Sara Silverstein
@sarasilverstein.bsky.social
Historian. Writer. Public & global health, rights, internationalism, migration, citizenship & statelessness, Modern & Eastern Europe. Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut, Department of History and Human Rights Institute. Views my own.
Pinned
I’m very pleased to have written the chapter on health and to be in fantastic company in this volume.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
"WHO to lose nearly a quarter of its workforce – 2,000 jobs – due to US withdrawing funding" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
WHO to lose nearly a quarter of its workforce – 2,000 jobs – due to US withdrawing funding
Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the World Health Organization in January, prompting the agency to scale back its work
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:13 AM
"WHO to lose nearly a quarter of its workforce – 2,000 jobs – due to US withdrawing funding" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Their essay is one way of explaining that only the “fit” will survive and we should not be investing money in protecting the “unfit.”
#eugenics
#eugenics
A new approach to pandemic preparedness:
1️⃣ Stop preparing for pandemics
2️⃣ Rewrite history of the last major pandemic
3️⃣ Go to the gym
Simple - 🤷♂️.
www.city-journal.org/article/nih-...
1️⃣ Stop preparing for pandemics
2️⃣ Rewrite history of the last major pandemic
3️⃣ Go to the gym
Simple - 🤷♂️.
www.city-journal.org/article/nih-...
NIH Directors: The World Needs a New Pandemic Playbook
The old one failed to cope with Covid and may even have caused it.
www.city-journal.org
November 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Their essay is one way of explaining that only the “fit” will survive and we should not be investing money in protecting the “unfit.”
#eugenics
#eugenics
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Under new administration guidance, if you’re overweight or diabetic, you can be denied a visa to live in the U.S. all in the name of “protecting the taxpayer.”
Newsflash: immigrants are not the problem. They’re the ones helping to build our economy and communities. 🇺🇸
www.npr.org/2025/11/12/n...
Newsflash: immigrants are not the problem. They’re the ones helping to build our economy and communities. 🇺🇸
www.npr.org/2025/11/12/n...
Immigrants with obesity, diabetes and other health problems may be denied visas
New guidance from the Trump administration directs visa officers to consider common health ailments, including obesity and diabetes, when would-be immigrants seek to enter the U.S.
www.npr.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Under new administration guidance, if you’re overweight or diabetic, you can be denied a visa to live in the U.S. all in the name of “protecting the taxpayer.”
Newsflash: immigrants are not the problem. They’re the ones helping to build our economy and communities. 🇺🇸
www.npr.org/2025/11/12/n...
Newsflash: immigrants are not the problem. They’re the ones helping to build our economy and communities. 🇺🇸
www.npr.org/2025/11/12/n...
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Academics who have advised a graduate student from China over the past years would be banned from federal funding. This would give the federal government one more lever to attack scientists. And how long before they expand the list of "hostile foreign" countries?
November 14, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Academics who have advised a graduate student from China over the past years would be banned from federal funding. This would give the federal government one more lever to attack scientists. And how long before they expand the list of "hostile foreign" countries?
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
They’re erasing the history because this administration doesn’t want evidence of public health successes or memory of a functioning CDC.
🚨🚨
🧵1/6 #FedFam, reporters - urgent help needed
🚨CDC Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate) is being shuttered🚨
Staff are being “un-RIFed” just to close the museum permanently — then RIFed again in Jan
This is bureaucratic cruelty & cultural vandalism
CDC Library is a national treasure
#SaveCDCLibrary
🧵1/6 #FedFam, reporters - urgent help needed
🚨CDC Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate) is being shuttered🚨
Staff are being “un-RIFed” just to close the museum permanently — then RIFed again in Jan
This is bureaucratic cruelty & cultural vandalism
CDC Library is a national treasure
#SaveCDCLibrary
The David J. Sencer CDC Museum: In Association with the Smithsonian
Free museum exhibiting public health topics and the history of CDC.
www.cdc.gov
November 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
They’re erasing the history because this administration doesn’t want evidence of public health successes or memory of a functioning CDC.
Politically motivated removals and political appointments are reminiscent of “science” under Soviet and other authoritarian regimes.
NEW: Jenna Norton, an NIH employee who is openly critical of Trump & RFK Jr, has been put on "non-disciplinary" administrative leave. She says the administration is trying to "scare and silence me." An HHS official, asked to comment, called her a radical leftist.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
N.I.H. Worker Who Criticized Trump Health Policies Says She Is on Administrative Leave
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Politically motivated removals and political appointments are reminiscent of “science” under Soviet and other authoritarian regimes.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
🚨🚨 @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social is a force. Her voice carries power, truth, and courage—threats to the regime.
The only thing authoritarians fear more than a voice they cannot control is a chorus. So let’s give them one: speak up, speak loudly, and don’t stop. Stand with Jenna. ✊🇺🇸
The only thing authoritarians fear more than a voice they cannot control is a chorus. So let’s give them one: speak up, speak loudly, and don’t stop. Stand with Jenna. ✊🇺🇸
Trump’s HHS put me on “non-disciplinary” admin leave today. This was retaliation for speaking up. Moves like this are designed to silence us. Let’s not let.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Dteoop/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Dteoop/
I guess I am hitting a nerve, because they just put me on admin leave.
TikTok video by Jenna
www.tiktok.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
🚨🚨 @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social is a force. Her voice carries power, truth, and courage—threats to the regime.
The only thing authoritarians fear more than a voice they cannot control is a chorus. So let’s give them one: speak up, speak loudly, and don’t stop. Stand with Jenna. ✊🇺🇸
The only thing authoritarians fear more than a voice they cannot control is a chorus. So let’s give them one: speak up, speak loudly, and don’t stop. Stand with Jenna. ✊🇺🇸
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
According to a source, Jenna Norton, who led a letter criticizing Trump's decimation of the NIH (see below), has been placed on administrative leave. She's the first at NIH to be put on leave, joining EPA officials who criticized Trump policies.
www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
NIH scientists publish letter criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health research
The letter addresses the termination of 2,100 research grants valued at more than $12 billion and some of the human costs that have resulted, such as cutting off medication regimens to participants in...
www.pbs.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:58 PM
According to a source, Jenna Norton, who led a letter criticizing Trump's decimation of the NIH (see below), has been placed on administrative leave. She's the first at NIH to be put on leave, joining EPA officials who criticized Trump policies.
www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
They’re erasing the history because this administration doesn’t want evidence of public health successes or memory of a functioning CDC.
🚨🚨
🧵1/6 #FedFam, reporters - urgent help needed
🚨CDC Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate) is being shuttered🚨
Staff are being “un-RIFed” just to close the museum permanently — then RIFed again in Jan
This is bureaucratic cruelty & cultural vandalism
CDC Library is a national treasure
#SaveCDCLibrary
🧵1/6 #FedFam, reporters - urgent help needed
🚨CDC Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate) is being shuttered🚨
Staff are being “un-RIFed” just to close the museum permanently — then RIFed again in Jan
This is bureaucratic cruelty & cultural vandalism
CDC Library is a national treasure
#SaveCDCLibrary
The David J. Sencer CDC Museum: In Association with the Smithsonian
Free museum exhibiting public health topics and the history of CDC.
www.cdc.gov
November 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
They’re erasing the history because this administration doesn’t want evidence of public health successes or memory of a functioning CDC.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Happy news: My new book -- Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction -- now has a cover and is available for preorder! The book is a concise history of humanitarianism in an international and global perspective, from the 18th century to the present. More info here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
November 10, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Happy news: My new book -- Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction -- now has a cover and is available for preorder! The book is a concise history of humanitarianism in an international and global perspective, from the 18th century to the present. More info here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Last night, eight Dems in the Senate broke ranks and acquiesced to Republicans in the shutdown fight.
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Last night, eight Dems in the Senate broke ranks and acquiesced to Republicans in the shutdown fight.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Last month, El Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, fell to rebel forces. “The world hasn’t caught up to what a big deal El Fasher is,” a humanitarian researcher at Yale said. “We are talking tens upon tens of thousands of potential dead in five days.” https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ePchw0
Rebels Post Videos of Mass Killings in Darfur as the World Watches
After the fall of El Fasher to the R.S.F., observers fear for the next target in the war.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Last month, El Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, fell to rebel forces. “The world hasn’t caught up to what a big deal El Fasher is,” a humanitarian researcher at Yale said. “We are talking tens upon tens of thousands of potential dead in five days.” https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ePchw0
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Yesterday, hundreds of scientists, physicians, health workers, patients, leaders, and advocates spoke together with one voice, RFK Jr. is not fit to lead HHS and has got to go. Thanks to @apha.org @standupforscience.bsky.social, and others for organizing.
November 6, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Yesterday, hundreds of scientists, physicians, health workers, patients, leaders, and advocates spoke together with one voice, RFK Jr. is not fit to lead HHS and has got to go. Thanks to @apha.org @standupforscience.bsky.social, and others for organizing.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
it is darkly humorous that after all these years, the Republican health insurance plan ends up being to end health insurance
Trump: "I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE."
November 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
it is darkly humorous that after all these years, the Republican health insurance plan ends up being to end health insurance
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
This is murder. It is social engineering by oligarchs and politicians doing the will of oligarchs. It is cruel and brutal and results in death as surely as other forms of violence.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This is murder. It is social engineering by oligarchs and politicians doing the will of oligarchs. It is cruel and brutal and results in death as surely as other forms of violence.
I’m very pleased to have written the chapter on health and to be in fantastic company in this volume.
November 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I’m very pleased to have written the chapter on health and to be in fantastic company in this volume.
This is murder. It is social engineering by oligarchs and politicians doing the will of oligarchs. It is cruel and brutal and results in death as surely as other forms of violence.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This is murder. It is social engineering by oligarchs and politicians doing the will of oligarchs. It is cruel and brutal and results in death as surely as other forms of violence.
Thread. Strongly recommend reading the whole thread.
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Thread. Strongly recommend reading the whole thread.
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
I'm delighted to give a pre-launch book talk at Dartmouth on 11/10.
Why is eastern Europe necessary for understanding global health and health as a right?
Come hear my talk and look for my book in the spring!
"For Your Health and Ours"
history.dartmouth.edu/events/event...
Why is eastern Europe necessary for understanding global health and health as a right?
Come hear my talk and look for my book in the spring!
"For Your Health and Ours"
history.dartmouth.edu/events/event...
For Your Health and Ours: An Eastern European History of Global Health
history.dartmouth.edu
November 4, 2025 at 11:53 PM
I'm delighted to give a pre-launch book talk at Dartmouth on 11/10.
Why is eastern Europe necessary for understanding global health and health as a right?
Come hear my talk and look for my book in the spring!
"For Your Health and Ours"
history.dartmouth.edu/events/event...
Why is eastern Europe necessary for understanding global health and health as a right?
Come hear my talk and look for my book in the spring!
"For Your Health and Ours"
history.dartmouth.edu/events/event...
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
And let's name names. #ElonMusk #MarcoRubio #RussellVought and #DonaldTrump (with help from #JohnRoberts). This is premeditated murder--of children. You can spin it anyway you like but you cannot escape this fact.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 12:25 PM
And let's name names. #ElonMusk #MarcoRubio #RussellVought and #DonaldTrump (with help from #JohnRoberts). This is premeditated murder--of children. You can spin it anyway you like but you cannot escape this fact.
Cuts to the NIH imperil health today and in the future.
As though that’s not enough, there’s also this: “The overall domestic impact of the cuts to NIH funding is currently estimated at $11 billion in economic losses and 49,000 jobs, with $17 billion in future economic losses predicted annually.”
As though that’s not enough, there’s also this: “The overall domestic impact of the cuts to NIH funding is currently estimated at $11 billion in economic losses and 49,000 jobs, with $17 billion in future economic losses predicted annually.”
We have a new timeline up today on our Medical Research Funding page, documenting the onslaught of political, legal, and bureaucratic attacks on medical research since January:
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
Medical Research Funding: Timeline — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Cuts to the NIH imperil health today and in the future.
As though that’s not enough, there’s also this: “The overall domestic impact of the cuts to NIH funding is currently estimated at $11 billion in economic losses and 49,000 jobs, with $17 billion in future economic losses predicted annually.”
As though that’s not enough, there’s also this: “The overall domestic impact of the cuts to NIH funding is currently estimated at $11 billion in economic losses and 49,000 jobs, with $17 billion in future economic losses predicted annually.”
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
🧵1/5 Article a few weeks old and no less devastating.
It is *tragic*, morally repugnant, and simply *dangerous* that DOGE/this admin have fired the experts working on fighting outbreaks.
We cannot protect ourselves if we remove the infrastructure and staff working tirelessly to keep us safe.
🎁🔗👇
It is *tragic*, morally repugnant, and simply *dangerous* that DOGE/this admin have fired the experts working on fighting outbreaks.
We cannot protect ourselves if we remove the infrastructure and staff working tirelessly to keep us safe.
🎁🔗👇
They Fought Outbreaks Worldwide. Now They’re Fighting for New Lives.
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:55 AM
🧵1/5 Article a few weeks old and no less devastating.
It is *tragic*, morally repugnant, and simply *dangerous* that DOGE/this admin have fired the experts working on fighting outbreaks.
We cannot protect ourselves if we remove the infrastructure and staff working tirelessly to keep us safe.
🎁🔗👇
It is *tragic*, morally repugnant, and simply *dangerous* that DOGE/this admin have fired the experts working on fighting outbreaks.
We cannot protect ourselves if we remove the infrastructure and staff working tirelessly to keep us safe.
🎁🔗👇
Reposted by Sara Silverstein
This story comes out the same day the architect of this monstrous policy gets approval for a near-trillion-dollar payout from his government-subsidized company.
Utterly despicable.
Utterly despicable.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 2:35 AM
This story comes out the same day the architect of this monstrous policy gets approval for a near-trillion-dollar payout from his government-subsidized company.
Utterly despicable.
Utterly despicable.