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Brian Leas

@brianleas.bsky.social

220 followers 660 following 8 posts

Health policy research, evidence-based medicine, all things Philly. Penn Medicine. Cochrane.

Videos

Public Health 29%

Economics 25%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Megan L. Ranney, Brian F Leas

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · Aug 5

“The Florida Department of Health is warning about the risks of drinking raw, unpasteurized milk after 21 people, including six children under the age of 10, were sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria linked to raw milk from the same farm. Seven people have been hospitalized”

Florida officials warn about risks of drinking raw milk after 21 people sickened

Florida health officials say 21 people, including six children, were sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria linked to raw milk, and seven were hospitalized.

www.cbsnews.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Paul Offit @pauloffit.bsky.social · Jul 15

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi...
The CDC just made the same mistake they made 25 years ago.

Mercury Rising

A CDC Advisory Committee just made the same mistake it did 25 years ago. And it’s only the beginning.

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

KFF @kff.org · Jul 11

HHS has expanded the list of public benefits — including community health centers — that several groups of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, will be ineligible for.

KFF polling shows these centers are a key source of care for many immigrants: on.kff.org/4kECc0Z

Bar chart from KFF titled 'More Than Four in Ten Undocumented Immigrants Say They Use a Community Health Center as Their Usual Source of Care'. It shows the percentage of immigrant adults using various healthcare facilities in the U.S. Categories include Private Doctor's Office, Clinic or Community Health Center, Some Other Place, and Does Not Have a Usual Place/Emergency room. Data is broken down for total immigrant adults, naturalized citizens, lawfully present immigrants, and likely undocumented immigrants.

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Brian Leas @brianleas.bsky.social · Jul 2

INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST AHRQ

Reposted by Brian F Leas

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · Jun 16

An analysis comparing the number of scientific papers on vaccines published by recently fired #ACIP members to those published by the 8 people Sec. Kennedy chose to replace them shows a stark difference in depth of expertise in the field. www.science.org/content/arti...

The members of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine committee have published little on vaccines

Purge at immunization panel represents a major loss of expertise, as measured by scientific papers

www.science.org

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · Jun 12

Martin Kulldorff - "one of the new vaccine advisers picked by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has earned thousands of dollars as an expert witness in litigation against Merck’s Gardasil vaccine, court records show."

www.yahoo.com/news/exclusi...

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Reposted by Markus Jäntti, Karen O’Reilly, Jeremy J. Schmidt , and 1 more Markus Jäntti, Karen O’Reilly, Jeremy J. Schmidt, Brian F Leas

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jun 4

Possibly the best thing I've read about ChatGPT yet.

h/t @melaniemitchell.bsky.social

amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-e...

Diabolus Ex Machina

This Is Not An Essay

amandaguinzburg.substack.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

STAT @statnews.com · May 28

Confounding race with genetics causes doctors to miss treatable ailments. buff.ly/d1Iqvum

Race doesn’t affect the onset or progression of disease — racial bias does

Confounding race with genetics causes doctors to miss treatable ailments.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Sarah Karlin-Smith @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social · May 16

Rep. Jake Auchincloss worries current admin is going to try to turn our pharma industry into one big GNC store... that punishes the real innovators, he says at FDLI.

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Reposted by Allan Konopka, Michael Westphal, Brian F Leas

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · Apr 30

RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory. arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory

In his 2021 book vilifying Anthony Fauci, RFK Jr. lays out support for an alternate theory.

arstechnica.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · Apr 23

The line about white men who "continue to enjoy the presumption of expertise even when they are far outside their depth" in responding to a white, male business school faculty member writing about topics far afield from his area of expertise is just 👨‍🍳💋

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Apr 22

Anyway, this is bullshit. It’s using intimidation to derail a merit-based process & exert political control over scientific findings, partly because some butthurt contrarians had papers rejected.

Journals must fight back against scientific censorship.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump administration targets academic journals with attorney letter, proposed funding cuts

Budget plan would kill two CDC journals, while U.S. prosecutor accuses some nongovernmental publications of being “partisans”

www.science.org

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

STAT @statnews.com · Apr 16

An internal budget proposal gives the clearest sense yet of how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would build his new Administration for a Healthy America.

Leaked budget document outlines how Kennedy may cut up HHS to build new AHA

An internal budget proposal gives the clearest sense yet of how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would build his new Administration for a Healthy America.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

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

These HHS RIFs are reckless and cruel. In a typical RIF, employees aren’t locked out immediately—they stay to wrap up work and ensure a smooth transition. Instead, this admin abruptly shut everyone out, creating chaos that harms both workers and the people they serve.

Copy of RIF email.

I regret to inform you that you are being affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action. Please find attached a notice memorandum explaining the RIF and next steps. This RIF action does not reflect directly on your service, performance, or conduct. It is being taken solely for the reasons stated in the memorandum.
After you receive this notice, you will be placed on administrative leave and will no longer have building access beginning Tuesday, April 1, unless directed otherwise by your leadership. Additionally, please save this email and its attachments, or forward them to a personal email address, for your records.
Leadership at HHS appreciates your service
Sincerely,

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · Mar 31

In a sign that the professoriate is fighting back against the machines,* apparently the Georgetown bookstore is running low on blue books.**

* i.e., AI chatbots

** the kind students hand-write exams in, not the legal citation guide

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Mar 28

Maybe it seems that this is something that I shouldn’t even say, but science is a process, and you have to keep an open mind, always. Your hypothesis might be wrong, as much as you may wish otherwise. As the incomparable @joho.bsky.social wrote, “policy-based evidence making” is not the way.

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · Mar 27

Control procurement, HR, and IT and they control the money, the people, and the computer systems — the systems that allow NIH to run.

If you’re a scientist in the US it’s time to speak up now. This seems innocuous but it’s devastating for American science. They’re trying to slip this through.

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · Mar 27

“Key to the reorganization is a plan to centralize the department’s communications, procurement, human resources, information technology and policy planning”

No no no. We must resist this.

This plan consolidates authoritarian power at the top. It will give Trump easy control.

Exclusive | RFK Jr. Plans 10,000 Job Cuts in Major Restructuring of Health Department

The changes would reshape the nation’s health agencies and close regional offices.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Michael L. Barnett @mlbarnett.bsky.social · Mar 27

RFK is planning to merge ASPE and AHRQ into one "Office of Strategy" at HHS. Unlikely to be good news for AHRQ's research mission.

from @wsj.com

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Sarah Karlin-Smith @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social · Mar 27

“This notion of conflating censorship with basic education and basic public health is very frightening, and very dangerous.” -Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington.

www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/n...

On NIH director’s first day, the agency tackles one of his priorities — ending ‘censorship’ in science

On Jay Bhattacharya's first day as NIH director, the agency directed staff to identify contracts related to “fighting misinformation or disinformation”

www.statnews.com

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Brian Leas @brianleas.bsky.social · Mar 27

They're saving Wakefield to run ACIP.

Reposted by Brian F Leas

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · Mar 26

Even in 2025, some things still shock. Like the apparent selection of a long-time vaccine opponent who was disciplined & fined for practicing medicine without a license to conduct a new HHS study into whether there's a link between vaccines and autism.
www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/r...

Vaccine critic’s apparent selection to head HHS autism study shocks experts

The apparent choice of a major player in the anti-vaccine community to conduct an HHS study on autism has shocked vaccine experts.

www.statnews.com

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Brian Leas @brianleas.bsky.social · Mar 24

Maybe DHS should take it over given their sudden interest in everyone's ancestry

Reposted by Brian F Leas

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Mar 23

Ideology rules. Expertise is out. Hail Lysenko. drrubin.substack.com/p/white-hous...

White House considers shutting down 9 CDC expert panels

What could that potentially mean for our health?

drrubin.substack.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · Mar 22

RFK Jr. Falsely Claims Measles Vax Causes Deaths 'Every Year' - experts debunk it. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

RFK Jr. Falsely Claims Measles Vax Causes Deaths 'Every Year'

Vaccine expert debunks recent statements from nation's top health official

www.medpagetoday.com

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · Mar 19

Exclusive: Get ready for worse health care and more medical errors unless this ongoing illegal impoundment is stopped and quickly reversed. www.offmessage.net/p/the-trump-...

The Trump Administration Goes To War With Health-Care Quality

Inside its plan to destroy a small agency that keeps you safe.

www.offmessage.net

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

krobin22.bsky.social @krobin22.bsky.social · Mar 18

Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) have been doing the work to inform clinical guidelines, decisions by CMS, FDA and others since 1997. EPCs developed *the* reports on Making Healthcare Safer. EPCs and AHRQ are at risk. #AHRQSavesLives No #MAHA without #AHRQ

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Reposted by Brian F Leas

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Mar 18

“Yet, far from acting in courageous defiance, many scientists and administrators now seem to think that the best response to the war on DEI is to keep their heads low and wait out four hard years.”

Hell yes, Art Caplan. More courageous defiance, less quiet cowardice.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Don’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to power

The importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.

www.nature.com

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Brian Leas @brianleas.bsky.social · Mar 16

www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

At Little-Known Health Agency, DOGE Ends Dream ‘To Make A Difference’

When DOGE slashes jobs at agencies like AHRQ and low-profile jobs like the patient safety work of Heather Sherman, it endangers the health of the American public.

www.forbes.com

Brian Leas @brianleas.bsky.social · Mar 13

Excited for Purim tomorrow night, recalling that time when the richest man on earth (a petty, vindictive megalomaniac obsessed with fatherhood and conspiracy theories) paid obscene money to buy the throne from an abusive, unstable insomniac addicted to flattery and immigrant beauty queens