Notices by Gregg Gonsalves (gregggonsalves@med-mastodon.com)

Let’s be clear what this is: a political purge. And given the reassignments for staff, it is also punishment. This is worthy of the Soviets. https://apnews.com/article/health-human-services-layoffs-restructuring-rfk-jr-ec4d7731695e4204970c7eab953b2289

There are reports today that the Trump administration in planning to completely eliminate the CDC Division of HIV Prevention, cutting $700 million that should be used to prevent HIV infections and control HIV the HIV epidemic. Such cuts would have horrific consequences for the health of Americans.

AIDS United posted this:
https://lnkd.in/ePhYMrpY

Your representatives contact info can be found here:
https://lnkd.in/e7K7hzhi

5Calls.org has joined our campaign to oppose the nomination of Dave Weldon for CDC Director. Spread the word. Spread the link below. Make the calls. Make good trouble.

https://5calls.org/issue/david-weldon-cdc-director/

Russell Vought & his ex-wife Mary have a daughter with cystic fibrosis, who is being treated with elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor, drugs developed with the support of the National Institutes of Health. Now Russ & Mary are trying to destroy the agency. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/project-2025-vought-medical-funding/

#Trump, #Musk, #Vought are destroying NIH. What they are creating is a rump-institution that kills research on health disparities by banning grants on words like race, gender, equity etc. They are also creating a whites-only future for research by banning DEI initiatives, which will have its desired effect of reducing the number of black and brown students, post-docs and scientists in biomedical research in the US. My latest for @thenation. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trumps-plan-to-defund-the-nih-will-ruin-a-national-treasure/

Elon Musk has purchased $40M on a series of Superbowl ads attacking USAID as "wasteful spending." Colleagues have created this video and are asking that it be posted across social media at exactly 5:30 pm EST today, Sunday, February 9th https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqUESHfuO_8

#globalhealth #publichealth #USAID

Defend Public Health, a new coalition of over 1700 scientists, public health experts, clinicians and patient advocates has come out against the RFK Jr. nomination and generated 3500 letters to Senate offices. Leading experts from Harvard, Emory, Penn, and Boston University, representing some of the most eminent figures in virology, social epidemiology, with experience in local health departments and federal agencies are quoted in this press release. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DV6hRITXNLYGhHwEyVqqMiZgj9EncjZS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107344067330151719423&rtpof=true&sd=true

Buh-bye #Threads. Mark Zuckerberg is a disgrace. I'll delete my account later today. Urge others to do as well. Spread the word. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/07/business/meta-fact-checking

“Based on current medical trends and expected advancements, we conclude that COVID-19 is still driving excess mortality both directly and indirectly.” https://www.swissre.com/institute/research/topics-and-risk-dialogues/health-and-longevity/covid-19-pandemic-synonymous-excess-mortality.html

OK. How did I miss this? This how you do it. You meet hate and ignorance with joy and love and a little bit of civil disobedience. https://msmagazine.com/2024/12/05/trans-bathroom-ban-capitol-hill-congress-dance-party/

And now this. My father had polio when he was a child in the 1930s. He thankfully survived. Many did not. This is, well, evil. Let's not mince words. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html

Wisdom.

What a powerful piece from Christina Pagel, Martin McKee & Kent Buse from the UK. European scientists are deeply worried about Trump's nominations for health and science. We should be too.
https://www.bmj.com/content/387/bmj.q2654

Kids need to be at the front of the line for mpox vaccination. Right now, this is not happening. Our latest research in Lancet Global Health. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(24)00384-X/fulltext

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/a-carnival-of-destruction-2024-11-17#:~:text=It%20is%20for%20this%20reason,best%20guarantee%20of%20their%20loyalty.%E2%80%9D

How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump

RFK Jr.'s involvement in this tragedy needs to be more widely known. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/measles-in-samoa/

“We forget what this country was like 50 years ago – how many children died every year from polio, pertussis, measles.
We’re going to see the return of diseases we have controlled for decades and with that many additional severe illnesses in hospitals and deaths – and that’s just from the rhetoric, not even withdrawing vaccines.”
-Dr Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

The New York Post, no bastion of elite woke liberalism, comes out swinging against the RFK Jr. nomination for HHS. https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/opinion/putting-rfk-jr-in-charge-of-health-breaks-the-first-rule-of-medicine/

Under the new administration, we are likely to see significant attacks on core public health functions in the United States. We need to organize coast-to-coast to figure out how to stem the damage and keep our communities safe and healthy. https://forms.gle/jSLhZXmma4YihfFH6