Esther Choo
choo.bsky.social
Esther Choo
@choo.bsky.social

Emergency Medicine Doc | Mom | Writer | Health Services Research | Public Health

Preserving a modicum of peace where I can. If engagement is not respectful, I will block.

Esther Choo is an emergency physician and professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. She is a popular science communicator who has used social media to talk about racism and sexism in healthcare. She was the president of the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine and is a member of the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians. She was a co-founder and a board member of Time's Up. On February 26, 2021, Choo was named in a lawsuit against OHSU alleging that Choo failed to take action when she was made aware of an alleged sexual assault involving Dr. Jason Campbell, who became popular on TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic. .. more

Public Health 60%
Medicine 25%
Pinned
From nine former CDC directors, who collectively worked at the agency for more than 100 years:

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Read every word.
Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
www.nytimes.com

Please donate, share, follow, and/or post a message of support: bsky.app/profile/amer...
AAP learned this week that seven grants to AAP under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are being terminated. The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I don’t know that we can replace the dollars lost. But we can at least offset the cuts, and at the same time send a message of gratitude to the AAP for being steadfastly committed to children’s health and lives 🙏 www.aap.org/en/philanthr...
Donate to the American Academy of Pediatrics
The AAP is dedicated to improving the physical, mental, social and developmental health of children and adolescents. Every donation makes a difference for achieving optimal child health and well-being...
www.aap.org

“The grants supported initiatives aimed at reducing sudden infant deaths, improving teen and young adult health, preventing birth defects, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, and identifying autism early”

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
HHS cuts millions in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics
The move is an escalation in the agency’s clash with the medical group, which is suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
www.nbcnews.com

For the first time in my life, I donated to the American Academy of Pediatrics. They’re upholding evidence-based health standards for our kids and our communities, and they’re losing federal grants because of it.

www.aap.org/en/philanthr...
This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience.
www.notus.org/health-scien...
CDC to Fund Controversial Study in West Africa on Infant Hepatitis B Vaccines
The study prompted swift outcry from scientists in the U.S. who say it’s “unethical.”
www.notus.org
"They had done nothing wrong. They were not protesting. They were not chasing ICE vehicles. They were simply shopping."

Matt DeMateo recounts how three U.S. citizens, including a toddler, were tear gassed in Cicero by federal agents.
CDC awards $1.6 million for new hepatitis B vaccine study in Guinea-Bissau. Although the award recipients aren't named, the grant seems tailored to Danish researchers whose work is championed by anti-vaxxers but challenged by mainstream scientists.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study, likely to controversial Danish researchers
www.cidrap.umn.edu

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

AAP learned this week that seven grants to AAP under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are being terminated. The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

With the world being what it is I need Google to tell this little turtle something more comforting

Exactly

Our children have grown up with mass shooter drills. And it’s past time for parents and guardians to learn our roles during these events, too.

Sad and necessary advice from @darakass.com contrarian.substack.com/p/what-paren...
What Parents Can Do When Their Child Is in an Active-Shooter Lockdown
This moment will come for too many of us.
contrarian.substack.com

Don’t believe the propaganda that futility is the only way forward.

The stats are not a comfort to those grieving the losses in RI and in Australia. They don’t negate the hate or evil of those actions.

But they support that laws do work to reduce such tragedies.

Australia has< 0.1 firearm homicide deaths per 100,000 www.aic.gov.au/sites/defaul...

The U.S. has 5.6 per 100,000 www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Rhode Island? 1.8 per 100,000, among the lowest in the nation. publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-g...

Now let’s look at how we actually gauge if an intervention “works”: are rates improved?

That statement implies if laws don’t prevent 100% of a thing, they don’t work — which is not a standard that any health-related policy or medical treatment, for that matter, is held to.

I keep seeing statements to the effect of “Strict gun laws didn’t prevent shooting deaths in Rhode Island or in Australia.”

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

Rob Reiner was involved with @glaad.bsky.social as well and helped further progress on LGBTQ representation in media. He said of his work on behalf of LGBTQ rights:

“Each one of these steps makes us more one country, and reminds us we are all part of the family of man.”
Just want to share with my American friends how the Australians respond to a shooting tragedy. Action, rather than thoughts and prayers.

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

Australian police announced the death toll rose to at least 16 in the terrorist attack on a Jewish event at Bondi Beach. MS NOW National Security and Intelligence Analyst and former CIA Officer @mpolymer1.bsky.social shares his analysis.

www.ms.now/weekends-wit...
Death toll in Bondi Beach terror attack rises to at least 16 dead, dozens injured
New South Wales police announced the death toll has risen to at least 16 in the terrorist attack on a Jewish event at Bondi Beach Sunday. Another 40 are being treated for injuries at hospitals. MS NOW...
www.ms.now

Unimaginable work by young folks in the middle of tragedy.

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

Proud of the BDH journalists serving the mission under tough and tragic circumstances.
Live updates: Two deceased in active shooter incident at Brown University
Serving the Brown University community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com

The analogy…

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

FDA staff fear Tracy Beth Høeg will bring bias and instability to embattled drug center. Høeg has been unusually involved in scrutinizing products that she believes might be harmful. www.statnews.com/2025/12/11/t...
FDA staff fear Tracy Beth Høeg will bring bias and instability to embattled drug center
Høeg is set to become the fifth head of the FDA's drug center in a year.
www.statnews.com

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

No joke. I, a person who paints watercolor microbes, got an email to apply for Fauci's old job as director of NIAID.

Reposted by Jason Williams

The NIH is seeking leadership via Facebook ad. The comments are spectacular.

www.facebook.com/share/1AAWyg...

Reposted by Esther K. Choo

Millions of Americans are getting kicked off of their health insurance so that Donald Trump can fund tax handouts for billionaires like Elon Musk.

Let that sink in.
Millions of Americans are getting kicked off of their health insurance.
YouTube video by Senator Elizabeth Warren
youtube.com

I watched this incredibly terrible legal analysis of the ACIP decision. It said that doctors “will no longer need to worry about malpractice” for failing to give Hep B vaccine.

What?

Pediatricians want to protect their patients from future disease and death. Full stop.

That risk assessment will now change.

For Hep B, the most reassuring thing is if the patient was born in the 1990’s or after. Because chances are greater than not they received the vaccine.