Tara C. Smith
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aetiology.bsky.social
Tara C. Smith
@aetiology.bsky.social

Collector of social media sites. Infectious disease epidemiologist. Writes about vaccine hesitancy, science misinfo, zombies. Probably somewhere on a trail. Views own etc.

The Smith special counsel investigation was a special counsel investigation that was opened by U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland on November 18, 2022, three days after Donald Trump announced his campaign for the 2024 United States presidential election. The investigation was created to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. president Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor, to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records, including classified documents. .. more

Political science 39%
Economics 19%

Yep. That's one aspect they were fighting about: blocking traffic. Peaceful but not their type of peaceful.

"I'm ok with peaceful protests."

*people protest peacefully

"No, not like that".

All over the socials today.
FOX: Where’s the protest against the regime that's killing people in the street right now?

Trent: They are doing those today. It’s called the ICE protests

FOX: Are they talking about Iran at the ICE protests?

Trent: No, I think they are talking about the regime that is shooting people in the face

Reposted by Smith

Again, odd Bhattacharya - um, better things to do? – so concerned with me.

The grifter "we were censored!" whine = disingenuous political ranting.

Reality: studies (including our own work) shows their narrative DOMINANT in media, on socials, politically

Now? MAGA = censorship machine. The irony.
Homan: "We gotta stop the hateful rhetoric. Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It's just ridiculous. It's gonna infuriate people more which means there's gonna be more incidents like this."

I wish I knew nothing about her. I'd turn back time and cleanse my brain.

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I don't think it's a coincidence that all of this (worldwide) is happening when most of the people who lived through WWII have just died. We need to do a better job of keeping their memories and ideals alive.
If you need inspiration to keep going right now, may I recommend the story of Robert Smalls, who stole a confederate steamboat and piloted his family and almost 20 others to freedom and went on to become one of the first Black people elected to Congress ✊🏽

www.usatoday.com/story/life/b...
'Be Free or Die,' tale of escaped slave who became a Union hero
Cate Lineberry's new book tells the little-known story of Robert Smalls, a ship pilot.
www.usatoday.com
Jonathan Ross worked for Border Patrol before ICE

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god, there’s apparently ICE agents in Bemidji, in northern MN. Bemidji is between my reservation and two others. there is very little diversity besides the Indigenous population.

truly terrifying with how vulnerable Native women especially already are.

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Joseph Ladapo is an anti-vaxxer, snake oil peddler, and the Surgeon General of Florida.

He’s exceeded expectations in the area of the batshittery arts with a recent Twitter post, where he recommends “structured water”.

It’s perfectly reasonable to ask yourself, what the fuck is structured water?
This is Minneapolis:

-drop the kids off for a day with their grandparents
-go to brunch with your wife
-get a text from neighbors who don’t have enough food & can’t leave home or they might be abducted by fed govt
-get groceries as helicopters roar overhead
-deliver food & this vehicle passes you
If you had predicted with precise accuracy any of our current top stories this week during the ‘24 election, it would have been dismissed as Trump Derangement Syndrome by most of the professional takesmiths.
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."

The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"

"Learned what?" she asks

Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
NIH is losing so may good people. First they were fired or RIFd or pressured to retire early.

Now they are leaving because “no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity.”

Proud to know these brave scientists!

www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n...
The NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left
“We can no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity,” write four scientists and administrators who recently resigned from the NIH.
www.statnews.com

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I've seen Renee Good's words interpreted as an attempt to placate or de-escalate.

Maybe that was her intent, but from her murderer's POV, she and her wife were mocking him.

This is mainly what his phone video is meant to show. Women laughing at a man. Their apparent queerness is the final insult.
It’s hard to know if people outside MN understand how much of life is grinding to a halt here because of Trump’s occupation. Schools have shut down, businesses are scaling back hours or closing because their employees aren’t safe. The whole city is weighted down.
Great piece by my Cato colleague. “Since July, immigration agents have shot at least six people behind the wheel of a vehicle. The same playbook is used each time: the agent says they “feared for their life” as a vehicle was “weaponized” against them. Juries should decide, but we tie their hands.
Opinion | Renee Good wasn’t the first person shot in her car by ICE. The justification followed a familiar script.
Mike Fox: The officer who shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis might never have to defend his actions before a judge or jury.
www.ms.now

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I make the little jokes (and cartoons) but man I am so incessantly incandescent with rage I think I may spontaneously combust

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Make the GOPers you know say out loud that they think it should be legal to publicly execute women if they displease a white man in any way.

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"Meningococcal disease is a terrible, terrible disease."

- Walter Orenstein, MD, former Director of the US Immunization Program

www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
New CDC Guidance Could Revive a Rare but Deadly Disease
How risk-based recommendation could reshape childhood meningococcal disease
www.medpagetoday.com

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Changes to the vaccine schedule, food pyramid, and now this... If this week is any indicator, it's going to be an exhausting and daunting quarter teaching my public health policy course.
Is there a single day—1 single day—when RFK Jr does NOT do something to dismantle public health?

This one is exceptionally grim—IMHO, the USPSTF is world-leading

As Dr Caroll says, if you ever got a free mammogram, colonoscopy, or HIV test, you can thank the USPSTF

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/w...
Kennedy Weakens U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
www.nytimes.com

99 *new* #measles cases in South Carolina; over 300 for the total confirmed there so far with 200+ in quarantine. We need leadership to end this and Kennedy is off pushing beef tallow. Disgraceful.
Spike in Upstate measles outbreak, nearly 100 new cases, hundreds more ‘likely’
“An increasing number of public exposure sites are being identified with likely hundreds more people exposed...,” said Dr. Linda Bell.
www.foxcarolina.com
In America you drop your kid off at school, get your brains blown out on the ride home, then the Vice President drops everything for a week to call you a terrorist, to slander your family, to protect the circumstances that led to your death so they can do it again. It is government by Alex Jones.

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Good’s last words to the ICE agent: “That’s fine. I’m not mad at you.”

His to her, after shooting her in the face: “Fuckin’ bitch.”
Is there a single day—1 single day—when RFK Jr does NOT do something to dismantle public health?

This one is exceptionally grim—IMHO, the USPSTF is world-leading

As Dr Caroll says, if you ever got a free mammogram, colonoscopy, or HIV test, you can thank the USPSTF

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/w...
Kennedy Weakens U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
www.nytimes.com
The rage that has to exist in the average Minnesotan to watch someone stuck on an icy hill and STAND BY AND TAUNT THEM
This morning in Minneapolis, an ICE vehicle got stuck on an icy hill in a residential neighborhood. Agents had to push the vehicles out, some almost slipping in the ice themselves.
This morning in Minneapolis, an ICE vehicle got stuck on an icy hill in a residential neighborhood. Agents had to push the vehicles out, some almost slipping in the ice themselves.

Reposted by Smith, Julia Lynch

"There is “no rational justification remaining for prioritising or using” the surgical masks that are ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics globally, given their “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens”, they said in a letter to WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus."
Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised
Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid
www.theguardian.com

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Do not use milk, antacids, honey, lemon juice, onions, vinegar, urine, baking soda or anything other than clean water to deal with tear gas or pepper spray.

Most of the time it’s best to just do nothing.