Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
banner
salisburyafshar.bsky.social
Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
@salisburyafshar.bsky.social
addiction, family med, & public health physician. harm reduction & human rights advocate. opinions = my own.
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
“We must dissent because America can do better.” Good to hear Wisconsin Judge Susan Crawford quote Justice Thurgood Marshall in her victory speech tonight.
April 2, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
The Trump administration on Monday placed the staff of the independent Institute of Museum and Library Services, the largest source of federal funding for museums and libraries, on administrative leave.
Trump Administration Moves to Shutter Library Agency
The staff of the independent Institute of Museum and Library Services, the largest source of federal funding for museums and libraries, were put on leave.
www.nytimes.com
April 1, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Monday, April 1 is the final day to submit nominations for the annual AMERSA Recognition Awards. These special awards recognize members of the AMERSA community for their exceptional contributions to the field of addiction science. Submit nominations here: amersa.org/amersa-awards/
March 29, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Check out this new piece in Filter about our secret shopper study recently published in JAMA Open!

We dropped in on community pharmacies in Austin, as customers, and tried to buy non-prescribed syringes.

It didn’t go well.

filtermag.org/secret-shopp...
Secret Shoppers Struggle to Buy Naloxone, Syringes at Texas Pharmacies
The in-person experiment uncovered frequent lack of availability, plus significant stigma around syringe purchases.
filtermag.org
March 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
NEW -- An internal HHS document has instructed the NIH to stop funding research to better understand vaccine skepticism.

The latest move by RFK to embrace vaccine skepticism as scientific dogma

www.thebulwark.com/p/nih-moves-...

via @citizencohn.bsky.social
The NIH Moves to Stop Studying Vaccine Skepticism
An internal memo says that the agency will not prioritize research on why people are reluctant to take vaccines.
www.thebulwark.com
March 26, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Breaking News: President Trump revoked security clearances for prominent figures like Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and more.
Trump Revokes Security Clearances for Biden, Harris, Clinton and More
The tally of names read like President Trump’s enemies list, from Letitia James to Liz Cheney.
www.nytimes.com
March 22, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
my NIH grant was terminated today - the grant that pays my rent and my bills and my loans and my health insurance - because I study how to improve the lives and wellbeing of queer people #episky #medsky
March 21, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women.

More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications.

I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.
March 22, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Erasing science doesn’t make ‘undesirable’ problems go away—it makes them worse.

The #NIH is terminating grants. LGBTQ+ health research is a clear target.

LGBTQ+ people face stigma & violence. This research saves lives. Let’s not stay silent.

Terminated grants 👇🏻
taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...
taggs.hhs.gov
March 19, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Stepping outside of science, medicine, and NIH for a moment: this is correct. Time to reclaim "free speech" as a liberal value.

And Jay Bhattacharya is going to keep saying he is helping free speech as he and Trump censor NIH scientists' free speech...so it is in fact relevant to NIH.
AOC, @aoc.bsky.social, making the case for free speech alongside universal healthcare is so KEY for the left, because it's time progressives reclaimed the mantle of fighting for free speech from the faux free speech warriors of the right.
AOC: I want to live in an America that guarantees healthcare to every person.

I want to live in an America that has a living wage for every person

I want to live in an America where you have free speech to express yourself and not be afraid of being put on a list or deported.
March 21, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Caring for veterans is actually a mission-critical function.
NIH-funding for research is a mission critical-function.
Public health infrastructure is a mission-critical function.
February 28, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts.

Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵
February 27, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Remember tomorrow we don’t buy from anyone except small businesses!
February 28, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
As the measles outbreak in Texas keeps spreading, parents who previously chose not to vaccinate their children are now lining up to get their kids the shots needed to protect them from the serious illness.
As Texas measles outbreak grows, parents are choosing to vaccinate kids
At least 124 people, mostly babies, children and teens, have been infected. Eighteen people have been hospitalized.
www.nbcnews.com
February 26, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
If you live in one of these R-controlled swing districts or know someone who does please make calls happen to these Congress members ASAP to demand that Medicaid & Medicare are protected from the massive cuts Republicans in the U.S. House teed up today! Healthcare for 10s of millions is on the line.
To emphasize the importance of preserving Medicaid, we request that people in high-priority districts call and write their members of Congress who are in areas that have high Medicaid usage and whose reps have competitive seats. A handy list is below; the Capitol Switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
February 26, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
"The first nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal police officers has been shut down by President Donald Trump"

The database encompassed 150,000 federal officers from the FBI, IRS, down to the Railroad Retirement Board
Justice Department deletes database tracking federal police misconduct
The Trump administration has removed a nationwide database of federal police officers’ misconduct, launched by the Biden administration to keep bad cops from jumping from job to job.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 21, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Pleased to share our new study in The Lancet Regional Health–Americas examining supervised consumption services (SCS) in #Toronto and their impact on community safety. Contrary to concerns, we found NO increase in #homicides near SCS.
Read it here open access: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
February 16, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
The NIH’s drastic cut to indirect cost rates is a critical threat to U.S. research infrastructure

These costs are not a waste or luxury — they make groundbreaking discoveries possible
www.statnews.com/2025/02/08/n...
The NIH’s drastic cut to indirect cost rates is a critical threat to U.S. research infrastructure
The drastic reduction in indirect costs is not a path to innovation or cost savings — it’s a threat to U.S.’s position as global leader in medical research.
www.statnews.com
February 9, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Elon Musk has reportedly spent $40M on a series of Superbowl ads airing tonight attacking USAID's "wasteful spending." We may not have millions of dollars but between all of us, we do have a massive global network.

Here are just a few ways USAID could have spent $40M:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=PqUE...
Save Foreign Aid
Elon Musk reportedly spent $40 million dollars on #Superbowl ads calling #USAID wasteful. Here are just a few ways we would’ve spent $40M: 🏈Purchased life-saving HIV treatment from American pharmaceutical companies to keep 1,060,000 million people alive for one year 🏈Bought enough emergency food aid products made in Rhode Island and Georgia to treat 800,000 severely malnourished children 🏈Slowed the flow of migrants to our borders by providing job training to 50,000 people in Central America 🏈Protected 30,000,000 football fields of tropical forest in Africa, preventing China and Russia from exploiting timber and critical minerals that fuel our world 🏈Saved the lives of 25 million children suffering from severe malaria. We think this one has value on its own but maybe Musk would disagree This Super Bowl Sunday, tell Congress to #saveforeignaid and #standwithUSAID
m.youtube.com
February 9, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Also, cutting into $47B in funding that drives $93B in economic activity shows you that this "business guy" doesn't understand what he's doing on multiple levels. www.nih.gov/about-nih/wh...
Direct Economic Contributions
NIH directly supports the economy through investments in research institutions and job formation.
www.nih.gov
February 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
“Many of those interviewed broke down in tears as they described the rapid destruction of decades of work.”
I hated having to write this, but I'm grateful to the many people who risked their ability to do critically important work they love, by talking to me. (And I will continue to cover it, so if you want to talk to me, DM for my Signal.) www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid (Gift Article)
Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work.
www.nytimes.com
February 1, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Let me say this in no uncertain terms: the President’s actions today are illegal.
 
Cutting off people from healthcare, childcare, and other services is cruel.

The State of Illinois will fight this unlawful order with everything we have.
January 29, 2025 at 12:42 AM
While I think we all could have hypothesized this, I’m glad researchers are formally studying the impact of private equity taking over hospitals. I hope someone also studies impact on healthcare workers in these settings!
The rapid growth of private equity in health care has attracted widespread attention & concern

Our new @jama.com study finds that when private equity takes over a hospital, patients' care experience significantly worsens.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
January 10, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
There are many reasons why someone might refuse a shelter bed: poor treatment, fearful an abusive partner could find them, violence, theft, no place to store belongings, no pets, and the indignity of being kicked out at 7am with nowhere to go. A bed is not a home.
December 18, 2024 at 11:15 PM