Fran Smith
@fransmith.bsky.social
Writer, editor, communications consultant, tap dancing wannabe. Obsessed with news, politics & health. Author, “Changing the Way we Die”
Let them eat… nothing?? centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins... @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social
The Health Divide: The outlook for families who rely on SNAP is quickly getting worse
The massive changes to SNAP will hit low-income people hard for years to come.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
October 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Let them eat… nothing?? centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins... @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social
Reposted by Fran Smith
The Trump administration has promoted the anti-vax, anti-science movement which has now produced an epidemic www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Hundreds of U.S. students quarantined amid measles outbreaks
At least 270 unvaccinated kids are staying home from school as measles continues to spread nationwide. "Expect more," one expert said.
www.nbcnews.com
October 12, 2025 at 11:13 AM
The Trump administration has promoted the anti-vax, anti-science movement which has now produced an epidemic www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
When nutrition for kids becomes a target in the war on inclusion. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins... @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social
The Health Divide: If MAHA wants kids to eat healthier, why cut the school food programs that support that?
As SNAP budget cuts and expanded work requirements kick in, millions of children may lose access to free school meals.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
September 30, 2025 at 5:09 PM
When nutrition for kids becomes a target in the war on inclusion. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins... @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social
While we retreat on climate policy… @astokespop.bsky.social @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
The Health Divide: The devastating toll of wildfires on health is far greater than we think
More frequent, intense and destructive fires fueled by climate change cause far more death and illness than official tallies capture.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
September 22, 2025 at 12:05 PM
While we retreat on climate policy… @astokespop.bsky.social @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
Had a great conversation with @sho-walter.bsky.social about her eye-opening new book, Rehab: An American Scandal. Highly recommend for anyone who cares about addiction. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
The Health Divide: Q&A: Why does rehab keep failing those who need it most?
In her new book, journalist Shoshana Walter revelas how many programs exploit patients, bar mothers, underuse buprenorphine, and worsen racial and gender disparities.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
September 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Had a great conversation with @sho-walter.bsky.social about her eye-opening new book, Rehab: An American Scandal. Highly recommend for anyone who cares about addiction. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
States take a step forward on maternal and child health while the country takes dangerous steps backward. My latest for @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
The Health Divide: These states are expanding Medicaid coverage for doulas, as major federal cuts loom
The embrace of doula support even in Republican-led states is colliding with sweeping federal cuts to health care, public health and research on health disparities.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
August 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
States take a step forward on maternal and child health while the country takes dangerous steps backward. My latest for @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
Reposted by Fran Smith
The United States has recorded its highest annual measles cases in 33 years. The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength.
U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread
Johns Hopkins University data reflects the public health reversal in defeating the vaccine-preventable disease since measles was officially eliminated from the U.S. in 2000.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 7, 2025 at 12:31 PM
The United States has recorded its highest annual measles cases in 33 years. The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength.
The harm is the point.
I worked at Planned Parenthood.
They diagnose cancers while still treatable. They help women decide what birth control works for them. They help those working through mental health challenges.
Defunding them just harms people who already struggle to find places to get care.
They diagnose cancers while still treatable. They help women decide what birth control works for them. They help those working through mental health challenges.
Defunding them just harms people who already struggle to find places to get care.
July 1, 2025 at 11:52 AM
The harm is the point.
Reposted by Fran Smith
i almost can’t read this it makes me so angry. delusional grifters with purity fetishes and eugenic worldviews have brought pain, suffering and death to children www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/u...
‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home
www.nytimes.com
June 23, 2025 at 3:24 AM
i almost can’t read this it makes me so angry. delusional grifters with purity fetishes and eugenic worldviews have brought pain, suffering and death to children www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/u...
We often speak of gun violence as an epidemic. Yet the problem fits the definition of chronic: continuing or occurring again and again. If only the current obsession with chronic illness aimed at the leading killer of kids. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
The Health Divide: What state gun laws can tell us about the shooting deaths of children
“The academic in me is never going to say causality,” said Harvard's Jeremy Faust. “But the person with a functioning brain is going to say I’m worried about a causal relationship.”
centerforhealthjournalism.org
June 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
We often speak of gun violence as an epidemic. Yet the problem fits the definition of chronic: continuing or occurring again and again. If only the current obsession with chronic illness aimed at the leading killer of kids. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/ins...
Excited to be writing for the USC Center for Health Journalism on the sweeping changes in health care policy, massive budget cuts, and how it’s all playing out in communities. Here’s my first. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/rep...
The Health Divide: Nobody expected this would happen after the Dobbs decision
"This is the story post-Dobbs, that people are doing everything within their power and expertise to make sure that people can still get care," said David Cohen, a law professor at Temple University.
centerforhealthjournalism.org
June 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Excited to be writing for the USC Center for Health Journalism on the sweeping changes in health care policy, massive budget cuts, and how it’s all playing out in communities. Here’s my first. centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/rep...
“Repeal and Replace” ACA failed in 2017. The same bulldozing of health coverage and health care access “is now being sold as an exercise in fiscal restraint.” : bit.ly/43a5Jdu
The Budget Bill’s Hidden Health Crisis : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
The budget bill adopted by the House of Representatives on May 22 is not so much a fiscal blueprint as a manifesto in policy retrenchment. Behind its
bit.ly
May 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
“Repeal and Replace” ACA failed in 2017. The same bulldozing of health coverage and health care access “is now being sold as an exercise in fiscal restraint.” : bit.ly/43a5Jdu
Reposted by Fran Smith
The president of the U.S. appears to be improving his own health through access to great medical care and great medical science. That's what he gets. Simultaneously, his administration is doing so much to hurt regular Americans' opportunity to achieve those same good health outcomes the same way.
May 13, 2025 at 2:31 AM
The president of the U.S. appears to be improving his own health through access to great medical care and great medical science. That's what he gets. Simultaneously, his administration is doing so much to hurt regular Americans' opportunity to achieve those same good health outcomes the same way.
Freedom is just another word for gambling with your child’s life. An American tragedy. apple.news/AziT0iAmtTCC...
First Measles Death Reported in Texas Outbreak — The Wall Street Journal
An unvaccinated school-age child died after being hospitalized in West Texas
apple.news
February 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Freedom is just another word for gambling with your child’s life. An American tragedy. apple.news/AziT0iAmtTCC...
Texas measles outbreak: Culling the herd, I guess. Awful to see people gambling with children’s lives out of some warped sense of freedom or misreading of science. I almost died from measles as a kid, just months before the vaccine came out.
February 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Texas measles outbreak: Culling the herd, I guess. Awful to see people gambling with children’s lives out of some warped sense of freedom or misreading of science. I almost died from measles as a kid, just months before the vaccine came out.
Reposted by Fran Smith
Measles outbreak in the United States, originating from Texas, thanks to the Trump regime's anti-vaccination propaganda people are now being rapidly infected. #EndAutogenocide
February 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Measles outbreak in the United States, originating from Texas, thanks to the Trump regime's anti-vaccination propaganda people are now being rapidly infected. #EndAutogenocide