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amymaxmen.bsky.social
Amy Maxmen, PhD
@amymaxmen.bsky.social
31K followers 2.5K following 540 posts
Award-winning public health reporter at KFF Health News. Bylines at Nature, New York Times, National Geographic & more. AmyM@kff.org Signal: AmyMaxmen.25 www.amymaxmen.com & https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/amy-maxmen
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amymaxmen.bsky.social
Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · Nov 10
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.
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
mississippifreepress.org
There has not been a grocery store in the small Mississippi Delta town of Drew in 11 years. The nearest grocery store is a 20-minute drive to Cleveland, forcing residents like Melinda Davis to make a 40-minute commute to access fresh food.

buff.ly/g1gSdiz
Two women pose in front of a large deep freezer
January 5, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
realbrambo.bsky.social
NEW: While so much attention is being paid to possible *causes* of autism, states are starting to cut funding on *treatment* for kids who already have it.

I wanted to know why.

Read my latest with @arjonesreports.bsky.social

www.npr.org/sections/sho...
It's the 'gold standard' in autism care. Why are states reining it in?
Budget shortfalls and nearly $1 trillion in looming federal Medicaid cuts have prompted states to rein in spending on a widely embraced autism therapy, pinching families who depend on the services.
www.npr.org
December 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
polphilpod.bsky.social
!! there's now a wiki page for reactionary centrism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactio...
January 3, 2026 at 1:07 AM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
"My transgender patients are trying to get by, day by day. They’re trying to survive."

ICYMI my interview with John Weiser, a former CDC official who resigned after refusing to comply with orders.

@assignedmedia.org via @kffhealthnews.org

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data on Trans Patients, Then Quit the CDC — Assigned
John Weiser, a doctor and researcher, has treated people with HIV since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
www.assignedmedia.org
December 18, 2025 at 6:39 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
“The minute you try to make a capitalistic organization become a social justice organization, that’s when you are going to fail.”

This piece by Jason Parham @wired.com is so worth your time. www.wired.com/story/dei-di...
DEI Died This Year. Maybe It Was Supposed To
I’m a Black staffer at WIRED. My position feels more precarious than ever. There’s a reason for that.
www.wired.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
jeisinger.bsky.social
NEW: Here's the searing tale of one woman's struggle to feed her family after the Trump Administration imposed a man-made food crisis.

Beautifully written by Brett Murphy & @annamaria.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/trum...
The Summer of Starvation: Amid Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts, a Mother Struggles to Keep Her Sons Alive
After the Trump administration cut off food from the third-largest refugee camp in the world, thousands of families faced impossible choices as their children starved.
www.propublica.org
December 17, 2025 at 12:43 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Cholera deaths are nightmarish & pathetically easy to prevent - clean water & antibiotics. The US has condemned people to horrible, gory deaths while saving taxpayers next to nothing, or nothing at all.
December 16, 2025 at 3:47 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
"Detainees were forced to eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. 'We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs,' said Chauhan, a British entrepreneur who had been detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment. "

@hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...
US: Immigrants Abused in Florida Detention Sites
The United States government has subjected immigrants detained in three Florida facilities to abusive, degrading, and in some cases life-threatening conditions, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Human ...
www.hrw.org
December 15, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
ethnography911.bsky.social
Yah I’ve just done this except the sources are real, the location of the sources are wrong, the content of sources incorrectly interpreted

So is it fully slop or just slop-adjacent
andrew.heiss.phd Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 21d
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:59 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
"They needed less than $20 mil to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for 3 months — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary."

Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...
Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.
Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...
www.propublica.org
December 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
lizborkowski.bsky.social
John Weiser, who resigned after 14 years at CDC, told @amymaxmen.bsky.social he was told he couldn't publish findings involving trans people: "it’s bad science to suppress data for ideologic reasons and because erasing people from the story harms actual people."

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
On how this directive has affected his research: Using data from the Medical Monitoring Project, we found that people with HIV who misused opioids were more likely to engage in behaviors that could pass on HIV to another person — through unprotected sex or shared injection. And we found that very few people who misused opioids were receiving treatments for substance misuse. This information could have been useful to change clinical practice and boost funding to treat people with HIV who misuse opioids. We were getting ready to publish this study, but when I put the paper through CDC’s clearance process, I was told to remove data about the prevalence of opioid misuse among transgender people. I thought carefully about that, and I decided not to do that, because it’s bad science to suppress data for ideologic reasons and because erasing people from the story harms actual people. I thought about my transgender patients and how I would face them, and what I would say to them while I’m sitting with them in the exam room, knowing that I had erased their existence from CDC. I withdrew the paper. It remains unpublished.
December 11, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
assignedmedia.org
An HIV doctor quit the CDC when they insisted on censoring his research by removing data on trans people. This interview peels back the curtain of how anti-trans ideology figured into the Trump administration's war on science.

Republished from @kffhealthnews.org, written by @amymaxmen.bsky.social.
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data on Trans Patients, Then Quit the CDC — Assigned
John Weiser, a doctor and researcher, has treated people with HIV since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
www.assignedmedia.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
taghivscience.bsky.social
This #HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit the #CDC

@amymaxmen.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit the CDC - KFF Health News
HIV physician John Weiser talks about why complying with President Donald Trump’s orders to erase transgender people is bad for science and society. And he notes that acquiescing didn’t spare the CDC ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
altcdc.altgov.info
Dr Weiser an HIV expert refused to censor CDC data about transgender people and ultimately left the agency rather than erase a community from the record. 🏳️‍⚧️

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit the CDC - KFF Health News
HIV physician John Weiser talks about why complying with President Donald Trump’s orders to erase transgender people is bad for science and society. And he notes that acquiescing didn’t spare the CDC ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
🧵My talk w/John Weiser, an HIV expert & doctor who resigned from CDC after refusing to censor data.

"I thought about my transgender patients and how I would face them...knowing that I had erased their existence from CDC."

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
This HIV Expert Refused To Censor Data, Then Quit the CDC - KFF Health News
HIV physician John Weiser talks about why complying with President Donald Trump’s orders to erase transgender people is bad for science and society. And he notes that acquiescing didn’t spare the CDC ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
Nuzzi on Trump:

"[Trump’s] hand was so soft that it felt almost wet. My father had just died. I thought of his hands...Trump looked me up and down. 'Very young and very beautiful,' he said."

@scaachi.bsky.social read Nuzzi's book, so we don't have to. scaachi.substack.com/p/olivia-nuz...
Sentences From American Canto That Sent Me To The Hospital
I reviewed Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto for Slate. There's far less RFK Jr. in it than you'd expect.
scaachi.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
marisakabas.bsky.social
“My hopes for a natural delivery were shattered all for six YouTube videos at $800 each. None of those shots aired. I was never informed [by the New York Times] why, but can only assume that it would have been a bad look to open the episodes with a sweaty, heavily pregnant woman about to pass out.”
sorry about your cookies
this is probably TMI
sohla.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
drianweissman.bsky.social
The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, more children will be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some will lose their hearing. Some will die. Measles also costs hundreds of thousands dollars to treat.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
While Scientists Race To Study Spread of Measles in US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains - KFF Health News
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. It’s a contentious question, because the findings may determine ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 7, 2025 at 4:32 AM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
More than 70 vultures found dead on athletic fields in Ohio. They most likely died from bird flu.

This isn't going away.
www.wlwt.com/article/dead...
Dead vultures removed from Ohio school grounds; bird flu suspected
State wildlife crews removed more than 70 dead vultures from the athletic fields near St. Bernadette School on Friday, days after neighbors expressed concern from the bizarre sight.
www.wlwt.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
amymaxmen.bsky.social
RFK may make measles common again. More kids will be hospitalized, some will lose hearing, some will die.

A comeback will be costly. A study estimates that an outbreak w/2 cases is >$240,000. An outbreak the size of West Texas' is estimated around $12.6 million.
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/05/t...
Texas outbreak could cause U.S. to no longer be measles-free
One study estimates that an outbreak the size of the one in West Texas earlier this year costs about $12.6 million.
www.texastribune.org
December 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Amy Maxmen, PhD
kffhealthnews.org
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. The findings may determine whether America loses its measles-free status.

@amymaxmen.bsky.social reports ⤵️ kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
While Scientists Race To Study Spread of Measles in US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains - KFF Health News
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. It’s a contentious question, because the findings may determine ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 5, 2025 at 7:37 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
RFK may make measles common again. More kids will be hospitalized, some will lose hearing, some will die.

A comeback will be costly. A study estimates that an outbreak w/2 cases is >$240,000. An outbreak the size of West Texas' is estimated around $12.6 million.
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/05/t...
Texas outbreak could cause U.S. to no longer be measles-free
One study estimates that an outbreak the size of the one in West Texas earlier this year costs about $12.6 million.
www.texastribune.org
December 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
CDC's @drdebhoury.bsky.social calls on Congress to act.

"It is a purposeful reshaping of CDC away from evidence-based practice & toward ideology-driven governance...I did not resign to make a symbolic point. I resigned because staying silent would have made me complicit." time.com/7338714/dr-d...
I Left the CDC 100 Days Ago. My Worst Fears About the Agency Are Coming True
"Things have not improved," writes Dr. Debra Houry. "They have worsened. And Congress has still failed to act."
time.com
December 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
My latest: On the science of measles elimination.

“It will be quite a stain on the Kennedy regime,” said @drdemetre.bsky.social

“I think they will do everything they can to cast doubt on scientific findings, even if it means throwing scientists under the bus.”

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
While Scientists Race To Study Spread of Measles in US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains - KFF Health News
Scientists are conducting genetic analyses to see if the measles outbreak that started in Texas is still spreading from state to state. It’s a contentious question, because the findings may determine ...
kffhealthnews.org
December 5, 2025 at 2:40 PM
amymaxmen.bsky.social
RFK laid out his plans to wreck vaccine science & policy in books, speeches, podcasts & films before becoming Health Secretary.

@sherylnyt.bsky.social & @by-cjewett.bsky.social track how he's succeeding in impressive detail. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u... eg:
In preparation for the session, Dr. Daskalakis, the C.D.C.’s top infectious disease expert, said he asked agency scientists to assess the benefits and risks of thimerosal. Their 17-page report showed that while thimerosal in vaccines given to pregnant women had fallen steadily, autism rates were still rising, suggesting that the preservative was not to blame. The C.D.C. posted the report on its website the night before the meeting. But during the meeting, it suddenly disappeared. An explanation came from Dr. Robert Malone, a close ally of Mr. Kennedy’s and staunch opponent of Covid vaccines who now sits on the committee. “My understanding,” Dr. Malone said, “is that article was not authorized by the office of the secretary, and has been removed.” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview that he was not aware of the document.
December 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM