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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D

@noellesullivan.bsky.social

570 followers 830 following 440 posts

Director, Global Health Studies @ NorthwesternU, medical #anthropology, clinical #voluntourism, #health policy & health care in 🇹🇿🇺🇸, bike commuter, closet hippy, 🇨🇦 raised, memoirist. Opinions expressed are my own. https://noellesullivan.wordpress.com

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · Feb 3

It's been a while since I published. I've been working on a book--a memoir about my brother, murdered in 2018, & how his life helped me think about the man who killed him.

This piece reflects on that book. In a chaotic world filled with abhorrent news, perhaps this story can bring a little light

<em>American Anthropologist</em> | AAA Anthropology Journal | Wiley Online Library

In 2018, my brother Adam Colquhoun, nicknamed “Stretch,” was killed in a bar in Calgary, Alberta by a man he barely knew. Stretch was the kind of person society finds convenient to discard. His histo...

anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Noelle Sullivan Ph.D

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 9h

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 18h

New article out this month on how doctors become fascists.

50% of German physicians joined the Nazi Party––twice the proportion of any other profession. US doctors today are arguably the most conservative in the world, and we're heading along a similar path.
drive.google.com/file/d/1CAk9...

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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 12h

Please don’t forget the “nuance” of Emily Oster and the @nytimes.com.

Health is just a game to her.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Collect a claim from one side, collect a claim from the other, present them both to the reader with an awkward shrug and a "who can say?"

And the photo choice -- Noem's looking down ... on what? The reverse angle showed a small crowd and a quiet street. But can't show that, it's biased to one side!

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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Will Saletan @saletan.bsky.social · 2d

Here's a neat trick they teach in authoritarianism school: If you purge the people who measure the effects of your policies (BLS, MMWR), you can just claim everything's great, and nobody can prove how much damage you're doing.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

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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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

Is it cancel culture when they threaten to kill you?

www.nj.com/news/2025/10...

Sold-out Ta-Nehisi Coates speaker appearance in N.J. canceled over security reasons

Organizers canceled a sold-out Ta-Nehisi Coates event in Montclair citing undisclosed security concerns.

www.nj.com

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Reuters @reuters.com · 2d

MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling reut.rs/471tkNZ

MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling

Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Friday said she "cannot support" a memo that the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding.

reut.rs

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 2d

You know what would really fix the issue of drug prices?

The federal government ACTUALLY REGULATING THE COSTS OF DRUGS, just as every other high income country does.

Notably, they also regulate the costs of healthcare, meaning they spend half as much as I we do or less on the same care.

Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 2d

Dr. Oz announces that TrumpRx.gov is now live.

If you click, you'll see — it's essentially just a banner ad for now.

U.S. officials have said it will formally launch in January 2026 and help Americans find discounted drugs.

Reposted by Noelle Sullivan Ph.D

Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 2d

There was never going to be a moment when everyone—everyone in government, everyone in media, everyone in the population—was roused to action at the same time. We're turning a battleship. And Pritzker understands that.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 3d

Don't tell the Gen Z kids. Somehow they think "novel" is a generic synonym for "book" and thus any non-fiction can be a novel.

[I am regularly fighting this battle with college students...and losing]

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 3d

This is why I don't write fiction. Why bother when this is the world we live in?

[To the fiction writers out there, I love you and read you...I just write non-fiction]

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 3d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Justin Zimmerman @jztidecat.bsky.social · 3d

Lmao. We should show this video in methods courses.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

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

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 3d

The gov't negotiating healthcare costs is POPULAR across the political spectrum. Every high income country does this EXCEPT the USA, but they don't do it piecemeal as Biden envisioned. They do it for the whole dang system. That's a central reason why #healthcare is so expensive in the USA.

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 3d

[email protected] on state of our federal deficit. Not a pretty picture. But I want to focus on this quote right here. Yes, spending rises because social security & healthcare costs. But to say gov't can't touch health costs politically? I call BS. That was #2 issue for voters going into 2024 election.

The main reason spending keeps rising is that the costs of the biggest programs, Social Security and Medicare, are driven by an aging population and rising health costs. Both are practically untouchable politically.

Reposted by Noelle Sullivan Ph.D

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 3d

Ireland has approved plans to permanently implement a basic income program that will support up to 2,200 artists.

A cost-benefit analysis found that for every €1 invested, society receives €1.39 back.

Officials from other countries are now expressing interest in the program.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 5d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 5d

What a load of horse caca.

White House Signals It May Try to Deny Back Pay to Furloughed Federal Workers

www.nytimes.com

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 5d

This is great. But from a policy perspective it’s also ridiculous. A system this piecemeal and abusive is a policy choice, one of the many problems with privatized healthcare.

Places with #UniversalHealthcare don’t have these same levels of shenanigans.

This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Your Insurer to Pay for Lifesaving Care. Here’s How to File It.

When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here are six steps experts…

buff.ly

Reposted by Noelle Sullivan Ph.D

Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · 6d

The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America

A federal judge had blocked Trump’s request to deploy California national guard to Portland

www.theguardian.com

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 6d

Undocumented immigrants pay taxes. They contribute to our economy. They are critical members of our communities. They volunteer in our schools. They make the fabric of our nation more resilient, robust, and vibrant. Rather than deporting folks, Congress needs to fix our immigration system.

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 6d

To get here legally is HARD. To get status once you've arrived undocumented is nearly impossible. We are not deporting hardened criminals en masse. We are separating families, creating chaos in communities, and for what?

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 6d

There are a lot of ignorant comments from folks about this family, arguing in 44 years they should have applied for status. But Congress and our immigration system is broken, and has been for decades. This is why we have DACA/Dreamers--people who were brought here as children, with no clear path.

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 6d

Community members were asked to donate to the family, to purchase from the estate sale in hopes of helping the family relocate to Guatemala, so Mom and child could reunite with the Dad.

Never have we felt so disgusted in doing something to help another family.

After her husband was deported, Skokie woman and 3-year-old are leaving US to keep family intact

After her husband was deported, a Skokie woman and their 3-year-old are departing the United States to keep the family intact elsewhere.

www.chicagotribune.com

Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 6d

On Sunday my family went to this estate sale. The owners had to liquidate their entire life together because the dad was deported. He'd been brought to the USA at age 5 from Guatemala, 44 years ago, when Guatemala was in a civil war. His wife and child are American. He'd been trying to get status.

House with estate sale on front lawn as family sells off all their belongings.

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 6d

“California, and the country, cannot await the outcome of the midterms to repel Trump’s siege on democracy. More drastic action is required.”

My piece exploring "soft secession": www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

It’s time for soft secession

How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.

www.motherjones.com

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