Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
banner
rachelhoopsick.bsky.social
Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
@rachelhoopsick.bsky.social
First Gen Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at University of Illinois | Studying drug use & mental health | UB alum🤘🏼🌹🌈🍉
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
One of my team’s newest articles highlighting suicidal behaviors among LGB+ youth. Check it out! Collaborating with the excellent @rachelhoopsick.bsky.social is always a plus!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 21, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
This is not good news if you believe we need a steady supply of public health experts in occupational health and safety. aspph.org/department-o...
Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition
Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.
aspph.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
The real threat to the "dignity of work" isn’t entitlement benefits like Medicaid — it’s the policy failings that continue to leave jobs unsafe, wages flat, and healthcare out of reach. theopinionpages.com/2025/11/real...
Real Threat to Dignity of Work?  Not Medicaid, It’s Policy | The Opinion Pages
As the federal government is poised to end the longest shutdown in history, it is noteworthy that Rep. Erin Houcin (R-Ind.) recently claimed that reinstating Medicaid work requirements would restore t...
theopinionpages.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
The new, 7th edition of 'A Dictionary of Epidemiology' will be published in April 2026.

As previous editions, it is sponsored by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA), and published in New York by Oxford University Press.

The book will be published online on www.oxfordreference.com.
www.oxfordreference.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The deepest wounds don’t always come from combat. Sharing this piece I wrote in @thefulcrum-us.bsky.social on the National Guard as a fellow of The OpEd Project and the @uofilsystem.bsky.social:
thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
Guarding What? The Moral Cost of Militarizing Our Cities
A federal judge recently blocked plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. But the battle over militarizing American streets is far from over. On Monday, a federal appeals court lifted a temporar...
thefulcrum.us
October 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
No surprises here - removed or altered data sets include health data, and other data related to climate change, air pollution, etc., which enable threats to health and wellbeing and health inequities to be tracked and intervened upon.
A Shortlist of Federal Data the Trump Administration Has Tampered With or Destroyed
The scale and scope of federal data and statistics that have been...
talkingpointsmemo.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
The CDC was destroyed last night. Our federal public health infrastructure will no longer exist. It has major & long-lasting repercussions that will impact the health of everyday people in the U.S. &beyond💔

Trump administration lays off thousands of federal workers during government shutdown - CNN
October 11, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
I'd love to hear from anyone who has been at agencies protecting public health this year (eg CDC, HHS, HRSA, HUD, NIH, OSHA). Privacy respected. Signal is AmyMaxmen.25

🧵Here's a thread of some of my stories this year on the impact of the Trump administration on America's public health.
Hi! I'm a public health reporter moving from THERE to here. Give me a follow if you're interested in my writing & take:

Public health isn't only about outbreaks & vaccines. It's about making society healthier outside of clinics. It requires systemic change, equity, a belief in the common good.
October 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM
No pizza party or company swag is going to fix the reality of what it’s like to be a healthcare worker in the US. Our pilot data suggest that moral injury is prevalent among HCWs and may affect suicidal thoughts and behaviors doi.org/10.1080/1555...
October 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
I wrote for @thefulcrum-us.bsky.social about the need for public health.

The dismantling of public health that is unravelling in real time may feel like political theater, but the stakes are measured in lives.

thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
Take the Shot: The Country’s Future Hangs on Public Health Support
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met this week at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It linked 25 unverified reports of child deaths to COVID-19 vaccines as they consider further limiting access to this and other immunizations, like those for hepatitis B and...
thefulcrum.us
September 20, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
A kind reminder that a "politics of you deserved this" (cancer, vaccine-preventable disease, natural disaster, etc) has no place in public health. We can hold bad actors to account without punching down on the groups most harmed by their actions and/or resorting to shame, blame, and stigma.
September 3, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
www.nytimes.com
September 1, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
Across New York State local health departments are using wastewater to track infectious disease trends. Wastewater data complements case and hospitalization data.

Our group's write-up on how local health departments use wastewater data here.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#EpiSky 🧪
How local health departments use wastewater surveillance data for public health planning and intervention in New York State - BMC Public Health
Wastewater surveillance presents a novel data stream for local health departments to understand infectious disease risk in their communities. We conducted a survey of local health departments in New Y...
link.springer.com
August 19, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
ATTN: Robert Wood Johnson has money to support “canceled” research on racial-indigenous health equity

www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...
Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research
The purpose of this call for proposals is to meet the current moment by supporting timely, actionable health equity research that has been interrupted by shifts in federal funding.
www.rwjf.org
August 20, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
i don’t write opinion pieces, but i felt compelled to write this one with @colincarlson.bsky.social after my friends and former colleagues at CDC had 500 bullets fired at them.
NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...
The CDC shooting was public health’s Jan. 6
“In RFK Jr.’s America, it will never be safe to practice public health or medicine," write an epidemiologist and a former CDC staffer.
www.statnews.com
August 15, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
Hello, Bluesky! This account automatically posts updates when the Census Bureau APIs add or remove datasets.

See the full tracker at www.hrecht.com/census-api-d...
Tracking Census Dataset Changes
See when the U.S. Census Bureau adds or removes datasets.
www.hrecht.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
Jerome Adams was President Trump's Surgeon General. He is calling out the current administration for its dehumanizing language and tying it to the shootings at CDC last week. This isn't a partisan issue. Violence against public health workers is wrong full-stop. www.statnews.com/2025/08/09/c...
Former surgeon general: The CDC shooting must be a wakeup call
“When influential figures amplify falsehoods, they legitimize the anger that leads to violence,” writes former Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
www.statnews.com
August 11, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
Homelessness is a policy failure, not a personal one.
August 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
“People in public health care too much about our country to stop. Because we care about our kids’ futures. Because we believe in a better life. Better community. Better health. We will serve our neighbors even if they don’t understand what we’re doing or why it matters.“ - @kkjetelina.bsky.social
August 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
The MS thesis of PhD student Sylvia Okon is now a peer-reviewed journal article! We found that compassion fatigue was associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among healthcare workers, underscoring the need for systems-level support and targeted interventions to protect worker well‑being.
August 1, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
We at the University of Iowa College of Public Health are hiring for a tenure-track, open rank faculty position with a focus on cancer prevention and control. jobs.uiowa.edu/faculty/view...
Faculty Requisition Details - Jobs@UIOWA: Search and Apply for Jobs at The University of Iowa
Jobs@UIOWA: The official place to search and apply for jobs at The University of Iowa.
jobs.uiowa.edu
July 31, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
From 2010 to 2023, nitrous oxide (“whippets”) poisoning deaths in the US rose from 23 to 156 annually, with significant increases until 2018 and a plateau from 2019 to 2023. ja.ma/40KDYql
July 30, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Rachel Hoopsick, PhD, MS, MPH, MCHES
New research co-authored by a Health and Kinesiology professor reveals an alarming rise in U.S. fatalities from misuse of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

Read about this emerging public health issue: go.illinois.edu/nitrousoxidestudy

@rachelhoopsick.bsky.social @yockeyandrew.bsky.social
July 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Our latest paper, led by @yockeyandrew.bsky.social, examines CDC mortality data and shows that nitrous oxide poisoning deaths, though relatively few, have risen dramatically in the US in recent years. We are at the bottom of a hill with a steep ascent, and now is the time to act.
US Nitrous Oxide Mortality
This cohort study describes national trends in nitrous oxide poisoning mortality in the US from 2010 to 2023.
jamanetwork.com
July 30, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Our latest paper presents the findings from a pilot study to understand why PWID access contactless harm reduction services. People who used a vending machine did not differ in their ability to engage in harm-reducing behaviors compared to those who used in-person services. doi.org/10.1186/s129...
July 28, 2025 at 4:24 PM