Jenn Kauffman
@jennaudrey.bsky.social
ANC Commissioner 4D08, DC Council staff. MPH health equity @ BU SPH. Alum of AFL-CIO & UMass Labor Center (among other places). I talk mostly about public health + politics + workers’ rights. **Personal account.**
Pinned
Jenn Kauffman
@jennaudrey.bsky.social
· Sep 22
We asked our 10 + 7yo to join us in making a family decision to boycott. It was the 1st time the kids were actively engaged in the boycott and had to give something up that’s very important to them.
And it was the *best* decision because based off of n=1 they’re all OH WOW, BOYCOTTS WORK.
And it was the *best* decision because based off of n=1 they’re all OH WOW, BOYCOTTS WORK.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
The FDA bypassed its typical process and overstated the science behind menopause hormone therapy, experts told me – with troubling implications for future drug decisions
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Doctors respond to ‘data-free’ decision over menopause hormone therapy: ‘It’s not true’
Physicians say FDA panel conflated two issues and made baseless claims about unproven health benefits
www.theguardian.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The FDA bypassed its typical process and overstated the science behind menopause hormone therapy, experts told me – with troubling implications for future drug decisions
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
NEW: A Harvard study found that the children of women who contracted COVID-19 while pregnant may be at an increased risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses, raising new concerns about the CDC’s decision to stop recommending the vaccine to pregnant women.
Amid Confusing CDC Guidance About Vaccines, Study Highlights New Risk of COVID-19 During Pregnancy
A Harvard study found that the children of women who contracted COVID-19 while pregnant may be at an increased risk for autism and other diagnoses, raising new concerns about the CDC’s decision to stop recommending the vaccine to pregnant women.
www.propublica.org
November 26, 2025 at 1:06 PM
NEW: A Harvard study found that the children of women who contracted COVID-19 while pregnant may be at an increased risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses, raising new concerns about the CDC’s decision to stop recommending the vaccine to pregnant women.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
A third infant has died in Kentucky, KYDPH adds:
“These are Kentucky’s first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy.”
s3.amazonaws.com/nursing-netw...
“These are Kentucky’s first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy.”
s3.amazonaws.com/nursing-netw...
November 25, 2025 at 9:55 PM
A third infant has died in Kentucky, KYDPH adds:
“These are Kentucky’s first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy.”
s3.amazonaws.com/nursing-netw...
“These are Kentucky’s first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy.”
s3.amazonaws.com/nursing-netw...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
With news of more pertussis / whooping cough deaths it’s necessary to highlight how much antiscience anti-vax content Substack promotes (and profits from).
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November 26, 2025 at 3:46 AM
With news of more pertussis / whooping cough deaths it’s necessary to highlight how much antiscience anti-vax content Substack promotes (and profits from).
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This is an inherently ableist and ageist scheme. Folks who have chronic conditions will need plans with higher premiums, and folks after 40 begin to see their premiums rise too.
Giving everyone the same pittance of cash and then wishing them luck negotiating their own plans will be a disaster.
Giving everyone the same pittance of cash and then wishing them luck negotiating their own plans will be a disaster.
NEW: Donald Trump says he wants ACA funds to end after 2025
“I’d rather not" extend them, he tells reporters on AF1. "I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all."
He wants cash to go "directly" to people. Unclear how that'd work.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
“I’d rather not" extend them, he tells reporters on AF1. "I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all."
He wants cash to go "directly" to people. Unclear how that'd work.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
Trump says he would 'rather not' extend Obamacare tax credits 'at all'
The president said he prefers to let the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire on schedule at the end of December, saying if anything he wants the money to go to "the people directly."
www.nbcnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:55 AM
This is an inherently ableist and ageist scheme. Folks who have chronic conditions will need plans with higher premiums, and folks after 40 begin to see their premiums rise too.
Giving everyone the same pittance of cash and then wishing them luck negotiating their own plans will be a disaster.
Giving everyone the same pittance of cash and then wishing them luck negotiating their own plans will be a disaster.
“The only thing you need to know about Olivia Nuzzi is that she used her position of power, as a journalist, to advise and elevate the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activist to the most influential health position in the United States.”
Olivia Nuzzi wrote an entire story based on unnamed sources about Biden's decline, reinvigorating calls for him to leave the race -- and the whole time, she was working on RFK Jr.'s behalf, according to her ex-fiance. newrepublic.com/article/2035...
Olivia Nuzzi’s Real Victims
More than her fiancé, or fellow female journalists, the public will pay the price for these misdeeds. RFK Jr. will see to that.
newrepublic.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:49 AM
“The only thing you need to know about Olivia Nuzzi is that she used her position of power, as a journalist, to advise and elevate the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activist to the most influential health position in the United States.”
A reminder from our neighbors to the north that the far-reaching consequences of the destruction RFK Jr. has caused extend far beyond the U.S. borders.
On top of weaponizing the reputation of the CDC to promote anti-vax language and firing ACIP, he’s “slashed the agency budget by roughly a third..”
On top of weaponizing the reputation of the CDC to promote anti-vax language and firing ACIP, he’s “slashed the agency budget by roughly a third..”
The destruction of one of the world’s great public health agencies is a travesty. RFK Jr. seems determined to replace evidence-based science with quackery and use the CDC as his mouthpiece, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com
The destruction of one of the world’s great public health agencies is a travesty
RFK Jr.’s latest attack on vaccines shows evidence-based science has been replaced by the ill-informed opinions of a quack
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:40 AM
A reminder from our neighbors to the north that the far-reaching consequences of the destruction RFK Jr. has caused extend far beyond the U.S. borders.
On top of weaponizing the reputation of the CDC to promote anti-vax language and firing ACIP, he’s “slashed the agency budget by roughly a third..”
On top of weaponizing the reputation of the CDC to promote anti-vax language and firing ACIP, he’s “slashed the agency budget by roughly a third..”
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
There’s just so many layers of bad faith. Trying to pass off Kennedy as ineffective or focused on other things than vaccines! Meanwhile: bsky.app/profile/marg...
Vaccines.gov, the CDC's vaccination site search engine, got a MAHA makeover in June. Then it stopped working altogether.
New from me:
www.notus.org/health-scien...
New from me:
www.notus.org/health-scien...
CDC Quietly Turned Off Its Vaccine Search Tool. It’s Not Clear When It’s Coming Back.
“I have heard that they are planning to ‘update it’ and shudder to think what that will mean,” Demetre Daskalakis, a former member of CDC leadership, told NOTUS.
www.notus.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:12 AM
There’s just so many layers of bad faith. Trying to pass off Kennedy as ineffective or focused on other things than vaccines! Meanwhile: bsky.app/profile/marg...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
- He stopped the policy of encouraging flu immunization in Louisiana
- Delayed reporting on a pertussis outbreak that killed two children in Louisiana.
-Promoted false information on covid vaccine harms.
He is now number 2 at CDC.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
- Delayed reporting on a pertussis outbreak that killed two children in Louisiana.
-Promoted false information on covid vaccine harms.
He is now number 2 at CDC.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Controversial Louisiana surgeon general tapped for CDC leadership role
Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham has spoken against Covid shots and ended mass vaccination campaigns. Now he's in a position to make national health decisions.
www.nbcnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:49 PM
- He stopped the policy of encouraging flu immunization in Louisiana
- Delayed reporting on a pertussis outbreak that killed two children in Louisiana.
-Promoted false information on covid vaccine harms.
He is now number 2 at CDC.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
- Delayed reporting on a pertussis outbreak that killed two children in Louisiana.
-Promoted false information on covid vaccine harms.
He is now number 2 at CDC.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
Baristas at 95 Starbucks stores in 65 cities are currently on OPEN-ENDED STRIKE over unfair labor practices.
It's day 13 of the strike. This is the longest ULP strike in the company's history.
Workers are asking customers everywhere to show solidarity by boycotting Starbucks.
It's day 13 of the strike. This is the longest ULP strike in the company's history.
Workers are asking customers everywhere to show solidarity by boycotting Starbucks.
November 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Baristas at 95 Starbucks stores in 65 cities are currently on OPEN-ENDED STRIKE over unfair labor practices.
It's day 13 of the strike. This is the longest ULP strike in the company's history.
Workers are asking customers everywhere to show solidarity by boycotting Starbucks.
It's day 13 of the strike. This is the longest ULP strike in the company's history.
Workers are asking customers everywhere to show solidarity by boycotting Starbucks.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
"She said that lenacapavir has become a kind of diplomatic carrot — and stick.
Friendly, compliant governments, like Eswatini, have received early shipments, whereas South Africa or Nigeria — countries that have fallen out of favor with Trump — seem to have received the short end of the stick."
Friendly, compliant governments, like Eswatini, have received early shipments, whereas South Africa or Nigeria — countries that have fallen out of favor with Trump — seem to have received the short end of the stick."
The US is fast-tracking this important HIV drug — for everyone except South Africa
Why the Trump administration is cutting out a country that needs it most.
www.vox.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:22 AM
"She said that lenacapavir has become a kind of diplomatic carrot — and stick.
Friendly, compliant governments, like Eswatini, have received early shipments, whereas South Africa or Nigeria — countries that have fallen out of favor with Trump — seem to have received the short end of the stick."
Friendly, compliant governments, like Eswatini, have received early shipments, whereas South Africa or Nigeria — countries that have fallen out of favor with Trump — seem to have received the short end of the stick."
With U.S. maternal outcomes woefully behind similar counties, it’s led parents to try to improve outcomes.
But “free birthing” is fundamentally based in the ableist notion that health is solely based on decision-making — when in reality childbirth is complex and sometimes things just go south.
But “free birthing” is fundamentally based in the ableist notion that health is solely based on decision-making — when in reality childbirth is complex and sometimes things just go south.
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM
With U.S. maternal outcomes woefully behind similar counties, it’s led parents to try to improve outcomes.
But “free birthing” is fundamentally based in the ableist notion that health is solely based on decision-making — when in reality childbirth is complex and sometimes things just go south.
But “free birthing” is fundamentally based in the ableist notion that health is solely based on decision-making — when in reality childbirth is complex and sometimes things just go south.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
Cannot overstate how, from my perch as a national-security reporter, this would have been an earth-shattering scandal in a prior era.
Billionaire Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, pardoned by Donald Trump, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Zhao also financed the Trump family's entrance into the cryptocurrency market.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao accused of facilitating payments to Hamas
Crypto tycoon pardoned by Donald Trump faces US court complaint from families of victims of October 7 attack
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Cannot overstate how, from my perch as a national-security reporter, this would have been an earth-shattering scandal in a prior era.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
This is so incredible. You have to see the photos. These workers held the line for THREE YEARS www.publicsource.org/post-gazette...
November 25, 2025 at 5:29 AM
This is so incredible. You have to see the photos. These workers held the line for THREE YEARS www.publicsource.org/post-gazette...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
The military has a duty to refuse unlawful orders, but Congress has a duty to remove from office a president and secretary who would issue such orders. There is something off about members of Congress talking about the former while refusing to say the latter, the part that's actually their job here.
November 25, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The military has a duty to refuse unlawful orders, but Congress has a duty to remove from office a president and secretary who would issue such orders. There is something off about members of Congress talking about the former while refusing to say the latter, the part that's actually their job here.
“The analysis deemed 109 hospitals most exposed to the coming Medicaid cuts, because they share three risk factors: They serve vulnerable communities, their finances are already fragile, and more than a quarter of their patients rely on Medicaid. Of those hospitals, 85% were in urban areas.”
When the G.O.P. #Medicaid Cuts Arrive, These Hospitals Will Be Hit Hardest www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/u...
When the G.O.P. Medicaid Cuts Arrive, These Hospitals Will Be Hit Hardest
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:44 PM
“The analysis deemed 109 hospitals most exposed to the coming Medicaid cuts, because they share three risk factors: They serve vulnerable communities, their finances are already fragile, and more than a quarter of their patients rely on Medicaid. Of those hospitals, 85% were in urban areas.”
Is it pretentiousness or a desire to legitimize conflict to fuel more articles and more clicks that drives NYT to use phrases like “challenge scientific orthodoxy” instead of just reporting it straight-up as “ignoring decades of data”?
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Is it pretentiousness or a desire to legitimize conflict to fuel more articles and more clicks that drives NYT to use phrases like “challenge scientific orthodoxy” instead of just reporting it straight-up as “ignoring decades of data”?
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
Submit comments today. Deadline tomorrow. relentlessschoolnurse.com/2025/11/23/t...
The Relentless School Nurses: Your Voice is Your Power – Defend Science-Based Vaccine Policy Now
In a time when science and public health are under unprecedented scrutiny, the role of school nurses in safeguarding student health has never been more critical. Vaccines remain a cornerstone of pu…
relentlessschoolnurse.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Submit comments today. Deadline tomorrow. relentlessschoolnurse.com/2025/11/23/t...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
i promise i don’t mean to high horse this but if you’re thinking about giving lizza ten bucks there are a lot of good independent journalists whose work you could subscribe to for a month instead
November 22, 2025 at 7:34 AM
i promise i don’t mean to high horse this but if you’re thinking about giving lizza ten bucks there are a lot of good independent journalists whose work you could subscribe to for a month instead
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
1/ Today, ProPublica is running a piece I've been working on for a bit. It's about what happened with a devastating wave of bird flu earlier this year, as egg prices hit record highs.
And it's a story that illuminates the ways the U.S. is failing to control what could become the next pandemic. 🧵
And it's a story that illuminates the ways the U.S. is failing to control what could become the next pandemic. 🧵
November 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM
1/ Today, ProPublica is running a piece I've been working on for a bit. It's about what happened with a devastating wave of bird flu earlier this year, as egg prices hit record highs.
And it's a story that illuminates the ways the U.S. is failing to control what could become the next pandemic. 🧵
And it's a story that illuminates the ways the U.S. is failing to control what could become the next pandemic. 🧵
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
They are literally firing all the judges they think might grant relief. They just fired a friend of mine a couple hours ago. They have no shame. The bastards want an assembly line for deportations and nothing more; rubber-stamping bootlickers who’ll yes’sir at every new diktat to deny.
Instead of hiring more immigration judges, the Department of Justice just posted an ad for "deportation judges." join.justice.gov
November 21, 2025 at 11:17 PM
They are literally firing all the judges they think might grant relief. They just fired a friend of mine a couple hours ago. They have no shame. The bastards want an assembly line for deportations and nothing more; rubber-stamping bootlickers who’ll yes’sir at every new diktat to deny.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
NEWS: A federal judge has ruled that President Trump's deployment of the D.C. National Guard and Guardsmen from other states to fight crime in D.C. is unlawful. The ruling is a win for D.C., but the judge stayed it for 21 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal. oag.dc.gov/sites/defaul...
November 20, 2025 at 9:13 PM
NEWS: A federal judge has ruled that President Trump's deployment of the D.C. National Guard and Guardsmen from other states to fight crime in D.C. is unlawful. The ruling is a win for D.C., but the judge stayed it for 21 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal. oag.dc.gov/sites/defaul...
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
Two shootings over the span of a month highlight how federal agents patrolling in D.C. don’t follow the same protocols that MPD officers do, @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports.
When federal agents shoot people in D.C., there are few details – and little accountability
D.C. police officers are held to one standard, federal agents another.
51st.news
November 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Two shootings over the span of a month highlight how federal agents patrolling in D.C. don’t follow the same protocols that MPD officers do, @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports.
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
“If there’s ever a year to get a flu vaccine, this is the year,” said Scott Hensley, a microbiologist &influenza vaccine scientist… studies in previous seasons with vaccine mismatches have shown that people who receive a flu shot were often less likely to become sick enough to require hospital care”
Is a bad flu season on the way? Experts see reason to be anxious
There are early indications that this flu season could be a bad one.
www.statnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM
“If there’s ever a year to get a flu vaccine, this is the year,” said Scott Hensley, a microbiologist &influenza vaccine scientist… studies in previous seasons with vaccine mismatches have shown that people who receive a flu shot were often less likely to become sick enough to require hospital care”
Reposted by Jenn Kauffman
Just need to re-punctuate: "Anti-ICE protests rock, Charlotte!"
November 19, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Just need to re-punctuate: "Anti-ICE protests rock, Charlotte!"