Benjamin Mason Meier
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benjaminmasonmeier.bsky.social
Benjamin Mason Meier
@benjaminmasonmeier.bsky.social

Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill | Working at the intersection of #GlobalHealth & #HumanRights benjaminmasonmeier.com

Political science 31%
Sociology 23%
Politico: Pandemic response, the Trump way - Is the U.S. about to torpedo the World Health Organization’s pandemic agreement from afar?
pro.politico.eu/news/pandemic-response-the-trump-way @who.int
POLITICO Pro
pro.politico.eu
WHO @who.int · 21h
Every climate decision is a health decision.

From local communities to global leaders, #ClimateAction is needed now to:
💚 Protect lives
💪 Strengthen health systems
🛡️ Secure a safe, healthy future for all

Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
WHO @who.int · 1d
Healthcare workers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, protecting lives as our planet heats up.

This is their call to action:
🗣️It’s time to put health at the centre of #ClimateAction

Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
NPR @npr.org · 2d
At the heart of the impasse is a debate about expiring subsidies for health insurance. It's the latest chapter in a fight over Obamacare that has dominated Congress since the law was signed in 2010.
How an enduring debate over health care sparked a now record-long shutdown
At the heart of the impasse is a debate about expiring subsidies for health insurance. It's the latest chapter in a fight over Obamacare that has dominated Congress since the law was signed in 2010.
n.pr
Gutting the corporate alternative minimum tax, designed to make sure wildly profitable corporations pay *something*, while cutting food, health, and heating assistance.
How the Trump Administration Is Giving Even More Tax Breaks to the Wealthy
www.nytimes.com
“A federal judge on Thursday excoriated the Trump administration’s blitz of hardball tactics against elite universities, warning that the government’s threats and investigations were undermining academic freedom at the University of California.”
Trump Pressure Risks Free Speech at University of California, Judge Warns
www.nytimes.com
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative wanted to “focus on something that wasn’t going to be undone every few years” . . . said the man whose changing whims are ending billions in funding for education, housing, and health. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/t...
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Restructure Their Philanthropy
www.nytimes.com
The US funds the bulk of biomedical research globally by far. It's not like other countries can simply take up the slack. The more likely: people leave research, new people don't become researchers. There is no happy ending. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." Stephanie Sy examines what’s b...
www.pbs.org
"The staff supporting ... (ACIP) were let go earlier this month in a sweeping round of layoffs that gutted entire departments of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)." via @melodyschreiber.com @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Threat to US vaccines as CDC staff supporting key advisory panel laid off
Critics say scientists ‘held hostage’ by RFK Jr as changes mean vaccine development and guidance in peril
www.theguardian.com
New dataset released by CPHLR, in partnership with @sluhealthlaw.bsky.social, Pacific University School of Social Work, Wayne State COE, and MAP, covers 12 years of U.S. state conversion therapy laws. Explore the dataset: www.slu.edu/law/health/l...
The most insanely frustrating thing about the #ClimateCrisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
NEW: The Trump administration is using a new metric for assessing HHS employees in their annual performance reviews: whether they are sufficiently loyal to Trump’s policy agenda www.huffpost.com/entry/hhs-em...
HHS Employees Now Being Measured By Loyalty To Trump's Policies
In annual performance reviews, federal workers will be assessed on whether they “clearly and demonstrably support implementation” of Trump’s agenda.
www.huffpost.com
For its 80th anniversary, the U.N. asserts we are "better together." Since its founding, the U.N.'s survival has depended on how it positions itself in situations of injustice. The story of the U.N. is the story of Congo. Read my latest in @justsecurity.org www.justsecurity.org/123129/unite...
The United Nations and a World in Pain
The U.N.’s survival depends on how it positions itself between the elephant and the mouse, in South America, Asia, Africa, and beyond.
www.justsecurity.org
In the past 2 weeks several European countries have reported locally acquired cases of #mpox clade Ib.
This is new. There had been patients before but those infections likely happened elsewhere.
Now it looks like mpox Ib is spreading here in the sexual networks of men who have sex with men.
#IDsky
Just a thought: How about we stop shaming the poor for buying things that may not be essential, and start shaming the rich for making a profit off things that are essential?
If Shohei Ohtani can hit three home runs while pitching six shutout innings, you can spend a couple of hours marching for democracy.
"Based on the newly posted information, a family of four making $130,000 in Maine would face an increase of $16,100 in annual premiums next year...."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...
Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen States
www.nytimes.com
Wow - California's public insulin will be on the market in Jan! Big milestone for public pharma efforts. Could help millions of diabetics, esp if they can build a more public supply chain too. We describe why public pharma is important in this paper ... www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
In shot across Big Pharma's bow, California will sell its own insulin
Delivery of the state-branded drug makes good on a longstanding promise by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
www.politico.com
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
ACLU @aclu.org · 25d
A new memo signed by President Trump, known as NSPM-7, aims to add nonprofits and activists to an ever-growing list of what he calls the “enemy within.”

It’s important to remember that the president cannot rewrite the constitution by memo. Here's what the directive actually does and doesn't do.
How NSPM-7 Seeks to Use "Domestic Terrorism" to Target Nonprofits and Activists | ACLU
What President Donald Trump’s latest memorandum targeting civil society does, does not, and cannot do
www.aclu.org
“When you have a disability people can’t see, you don’t get the same level of empathy. It feels like the world has moved on.”

It’s shameful how society is gaslighting people who are experiencing chronic illness and ignoring an ongoing public health crisis.
Long Covid Is Real -- And It's Changing an Entire Generation
Long Covid is affecting hundreds of thousands of kids in America, and many doctors and schools refuse to recognize their illness.
www.rollingstone.com
Hundreds of infectious disease specialists have been let go by the Trump administration. Here are four who helped to keep pandemics at bay.
(Gift article)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/h...
They Fought Outbreaks Worldwide. Now They’re Fighting for New Lives.
www.nytimes.com
JAMA @jama.com · 28d
Breaking with the CDC, ACOG reaffirms support for #COVID19 vaccination in pregnant people.

Here’s what to know. ja.ma/3VYFRwQ
ACOG Continues Recommending COVID-19 Vaccine During Pregnancy
This JAMA Medical News article discusses updated guidance on COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant people from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
ja.ma
"Half of the world’s disease burden was preventable, researchers calculated, driven by risks that could be reduced, such as high blood pressure, air pollution, smoking and obesity."
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
High youth death rates are an ‘emerging crisis’, global health study warns
Alcohol, suicide and injuries driving rises among teenagers and young adults despite overall rates falling, authors say
www.theguardian.com
“We can continue accelerating toward an AI-powered future that amplifies existing inequities, or we can deliberately steer toward one that increases prospects for shared global prosperity,” writes Chinasa T. Okolo in a new #ScienceExpertVoices article. https://scim.ag/46JkNka
Hundreds of children in multiple states are in quarantine and on remote learning due to measles outbreaks.

The decline in MMR vaccinations has resulted in the US experiencing an increase of measles cases with 1563 total cases & 3 deaths since January.

#Pinks
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.
More on the CDC tonight: @jeremyfaust.bsky.social , who is impeccably sourced there (physician, Harvard faculty) has details on the divisions hit by the apparently illegal RIFS. insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...
BREAKING NEWS: CDC employees terminated in apparent Friday night massacre.
The Trump administration is using the shutdown to further weaken the our national public health infrastructure.
insidemedicine.substack.com
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice: