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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 6d

Standing by Our Colleagues in Gaza — A Plea to the U.S. Medical Community | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Standing by Our Colleagues in Gaza — A Plea to the U.S. Medical Community | NEJM

In the face of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza’s health system and the catastrophic famine caused by the devastation, U.S. physicians have an ethical obligation to respond and support immediate ch...

www.nejm.org

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 7d

1) Ballooning health care costs are not due to providing emergency hospital care for undocumented immigrants
2) Either suggesting that hospitals should refuse emergency care, or refusing reimbursement to hospitals providing emergency care, solves nothing and is unethical

Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 7d

I can understand physicians often being silent when it comes to politics for a variety of reasons. However, this is a moment where we need to be heard stating two things very clearly (1/2):

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

REPORTER: Should ERs check immigration status before treating a dying patient?

LEAVITT: That's probably not a question for me to answer. That's a question for healthcare professionals and legal experts to answer.

(That's not a no!)

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Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 8d

ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 8d

It's important to emphasize that I know almost nothing about money and had no trouble figuring this out.

Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 8d

Option 2: We treat everyone but hospitals are only reimbursed if the patient was a US citizen. The hospitals eat the costs, so either a) countless hospitals close, or more likely b) costs increase to offset those losses...and who ends up paying then?

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 8d

Option 1 in the Vice President's Ideal World: We tell them to provide their insurance paperwork, and if they do not have said paperwork, have security escort them out to the door where they presumably die in the parking lot.

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 8d

Oh fine, let's walk through the implications of NOT providing emergency health care to all people who walk into a US hospital. Someone shows up in the ER having a heart attack. (1/3)

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 17d

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Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

Sumitra Badrinathan @sumitra.bsky.social · 19d

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation.

i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 20d

Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 20d

Worth mentioning that H-1B visa holders keep the majority of rural hospitals in America functioning

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 25d

I can confirm that this is a very accurate description of what people who are trying to help improve the lives of patients with cancer, including myself, are facing.

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 25d

Powerful new article in NYT Magazine on cancer research

[Gift Link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer

www.nytimes.com

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 28d

Now accepting applications for our 2026 Cancer Biology & Cancer Engineering programs. Aspiring scientists & engineers will solve fundamental problems in biology & conduct research & develop technology that will help understand, diagnose, & treat cancer.
bit.ly/3WUiuo1

Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers the next generation of basic scientists a program to study the biological sciences through the lens of cancer

bit.ly

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Sep 4

How can this be real? It is - this is a very real post by the current acting director of the CDC - essentially a full confession of scientific illiteracy. God help us.

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Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

Altmetric @altmetric.com · Sep 2

Sheffield researchers doing The Lord’s work. Great study.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement

Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

Jen Herman @jukebarosh.bsky.social · Aug 16

My Friday night hot take is that replication studies are largely a waste of time & $

If a result is worth following up on, it's better to address from a different angle & see if it holds water. Strong ideas withstand this

Conversely, there R infinite ways a replication can fail that teach you zip

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 16

This is a clear contrast from prior statements which explicitly addressed these areas: www.nih.gov/sites/defaul...

www.nih.gov

Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

Greg Folkers @gregfolkers.bsky.social · Aug 15

Nature: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility

go.nature.com/3HDx4wD

cc Jay Bhattacharya

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 16

Space was allocated to underscore the following priorities instead:
Reproducibility
"Real world" data sources
Artificial Intelligence
Autism (etiology only)
"Alternative Testing Models"
The harms of treating "gender dysphoria"

I dont see a future to biomedical research in this 'strategy.'

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 16

Top 10 causes of death in the US: heart disease, cancer, COVID, trauma/overdose, stroke, chronic respiratory disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, kidney disease, and liver disease/cirrhosis.

# of mentions of any of these in the current 'unified strategy': 0.

www.nih.gov/about-nih/ni...

Advancing NIH’s Mission Through a Unified Strategy

NIH is moving toward a unified strategy that aligns our priorities and funding approaches to fulfill this commitment.

www.nih.gov

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 11

“The symbolism could not be clearer: Scientists, doctors, public health officials, and law enforcement officials — people whose life’s work is to protect the nation — have targets on their backs.” Bravo @celinegounder.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

Opinion | A Dangerous Escalation of the Science Wars

www.nytimes.com

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 11

On 8/5, HHS cancelled all federal funding for mRNA vaccine research. On 8/6, @rfk-junior.bsky.social posted, “Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical giants profit by keeping Americans sick.” On 8/8, a man convinced he was made sick by the COVID vaccine shot up by the CDC.

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Aug 10

“...disinformation, conspiracy theories & political violence is getting scarier by the day. I’m very worried about how this is now going beyond defunding of infectious diseases & public health to political violence against the people working in those fields."

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

After Years of Anger Directed at C.D.C., Shooting Manifests Worst Fears

www.nytimes.com

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Aug 4

This is so unbelievably kind. It was so lovely speaking with you and your encouragement means so much!!!

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Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · Jul 30

At this point the end of scientific research in the US seems more like an inevitability than a concern. I wish someone could explain to me the benefits that outweigh the catastrophic harms of this series of decisions.

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

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding

The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Santosh Vardhana

AZ Faust @azfaust.bsky.social · Jul 24

Today’s NCI announcement is akin to Thanos snapping his fingers and wiping out half of American scientific workforce. Except that the wiping out part will take much longer to play out.

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