Jessica Briggs

e.g.

This is not being stated loudly or clearly enough. You can draw a direct line to the anti-vaccine nonsense fomented by Kennedy and his ilk to this attack on public health workers at CDC. His being in charge of these agencies remains a scandal and an outrage.

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

This is literally some of the craziest shit I have ever read.

And that's saying a lot.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research Vaccine experts and people steeped in pandemic preparedness expressed horror at the news that RFK Jr. has shut the door in U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research.

Pandemic preparedness in the US has been leveled a crippling blow with the cancellation of multiple #BARDA contracts to help develop mRNA vaccines. No other vaccine platform produces vaccine so quickly; without mRNA, Americans will have a long wait for pandemic vax. www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/m...

kennedy is going to kill a lot of people

Show me your budget, and I'll show you your values

the republican party is a criminal conspiracy against the american republic

📣 I'm recruiting a postdoc researcher to join my team for a project on mosquito-specific viruses and host interactions. Peep the job description & how to apply below. Perfect for soon-to-be or recent PhD graduates in mosquito vector biology 🦟 or arbovirology 🦠
🗓️ Application deadline 31 August 2025

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water **With Famine on the rise, we will significantly lower tent purchases and focus on food (rice and bread) and water over the next couple of weeks**

Feeling just absolutely helpless and devastated about starvation in Gaza. I'm donating to the Sameer Project and calling my representatives and talking to my offline friends. chuffed.org/project/1132...

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

/6 The bottom line, though, is that things are getting worse, they are going to get worse, and the only question is how much worse. The regime is emboldened by the collapse of the institutions and norms that might have restrained it and are going to push and push and push.

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

This is bad. Very bad. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This is not the act of a legitimate government.

this is so, so, so evil. and stupid, and wasteful. but primarily evil.

‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels “There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says

If I hear one more reporter say these attacks on universities and science are about "antisemitism," I am going to lose it. This is about destroying higher education full stop and it doesn't help to parrot the White House's talking points. www.science.org/content/arti...

HHS announced today they will consider Head Start a welfare program, not an education program, and will subject it to new citizenship requirements. This goes against decades of legal precedence that all children in America have a right to education. Announcement here. www.hhs.gov/press-room/p...

FEMA response to deadly Texas floods delayed & deficient with Noem in charge Staffers sound the alarm.

NEW from me — FEMA staffers say the response to the Texas floods is horrifyingly slow, and it may be because of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's recent increased control over how the agency spends money.

"If this is how they are going to do a major hurricane response, people are fucked.”

we have an elite impunity problem (globally, but the US is certainly no exception) and nothing will get better until we deal with this

Growing up, I went to summer camp along the banks of the Guadalupe just like these girls. This flood in Texas is so tragic. Keeping the families in my thoughts.

It's not just #NIH. It's not just #NSF. It's not just #NASA.

The whole scientific community has to make clear that all science across fed agencies is being destroyed in the US.

We can't just ask for our particular piece of the pie. The whole pie is being thrown out - saving your bit won't work.

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

War on universities, war on science, war on knowledge

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

The White House's proposed FY26 budget would cut NIH funding by >40%. Our new #SCIMaP report projects the budget would lead to economic losses throughout the US with $10M+ lost in almost every House district.
scienceimpacts.org/fy26

@joshuasweitz.bsky.social @asinclair.bsky.social @cl10.bsky.social

There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.

Today I’m leading 152 House Democrats in challenging Trump's devastating cuts to life-saving NIH research grants. Congress—not Trump—controls federal spending.

Trump must do his job, “faithfully execute” the laws and stop violating the Constitution to undercut public health.

Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.

These are all the countries in Africa that would be part of Trump's travel ban. Insane.

i went for a walk :(

good lord

Feeling a lot like I did in early days of the pandemic these days. It is so clear what’s coming: The people that will die because of cuts in global health, because of cuts to research, because of the concerted anti-vaccine push.
It’s clear what’s coming, but we will have to wait to count the dead.🧪