Ari B Friedman
@abfriedman.com
6.9K followers 530 following 470 posts
This is my personal account. Faculty at UPenn. Emergency doc, health economist, geriatrics and privacy researcher. Views are my own. RT does not imply endorsement.
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Reposted by Ari B Friedman
economeager.bsky.social
(1) banger
(2) i wish non-economists would realise just how much time each economics paper takes to write (because of our norms about how thorough each paper has to be)
seema.bsky.social
We just spent 6 months to add 1 figure to this paper. Some people said, "Couples aren't prioritizing men's careers. Men just have better earnings opportunities when moving."

Earnings effects of moves for couples on the left, singles on the right. Negligible gap between single men and women.
Event study coefficients that show that men's earnings rise more than women's among couples following a cross-commuting zone move (left panels). The pattern is muted or reverses among single men and single women (right panels).
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
shefali.bsky.social
“My biggest fear is going to the hospital."

Pregnant immigrants are terrified ICE will show up outside the doctors' office or at the hospital. So they're skipping the care necessary to ensure a healthy birth.

Some experience dangerous complications as a result.

19thnews.org/2025/10/preg...
ICE fears put pregnant immigrants and their babies at risk
Fear of deportation is deterring people without permanent legal status from critical care. Doctors are worried for their health — and the health of their pregnancies.
19thnews.org
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
hetanshah.bsky.social
Nice chart from @ourworldindata.org showing the contrast between what Americans die of (heart disease and cancer) v what the US media reports on (homicide and terrorism). This naturally leads to it being trickier to build a fact based world view
ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...
What Americans die from
and the causes of death the US media reports on
Causes of death in the US in 2023
Heart disease (29%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (2.4%)
Liver disease (2.2%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)|
COVID-19 (2.1%)
Influenza/Pneu
monia (19%6)

Media coverage of these causes of death in 2023 in...
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Fox News
Heart disease (2.8%)
Heart disease (2.9%)
Cancer (4.1%)
Cancer (4.7%)
Accidents (5.9%)
Cancer (3.8%)
Accidents (6.1%)
Accidents (9.7%)
Suicide (4.1%)
Suicide (3.3%)
COVID-19 (6.0%)
COVID-19 (7.9%)
Suicide (3.8%)
COVID-19 (5.3%)
Drug overdose (7.5%)
Drug overdose (9.8%)
Drug overdose (9.5%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (24%)
Suicide (2.1%0)
COVID-19 (2.1%0
Homicide (42%)
Homicide (52%)
Homicide (46%)
Terrorism (18%)
Terrorism (12%)
Terrorism (11%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)
Note: Based on the share of causes of death in the US and the share of mentions for each of the causes in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News. All values are normalized to 100%, so the shares are relative to all deaths caused by the 12 most common causes + drug overdoses, homicides and terrorism. These causes account for more than 75% of deaths in the US.
A "media mention" is a published article in one of the outlets which mentions the cause (e,g. "influenza) or related keywords (e.g. "fu") least twice.
Data sources: Media mentions from Media Cloud (2025): deaths data from the US CDC (2025) and Global Terrorism Index.|
CC BY
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
governor.ca.gov
This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States.

America is on the brink of martial law.

Do not be silent.
govpritzker.illinois.gov
This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
muellershewrote.com
Harmeet Dhillon (DOJ) publicly targeted this judge on Twitter a couple weeks ago.
thetnholler.bsky.social
SOUTH CAROLINA… “Judge Goodstein was walking on the beach when the fire started. Her husband, Arnie, was in the house with children and perhaps grandchildren. The family had to escape by jumping from a window or balcony...” www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
adrianweckler.bsky.social
“Littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references and a made-up quote from a Federal Court judgement.”

Deloitte issues refund to (Aus) government for using AI in $440k report
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
donmoyn.bsky.social
This, in a nutshell, is the dilemma for actual conservative faculty on campus. It is very hard to reconcile sincere commitment to free speech w right-wing demands to shutter that speech. (Left-wing demands too, but less cognitive dissonance there).
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...
Mr. Hicks, an economics professor at Ball State, said he broke down for the first time in 35 years of teaching while talking to students in class the day after Mr. Kirk was killed. The moment was a shock for students too. Some on campus compared it to this generation’s 9/11. But in the days since, what could have been a chance to teach students about the First Amendment, why it is essential to honor it, and how to fight against the undertow of anger and revenge, turned into something else.

“We chose to indulge the most base motivations of those who just want to see people fired,” he said, “because we lacked the courage to say that we defend speech with which we disagree.”

He said students asked him to mentor a chapter of Turning Point USA, which was led by Mr. Kirk, at Ball State back when it was first starting. Initially, he was pleased, but when he visited Turning Point’s webpage, he recoiled. He found a “watch list” of liberal professors.

“I told the student that I thought conservative voices on campus needed a bit of boosting, but that I didn’t work with people who made enemies lists,” he said. “It’s just a different version of cancel culture.”
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
justinwolfers.bsky.social
Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued.

Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially.

Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
lee.scheinbe.im
lots of people saying that ACIP voted against the MMRV vaccine which is not really what happened

1) they voted to not recommend MMRV and instead to get MMR and V separately
2) they voted to keep the MMRV under coverage for the Vaccines for Children program
3) they seem confused by their own votes
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
upenn.edu
The world’s first successful treatment of a patient with a personalized CRISPR gene editing therapy was carried out by a team at Penn Medicine and CHOP. This history-making breakthrough involved a child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.

Read More: https://bit.ly/3Fd0Kzp
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
johnsmillie42.bsky.social
Children will die because of RFK Jr. Others may lose hearing or vision. Many more will suffer a horrible bout of illness for a week or more for no good reason.

thehill.com/policy/healt...
First, the panel was asked to consider whether the combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella should not be recommended for children younger than 4. The panel voted 8-3 to approve the change, with one member abstaining.  

This vote would have meant that children who receive their vaccinations through the Vaccines For Children federal program will not be able to receive the MMRV shot until they’re 4 years old. The committee voted, however, in a follow-up motion against aligning the VFC with the recommendation, changing nothing in terms of what the program covers for the time being.

Children can normally get the MMRV vaccine beginning at 12 months of age.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
jakescottmd.bsky.social
This graph shows a U.S. public health triumph: near-elimination of pediatric hepatitis B through universal birth vaccination. After 30 years of extraordinary progress, ACIP tomorrow considers dismantling it.

Medical justification: none.
Consequences: catastrophic.
www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...
abfriedman.com
I would *so* have taken that with you!
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
radleybalko.bsky.social
We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
letsgomathias.bsky.social
Posobiec - whose ties to white supremacists are legion - wrote a book last year called “Unhumans” in which he labeled half the country UNHUMAN

It is language designed to inspire political violence yet our cable news channels have made him a talking head about political violence
paleofuture.bsky.social
The number of Americans who have discovered names like Jack Posobiec and Nick Fuentes this past week without knowing what they actually stand for is pretty alarming
Jack Posobiec on CNN: CHARLIE KIRK'S FRIEND TO CNN: WE'RE "FACING ASYMMETRIC WARFARE"
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
johnholbein1.bsky.social
Reducing access to abortions ...

- increases families' economic hardship,
- increases families' debt,
- increases income inequality,
- increases housing insecurity, and
- increases financially motivated crime rates.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
bachynski.bsky.social
“An extra six months, an extra year, a possible lifetime: That’s time that my talented 12-year-old son was denied. In his last months, Aryeh talked enthusiastically about starting middle school with his friends; about his upcoming bar mitzvah, which he began preparing for but didn’t celebrate…” 💔
abfriedman.com
When the world’s leading science journal is publishing how-to’s for top scientists to leave your formerly world-leading science enterprise, you’ve done something wrong. It’s not too late to reverse course, although the damage already done will reverberate for decades.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
first10em.bsky.social
The First10EM Research Roundup for September 2025

It has been a while since I have critically appraised. Life without medical journals is sort of nice, but I guess it just isn’t me, so I am back and nerdier than ever. That means there are some strange selections this time around, but there are…
The First10EM Research Roundup for September 2025
It has been a while since I have critically appraised. Life without medical journals is sort of nice, but I guess it just isn’t me, so I am back and nerdier than ever. That means there are some strange selections this time around, but there are bound to be at least a few people out there that find these papers as fascinating as I do.
first10em.com
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
waldo.net
A couple of weeks later, and eight custom security rules later, my website traffic is successfully managed. Bots were overwhelming it, and the worst offenders were pretending not to be bots (fake referrers, fake user agents)—I'm gonna assume those are AI scrapers. Now they're throttled and blocked.
Reposted by Ari B Friedman
waldo.net
Hey, Cloudflare gave me full access to their suite of services via Project Galileo, their program to protect human rights, civil society, journalism, and democracy websites, so that means my highest-traffic website is now better protected. That was nice of them.