Dominique Heinke, ScD
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epidnique.bsky.social
Dominique Heinke, ScD
@epidnique.bsky.social
330 followers 340 following 270 posts
Epidemiologist | Alum: Harvard, Northwestern | Neurodivergent AF | Owner of an over-active fight/flight response | Well trained by pets | Just making it through the day| previously @Epi_D_Nique
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epidnique.bsky.social
The only legitimately reason for the Dean of HSPH to be in contact with to HHS officials ahead of this announcement would have been to get them to not move forward.

Seems like he was encouraging them
Instead.

This is absolutely unforgivable to me.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Image is text: Harvard School of Public Health Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli met in recent weeks with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’76 and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya to discuss the dean’s study linking acetaminophen to autism, according to a statement by Baccarelli posted on an official White House X account. Baccarelli, who co-authored a review article that associated acetaminophen use during pregnancy to autism in children, wrote to the White House that he appreciated the interest from Kennedy and Bhattacharya. That statement was then posted on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline C. Leavitt and the administration’s “Rapid Response 47” account. The conversations took place in phone calls between Baccarelli and Kennedy and, separately, Bhattacharya, according to an HSPH spokesperson. The statement, which was not posted to the Harvard Public Health School’s website or shared publicly by Baccarelli, followed a White House press conference on Monday where Donald Trump, accompanied by Kennedy and Bhattacharya, alleged that exposure to acetaminophen causes autism in children. While Trump did not mention Harvard by name, Food and Drug Commissioner Marty A. Makary cited Harvard studies as evidence for the assertion at the press conference.
September 26, 2025 at 4:58 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing - I was wondering what study was being cited and where they got "The dean of HSPH says Tylenol causes autism" (or whatever the exact quote was).

This comment left in Table 1 also suggests it wasn't a great editorial job
September 22, 2025 at 11:15 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Turns out malignant narcissists make really terrible presidents. Especially when they're also showing signs of dementia.

Who knew?

www.thedailybeast.com/this-is-what...
Image is text: Gartner went on to tell The Daily Beast Podcast that he believes Trump to be a malignant narcissist, which, when combined with the deterioration in his functioning, is a “worst case scenario”. “So that’s what we started out [with] as a baseline, but now what we have is this chronic organic deterioration from his own baseline. So we have in a sense the worst of both worlds because his judgment was always bad, he was always impulsive, he was always a liar, but now he really is losing his ability to think clearly, to plan, to understand things and to inhibit his speech and his behavior,” Gartner said. In addition to a deterioration in his language skills and impulse control, Gartner, and other medial professionals, have observed a decline in his psychomotor performance.
September 22, 2025 at 11:02 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Image of text: Tarrio, who had his sentence for seditious conspiracy with regards to the January 6 Capitol riot pardoned by Trump earlier this year, targeted a member of staff at a school in Miami, claiming he posted a comment on Instagram that celebrated Kirk’s death. “He died. Oh well. He ironically promoted gun usage. Karma,” the person wrote according to a screenshot shared on X.
September 15, 2025 at 3:46 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
@wired.com on systematic doxxing & mass firings of ppl for social media posts using Kirk’s own words.

Much media coverage of the firings completely ignores this context, furthering “the Left is dangerous” story.

Meanwhile Proud Boys released after J6 seek revenge. www.wired.com/story/right-...
Image is text: “I will be spending my night making everyone I find online who celebrates his death Famous, so prepare to have your whole future professional aspirations ruined if you are sick enough to celebrate his death,” Loomer wrote on X hours after Kirk’s death. “I’m going to make you wish you never opened your mouth.” Loomer followed through on her threat in at least one instance, targeting a woman in Arizona who she claimed worked at a kids’ club in a fitness center. Loomer posted a screenshot of the woman’s Instagram account where she wrote: “Today’s a good day y’all” under a news story about Kirk’s death.
September 15, 2025 at 3:43 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
What it feels like to me when public health and medicine tells Americans to "just" fix their "lifestyle" to improve their health...
Sketch depicting a stick person sitting at a table looking at a candle. The candle has been cut in the middle and flames show at the top, middle and bottom. A pack of matches is nearby. Text says "I've done it! I'm burning the candle at THREE ends!" Copyright @steinbergdraws
September 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing, if anyone is curious about just how complicated it is to study potential links between autism and Tylenol in pregnancy this paper from @anecdatally.bsky.social is absolutely essential reading.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Image is text: In sum, both carrying out and interpreting studies of prenatal acetaminophen exposure and child neurodevelopment are extremely challenging. [highlight starts] The research landscape on this topic continues to show a picture of a modest association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and neurodevelopment in children, with a suggestion that more intense and prolonged exposure is associated with larger effect sizes, but that very little residual confounding would be sufficient to explain observed effects. This is of particular interest in studies where the effect estimate is reported as an odds ratio, which systematically overestimates risks, especially when the outcome is not rare. [highlight ends] While methods to address biases singly often resulted in modest changes in effect estimates, it is unclear what impact, if any, multiple co-occurring biases may have. Future studies should avoid self-inflicted threats to validity by employing multiple-informant methods, negative controls, and careful follow-up of all participants. Importantly, further work should directly address the joint biases resulting from residual confounding inflating observed associations, and exposure misclassification reducing them.
September 5, 2025 at 11:51 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Thank you for this really important reporting! It’s important to have and be able to present data on what’s happening.

The headline tho…

“Crumbles” suggests a natural process, noons at fault.

What is actually happening: the administration illegally smashing this foundation with a hammer.
April 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Thank goodness the government is finally stepping up to fight back against medical misinformation ...in a place no member of the public was looking and which uses peer review. 😆☠️

Admittedly peer review is imperfect. But, something they should look into considering the editing of this letter. 🙃
Image is text: It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates - that is, that they have a position for which they are advocating either due to advertisement (under postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations). The public has certain expectations and you have certain responsibilities. Would you please answer these questions: -How do you assess your responsibilities to protect the public from misinformation?
April 18, 2025 at 1:36 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
THIS!

This is the message Dems: Are you willing to fight?

Drop the civility politics.

Stop pretending that this is normal politics and the Republican are a normal party & fight the fascism happening before your eyes and fight with everything you've got!
Screenshot of text from linked article: “It’s not a question of left versus center, which is the question that has dominated the discourse. It really is a question of, ‘Are you going to fight for me, or are you going to fold and capitulate?’ And, the economic element of: ‘Are you for the oligarchs and the status quo? Or are you for disrupting these systems that have not worked for me, and helping me to get a better life?’” Ancona says. “That is the crux.” Screenshot from linked story: There was a note of hope: The same voters who sat out last November have been horrified by what they’ve watched Trump and Elon Musk do since January — and most of the focus group participants reported that they are feeling strongly motivated to vote in 2026. The groups also offer some insight into what kind of leader might be able to draw these voters back to the Democrat party. Hint: That person is more in the mold of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who infuriated the Democratic base when he helped advance the GOP’s partisan spending bill. “There’s such a disgust for the business-as-usual mentality, and I think it really sticks with people,” Ancona says. “When they see what’s happening, they feel what’s happening, and they just don’t understand why some of the Democrats they see seem so stuck in sort of civility politics — they’re just going along with it. These voters are like: This isn’t a game. My life sucks! Fix this stuff!”
April 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Small detail here… universities have to be forced to fight back.

bsky.app/profile/pdcu...
Image of bsky post from @pdcummings.bsky.social Text: Just an FYI, the law clinic, operating independently of the university, filed this lawsuit, and they actually also had to sue Northwestern itself to try to prevent them from handing over this information.
April 12, 2025 at 9:23 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
I know you said “don’t answer” but…

I believe the word you’re looking for is “coup”
Image of Substack post: Title: Of course it’s a coup Miss the obvious, lose your republic By: TIMOTHY SNYDER FEB 05, 2025 Body: Imagine if it had gone like this. Ten Tesla cybertrucks, painted in camouflage colors with a giant X on each roof, drive noisily through Washington DC. Tires screech. Out jump a couple of dozen young men, dressed in red and black Devil’s Champion armored costumes. After giving Nazi salutes, they grab guns and run to one government departmental after another, calling out slogans like “all power to Supreme Leader Skibidi Hitler.” Historically, that is what coups looked like. The center of power was a physical place. Occupying it, and driving out the people who held office, was to claim control. So if a cohort of armed men with odd symbols had stormed government buildings, Americans would have recognized that as a coup attempt. And that sort of coup attempt would have failed. Now imagine that, instead, the scene goes like this. A couple dozen young men go from government office to government office, dressed in civilian clothes and armed only with zip drives. Using technical jargon and vague references to orders from on high, they gain access to the basic computer systems of the federal government. Having done so, they proceed to grant their Supreme Leader access to information and the power to start and stop all government payments. That coup is, in fact, happening. And if we do not recognize it for what it is, it could succeed. In the third decade of the twenty first century, power is more digital than physical. The buildings and the human beings are there to protect the workings of the computers, and thus the workings of the government as a whole, in our case an (in principle) democratic government which is organized and bounded by a notion of individual rights. The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.
April 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
I assume @nytimes.com The Daily will have the "In Covid's Wake" ppl back to explain why the current unforced economic damage from tariffs and dismantling public health is a good thing for the US, esp "front line" workers.
Screen grab of news headlines from various outlets describing a drop in the stock market as bad or worse than COVID following the announcement of Trumps "Liberation Day" tariffs. One headline notes that the terrifying shock, unlike COVID, is expected to produce both inflation and deflation in global prices.
April 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
epidnique.bsky.social
Image with alt text

Image from atlanta.capitalbnews.org/trump-cdc-la...
CDC RIFs • NCCDPHP Karen Hacker, Center Director - reassigned Division of Reproductive Health/FSB (Field Support Branch) Division of Population Health BCSB Epi branch Office of Smoking and Health Division of Oral Health Translation Branch • NCHHSTP Jono Mermin, Center Director - reassigned/admin leave • Division of TB Elimination • Communication, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch • Division of Viral Hepatitis Lab 0 Division of STD Prevention Lab • Disease Intervention and Response Branch • Division of HIV Prevention Prevention Communication Branch Behavioral & Clinical Surveillance Branch Capacity Development Branch Qualitative Sciences Branch • HIV Research Branch GHC Kayla Laserson, Center Director - reassigned Division of Global HIV and TB • SPIN (Special Initiatives Branch) • All Detailees to State/GHSD riffed • SPC: Strategic Policy and Communications Branch • PBEMB (Program Budget and Extramural Management Branch) • MCHB (Maternal and Child Health Branch) • HIDMSB (Health Informatics, Data Management and Statistics Branch) EHSRB (Economics and Health Services Research Branch) • SIB: Scientific Integrity Branch • NCEH • Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice (DEHSP) entire division • Asthma and Air Quality Branch Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention • NCIRD • ISD/Partnerships Branch
April 4, 2025 at 3:32 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
"and that research or "studies" were also wrongly swept up in the mass layoffs."

Not a chance.

i0.wp.com/capitalb-new...
Image is a picture of a memo provided by a CDC employee. Text: CDC RIFs • NCCDPHP Karen Hacker, Center Director - reassigned Division of Reproductive Health/FSB (Field Support Branch) Division of Population Health BCSB Epi branch Office of Smoking and Health Division of Oral Health Translation Branch • NCHHSTP Jono Mermin, Center Director - reassigned/admin leave • Division of TB Elimination • Communication, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch • Division of Viral Hepatitis Lab 0 Division of STD Prevention Lab • Disease Intervention and Response Branch • Division of HIV Prevention Prevention Communication Branch Behavioral & Clinical Surveillance Branch Capacity Development Branch Qualitative Sciences Branch • HIV Research Branch GHC Kayla Laserson, Center Director - reassigned Division of Global HIV and TB • SPIN (Special Initiatives Branch) • All Detailees to State/GHSD riffed • SPC: Strategic Policy and Communications Branch • PBEMB (Program Budget and Extramural Management Branch) • MCHB (Maternal and Child Health Branch) • HIDMSB (Health Informatics, Data Management and Statistics Branch) EHSRB (Economics and Health Services Research Branch) • SIB: Scientific Integrity Branch • NCEH • Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice (DEHSP) entire division • Asthma and Air Quality Branch Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention • NCIRD • ISD/Partnerships Branch
April 4, 2025 at 3:29 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
Oh look... They did know exactly what they were cutting, per an internal memo from a CDC employee.

Shocker that DOGE bros are targeting programs that primarily affect minoritized people and thus disproportionately minoritized workers.

atlanta.capitalbnews.org/trump-cdc-la...
April 4, 2025 at 3:21 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
Reminder that homicide is by far the leading case of maternal mortality in the US.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Bar figure showing the cause of death along the bottom (X) axis and the number of deaths per 100,000 live births on the Y axis, which ranges from 0 to 3. The causes of death categories from left to right are Homicide; Hemorrhage and placental disorders; Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium; and Sepsis and other infections. The bar for Homicide is the highest (over 2) while next highest bar is for Hemorrhage and placental disorders at just over 1. Footnote text: Cause-specific mortality ratios (deaths/100,000 live births) and 95% CIs among females during pregnancy and up to 42 days from the end of pregnancy, United States, 2018–2019 (obstetric causes of death are World Health Organization ICD-10 underlying cause of death code group categories for direct maternal deaths18)
March 25, 2025 at 2:23 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
I, for one, am shocked (shocked!) that the authors came into this book with little knowledge or expertise on public health and infections disease epidemiology but did happen to be buddies with one of the Great Barrington Declaration founders.

www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2025/03/97338/
Image is text: Stephen Macedo: I was going on leave in 2022, and I knew that I wanted to write a book on the current political moment and the highly polarized politics that we are involved in now. Specifically, about how progressives were not paying sufficient attention to conservative concerns on certain issues in a way that was undermining the strength of progressive arguments and positions. I was planning to focus on abortion, immigration, and COVID. Of the three, COVID—and COVID policy—happened to be the subject I knew the least about. Once I started working on it, I realized that was just a huge topic in itself and one that not many people were working on. So I decided to focus on COVID. (start highlight) Professor Frances Lee—with whom I had been consulting from the start—and I did a workshop together on COVID policy and had various folks come in, including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. (end highlight) After that she decided to sign onto the project, which I was delighted by. So we wrote the book together after that.
March 24, 2025 at 12:30 AM
epidnique.bsky.social
That tracks.

As does the fact that they were apparently Great Barrington fans before writing the book. At least they admit they intended to tell the story they had in mind at the beginning and not one based on evaluation of the facts and evidence with input from subject matter experts?
Image is of text: Stephen Macedo: I was going on leave in 2022, and I knew that I wanted to write a book on the current political moment and the highly polarized politics that we are involved in now. Specifically, about how progressives were not paying sufficient attention to conservative concerns on certain issues in a way that was undermining the strength of progressive arguments and positions. I was planning to focus on abortion, immigration, and COVID. Of the three, COVID—and COVID policy—happened to be the subject I knew the least about. Once I started working on it, I realized that was just a huge topic in itself and one that not many people were working on. So I decided to focus on COVID. (highlighted) Professor Frances Lee—with whom I had been consulting from the start—and I did a workshop together on COVID policy and had various folks come in, including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. (end highlight) After that she decided to sign onto the project, which I was delighted by. So we wrote the book together after that.
March 24, 2025 at 12:23 AM