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Adam Gaffney

@awgaffney.bsky.social

3K followers 390 following 280 posts

Pulmonary & ICU doctor, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, past president PNHP, author "To Heal Humankind", dabbler, tweets my own. Webpage: https://dradamgaffney.com/ Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KChlDTsAAAAJ&hl .. more

Economics 37%

Public Health 31%

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Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

Thanks Rob

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

www.statnews.com/2025/03/03/p...

‘Post-vaccination syndrome’: a dubious diagnosis that could do harm

The science behind the “post-vaccination syndrome” study is dubious — but the harm it may cause is very real.

www.statnews.com

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

but also lead us to unhelpful remedies or to misunderstandings of our illness. Particularly during this age of unprecedented and politicized anti-vaccination fervor, the establishment of a dubious 'post-vaccination syndrome,' on shaky science, is dangerous."

Link below.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

This was how I concluded my STAT piece in March on "post-vaccination syndrome":

"But diagnoses are pragmatic constructs, structured both by biomedical realities and by social and political discourses. They can help us identify useful treatments and avoid injurious exposures,

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

No doubt: this is a complex issue in the clinic, requiring care, nuance, and humility.

But **enshrining diagnoses** premised on cause-and-effect processes that may not be present helps no one.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

Challenging popular understandings of the underlying cause of non-specific symptom complexes is not popular, whether in the vaccine realm or in other domains.

These challenges are often criticized as "medical gaslighting", or more academically as "epistemic injustice."

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

... higher depression/anxiety scores in the Yale study. This does not mean the vaccine caused it: it could also well be that depression was a driver of their physical symptoms, which is extremely common, a hypothesis that was not considered by the study authors.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

as the New York Times put it. Of course, as I wrote at the time, differences in some such parameters (many very small) could have many explanations — including depression itself, which is a biological process. Indeed, those with self-described post-vaccination syndrome had ...

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

Once you accept that premise, and then run huge numbers of assays examining average differences in biological parameters, you will find some differences that can then be used to conclude that those with post-vaccine syndrome (PVS) have "distinct biological changes,"

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

...published earlier this year, which generated so much excitement in right-wing anti-vaccine circles (not the fault of the authors) was the implicit premise of a "post-vaccination syndrome" definable by individuals' understanding of their symptoms being caused by vaccines.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

... issue in depth in March.

The widespread attribution of non-specific symptom complexes, including depression, to vaccinations should not be accepted as causal, even if that is how many people experience it.

The fundamental flaw of the Yale preprint,

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 15

In wake of the CDC shooting, so-called "post-vaccination syndrome" has come back into discussion, as this report from
@nbcnews.com describes. The assailant attributed health issues including depression to COVID-19 vaccines.

I'm quoted, & wrote about the...

www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...

Anti-vaccine myths surged on social media ahead of the CDC shooting

Before the shooting, social media companies relaxed their protocols around misinformation.

www.nbcnews.com

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 3

A quick short post on Thursday's Senate HELP hearings on healthcare affordability:

open.substack.com/pub/healthcl...

Senate HELP Committee Hearings: Healthcare Affordability, the "Big Beautiful Bill", and Medicare for All

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to present at the Senate HELP Committee at a hearing entitled "Making Health Care Affordable: Solutions to Lower Costs and Empower Patients." Chairman Sen.

open.substack.com

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

Video link:
Video link:
apnews.com/video/debt-a...

Debt and delayed care await some who lose health insurance as new law unfolds

The Congressional Budget Office forecasts that 10 million additional Americans will be uninsured in 2034 due to President Trump’s new tax law.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

The AP has a story on the impact of Medicaid cuts for patients and our study quantifying those effects nationally — the accompanying video is powerful as it presents the story of a patient with cancer worried about falling between the cracks.

apnews.com/article/medi...

Debt and delayed care forecast for some who lose insurance under tax and spending law

Delayed treatments, canceled doctor visits and skipped prescriptions: Researchers say all will increase because of the tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this…

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

And here’s my written testimony

www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

www.help.senate.gov

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

And coming from the man who slashed programs that fought hunger, disease, and poverty

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

Thank you!

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

I testified today for the Senate HELP Committee on issue of healthcare affordability.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” will worsen the crisis of healthcare affordability — and cause thousands of deaths.

Medicare-for-All will deliver full coverage for everyone, at an affordable price for the nation.

Link:

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Aug 1

Let’s not move on from the “Big Beautiful Bill” so quickly? The law will shred the US healthcare safety net. The deaths it causes may seem invisible — medical neglect causes heart attacks, kidney failure, strokes — that will register as “natural,” but will be something more.

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

Doug Henwood @doughenwood.bsky.social · Jul 17

fresh audio product:

• Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social on Trump & Co.’s cuts to health care and research
• Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social tries to make sense of Trump’s nonsensical trade policy

www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S...

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · Jul 8

Adam Gaffney (@awgaffney.bsky.social), David U. Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler on Trump’s destruction of America’s health care system
buff.ly/u2EyUzj

The Dismantling of American Health Care | Adam Gaffney, David U. Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler

On July 4 President Donald Trump signed into law a piece of legislation that amounts to a declaration of war on the working-class and the sick. The “One

www.nybooks.com

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

Julia Raifman, ScD @juliaraifman.bsky.social · Jul 5

May this heartbreaking moment prompt us to come together around a vision of a health care system better for patients, providers, & public health

Single payer is more effective, equitable, & efficient

Thanks
@abdulelsayed.bsky.social @awgaffney.bsky.social @nationalnurses.bsky.social & more for ⬇️

Medicare for All: Protecting Health, Saving Lives, Saving Money | U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget

The Official U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget

www.budget.senate.gov

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Jun 29

The reconciliation bill barreling forward in Congress towards Trump’s desk will inflict thousands of medically-preventable deaths annually to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. This is a horrifying assault on the health, medical care, and lives of our lower-income patients.

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

MedPage Today @medpagetoday.com · Jun 23

"Consider the mortality impacts of this legislation, which would save money mostly for the purpose of tax cuts for the wealthy." -- @awgaffney.bsky.social, of Cambridge Health Alliance, on estimated preventable deaths from #Medicaid cuts.
www.medpagetoday.com/publichealth...

Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Result in Thousands of Preventable Deaths, Study Finds

Study also shows 1.3 million would forego their medications after losing coverage

www.medpagetoday.com

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Jun 20

Here's a link to my contribution, arguing, that governments should have done more not less — that how to save lives should be at the center of our discussions.

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...

Reposted by Cailin O’Connor

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Jun 20

[email protected] has a forum asking "How Did We Fare on COVID-19", centered on Macedo & Lee's critique of our pandemic response — with responses from @cailinmeister.bsky.social & James Owen, @adamjkucharski.bsky.social, @jonathanpjwhite.bsky.social, and myself. Interesting discussion...

How Did We Fare on COVID-19? - Boston Review

To restore public trust and prepare for the next pandemic, we need a reckoning with the U.S. experience—what worked, and what didn’t.

www.bostonreview.net

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

Sarah Gollust @sarahgollust.bsky.social · Jun 18

Using original survey data from April, @povertyscholar.bsky.social and I demonstrate three key themes about public opinion about Medicaid:

1) people support the program -- including across red (74%) and blue (78% states) {thread}

Milbank Memorial Fund & The Milbank Quarterly @milbankfund.bsky.social · Jun 17

In a new Milbank Quarterly guest Opinion, @povertyscholar.bsky.social &
@sarahgollust.bsky.social share public attitudes toward Congress’s proposed Medicaid funding cuts reported in their April 2025 survey.

Medicaid Cuts Are Undemocratic and Not What the American People Want | Milbank Memorial Fund

Americans from across the political spectrum oppose cuts to Medicaid, believe that the program is effective, and are willing to take steps to defend Medicaid.

www.milbank.org

Reposted by Adam Gaffney

Public Citizen @publiccitizen.bsky.social · Jun 17

The Medicaid cuts in Trump's budget bill are projected to cause more than 16,500 premature deaths ANNUALLY.

Over 1.9 MILLION people could lose access to a physician.

Over 1.3 MILLION people could go without needed medications.

Americans will die for billionaires to thrive.

Adam Gaffney @awgaffney.bsky.social · Jun 16

In Gizmodo:

gizmodo.com/trumps-big-b...

STAT:
www.statnews.com/2025/06/16/m...

Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Will Literally Kill, Study Warns

Millions of Americans are expected to lose their Medicaid coverage under the current version of the bill, and many will suffer or die as a result, a new analysis shows.