Ben Lokshin
banner
ben.lok.sh
Ben Lokshin
@ben.lok.sh
product person @statnews.com
Federal vaccine adviser says former CDC officials can’t be trusted unless they agree to ‘public debate’ www.statnews.com/2025/09/18/c... via @statnews.com
Federal vaccine adviser says former CDC officials can’t be trusted unless they agree to ‘public debate’
The chair of a key vaccine committee that advises the CDC will strike a confrontational tone at meeting of the panel, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
www.statnews.com
September 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
Pandemic preparedness in the US has been leveled a crippling blow with the cancellation of multiple #BARDA contracts to help develop mRNA vaccines. No other vaccine platform produces vaccine so quickly; without mRNA, Americans will have a long wait for pandemic vax. www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/m...
Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research
Vaccine experts and people steeped in pandemic preparedness expressed horror at the news that RFK Jr. has shut the door in U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research.
www.statnews.com
August 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
Guest post!

The Pitt's medication abortion storyline was unrealistic—but it shouldn't be. Read @tsmendola.bsky.social and Jessica Army of the Women's Health in Emergency Medicine Division at Northwell Health:
‘The Pitt’ Showed What Abortion Pill Access Should Look Like
The popular HBO show’s accidentally aspirational mifepristone plotline should inspire more emergency rooms to offer medication abortion.
www.autonomynews.co
July 12, 2025 at 7:28 PM
If your milk is neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the milk of the oppressor.
They finally made the milk from that hotel
July 7, 2025 at 1:38 AM
"The more common and more dangerous a condition is, the greater the opportunity for profit"

www.statnews.com/2025/06/24/s... via @statnews.com
From boom to bitcoin: A device maker’s surprising pivot amid a Medicare crackdown
Semler Scientific is now focused on bitcoin, after a series of escalating threats to its core artery-testing business.
www.statnews.com
June 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM
In light of recent events, it’s worth revisiting this Nov 9 2024 analysis: What can Trump and RFK Jr. actually do on health care? www.statnews.com/2024/11/09/t... via @statnews.com
What can Trump and RFK Jr. actually do on health care?
Republicans are brimming with changes they’d like to make to public health and pandemic preparedness.
www.statnews.com
June 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
President Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” includes a 3.5% tax on remittances by non-citizens. New analysis by The Continent shows this could raise transaction costs to over 9% in at least eight African countries, especially for small transfers.
Trump tax will cost some African senders 10% of remittance
According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the average cost of sending remittances to Africa is 7.4%, even before the Trump tax kicks in.
continent.substack.com
June 9, 2025 at 8:08 AM
🪶 Green-tailed towhee. Summit County, UT
June 5, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Andrew Ng using his weekly newsletter to speak out against cuts to scientific research funding

www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/cu...
Cut Research Funding, Weaken the Nation
I am alarmed by the proposed cuts to U.S. funding for basic research, analyzed here, and the impact this would have for U.S. competitiveness in AI...
www.deeplearning.ai
May 28, 2025 at 9:57 PM
“It’s common sense, and it’s good science,” said Bhattacharya, whose agency has no involvement in the regulation of vaccines, or in decisions on who should get them.
RFK Jr. rolls back Covid vaccine recommendations for healthy children, pregnant people
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he has unilaterally struck the recommendation that healthy children and healthy pregnant people get Covid booster shots.
www.statnews.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
Great Salt Lake dust isn’t being measured accurately. Here’s what the state is doing about it.
Great Salt Lake dust isn’t being measured accurately. Here’s what the state is doing about it.
The Great Salt Lake Collaborative is a group of organizations that have come together to better inform and engage the public about the Great Salt Lake.
greatsaltlakenews.org
May 24, 2025 at 5:12 PM
xAI saw Stephen A. Smith get $100m to be a sports “reporter” and decided: that’s the kind of truth-seeking the world wants.
Grok system prompts are now public. Transparency is helpful. ChatGPT and Gemini also have prompts.

So, Grok is instructed to be “extremely skeptical” and not to “blindly defer to mainstream authority or media.”

Grok now says “both sides of this debate have biases” about number of Holocaust deaths.
May 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
New from 404 Media: the Signal clone the Trump administration uses was just hacked. TeleMessage makes a modified version of Signal that archives messages for government agencies, Waltz used it. A hacker got some users' messages, group chats. Hugely significant breach www.404media.co/the-signal-c...
The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked
TeleMessage, a company that makes a modified version of Signal that archives messages for government agencies, was hacked.
www.404media.co
May 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
If you've been impacted by the HHS layoffs we want to hear your story. Get in touch with STAT here: www.statnews.com/2025/03/27/h...
Are you affected by the HHS cuts and restructuring?
HHS is set to cut 10,000 jobs and consolidate divisions — have you been affected? @statnews would like to hear from you.
www.statnews.com
April 1, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
Take a look at the size of the federal workforce to help contextualize today's news about planned layoffs at HHS.
March 27, 2025 at 6:42 PM
National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills. Exclusive from @statnews.com
National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills
An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills
www.statnews.com
January 30, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I hear there's other news this week, but still worth reading about these new drugs that, in sci-fi terms, take out the cloaking devices and cut the supply lines that keep cancer cells alive. Perhaps the next generation in cancer treatment. 🖖
Cancer therapy’s new ‘gold rush’: bispecific antibodies that hit key combination of targets
Recent results raise hope of new "broad, pan-tumor platform" like Keytruda. The emerging drugs are bispecific antibodies that bind to a key pair of proteins.
www.statnews.com
January 23, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Ben Lokshin
RFK Jr., an investor in a CRISPR biotech, has raised alarms about the technology

www.statnews.com/2025/01/22/r...
RFK Jr., an investor in a CRISPR biotech, has raised alarms about the technology
RFK Jr.'s comments about the gene-editing technology raise a question about how he would regulate it as head of HHS.
www.statnews.com
January 23, 2025 at 1:30 AM
"...the donut-shaped ball of living brain tissue floated in a warm, salty bath, its neurons whispering to each other in the darkness. Then a piston struck the platform, whipping it back and forth, and sending the mini-brain sloshing."

Read @mmolteni.bsky.social to find out what came next...
Using lab-grown human mini-brains, scientists find links between head trauma, herpes, and Alzheimer’s
Research published Tuesday is the first to connect the dots between a common herpes virus, head injury, and Alzheimer's.
www.statnews.com
January 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Jimmy Carter hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm. He came very close.
How Jimmy Carter's global health efforts elevated 'the art of the possible'
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, gave visibility to devastating health problems that are often invisible.
www.statnews.com
December 29, 2024 at 10:13 PM
Some great winter reading on this list, including @sarahzhang.bsky.social's excellent piece on how Trikafta changed the lives of people with CF
We wish we’d written that: STAT staffers share their favorite stories of 2024
In STAT's "jealousy list" for 2024, STAT staffers explain what makes a selection of stories they read in other publications so compelling.
www.statnews.com
December 26, 2024 at 3:55 PM
Condor 1019, "Jane". Hatched at a breeding facility in Idaho, she's one of ~350 California condors living in the wild today. Photographed at Pinnacles National Park 🪶
December 21, 2024 at 1:06 AM
New on @statnews.com: click the button, share to Bluesky. Easy as that.
December 18, 2024 at 10:09 PM
Wreather madness
Incredible: Outside the South Korean presidential office in Yongsan, there’s about a half-mile row of wreaths sent by his supporters as he faces a likely successful impeachment vote tomorrow. It goes on and on and on and on, on both sides of the road. (Quick thread on wreath culture in Korea)
December 13, 2024 at 11:31 PM