what ICE is doing to these folks - our gov. is signaling what it will next do to us.

"Ms. Rosa...has been a lawful permanent resident of the [US] since she was 9....Just weeks [prior to detention],...

1/2

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...
Opinion | ‘The System Is Meant to Break You’: What ICE Is Doing to People Here Legally
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:35 AM
The center cannot hold:

Richard Pazdur, an oncologist & longtime FDA official, was named head of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research this month. The center regulates OTC & most Rx meds.

Now, Pazdur "has questioned several plans developed

1/4

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Top FDA drug regulator raises alarms about expediting approvals
Richard Pazdur, who assumed his new role this month, has warned that new Trump administration initiatives could be illegal and pose a risk to public health.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Someone here just asked me about engagement suppression, but while I was responding, the comment to which I was responding was deleted. So here is what I wrote:
November 23, 2025 at 2:43 AM
🧵❗️ I am achy & cranky tonight, so I'm going to be harsh - consider yourself warned.

🔺️Supporting appropriate infection control in healthcare settings is important.

🔺️Being frustrated that so much of the US healthcare system seems indifferent to infection control is understandable.

🔺️ Making...

1/8
November 23, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Thanks, Christophe!

I've had a long-form piece drafted for some time re: how anti-vaxxers engage w/ sci comms, but have been reluctant to post/link it here while my engagement is suppressed (presumably due to the mod. ding I got for posting pix of my mom's psych texts).

I'll work on it next week.
Here's a threaded version of J's 🎯 posts (originals below):
skywriter.blue/pages/did:pl...
November 23, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Ffs; this is starting to feel like a "looking under the streetlight for the contact lens you dropped in the dark alley" tale.

"Nearly 200 countries agreed...to step up efforts to adapt to global warming and warned about the risks of inaction, but rejected...

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
U.N. climate talks fizzle out 10 years after Paris accord
Nearly 200 countries at the U.N. climate summit reached a deal that didn’t include a road map to curtail use of fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Last May, RFK deliberately swam in poop water, despite all the posted signs warning folks off, so I guess this scans.

But also: I worked in STI risk reduction for years, folks. Please don't "felch,"; it's a high-risk activity for disease transmission.
November 23, 2025 at 12:47 AM
As I've said before: the longer the civil war in the US remains unacknowledged, the longer they hold all the cards to winning it. They are on *crusade,* and yet, we're still playing ostritch, assuring ourselves that district & circuit courts will surely save us.
"Countries with state subsidies for abortion, transgender-friendly policies for children, hate speech laws and affirmative action policies will now be considered to be violating human rights under rules imposed at the [US] State Department..."

www.forbes.com/sites/maryro...
Abortion And DEI Policies Now Considered Violations Of Human Rights, U.S. Says
The Trump administration has overhauled how the State Department conducts its annual Human Rights Report.
www.forbes.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:42 AM
I know I should be focused on the threat to the Hepatitis B vaccine (which I predicted many months ago; see my Comstock piece) but I keep getting completely hung up on the fact that the CDC's deputy chief of staff now appears to be a 20-something former DOGE tech.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/hepatitis/cd...
CDC outlines new initiatives such as expanded hepatitis B screening with potential vaccine policy impacts
www.cidrap.umn.edu
November 22, 2025 at 8:35 AM
This was the H5N5 patient.

"Public health officials are continuing to monitor anyone who was in contact with the patient — including more than 100 health care workers — for symptoms to ensure that human-to-human spread has not occurred."

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Bird flu patient dies, marking second U.S. fatality in 2025
The Washington state resident, an older adult with underlying conditions, was infected with a strain that has previously been reported in animals but never before in humans.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Never in a million (billion!) years did I think I'd agree with *one thing* said by MTG.

Every day is a shocker. Also: he must have had something huge on her, huh.

“I raged against my own speaker and my own party for refusing to proactively work...

1/2

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announces she is resigning from House
The longtime MAGA supporter says she is stepping down as of Jan. 5, in the middle of her two-year term. The move comes after a public falling out with Trump.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Nope, wrong word entirely. But *someone* who was on that plane is a pig; the old MCP kind. (Apologies to actual four-legged pigs, who are lovely.)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/b...
Trump Calling Reporter ‘Piggy’ Was ‘Frankness,’ White House Says
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:38 PM
🧵 Understand his strategy:

RFK is playing on public ignorance of what science is & does when he says scientists haven't proven there's no link between vaccines & autism.

Studies (of any sort) *confirm hypotheses*; they never "prove" something isn't true,...

1/8

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website’s Language on Autism and Vaccines
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
"It is highly unusual for a health secretary to personally order a change to scientific guidance, but [RFK, Jr.] ordered the language adjustment on the C.D.C. website."

Yes, because he's a fanatic. And he's admitting it to make sure he gets full credit with MAGA.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website’s Language on Autism and Vaccines
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Do you know a trans/NB person (youth or adult) or parent/caretaker who is seeking support within a spiritual community?

The Unitarian Universalist Assoc. has launched an online monthly support program for trans people & their family members. Find info & register here:

www.uua.org/lgbtq/thewoo...
November 21, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Deadline for submitting comments to the Dec. 4-5 ACIP meeting is midnight on Nov. 24 - that's in three days. Link ⬇️

Esp. if you're a healthcare provider, epidemiologist, or parent, please submit a statement about why we can't lose that initial Hep. B vax dose.

www.regulations.gov/document/CDC...
November 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Thank goodness, but also: this is why constant vigilance is critical. The regime will keep testing the limits with their institutional racism, waiting for the moment we've gotten tired or distracted & looked away, so they can hurt people w/o any blowback.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The new order came hours after The Post reported the service would instead classify such symbols as “potentially divisive” under guidelines set for release next month.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Leadership like this is why, when my husband and I prepared to leave our Midwest college town, I told him, "Pick a coast - any coast."
November 21, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Olivia Nuzzi also says Kennedy told her that "all addicts were pathological liars."

This feels like that logic puzzle called the Liar Paradox, about the guy who says, "Everything I say is a lie." RFK, Jr. is that guy.

www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
RFK Jr. Was 'Nauseous' About Endorsing Trump, Alleged Ex-Lover Says
He also told Olivia Nuzzi that he probably didn't have a brain worm, according to her new memoir
www.medpagetoday.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:16 AM
As they say in Maine, ayuh!

"CMS rarely enforces its rules protecting Medicare Advantage members from network loss."

35M Americans have these plans & may suffer care access issues.

"Just this year, at least 38 hospital systems serving all or parts of 23...

www.medpagetoday.com/publichealth...
Complaints of Gaps in Medicare Advantage Networks Are Common. Enforcement Is Rare.
CMS rarely enforces its rules protecting Medicare Advantage members from network loss
www.medpagetoday.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:08 AM
...and more reporting here:

Trump's "threats came in response to a video released Tuesday of six Congress members with military or intelligence experience, who cautioned that 'threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right...

1/2

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump: Democrats ‘traitors’ for telling military not to follow unlawful orders
The president said lawmakers who appeared in a video committed “seditious behavior” and should be arrested and put on trial for treason.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:44 PM
More reporting:

"Trump was reacting to a video that reminded members of the military that they are not supposed to obey illegal orders."

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Mr. Trump wrote in one of the posts, & he shared another saying to "HANG THEM."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...
Trump Accuses Democrats of Sedition, ‘Punishable by Death,’ Over Message to the Military
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:38 PM