Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
Health systems researcher, pharmacist, mom, wife. Professor
@BUSPH Promoting equitable and affordable access to and quality use of medicines.
Economics
59%
Public Health
11%
Ken Griffin Says CEOs Find Trump’s Interference ‘Distasteful’
The billionaire Citadel founder hinted he could run for political office or work in government in the future.
www.wsj.com
“When the U.S. government starts to engage in corporate America in a way that tastes of favoritism, I know for most CEOs that I’m friends with, they find it incredibly distasteful,” Griffin said www.wsj.com/business/ken...
Reposted by Raffaella Ravinetto
Working Group on Access to Medicines - India
www.youtube.com
Today is #WorldCancerDay💔 No one should have to choose between survival and financial ruin. www.youtube.com/@A2MIndia/sh...
Reposted by Veronika J. Wirtz
The Lancet
@thelancet.com
· 5d
The uniqueness of each patient is at the heart of this year’s #WorldCancerDay.
🎧 Louise Chappell and Na’ama Carlin, both cancer survivors, discuss the importance of personalised cancer care and its effect on their bodies and their lives. spkl.io/63328AsBGy
🎧 Louise Chappell and Na’ama Carlin, both cancer survivors, discuss the importance of personalised cancer care and its effect on their bodies and their lives. spkl.io/63328AsBGy
Archbishop Coakley Calls for Holy Hour as a Moment of Renewal for Our Hearts and Our Nation
"Let us pray for reconciliation where there is division, for justice where there are violations of fundamental rights, and for consolation for all who feel o...
www.usccb.org
“Current climate of fear and polarization, which thrives when human dignity is disregarded [and] does not meet the standard set by Christ in the Gospel" www.usccb.org/news/2026/ar...
Reposted by Els Torreele
Dozens of CDC databases are not being updated — most related to vaccines, study finds
The agency plays a key role in tracking disease spread and vaccination rates. Last year, it seemed to back away from some of that work, according to new research.
www.nbcnews.com
The start of 2025, the CDC maintained 82 databases that were updated at least monthly. But by the end of October, the study found, 38 had gone stale, with 34 showing no new entries at all in the previous six months. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
House and Senate appropriators endorse NIH budget increase, reject Trump’s proposed cuts
Congressional appropriations committees offered a near-total rebuke of President Trump’s proposed downsizing and reshaping of the NIH.
www.statnews.com
House and Senate appropriators endorse NIH budget increase, reject Trump’s proposed cuts www.statnews.com/2026/01/20/n... via @statnews.com
Judge Blocks Government From Reviewing Seized Washington Post Devices
www.nytimes.com
Judge Blocks Government From Reviewing Seized Washington Post Devices www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/b...
storage.courtlistener.com
"Federal officials acknowledged that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees coordinated with a political advocacy group on a “voter data agreement” aimed at analyzing voter rolls in an effort to challenge election outcomes." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01), Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, introduced the Follow the Science Act to shield the National Institutes...
degette.house.gov
DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference: "... this administration has shown it's willing to sacrifice science on the altar of politics." degette.house.gov/media-center...
Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as U.S. Schools Slip
www.nytimes.com
Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as U.S. Schools Slip www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
Federal judge says deporting Babson College freshman was a ‘tragic case of bureaucracy gone wrong’ - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, was arrested by ICE agents at Logan International Airport on Thanksgiving morning.
www.bostonglobe.com
"The federal judge in the court proceeding Tuesday, Richard G. Stearns, prodded lawyers for the administration to find a way to let Lopez Belloza return to the United States and remain here legally." www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/13/m...
Investor behind Moderna says U.S. policy is ‘taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine’
Noubar Afeyan, one of biotech’s top investors, says U.S. policy is "taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine."
www.statnews.com
“We are living simultaneously in the utopian age in which a baby born with a genetic death sentence is given a new lease on life thanks to the miracle of gene editing, and the dystopia in which a disease like measles is on the march in the United States,” he said. www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/n...
'An undoing of the scientific method': Flagship CEO warns of government threats to US biotech industry
The Trump administration spent 2025 taking a sledgehammer to science, obliteratin | The Trump administration spent 2025 taking a sledgehammer to science, obliterating funding and reshaping agencies li...
www.fiercebiotech.com
'An undoing of the scientific method': Flagship CEO warns of government threats to US biotech industry www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/undo...
The top US health director who stood up for science — and was fired
Susan Monarez is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.
www.nature.com
The top US health director who stood up for science — and was fired www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Raffaella Ravinetto
A Threat to Evidence-Based Vaccine Policy and Public Health Security at the FDA | NEJM
Twelve former commissioners of the FDA express concern that the agency’s recent moves will undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness, and availability.
www.nejm.org
"Demands for ideological alignment as a condition of employment are irreconcilable with an agency (FDA) whose strength is the pluralism of its expert views." www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
A Threat to Evidence-Based Vaccine Policy and Public Health Security at the FDA | NEJM
Twelve former commissioners of the FDA express concern that the agency’s recent moves
will undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness,
and availability.
www.nejm.org
"As former commissioners of the FDA... we are deeply concerned by sweeping new FDA assertions about vaccine safety and proposals that would undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure that vaccines are safe, effective, and available when the public needs them most."
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
The privatization of American morality
The State Department’s new “America First” Global Health Strategy is a transactional gamble with millions of lives at risk.
contrarian.substack.com
"If the estimates and predicted 15 million deaths come to pass, it won’t be because of natural disasters. It will be the result of a distinctly man-made disaster—a calculated bureaucratic choice to put “America First” by leaving the rest of the world to die." contrarian.substack.com/p/the-privat...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Nov 24
Three things in public health to be thankful for - The Boston Globe
As this tumultuous year draws to a close — and especially during this season of thanksgiving — it’s important to recognize the contributions that deserve gratitude.
www.bostonglobe.com
"Health care in the United States remains extraordinarily expensive, and the federal government and states must confront the high costs that make it so difficult to cover all Americans." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/24/o...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Fluoride in drinking water does not negatively affect cognitive ability — and may actually provide benefit, study finds | CNN
The longstanding public health practice of adding fluoride to community drinking water is facing heavy scrutiny in the United States over questions about whether the benefits outweigh the potential ri...
www.cnn.com
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Nov 16
“Rovina’s Choice” Shows How the Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
www.newyorker.com
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes. www.newyorker.com/video/watch/...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Oct 28
Cholera is spreading fast, yet it can be stopped. Why haven’t we consigned it to history? | Hakainde Hichilema and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Vaccine production must be expanded to combat this ancient disease, especially in Africa, but a lack of political will is holding us back
www.theguardian.com
"Stopping it [cholera] is therefore not a scientific, medical or technical challenge; fundamentally, it’s a political one." Hakainde Hichilema & Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Oct 27
NIH Institute Director Abruptly Replaced
New NIEHS chief is a friend of Vice President JD Vance
www.medpagetoday.com
"Putting JD Vance's friend as an institute director, breaking the normal process for selecting scientific talent, this is really bad," Mark Histed, PhD, chief of a lab on neural computation and behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Oct 22
The U.S. experiment with profit-driven health care has failed
“The market competition, managed care, and ‘corporate efficiency’ that economists prescribed as the cure for health care inflation instead accelerated it.”
www.statnews.com
"Decommercialized national health insurance: a single, public insurance plan that covers everyone [...] That kind of reform would save both money and lives, and it would put communities, not investors, in control of health care" www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/h...
Kennedy Fires N.I.H. Scientist Who Filed Whistle-Blower Complaint
www.nytimes.com
""The Trump Administration terminated Dr. Marrazzo for her advocacy on behalf of critical health research and for her support of the overwhelming body of evidence that shows vaccines are safe and effective," Ms. Katz said." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/h...
The far-right and health: an evolving political crisis
Across Europe and North America, racism, xenophobia, and far-right nationalism have
become normalised in public and political discourse, leading many people to feel anxiety
and fear of violence, discr...
www.thelancet.com
"Medical and science communities cannot change societies alone. But we can set standards of behaviour and create value systems that resist corrosive social and political forces." www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Sep 19
Who Makes Decisions About Vaccine Policy Now?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired longtime vaccine safety skeptics and scientists who are critical of Covid shots and mandates to make immunization policy decisions for Americans.
www.nytimes.com
Who Makes Decisions About Vaccine Policy Now? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Sep 19
Opinion | Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel and the Future of Free Speech in America
www.nytimes.com
“Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...
Veronika J. Wirtz
@verowirtz.bsky.social
· Sep 17
Substantial Number of People Ditch Wegovy Within a Year
Younger users, men were especially prone to quitting
www.medpagetoday.com
Substantial Number of People Ditch Wegovy Within a Year www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcover...