Rebecca Persson (she/her)
@rspersson.bsky.social
Epidemiologist at Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
If you want to give us the Denmark vaccine schedule, you also need to give us the 6+ month parental leave the Danes get, so that new babies can avoid picking up germs at daycare, and you need to give us universal healthcare.
December 20, 2025 at 3:04 AM
If you want to give us the Denmark vaccine schedule, you also need to give us the 6+ month parental leave the Danes get, so that new babies can avoid picking up germs at daycare, and you need to give us universal healthcare.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
BREAKING: RFKJr directs that the US instantly stop recommending all vaccinations for children. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Under RFK Jr., U.S. plans to stop recommending most vaccines, defer to doctors
The plan, which is not finalized, suggests children get fewer shots and shifts to a model telling parents to consult doctors to make their own vaccine choices.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 10:32 PM
BREAKING: RFKJr directs that the US instantly stop recommending all vaccinations for children. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience.
www.notus.org/health-scien...
www.notus.org/health-scien...
CDC to Fund Controversial Study in West Africa on Infant Hepatitis B Vaccines
The study prompted swift outcry from scientists in the U.S. who say it’s “unethical.”
www.notus.org
December 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience.
www.notus.org/health-scien...
www.notus.org/health-scien...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
I was interviewed for @theguardian.com by the wonderful @melodyschreiber.com, one of the finest health reporters in the world, about what I called a “neocolonialist” study planned by Danish researchers in Guinea-Bissau, funded by RFK Jr. So many red flags 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I was interviewed for @theguardian.com by the wonderful @melodyschreiber.com, one of the finest health reporters in the world, about what I called a “neocolonialist” study planned by Danish researchers in Guinea-Bissau, funded by RFK Jr. So many red flags 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
These new proposed rules are not only a cruel attack on our trans neighbors but put millions of Americans’ health care at risk by forcing providers to choose between Medicaid and Medicare funding and gender-affirming care.
You can bet I'll use every tool available to my office to fight back.
You can bet I'll use every tool available to my office to fight back.
Breaking News: New Trump administration rules, if finalized, would pull funding from hospitals that provide gender-related care to minors.
Trump Moves to Prevent Access to Gender-Related Care for Minors
Proposed new rules would pull all federal financing from hospitals that continue to provide gender treatments for adolescents.
nyti.ms
December 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
These new proposed rules are not only a cruel attack on our trans neighbors but put millions of Americans’ health care at risk by forcing providers to choose between Medicaid and Medicare funding and gender-affirming care.
You can bet I'll use every tool available to my office to fight back.
You can bet I'll use every tool available to my office to fight back.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Of the 172 medicines approved by the FDA from 2015-18, only 24% of countries had physical access to every drug they helped test, even after 5 years, with lowest access in African countries.
New research from ERIC Affiliate Faculty Jen Miller, PhD and team lays it out clearly:
tinyurl.com/ycxehhy4
New research from ERIC Affiliate Faculty Jen Miller, PhD and team lays it out clearly:
tinyurl.com/ycxehhy4
Physical Accessibility of Medicines in Countries Hosting Trials for FDA Approvals
This cross-sectional study aims to determine whether and when medicines receive market authorization in the countries where they are tested for US Food and Drug Administration approval, as well as…
tinyurl.com
December 13, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Of the 172 medicines approved by the FDA from 2015-18, only 24% of countries had physical access to every drug they helped test, even after 5 years, with lowest access in African countries.
New research from ERIC Affiliate Faculty Jen Miller, PhD and team lays it out clearly:
tinyurl.com/ycxehhy4
New research from ERIC Affiliate Faculty Jen Miller, PhD and team lays it out clearly:
tinyurl.com/ycxehhy4
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Implementing a Unified NIH Funding Strategy to Guide Consistent and Clearer Award Decisions | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
December 5, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Pretty much ANY statistic you see cited to frighten you about vaccines comes from the VAERS database. (Including the recent evidence-free missive from Vinay Prasad). Here's why VAERS can NEVER be a proper source for population-level vaccine risk estimates.
Thread [1/9]
Thread [1/9]
November 30, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Pretty much ANY statistic you see cited to frighten you about vaccines comes from the VAERS database. (Including the recent evidence-free missive from Vinay Prasad). Here's why VAERS can NEVER be a proper source for population-level vaccine risk estimates.
Thread [1/9]
Thread [1/9]
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
We know that, for a ton of reasons, a lot of folks don't have as much to spend as they'd like this holiday season. Sooooooo, here's a thread of things you can do that will support your local indie bookstore or other business WITHOUT spending any more than you intended...
November 26, 2025 at 10:26 PM
We know that, for a ton of reasons, a lot of folks don't have as much to spend as they'd like this holiday season. Sooooooo, here's a thread of things you can do that will support your local indie bookstore or other business WITHOUT spending any more than you intended...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
November 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Instead of considering whether the super-rich really need a tax cut, the Trump regime is considering whether poor people really need to eat.
Brooke Rollins on why the Trump administration is cracking down on food stamps: "We're really opening up the market here, wanting to make sure that those who are receiving this *supplemental* nutrition benefit -- it was never meant for the long term -- are really those who need it."
November 19, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Instead of considering whether the super-rich really need a tax cut, the Trump regime is considering whether poor people really need to eat.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
very funny to read these emails and then remember summers wondering whether the leaky pipeline in stem was because women are inherently bad at math
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 1:56 AM
very funny to read these emails and then remember summers wondering whether the leaky pipeline in stem was because women are inherently bad at math
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
My daughter is 15, a child with a baby face whom I won’t even put in an Uber by herself. Just utterly disgusting from the same people who have spent years demonizing trans people as predators for daring even to exist. What are we even doing right now?
November 13, 2025 at 8:47 PM
My daughter is 15, a child with a baby face whom I won’t even put in an Uber by herself. Just utterly disgusting from the same people who have spent years demonizing trans people as predators for daring even to exist. What are we even doing right now?
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Yikes. USDA sent threatening letter to states telling them that if they sent out EBT money —which many states did during the window when a lower court said SNAP funds had to be released—they have to take it back (?)
Trying to sort out what this means and if states even can claw back the funds
Trying to sort out what this means and if states even can claw back the funds
November 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Yikes. USDA sent threatening letter to states telling them that if they sent out EBT money —which many states did during the window when a lower court said SNAP funds had to be released—they have to take it back (?)
Trying to sort out what this means and if states even can claw back the funds
Trying to sort out what this means and if states even can claw back the funds
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Trying to figure out what #SCOTUS just did with #SNAP, and why Justice Jackson temporarily froze the district court's ruling?
Via "One First," me on what's going on—and why I think Jackson's move was savvy, notwithstanding the awful circumstances that forced it:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
Via "One First," me on what's going on—and why I think Jackson's move was savvy, notwithstanding the awful circumstances that forced it:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
190. SNAP WTF?
A very quick explainer on what (and why) Justice Jackson issued an "administrative stay" in the SNAP case late on Friday night, and on what's likely to happen next
www.stevevladeck.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Trying to figure out what #SCOTUS just did with #SNAP, and why Justice Jackson temporarily froze the district court's ruling?
Via "One First," me on what's going on—and why I think Jackson's move was savvy, notwithstanding the awful circumstances that forced it:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
Via "One First," me on what's going on—and why I think Jackson's move was savvy, notwithstanding the awful circumstances that forced it:
www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
This article quotes the university president saying Lia was on the women's swimming and diving team, but she's not on this year's roster on their athletic department website. The NCAA banned her from being on the team when Trump first took office.
Lía Smith, a missing trans student in Vermont has been found dead.
"Vermont State Police touted the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for those in distress or their loved ones." This is the same lifeline the Trump admin cut for LGBTQ people in crisis.
www.boston.com/news/local-n...
"Vermont State Police touted the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for those in distress or their loved ones." This is the same lifeline the Trump admin cut for LGBTQ people in crisis.
www.boston.com/news/local-n...
Missing Middlebury College student confirmed dead after dayslong search, Vermont police say
Middlebury student Lia Smith, 21, was found dead Thursday, Vermont police confirmed. She had been reported missing several days prior.
www.boston.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
This article quotes the university president saying Lia was on the women's swimming and diving team, but she's not on this year's roster on their athletic department website. The NCAA banned her from being on the team when Trump first took office.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.
October 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
Food For Free is a marvelous org, and they also run Community Markets (free to the public) at local schools every month.
Food For Free supports families in Cambridge and Somerville Public Schools with nutrition support to cover weekends when there are no free school meals.
October 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Food For Free is a marvelous org, and they also run Community Markets (free to the public) at local schools every month.
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
On Threads, the usual suspects are telling ppl about to lose SNAP benefits to just start a garden. As a gardener, I had to laugh. You need at LEAST an acre of land to feed a family of 4. Start-up costs are enormous. But yes, subsistence farming on the balcony of your rental apartment is the answer
October 23, 2025 at 5:01 PM
On Threads, the usual suspects are telling ppl about to lose SNAP benefits to just start a garden. As a gardener, I had to laugh. You need at LEAST an acre of land to feed a family of 4. Start-up costs are enormous. But yes, subsistence farming on the balcony of your rental apartment is the answer
Reposted by Rebecca Persson (she/her)
The White House is asking people not to share pictures of the East Wing because it’s even worse today.
October 21, 2025 at 10:54 PM
The White House is asking people not to share pictures of the East Wing because it’s even worse today.