Amy Maxmen, PhD
@amymaxmen.bsky.social
27K followers 2.3K following 460 posts
Award-winning public health reporter at KFF Health News. Bylines at Nature, New York Times, National Geographic & more. [email protected] Signal: AmyMaxmen.25 www.amymaxmen.com & https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/amy-maxmen
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amymaxmen.bsky.social
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.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Arriving in a Blackhawk helicopter and more, ICE raids an apartment building in Chicago.

"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," said one resident.

"We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military."

abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

Citizen app video captured the chaotic scene, and neighbors say there were dozens of ICE agents.

"As I got to my unit to stick my key in the door, I was grabbed by an officer. And, I said, 'What's going on? What's going on?' He never actually told me. He said I was being detained.," said Alicia Brooks.

Neighbors like Eboni Watson say they ducked for cover as they heard several flash bangs.

"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
alexwild.bsky.social
I've obtained the Trump compact document, let me summarize it for you.
Screen cap of a document reading "COMPACT FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our
Nation. In turn, the U.S. university system benefits in a variety of ways from its extraordinary relationship
with the U.S. government. These include (i) access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts;
(ii) funding for research directly or indirectly; (iii) approval of student and other visas in connection with
university matriculation and instruction; and (iv) preferential treatment under the tax code. To advance the
national interest arising out of this unique relationship, this Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher
Education represents the priorities of the U.S. government in its engagements with universities that benefit
from the relationship. Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than
those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits." with bits circled in color and translated to "Nice college you've got there. We hold all your money. It'd be a real shame if anything happened to it."
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
smashfizzle.bsky.social
What I know from being Black my whole life, and poor for the majority of it, is that politely ignoring a root issue to attend to one closer to the surface is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s a band-aid on a gaping wound, and it will not hold your flesh together for long. The US needs stitches.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
About 25% of women in the military & 6% of men experienced sexual harassment in the past year. 7% of women experienced "unwanted sexual contact"

Fewer than a third reported it. Of those who did, 60% say they experienced retaliation.*

It's tragic that this situation will almost certainly worsen.
atrupar.com
Hegseth: "We are overhauling an inspector general process that has been weaponized, putting complainers and poor performers in the driver seat. We are doing the same with the equal opportunity policies. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complains ... no more walking on eggshells."
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
mississippifreepress.org
In a rural corner of Louisiana, Meta is building one of the world's largest data centers, a $10 billion behemoth as big as 70 football fields that will consume more power in a day than the entire city of New Orleans at the peak of summer.
New Meta Data Center Needs Twice as Much Energy as New Orleans
Meta is constructing its largest data center yet: a $10 billion facility in Louisiana requiring more than twice as much electricity as New Orleans.
buff.ly
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
regrettably if you try to point this out online you'll get yelled out by 79208 journalists going OH SO YOU WANT JOURNALISTS TO STARVE??? even if you're, say, a journalist yourself, and point out that while there are clearly no easy answers, the status quo isn't exactly working for society
amymaxmen.bsky.social
The headline on the actual piece, not for social is great, and so is the piece.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Media, I am begging you to callout false information within the headline.

I know it's a challenge with limited characters, but that's the only part of the story that many people read. The broadcasting of misinformation is as dangerous as policy changes.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
I know very little about Bacarelli and his relationship with RFK. A number of credible researchers have now taken RFK's autism data-science money. If RFK and Trump spout wildly distorted & dangerous takes loosely based on their findings, to what extent do we blame the researchers?
amymaxmen.bsky.social
“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces. This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous,” says Jacob Granger, MSF Emergency Coordinator in Gaza. prezly.msf.org.uk/msf-forced-t...
amymaxmen.bsky.social
She was also talking about eliminating bias by not taking money from lawsuits or associating herself with anti-vaxxers. CHD posted her findings years ago and then immediately linked them to vaccines.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
I don't have a background in epidemiology, but I do have a background in scientists being very sure of their hypotheses and being really mad at anyone who says otherwise 😆
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Ha! I wrote that since I'm incredibly nervous we'll see many more scientific decisions and advice being guided by the courts -- rather than by scientific committee.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Pitchforks down😅! It's hard to translate the important debates among scientists to the public. To be clear, I agree with this judge - the science just isn't there. I really liked talking with coauthor Ann Bauer who thinks hard about eliminating bias, and not just statistically.
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Well, I think it's pretty clear that is not why she was actually removed...