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J. Offir, PhD

@joffirphd.bsky.social

13K followers 1.1K following 13K posts

Ph.D. in social psychology. Former researcher in pandemic behavioral risk reduction (non-pharma intervention). Only here to keep up. @[email protected]

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · Aug 23

Updated 📌 list of my essays on the psychology of public health (inc. topics like covid, HIV & reproductive health). As of 8/22/25, there are *31* long-form pieces in this 🧵.

The list starts in reverse chrono. order, but in Oct. 2024 starts rolling forward, so oldest posts are in the middle. Doh.

J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · Oct 21

In The Bad Place, I have a pinned thread of my covid essays & threads, w/ short descriptions of ea. Here's one for This Place, though w/o descriptions, b/c I'm tired. As is true there, I've put them in reverse chrono order, but anything new will post at the end. I flagged ones people liked best:

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 3h

gifts, abilities, and perceptions that can come with neurodivergence. Apologies in advance for sentence structure that was unintentionally ableist.

J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 3h

P.S. When I referred, at the top of this 🧵, to negative health outcomes & then gave examples that included autism, I meant that the admin talks about autism as a neg. health outcome. Obviously, a great many people don't see most autism as negative at all, instead appreciating the unique...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

It's very, very bad, Linda. Call your Senators - demand an assurance that they will vote against confirming her.

J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

🚨 You can do something to prevent this disaster. Call your Senators - Republican ones as well as the Democrats; we need them - and tell them you only want a Surgeon General who respects & promotes evidence-based medical science, & you need them to vote NO on the confirmation of grifter Casey Means.

J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

Mini essay 🧵: I've posted about this grifter nominee for Surgeon General before, & about *why* this admin. gravitates to such awful people: Means, like Dr. Oz & RFK himself, doesn't just hawk products; she sells both the idea that people are to blame...

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www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

She left the medical mainstream and rose to be RFK Jr.’s surgeon general pick

Casey Means, the surgeon general nominee, has criticized the medical establishment. She could be put in position to change it.

www.washingtonpost.com

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

Bonus post: Here are some "elixers" and sundry "wellness products" from the 19th c. apothecary section of Vermont's tremendous Shelbourne museum, which I visited in 2019. This is what Casey Means intends to take us back to.

Shelf of elixers: Coxe's Hive Syrup, etc. Lavender syrup, too.

Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound: Vitamin B1, and also 15% alcohol, plus various stuff like true & false unicorn plant

Up on a shelf: "To Cure A Cold in One Day" pills. Contains Laxative, Bromo & Quinine.

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

20/ research. They haven’t all been doctors — nurses and a veterinarian have temporarily filled the post — but typically come from the medical establishment."

Trump's first SG, Jerome Adams, was a syncophant when he had the job - but he wasn't this. Call your Senators & tell them vote NO on Means.

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

19/ the brand."

🔹️And finally, what is a Surgeon General *supposed* to do? "Surgeons general have traditionally helped fight HIV, smoking, obesity, addiction and more. They oversee more than 6,000 uniformed public health personnel and are charged with issuing seminal reports with the latest medical

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

18/ for $20,000 and listed as a partner of her book launch on her website. She did not expressly disclose that connection in the video, but did note viewers could get 10 percent off in the description. She also did not disclose the partnership in a May 2024 newsletter when she promoted

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

17/ products, legal and advertising experts told The Post." She "did a YouTube video titled 'Unbox My Genova Metabolomix+ Nutrition Test With Me! 🧪' about a test that can cost hundreds of dollars. Genova Diagnostics is a sponsor of her book tour and newsletter, according to her financial disclosures

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

16/ vaccine. That echoes Kennedy, who founded a prominent anti-vaccine group and has reshaped U.S. vaccine policy, prompting an outcry from some medical experts who say the vaccine schedule is safe and effective."

🔹️"Means has...blurred sponsorship lines when talking about supplements and other...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

15/ unlocking your limitless potential as a lightning rod of spirit, and as a part of god,' she wrote in a newsletter. In her book, Means talks about taking psilocybin mushrooms."

🔹️On "prominent podcasts," she "publicly questioned the cumulation of the childhood vaccine schedule and the hepatitis B

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

14/ brother, Calley, a close Kennedy ally — now reads like a 'Make America Healthy Again' manifesto. It includes a chapter titled 'Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.'"

🔹️She also "often invokes spirituality as underpinning the path to health. 'Build your life on an unshakable foundation in service of

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

13/ with every mother in this country.'"

🔹️"As surgeon general, Means would be charged with speaking to the American public with authority....in a 2021 blog post, [she wrote] “...be bold in communicating it through every bit of content you produce.”

🔹️Her best-selling book, "which she wrote with her

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

12/ aside traditional medical expertise."

🔹️"Means was instrumental in catapulting Kennedy’s MAHA initiative, which has been galvanized by women who support his goals and who have become known as 'MAHA moms.' On Fox News in May, Kennedy noted that Means was pregnant and said she has 'a touchstone...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

11/ wellness products' and 'teas, supplements, and elixirs.'

Elixirs, folks.

🔹️"Her confirmation — which is expected in the coming months after Trump selected her in May — would further solidify the power and influence of Kennedy and the MAHA movement, half a dozen medical experts said, pushing...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

10/ "review of her financial disclosures reporting income from 2024 and into the summer of this year found she has been paid more than $536,000 for partnerships as well as for book-tour and newsletter sponsorships with companies...described as selling 'diagnostic testing,' 'herbal remedies and...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

9/🔹️"At times, Means has promoted products outside of the medical mainstream. She has touted the products and services of companies that partnered with her on her book launch — including longevity supplements that cost $125 (which at one point offered a 10 percent off coupon code, CASEY)." A WaPo...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

8/ 🔹️"This idea suggests that maintaining a healthy lifestyle will ward off — and potentially treat — diseases."

🔹️"Means wrote in her book that 'the ability to prevent and reverse' a variety of ailments, including infertility and Alzheimer’s, 'is under your control and simpler than you think.'"

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

7/ Here are some excerpts from the article:

🔹️Trump's SG pick is a "health products entrepreneur and popular online personality who has frequently suggested that Americans should question the advice they get from medical authorities."

🔹️She "centers her message around the concept of 'good energy.'"

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

6/ options & choices are largely determined for them by policy & corporate decisions), & that the poor only use it (again: food) to make themselves sicker - so why should tax dollars fund that?

First food, now medicine. But never fear, b/c Casey Means also has stuff to sell you to replace it.

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

5/ and RFK for taking the populace back to an equivalent of 19th-century care standards. We've already seen a s*ton of that messaging from RFK in his arguments against foodstamps: that the poor can't be trusted to behave responsibly when they gain access to food (despite the fact that their food...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

4/ you; you made it happen) means that, when American health gets even worse (for people like us, I mean; not for the billionare class for whom the regime works, who will always have healthcare access), the average person will blame the sick for their lifestyle choices, rather than blaming Trump...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

3/ American adults & kids. An important part of separating folks from their healthcare w/o blowback is first laying groundwork to convince them that they didn't want or need it to begin with; in fact, that it was hurting them.

And the first, just world belief (that you deserve whatever happens to

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

2/ for their own negative health outcomes (whether that's autism or dementia), & that the medical establishment can't be trusted.

The second belief creates profound mistrust re: medical care, which means people will protest less when the Republicans eliminate access for many, many millions of...

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 7h

She left the medical mainstream and rose to be RFK Jr.’s surgeon general pick

Casey Means, the surgeon general nominee, has criticized the medical establishment. She could be put in position to change it.

www.washingtonpost.com

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