Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

@hlthcrwmn2028.bsky.social

200 followers 570 following 160 posts

20+ years in healthcare industry, sharing info in support of Healthcare Access for all. Former NIHer. Reposts intended to share info & don't = an endorsement. Views in notes are my own. 🛟 https://www.freepik.com/icon/health_8869931" Icon by Dragon Icons

https://www.freepik.com/icon/health_8869931"

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

hlthcrwmn2028.bsky.social @hlthcrwmn2028.bsky.social · Jun 27

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a collection point for adverse events related to vaccines.

*Individuals self submit to VAERS

* Reports in VAERS do not prove that a vaccine caused the adverse event. Reports can be incomplete, inaccurate, unvetted or coincidental

#medsky 💉🛟🧪

2 4

Reposted

Daniel Westreich @epidbydesign.bsky.social · 19h

RIFs at CDC.

Destroying the Epidemic Intelligence Service, NCIRD, NCIPC & a dozen other areas/divisions/branches will cause enormous harm and suffering to America, and indeed to the whole world.

Call your Reps about it.

Then call them again.

8 95 190

Reposted

Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 19h

This should be shown to medical students for years about how doctors, entranced by power and fancy titles, lent the legitimacy of the medical profession to a deranged authoritarian.

Can doctors sink lower than this?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

9 31 130

Reposted

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 18h

Not enough news outlets are making it absolutely clear that last night’s RIFs are unlawful

14 200 760

Reposted

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 18h

They have fired the staff of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, who are disease detectives that respond to outbreaks around the world.

I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous it is to dismantle our disease surveillance infrastructure.

140 1.8K 4K

Reposted

Ferric Fang, MD @fangferric.bsky.social · 17h

Free of charge, MMRW has been providing indispensable information on:

• influenza
• invasive streptococcal infections
• HIV
• meningococcal disease
• RSV
• Salmonella
• rabies
• baylisascariasis

And that's just in the past 3 months. An irreplaceable loss. Only a psychopath would destroy it.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19h

Fustiliarian Friday: Trump/Kennedy/GOP use the shutdown as an excuse to destroy the CDC’s elite field epidemiology team and one of the most important epidemiology journals in the world.

Gift link.

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

6 10

Reposted

Noam Ross @noamross.net · 15h

Decided to donate to the CDC mutual aid network to support laid-off and furloughed employees. They also have some *excellent* merch: www.cdcresourceportal.org

A candle with the words "Smells like Data Chaos" with a picture of a burning file cabinet.

A postcard with a "Fuck RFK" sign put up to cover a broken window, evoking the bullet-ridden windows from the CDC attack

A mug with the text "FAFO is not a good public health strategy."

7 21

Reposted

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 18h

For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...

17 300 500

Reposted

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18h

I've yet to see this properly analysed from a psychological point of view. Obviously RFK is a nut, but there's also a broader pattern in the GOP ranks that seems deeply peculiar, of wanting positively to welcome the threat of disease and death. It feels like a collective psychosis.

Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 21h

The Trump admin is in the midst of laying off 1,100-1,200 HHS staff. The CDC's outbreak responders, gone. The office producing CDC's weekly journal MMWR is gone. CDC staff securing sensitive data, gone. Worker safety, gone. Immunization group, gone.

Instead, Congress watches RFK "make the proof"

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

7 14 48

Reposted

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 23h

Evidently, President Trump got all the proof he needs that vaccines are safe and effective. He voted with his arm yesterday and got the highly beneficial Covid and flu shots. Amid the sea of confusion RFKJ has generated about vaccines, all Americans should know that Trump is getting vaccinated.

Renée Graham 🏳️‍🌈 @rygraham.bsky.social · 23h

Last month Trump said he wanted proof that COVID vaccines are effective. Yesterday, during his "semiannual" physical, Trump received a COVID vaccine as well as a flu shot.

That's because vaccines — which Trump's administration have made harder to get — work.

55 120

Reposted

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 22h

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

72 1.1K 2.1K

hlthcrwmn2028.bsky.social @hlthcrwmn2028.bsky.social · 21h

RIP to the #MMWR. This is yet another devastating nail in the coffin of our healthcare system and I dont know how we come back from this. You cant just flip the switch back on. Critical info is being lost here. 🧪🛟 #medsky

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1d

The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today.

The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly.

We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.

2 1

Reposted

Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 1d

It’s been…. a night.

#CDCFridayNightMassacre

I’m exhausted - physically, emotionally.
To those divisions and branches that were RIFed and that we didn’t yet highlight here, apologies. We need to take a break for the night.

All of your - all of our - work matters.
We are in this together.

24 93 630

Reposted

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1d

Public health is not partisan. It is health for the public.

That means all of us.

Defend Public Health.

20 230 910

Reposted

𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.bsky.social · 1d

Anti-vax onstage, Pfizer backstage.

170 1.9K 4.7K

Reposted

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 1d

My quote of the day

Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn't know they were going to get.

William Foege

4 82 300

Reposted

Eli Perencevich @eliowa.bsky.social · 23h

It only makes sense to shut down the CDC journal MMWR if CDC is no longer doing public health

CDC DOB: July 1, 1946
CDC died: October 10, 2025

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

2 13 27

Reposted

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 1d

Our nation's federal employees are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet.

They make sure we have clean water.

They protect us from financial fraud.

They provide healthcare to our communities.

They make our government actually work for people.

Do not forget this.

310 4K 12K

Reposted

AltFDA @altfda.altgov.info · 1d

The illegal RIF’s have started in HHS!

Twitter post saying that the RIF’s have started in the HHS

3 18 53

Reposted

Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 2d

CDC, its advisers quietly expand access to Covid-19 shot for pregnant women - likely without even realizing it: but the tables now reflect shared clinical decision making rather than "no recommendation", increasing access. politi.co/4mZJUUL via @politico.com @sophiegardner.bsky.social

CDC, its advisers quietly expand access to Covid-19 shot for pregnant women

The panel voted to undo an action by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which removed the vaccine from the immunization schedule for pregnant women.

politi.co

2 17 49

Reposted

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 2d

"Baby in her placenta"

RFK Jr. Complains About TikTok Video of Woman Taking Tylenol With a 'Baby in Her Placenta'

gizmodo.com

130 190 870

Reposted

Ed Belongia MD @belongia.bsky.social · 2d

CDCs demand to break up MMR vax into separate monovalent shots is public health malpractice.
These vax are widely used worldwide. The 2 manufacturers (Merck & GSK) could easily decide to abandon the US market rather than take a big financial risk on clinical development & licensure of separate shots

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 2d

Andrew Wakefield claimed without evidence in a retracted study that there was a link between autism and the combination MMR vaccine -- but not separate shots.

Wakefield filed a patent for his own separate shots the year before the study was published.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Alarm as CDC calls for separate MMR vaccines despite measles outbreak

Concerns that three separate shots would be more costly and time-consuming, and keep kids from being vaccinated

www.theguardian.com

3 27 56

Reposted

Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 2d

Everything is connected

US government cuts ➡ international public health ➡ US health security

Climate change ➡ disease in new areas

Air pollution ➡ long-term health

But yes, let's slash foreign aid, ignore climate change, and gut EPA regulations. While pretending to care about Americans' health

Healthbeat @healthbeat.org · 2d

Your Global Health Checkup: The chikungunya virus is spreading beyond the tropics, including in New York. People are dying of malaria after U.S. cuts in Cameroon aid. Some good news for elephants - and more.

People are dying of malaria after U.S. cuts in Cameroon aid. Here's what else to know in global public health this week.

bit.ly

9 69 190

Reposted

Science Magazine @science.org · 2d

President Donald Trump’s administration has terminated $352 million in grants and contracts this year to the Research Triangle Institute, the United States’s third largest independent research organization, a report estimates.

Cuts in global health and climate hit Research Triangle Institute hard

“Financial drubbing” underscores reliance of some independent research organizations on federal funding

www.science.org

2 30 50

Reposted

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 2d

Problems with pharma don't mean that quackery works.

Problems in aircraft design don’t mean that magic carpets can actually fly.

- Ben Goldacre

7 73 300

Reposted

Soren Larsen (SEGL) @sorenlarsen.bsky.social · 3d

Annual COVID Vaccines Protect People against Severe Disease, Even with Prior Immunity

"The new research also “calls into question the idea that younger individuals and those without risk factors don’t need the vaccine,” Viswanathan says."

Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

www.scientificamerican.com

1 25 57