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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 2h

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4h

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 9h

Among other RIF notices at CDC:
—Center for Forecasting and Analytics;
—all of CDC Washington
—Office of Human Resources
—National Center for Injury Prevention and Control 3/4

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 9h

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

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 19h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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escapedexplorer.bsky.social @escapedexplorer.bsky.social · 7h

I've had this conversation with a LOT of people who were DOGEd or otherwise chased out of the gov't in DC and every single one of them is like "yeah if and when things swing back the other way I will come here and rebuild with my bare hands if that's what it takes"

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d

EPA officials directed scientists to assess whether the government could develop methods for detecting abortion pills in wastewater — a practice sought by the anti-abortion movement. The request appears to have originated from a letter sent from GOP members to Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator.

Under Trump, E.P.A. Explored if Abortion Pills Could Be Detected in Wastewater

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency found that they could develop methods to identify traces of the medication if necessary — a practice long sought by the anti-abortion movement.

nyti.ms

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 2d

Big international child health funder pulling all funding from US NGOs: ciff.org/news/update-...

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 2d

My take: the Cornyn-Paxton delta was high among high-info sane R voters & has narrowed as general discontent rises. Would expect it to matter less & less as Cornyn both continues to both maga pivot + his age issues worsen. Talarico also has very good-weird reach with a certain type of low-info voter

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 2d

Interesting poll of Texas finds the GOP with a low-to-mid single-digit lead in any of the 12 configurations of the 2026 Senate race that were tested. And the conventional wisdom of a large difference in how Cornyn and Paxton would perform in November isn't showing up here. www.uh.edu/hobby/txtren...

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 2d

Interesting poll of Texas finds the GOP with a low-to-mid single-digit lead in any of the 12 configurations of the 2026 Senate race that were tested. And the conventional wisdom of a large difference in how Cornyn and Paxton would perform in November isn't showing up here. www.uh.edu/hobby/txtren...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

I recently told some significantly older friends of mine that Paul Biya had been in power longer than they had been alive and wouldn't you know it, that was true

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

this is a good article about the politics of a country you probably don't know anything about but also this photo of the 93-year-old president and his wife is mildly insane. his daughter has also just condemned him and renounced her family wealth on social media.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/07/b...

Cameroon’s Predictable Election Will Produce Unpredictable Chaos

At nearly 93, Paul Biya is all but guaranteed a victory—but has no successor.

foreignpolicy.com

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3d

Aside from shattering core state sovereignty, it's saying one state's Guard (TX) is somehow more loyal to the national authority than another's (IL). It's treating the latter as something bordering on hostile, or at least alien. One part of the country and its soldiers are more America than another.

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

They're so good. Here are two as babies being mad at me after I went to the completely unnecessary trouble of making them my problem

Black and orange kitten in separate cages on their way to get their Equipment Removed. Neither wants to be there. Orange giving a mean stinkeye.

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

If you wanna keep Austin weird you gotta be the weird in Austin, is all I'm saying

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

For a few months in 2023 I made spaying/neutering the cats at a local dive bar my entire personality. Now they are ON A SHIRT.

VERY cool shirt with an orange cat spinning a record, a black cat mixing drinks, and a gray cat getting wasted

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

I've got a plane ticket out of Austin the morning after ACL weekend 2 - historically the biggest air traffic day annually - before the House will even reconvene on the 14th. Do I premptively give up and just drive to Phoneix or what

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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 3d

an ICE agent rammed a car and shot the woman inside five times for no reason. she only survived because she escaped

Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 4d

This is not going to end well. Sooner or later an American citizen is going to get killed.

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San Antonio Current @sacurrent.bsky.social · 4d

‘Only someone as stupid as Ken Paxton can announce to the world that they are doing something undercover,’ one person tweeted.

Texas AG Ken Paxton roasted on social media for bragging about 'undercover operation' against ANTIFA - San Antonio Current

'Only someone as stupid as Ken Paxton can announce to the world that they are doing something undercover,' one person tweeted. In the press release post on social media platform X, Paxton said he was ...

www.sacurrent.com

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

For Austin I guess all the California expats moving here, but that's only because outsiders and national media still don't realize *they're* the ones who are boring republicans

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 5d

since portland’s business is apparently everyone’s business, what’s something about *your* city that you can make fun of but outsiders can’t?

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

San Antonio as a black hole of ambition where the number one social question is "where did you go to high school" and the default assumption if you meet them anywhere outside of the city that it was in a wealthy enclave or private

(all true and drives me mad but the systemic poverty is real)

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 5d

since portland’s business is apparently everyone’s business, what’s something about *your* city that you can make fun of but outsiders can’t?

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

This letter exceeded my increasingly high "save image to phone for posterity" bar

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 4d

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s letter to the National Governors Association

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

good lord I might be mad enough about this to post on l*nked*n

JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

Polio in Gaza is an *excellent* case study, by the way. UNRWA only switched from the oral to the inactivated injectable vaccine about a decade ago. Conflict/supply chain issues on the Gaza side combined with large pockets of non-adherence on the Israeli side is a great cross-border health study!

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 4d

"Along with the termination, Tulane altered the course’s syllabus, removing the article, a Harvard School of Public Health discussion about the resurgence of polio in Gaza."

My alma mater continues to embarrass. Public Health students learning public health?
oh no
lailluminator.com/2025/10/06/t...

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

The article she got fired for assigning is just a milquetoast set of anecdotes from outbreak responders. hsph.harvard.edu/news/polio-g...

Polio in Gaza: Experts explain the outbreak and the public health response | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

In August, a confirmed case of polio was reported in Gaza—the first in 25 years—which created significant concern for further spread. The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights convened a discu...

hsph.harvard.edu

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

(The vaccine switch was a question I got during my master's thesis defense, but had prepared a backup slide for, so the entire context from 2014-2016 is burned into my brain simply because of how satisfying that was)

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