Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Jason Ukman @jasonukman.bsky.social · 12h

The Trump administration is firing between 1,100 and 1,200 employees at HHS as part of the latest "reduction in force" — while blaming Democrats — more than at any other government department aside from the Treasury.

Via @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2025/10/10/h...

HHS employees to be fired as White House enacts mass terminations it blames on shutdown

Federal health employees are being fired as the White House makes good on a promise to terminate federal employees en masse because of the shutdown.

www.statnews.com

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 8h

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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Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 1d

Brandolini’s Law (also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle):

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

H/t @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

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Colette Delawalla @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 15h

RIF UPDATE:

We @standupforscience.bsky.social are in communication with our network. So far, we have not heard of any actual RIFs, only Russ’ tweet.

To press—we will send a release and facilitate interviews if we do hear abt them taking place.

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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 16h

HHS confirms to @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social that it will be impacted by the RIFS promised earlier today by Russel Vought

If you or your colleagues have been impacted, please reach out

www.statnews.com/2025/10/10/h...

HHS employees to be fired as White House enacts mass terminations it blames on shutdown

Federal health employees are being fired as the White House makes good on a promise to terminate federal employees en masse because of the shutdown.

www.statnews.com

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Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · 16h

JUST IN: Unions seek immediate TRO against shutdown-related RIFs Trump admin began announcing today. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

ShutdownRIFTROFlg101025

www.documentcloud.org

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Anna Kramer @annackramer.bsky.social · 17h

Russ Vought just said that firings have begun. OMB called them "substantial."

Our initial story is below — but we're very short on the details. Please reach out if you hear anything, I'm on Signal at annakramer.54

The Trump Administration Says It Has Begun Mass Firings

After weeks of threats, OMB Director Russ Vought announced that Reductions in Force across federal agencies have begun, with the White House calling them “substantial.”

www.notus.org

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Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · 17h

The Trump admin has begun ANOTHER mass firing of federal workers.

People are losing their jobs over Republicans' unwillingness to end this government shutdown.

Livelihoods are on the line.

This is a disgusting abuse of power.

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 17h

Yes, we argue vociferously, backed by empirical research, that patients’ wellbeing and health outcomes will suffer from the Trump administration’s push to end DEI policies at US medical schools

The BMJ @bmj.com · 17h

The Trump administration and its allies have taken several steps to ensure that medical schools in the US dismantle all diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

It is patients who will be the victims of this, write @gavinyamey.bsky.social and @michaeldgreen.com
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

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Médecins Sans Frontières @msf.org · 18h

We welcome the ceasefire in Gaza.

It must be accompanied by an immediate, massive, and sustained scale-up of aid into and across the Strip:

Ceasefire in Gaza: Humanitarian aid must flow immediately | MSF

The ceasefire in Gaza must be accompanied by an immediate scale-up of aid into and across the Strip.

www.msf.org

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Open Forum Infectious Diseases @ofidjournal.bsky.social · 18h

Safety of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination and impact on HIV-1 latent reservoir size in people with treated HIV-1 Infection

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky
🔗 https://bit.ly/4o3I5a5

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Bruce Mirken @brucemirken.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 18h

This didn't get much US press yesterday, but it should have. Yikes.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-antifa-portland-pam-bondi-posobiec-b2842048.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

#fascism #Trump #antifa

Trump’s ‘Antifa roundtable’ was so much worse than you’re imagining

Holly Baxter reports on a meeting that, at one point, appeared to position people protesting against Nazis in the Weimar Republic as the bad guys, and at another saw the president declare, ‘We got rid of freedom of speech’

www.independent.co.uk

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Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · 18h

Mycobacterium tuberculosis-derived linoleic acid increases regulatory T cell function to promote bacterial survival within macrophages @natmicrobiol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Sandra @lilysch.bsky.social · 19h

Destroying America’s superpower – scientific research – by withholding grants, example 5687.

www.the-scientist.com/nih-leadersh...

NIH Leadership Is Failing Early Career Researchers

Halted training programs, funding chaos, and hiring freezes jeopardize advancement options for early career researchers.

www.the-scientist.com

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HIV Outcomes - Beyond Viral Suppression @hivoutcomes.bsky.social · 19h

🧠 Today, for #WorldMentalHealthDay, we sound the alarm that the mental health of people living with HIV is heavily affected by stigma, often leading to discrimination, abuse, avoidance of healthcare services, and poorer HRQoL.

Action is needed; read more in our Good Practices: tinyurl.com/yj9nt383

Compendium of Good Practices

This is the Compendium of Good Practices landing page. Please do not remove it.

hivoutcomes.eu

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Science Magazine @science.org · 21h

Two major publishers have begun to automatically reject the vast majority of papers based on public health data sets, following revelations that unscrupulous actors use these data sets to churn out nonsense scientific papers. https://scim.ag/4mX3DnR

Journals and publishers crack down on research from open health data sets

PLOS, Frontiers, and others announce policies trying to stem the tide of suspect research

scim.ag

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Rachael Sirianni, PhD @docsirianni.bsky.social · 26d

I am not a political pawn. I am a living, breathing human being who has dedicated her life to a scientific problem that I believe matters for human health. The article below tells our story; I hope you will read it and share it www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer

www.nytimes.com

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Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) @ghtcoalition.org · 21h

Recent NIH funding cuts & policy shifts could jeopardize the future development of lifesaving new tools addressing health challenges from cancer to HIV. One study found that NIH contributed to research associated with 99% of drugs approved over a decade.

www.washingtonpost.com/education/in...

Trump slashed funding for universities that helped create these vital drugs

Medications that prevent HIV, shrink tumors and treat seizures were invented with government funding. At research universities, that money is now canceled or in jeopardy.

www.washingtonpost.com

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TAGHIVscience @taghivscience.bsky.social · 21h

Natural occurrence of drug resistance mutations to the #HIV capsid inhibitor lenacapavir onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... (open access) @hivmedicine.bsky.social

Natural occurrence of drug resistance mutations to the HIV‐1 capsid inhibitor lenacapavir

Aims Lenacapavir (LEN) is a first-in-class HIV-1 capsid inhibitor. We investigated the natural occurrence of LEN drug resistance mutations (DRM) in HIV-1 sequences from LEN treatment-naïve individua...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1d

Stephen Miller is murdering Venezuelans and Colombians in cold blood bc he believes it helps his propaganda campaign to paint Latinos as dangerous.

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Stephen Miller views the air strikes as an opportunity to paint immigrants as a dangerous menace, according to one of the White House officials.

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Human Rights Campaign @hrc.org · 1d

Reminder: Senate Republicans have hijacked the NDAA — a critical, must-pass defense bill — to support the Trump administration’s obsession with attacking trans people.

Any member of Congress who cares about respecting our servicemembers must strip these riders from the final bill.

Senate tees up potential NDAA votes

The Senate could begin voting as soon as today on the annual defense policy bill, a rare move to consider major legislation during a government shutdown.

punchbowl.news

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 1d

"Make the proof" colloquial phrase that means fabrication of data

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

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

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TAGHIVscience @taghivscience.bsky.social · 1d

Effects of sex but not race and geographic origin on vaccine-induced HIV-specific antibody responses pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... (open access) #HIV

Effects of sex but not race and geographic origin on vaccine-induced HIV-specific antibody responses

Sex, race and geographic location may affect vaccine-induced immune responses, yet few preventive HIV vaccine trials have systematically evaluated such effects. The main objective of this study was th...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 1d

“A study, published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that last season’s 2024–2025 mRNA COVID vaccines reduced people’s risk of emergency department visits by 29%, their risk of hospitalizations by 39% & their risk of death by 64%”

Benefits were seen even if 0 risk factors

Soren Larsen (SEGL) @sorenlarsen.bsky.social · 2d

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

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

🧵

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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