Bénédicte C
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benecal.bsky.social
Bénédicte C
@benecal.bsky.social
Biosciences & Tech policy
Post about research, innovation, public health, politics & policy making, regulation, disinfo
She/Her/Antifacist
Pinned
Whopper: RFK Jr. says he’s supported by doctors & scientists.

Reality: Thousands of physicians, dozens of institutions, & multiple medical societies oppose his leadership and call for his resignation.

#PublicHealth #ScienceFirst #Accountability

www.defendpublichealth.org/opinion/whop...
Whopper of the Week: RFK, Jr. says he gets fan mail from scientists and doctors, the letters sent to Congress actually ask for his resignation | Defend Public Health
Physicians and scientists across the country warned Congress that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was unfit to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who has no medical or scientific training...
www.defendpublichealth.org
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Great to see our march against RFK in DC used as the banner photo!! I think thsts @rdmorris.bsky.social stacking some of the >150,000 signed petitions to oust him… H/t @cdelawalla.bsky.social & @standupforscience.bsky.social for great planning & execution! www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
‘You can't eat if you're dead’: Dems eye RFK Jr. as their 2026 boogeyman
Inside Democrats’ effort to attack RFK Jr.’s vaccine moves without angering his base.
www.politico.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Populism!
The Trump admin is killing a Biden-era proposal that would have required airlines to pay passengers up to $775 in cashfor significant travel disruptions within carriers' control.
November 15, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
🎧 New on Hoosier Health Matters:
Indiana’s voucher freeze, new attacks on mifepristone, and why cutting syringe exchanges hurts everyone. When lawmakers play politics with public health, we all lose.

Listen now. Then speak up.

#INLeg #HoosierSky #ReproJustice #Childcare #PublicHealth
November 15, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
The Affordable Care Act created a marketplace where consumers could use subsidies to help purchase private-sector plans. Trump’s concept of a plan involves no such marketplace, plunging consumers into a state of nature

"It’s so good ... They’re gonna feel like entrepreneurs" trib.al/7cyWvzQ
November 15, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Rudy Bridges is younger than the Sitting President of the United States and 29 sitting United States Senators
It’s useful for people of my generation to be reminded that this wasn’t that long ago. Ruby Bridges isn’t just still alive—she’s only 71, not ancient!
65 years ago on Nov. 14, little Ruby Bridges was escorted into an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. Norman Rockwell, renowned for blissful depictions of Americana, did this remarkable painting for Look magazine. Printed as a double page, over-size spread, it's his masterpiece.
November 15, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
“Planned Miracles - How to prevent future pandemics “ by Jin Cohen (2025)
November 15, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
We can safely say at least 150,000 Americans are ready to #impeachthequack. And we can't wait any more – every day, his impact on our health and science grows more harmful. Our campaign to have Congress impeach and remove RFK Jr. won't stop until he is out of office!

TAKE ACTION! zurl.co/yx9Yr
November 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Articles like this are a reminder that propaganda works and that public interest really is malleable.

We were treated to years of QANON hallucinations & stories about their deeply held beliefs. And now they have real life child trafficking and now it’s “whatever”.
November 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Oh wait “getting unusually emotionally attached” to the chatbot is a feature not a bug.

These mofos want you to have maladapted, dependent responses to their unregulated software.
For real, check this out. Evil.
November 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Another reminder of why, at this time, we cannot take medical or public health advice from USA public health institutions ⬇️

The article by the director of the National Institutes of Health and the principal deputy director is, literally, a string of errors or misrepresentations, one after another 😞
A new approach to pandemic preparedness:

1️⃣ Stop preparing for pandemics
2️⃣ Rewrite history of the last major pandemic
3️⃣ Go to the gym

Simple - 🤷‍♂️.

www.city-journal.org/article/nih-...
NIH Directors: The World Needs a New Pandemic Playbook
The old one failed to cope with Covid and may even have caused it.
www.city-journal.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
November 14, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Rock on! UCs and CA for the win!! Trump can’t withhold funds or demand payment from University of California, federal judge rules - CalMatters. #MedSky
November 15, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Celebrating Gerty Cori on #WorldDiabetesDay.

Cori, a biochemist, co-discovered the Cori cycle which unlocked how the body regulates glucose--foundational for diabetes treatments & insulin therapy. She was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. #WomenInSTEM
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
“Dubal…said…she was “kind of in tears” after the ruling. “This represents saving higher education, saving public research and the standing up of faculty and staff and students,” said Ms. Dubal, who is also a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...
Judge Orders Trump Not to Threaten University of California’s Funding
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
The New York Times won’t use the word but we should because it’s obvious: right wing political influencers aren’t just ‘close to’ the administration — they are its propagandists in the most literal sense of that word. They financially benefit from access & loyalty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/b...
Conservative Media Picks an Epstein Story Line and Sticks to It
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Jay Bhattacharya's plan for a new pandemic is for everyone to suddenly be healthy.
November 14, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I have mixed feelings about this piece.

Why "should" doctors just show up at Children Health's Defense meetings? To learn that the antivax movement exists and has political ambitions? To learn that people have animus toward pharma, the medical system & PH?

www.statnews.com/2025/11/11/c...
I’m a physician who went to the anti-vaccine movement’s biggest gathering. More of my colleagues should too
A pro-vaccine physician went to the anti-vaccine movement’s biggest gathering. He warns that public health must learn what it’s up against.
www.statnews.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors

That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are
November 14, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Researchers discovered that the vaccine’s immune-activating properties may boost cancer-fighting responses, acting like a nonspecific “flare” that reawakens the immune system.
news.ufl.edu/2025/10/covi...
www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/res...
November 14, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
Sharon Camp, Mother of the ‘Plan B’ Contraceptive Pill, Dies at 81

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/h...
Sharon Camp, Mother of the ‘Plan B’ Contraceptive Pill, Dies at 81
An advocate for women’s reproductive health, she started one of the world’s smallest pharmaceutical companies to bring an emergency birth-control method to market.
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
🚨 My new piece: increasingly, vaccine hesitancy tied to political identity www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... via @thestar.com

Vaccines are a wedge issue, exploited by politicians to garner votes, by political commentators to build brands and by online influencers to get clicks.

#VaccinesWork
On measles and vaccines, Canada can’t keep ignoring the elephant in the room
Study after study has shown that political affiliation is one of the single strongest predictors of vaccination status.
www.thestar.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Bénédicte C
👀 WATCH NOW: our latest Guest Lecture with Professor Sir Richard Peto & our OxTAG team.

'Tobacco deaths: the past 75 years and the next 75' explores decades long research into tobacco addiction & public health, plus future priorities to reduce the burden of smoking-related disease world-wide 👇
Guest Lecture Series: Professor Sir Richard Peto - Tobacco deaths: the past 75 years and the next 75
YouTube video by Oxford Primary Care
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Interview w Arati Prabhakar on why she submitted an Amicus brief in support of restoring federal funding for science. Case to be heard by 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in NY on Nov 18.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
Harms of the Federal Funding Freeze on Science
A venture capitalist and former White House science adviser discusses the impact of the Trump administration’s attempted funding freeze on the future of research and innovation.
www.brennancenter.org
November 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM