Alex M.
@alexandra-em.bsky.social
#SciComm. Science writer turned researcher. Mostly public health, behavioral science, SDoH. Occasional cat photos.
Reposted by Alex M.
NEW: After freezing billions in U.S. foreign aid and putting countless lives at risk around the world, Trump administration officials in Washington celebrated with a sheet cake.
By @annamaria.bsky.social & Brett Murphy, photos by @peterdicampo.bsky.social
By @annamaria.bsky.social & Brett Murphy, photos by @peterdicampo.bsky.social
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 12:00 PM
NEW: After freezing billions in U.S. foreign aid and putting countless lives at risk around the world, Trump administration officials in Washington celebrated with a sheet cake.
By @annamaria.bsky.social & Brett Murphy, photos by @peterdicampo.bsky.social
By @annamaria.bsky.social & Brett Murphy, photos by @peterdicampo.bsky.social
Reposted by Alex M.
CIDRAP’s Vaccine Integrity Project has released a major evidence review: 400+ studies/reports, 40 years of data—and the conclusion is unmistakable.
There is no evidence supporting a delay in the hepatitis B birth dose.
Full report: www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-inte...
There is no evidence supporting a delay in the hepatitis B birth dose.
Full report: www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-inte...
Vaccine Integrity Project - Hepatitis B
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 2, 2025 at 12:27 PM
CIDRAP’s Vaccine Integrity Project has released a major evidence review: 400+ studies/reports, 40 years of data—and the conclusion is unmistakable.
There is no evidence supporting a delay in the hepatitis B birth dose.
Full report: www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-inte...
There is no evidence supporting a delay in the hepatitis B birth dose.
Full report: www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-inte...
Reposted by Alex M.
“Australia is on course to meet a target of eliminating cervical cancer by 2035, which, if achieved, will make it the first country to do so.” This is due in large part to their HPV vaccination campaign. [www1.racgp.org.au]
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
“Australia is on course to meet a target of eliminating cervical cancer by 2035, which, if achieved, will make it the first country to do so.” This is due in large part to their HPV vaccination campaign. [www1.racgp.org.au]
Reposted by Alex M.
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
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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
Reposted by Alex M.
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reposted by Alex M.
New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget.
Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.
Report: osf.io/e8rnc
a 🧵
Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.
Report: osf.io/e8rnc
a 🧵
September 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget.
Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.
Report: osf.io/e8rnc
a 🧵
Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.
Report: osf.io/e8rnc
a 🧵
Reposted by Alex M.
Trump refers to bankers as "shylocks"
July 4, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Trump refers to bankers as "shylocks"
Reposted by Alex M.
Expert Voices Together (EVT) is a rapid-response crisis support system that follows trauma-informed best practices to provide assistance to US-based researchers and journalists who are facing online and hybrid forms of harassment related to their work. 18/
May 13, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Expert Voices Together (EVT) is a rapid-response crisis support system that follows trauma-informed best practices to provide assistance to US-based researchers and journalists who are facing online and hybrid forms of harassment related to their work. 18/
Reposted by Alex M.
In March, 48 people were arrested in New Mexico, according to an ICE press release. Why is nothing known about who was arrested or their whereabouts?
The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests
In early March, the agency announced that it had arrested forty-eight people in New Mexico—a month later, their identities and whereabouts remain unknown.
www.newyorker.com
April 22, 2025 at 7:24 PM
In March, 48 people were arrested in New Mexico, according to an ICE press release. Why is nothing known about who was arrested or their whereabouts?
Reposted by Alex M.
OH COME ON. NIH cancels a 34-year-old longitudinal study on women's health that started with 160,000 volunteers and continues to answer urgent questions about aging, heart disease, cancer & more 🧪 in @science.org
NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women
The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings
www.science.org
April 23, 2025 at 3:24 PM
OH COME ON. NIH cancels a 34-year-old longitudinal study on women's health that started with 160,000 volunteers and continues to answer urgent questions about aging, heart disease, cancer & more 🧪 in @science.org
Reposted by Alex M.
38 of the 43.
"38 of 43 experts cut last month from boards that review science and research in NIH laboratories are female, Black or Hispanic.
"The scientists typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal..."
www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
"38 of 43 experts cut last month from boards that review science and research in NIH laboratories are female, Black or Hispanic.
"The scientists typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal..."
www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards
Scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 17, 2025 at 7:29 PM
38 of the 43.
"38 of 43 experts cut last month from boards that review science and research in NIH laboratories are female, Black or Hispanic.
"The scientists typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal..."
www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
"38 of 43 experts cut last month from boards that review science and research in NIH laboratories are female, Black or Hispanic.
"The scientists typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal..."
www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Alex M.
NEW: In agency after agency, the U.S. government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of policies.
By @alecmac.bsky.social
By @alecmac.bsky.social
Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More
By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose con...
www.propublica.org
April 18, 2025 at 12:50 PM
NEW: In agency after agency, the U.S. government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of policies.
By @alecmac.bsky.social
By @alecmac.bsky.social
Reposted by Alex M.
Does it say IDEAS???
April 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Does it say IDEAS???
Firing 10,000 people who approve new drugs, ensure a safe food supply, and respond to disease outbreaks saves the American public... $6.87 per person in taxes a year 😑
Great @tanglenews.bsky.social framing of what an awful deal the American public got with mass purges of public health folks at HHS
Great @tanglenews.bsky.social framing of what an awful deal the American public got with mass purges of public health folks at HHS
April 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Firing 10,000 people who approve new drugs, ensure a safe food supply, and respond to disease outbreaks saves the American public... $6.87 per person in taxes a year 😑
Great @tanglenews.bsky.social framing of what an awful deal the American public got with mass purges of public health folks at HHS
Great @tanglenews.bsky.social framing of what an awful deal the American public got with mass purges of public health folks at HHS
Reposted by Alex M.
The problem is: they've mistaken correlation for causation. They think their parents and grandparents had a good life *because* of manufacturing jobs. When, in reality, their parents and grandparents had a good life *despite* manufacturing jobs, because of unions, high taxes, and social policies.
April 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
The problem is: they've mistaken correlation for causation. They think their parents and grandparents had a good life *because* of manufacturing jobs. When, in reality, their parents and grandparents had a good life *despite* manufacturing jobs, because of unions, high taxes, and social policies.
Reposted by Alex M.
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
April 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
Reposted by Alex M.
Everyone who works for PRAMS (the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) at CDC was terminated today. That appears to be the end of a critical program which monitored infant and maternal health nationwide across pregnancy, childbirth & postpartum. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/prams...
PRAMS Shuttered for Good
In the first weeks of the administration I wrote a number of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
April 1, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Everyone who works for PRAMS (the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) at CDC was terminated today. That appears to be the end of a critical program which monitored infant and maternal health nationwide across pregnancy, childbirth & postpartum. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/prams...
Reposted by Alex M.
Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away.
They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
Exclusive: NIH officials have advised scientists to remove reference to mRNA vaccines from their grant applications, in expectation the Trump administration intends to abandon most research in the field.
By @arthurallen202.bsky.social
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
By @arthurallen202.bsky.social
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Scientists Say NIH Officials Told Them To Scrub mRNA References on Grants - KFF Health News
Two senior scientists say National Institutes of Health officials advised them to remove references to mRNA vaccines in grant applications, and they fear the Trump administration will abandon a promis...
kffhealthnews.org
March 17, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away.
They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
Reposted by Alex M.
A woman with an undisclosed measles infection gave birth in a TX hospital and exposed newborn infants as well as staff and visitors.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
March 15, 2025 at 4:15 AM
A woman with an undisclosed measles infection gave birth in a TX hospital and exposed newborn infants as well as staff and visitors.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Reposted by Alex M.
So for all of the Christian right’s words about the sanctity of life, they’ve all signed up for killing millions of children as an act of public policy. WWJD?
Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world.
Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization
Since 1974 substantial gains in childhood survival have occurred in every global region.
We estimate that EPI has provided the single greatest contribution to improved infant
survival over the past 50...
www.thelancet.com
March 15, 2025 at 11:12 AM
So for all of the Christian right’s words about the sanctity of life, they’ve all signed up for killing millions of children as an act of public policy. WWJD?
Reposted by Alex M.
Estimates by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social @justsand.bsky.social:
US foreign aid likely prevents 2.3 to 5.6 million deaths annually, largely in Africa.
And that a complete disruption would result in over 4000 lives lost per day.
US foreign aid likely prevents 2.3 to 5.6 million deaths annually, largely in Africa.
And that a complete disruption would result in over 4000 lives lost per day.
March 15, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Estimates by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social @justsand.bsky.social:
US foreign aid likely prevents 2.3 to 5.6 million deaths annually, largely in Africa.
And that a complete disruption would result in over 4000 lives lost per day.
US foreign aid likely prevents 2.3 to 5.6 million deaths annually, largely in Africa.
And that a complete disruption would result in over 4000 lives lost per day.
Reposted by Alex M.
The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought:
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. "Pro-natalists" like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of non-white children.
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.
www.nytimes.com
March 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM
The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought:
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
Reposted by Alex M.
This is a clear and useful explanation of who might need a measles vaccine booster & why. A must-read for people born in the U.S. between 1957 and 1989 🧪 slate.com/technology/2... on @slate.bsky.social
Uh … Am I Protected Against Measles? It Might Depend On When You Were Born.
But really, don’t get too worried.
slate.com
March 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This is a clear and useful explanation of who might need a measles vaccine booster & why. A must-read for people born in the U.S. between 1957 and 1989 🧪 slate.com/technology/2... on @slate.bsky.social
Reposted by Alex M.
To the many, many USAID staffers clearing out their desks - and all other government workers with something to share - get in touch with @propublica.org here:
www.propublica.org/tips/
www.propublica.org/tips/
February 27, 2025 at 3:16 PM
To the many, many USAID staffers clearing out their desks - and all other government workers with something to share - get in touch with @propublica.org here:
www.propublica.org/tips/
www.propublica.org/tips/
Reposted by Alex M.
Gift link.
A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone.
And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration.
If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...
A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone.
And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration.
If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...
February 21, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Gift link.
A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone.
And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration.
If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...
A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone.
And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration.
If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...