Lauren
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laur705.bsky.social
Lauren
@laur705.bsky.social
Health Equity | MCH Research | Avid Traveler
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Pro-Publica developed a tool to help you find out why your insurance claim was denied. I haven't tried this yet but would be interested to hear others experiences. 🩺 🛟

projects.propublica.org/claimfile/?u...
Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim
You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...
projects.propublica.org
Here's yet another issue where RFK is going to cherry-pick the data points that support his beliefs 🩺🛟
RFK Jr. blames pills—not guns—for school shootings
There is no credible evidence that antidepressants cause violence, but the health secretary now vows a “massive” effort to prove the failed theory.
www.motherjones.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Lauren
The decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downgrade its recommendations to protect infants from hepatitis B is a dangerous move that will harm children.

Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT
December 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Lauren
A dystopian reality: unqualified decision makers with disregard for basic concepts in epidemiology, clinical medicine, and the evidence-to-decision guidelines process on full display at ACIP - leaving American children to bear the harm. (A few ACIP members excluded) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...
Panel Votes to End Recommendation for Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
There are a lot of bad being done by this administration but the impacts of RFK's assault on public health will likely have the worst effects long term
December 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Lauren
We are watching white nationalism overrun public health in real time
Early in this ACIP meeting, Vicky Pebsworth blamed gay men, promiscuous women, urban residents, and immigrants for spreading HBV in the U.S.

Then Evelyn Griffin said, out loud, that “illegal immigrants” are to blame.

This committee should be DISBANDED and exiled to science Siberia.
December 4, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Two public letters this week — one from former FDA commissioners and one from former CDC leaders — warn that health leadership spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is putting the public’s health at risk with a haphazard approach to vaccine science.
Former FDA, CDC leaders warn that US vaccine policy is under threat - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale
(CNN) — Former US public health officials are sounding alarms about significant changes being made to the country’s vaccine policy under the Trump administration. Two publicRead More
wsvn.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I'm reading about the ACIP meeting while in the waiting room for my medical appointment.

The medical system is already strained. Everyone here is already stressed and overworked (and coughing!).

With the proposed regulatory changes, its only gonna get worse.
December 4, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Lauren
When asked on Wednesday why the panel would target the Hep B vaccine, Cassidy said of Kennedy’s HHS: “The best I can tell is that they have a prejudice against science. That’s the best I can tell.”

Umm...thanks, Bill. Any thoughts on why we are in this mess?

rollcall.com/2025/12/04/c...
Cassidy suggests HHS is anti-science ahead of hepatitis B meeting - Roll Call
Sen. Bill Cassidy said federal health officials might be biased agains science.
rollcall.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Lauren
“Thousands of very competitive projects in areas like cancer, diabetes, aging, neurological disorders and public health improvements most like went unfunded in 2025.
Similarly, at the National Science Foundation, the roughly 3,000 fewer new grants encompassed reductions to every area of science”
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Lauren
December 1, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Lauren
Everyone wants to distance themselves from the poor because it feels nice to look down and say “at least that’s not me.”

It could be any of us at any time. That’s how the system is set up. Bills and financial responsibilities don’t stop because you can’t work.

There’s no shame in admitting it.
November 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Lauren
My bipartisan IRS MATH Act with Senator Bill Cassidy is now law.

Now, if you mess up your taxes, the IRS has to tell you where you made a mistake and how to fix it.

No more spending a fortune on lawyers or hours to find errors.

That means fewer headaches and more money in your pocket.
December 1, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Psychedelics and immortality: Nature managed to get into the exclusive MAHA summit last week starring RFK and JD Vance. Here's what we learned. 🛟🩺
Psychedelics and immortality: Nature went to a health summit starring RFK and JD Vance
The Make America Healthy Again summit, attended by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr and vice-president JD Vance, gave a sense of what’s driving US health policy.
www.nature.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Lauren
Calling something "scientific orthodoxy" rather than "established fact" or even "scientific consensus" is so incredibly damaging.
November 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Fixed it for you, @nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Vaccination is essential to protect individuals and communities from preventable diseases, making it a fundamental element of public health. AMA statement on CDC changes to website on autism and vaccines: spr.ly/633207iCja
November 20, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Lauren
In related news, the claim ‘the Tooth Fairy does not actually take lost baby teeth from under pillows’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that magical beings are secretly thieving teeth in the dead of night…”

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
CDC backpedals on vaccines and autism, despite earlier assurances from RFK Jr.
The CDC, under the direction of an unqualified health secretary, is now promoting claims that flunk Logic 101.
www.ms.now
November 20, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Rosalind Franklin died at 37 of ovarian cancer attributed to radiation exposure from the methods she & her assistant used to photograph a cross-section of the DNA double helix.

Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!
November 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Update: today, 16.8 million people should have *full* SNAP benefits for November. They don't.

Most states don't issue SNAP all at once. Some distribute SNAP up to the 28th day.

This masks the scale of the problem: 42 million worrying about hunger in the richest country on earth.

🛟 🥗 🩺📊 #econsky
November 6, 2025 at 12:40 PM
How to Help the Millions of Americans Who Are Losing Their Food Assistance 📰🛟🩺
How to Help the Millions of Americans Who Are Losing Their Food Assistance | Cup of Jo
On November 1st — tomorrow — 42 million people, including 16 million…
cupofjo.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Lauren
Are you going to need some help when SNAP benefits are cut off? Are you looking to donate goods or money to help your neighbors?

This website helps you find a local food pantry: foodfinder.us
Food Pantries of America - Welcome to FoodFinder!
At FoodFinder you can search the food pantries that are closer to you. Explore the map and enter your zip code to learn which ones are available.
foodfinder.us
October 28, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Lauren
New @npr.org explainer on the threats to food access with SNAP cuts: "The vast majority (of recipients) are children, working people, older Americans, veterans and people with disabilities. If SNAP shuts down, we will have the most mass hunger since the Great Depression." www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...
'Uncharted territory': Ongoing shutdown threatens food aid for 42 million people
SNAP, the country's largest anti-hunger program, dates back to the Great Depression and has never been disrupted this way. Most recipients are seniors, families with kids, and those with disabilities.
www.npr.org
October 28, 2025 at 2:07 PM
What the administration is doing now is more like revenge than renewal, said Dr. Shah, who led Maine’s public health agency during the pandemic. 🛟🩺

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/h...
Behind the Dismantling of the C.D.C.: Reform or ‘Humiliation’?
www.nytimes.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Lauren
"Our patients are increasingly encountering misinformation about contraception online, and we need to be prepared to address concerns in a way that is respectful and considerate of the patient's values, needs, and goals for contraception"

via acog.org - #MedSky

www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/genera...
Ob/Gyns Urged to Fight Contraception Misinformation
False information about contraception abounds; physicians can help correct the narrative
www.medpagetoday.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:47 PM