Carinna Torgerson

The existence of homeless people is evidence that more taxes are necessary.

The existence of billionaires is evidence that they can afford to pay more taxes.

Cancer misinformation kills. Chemotherapy saves lives. Rejecting evidence-based treatment in favor of false hope and wellness industry lies is deadly.

75% of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases are in kids under 6.

1960s: ALL survival was 10%.

Today: Survival is over 90%.

That’s because of chemotherapy.
Not supplements, “detoxes,” juice, or wellness bullshit.

Chemotherapy saves lives.
Misinformation kills.

Read more in Immunologic ⬇️

How we’re battling Trump’s science cuts across small-town America Neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon is urging scientists to use the power of local newspapers in the fight against US research-funding cuts.

After her own funding was slashed, neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon co-founded Science Homecoming, an organization that calls on US scientists to submit opinion pieces to their hometown newspapers making the case for investment in science.

(2/3)
Here’s what to do:
1. Find a cancelled NSF grant in your state here 👇

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

2. Find your reps. Explain why this grant is important - & you won’t be silent on it. 👇

www.congress.gov/members/find...

Are terminations of NIH grants wasting billions of taxpayer dollars? DOGE argues killing grants saves money, but a Science analysis suggests more than $1.4 billion in sunk research costs may produce few results

Dramatically cutting future funding is stupid. Halting existing research halfway through and throwing out the data is profoundly idiotic.

“Trump’s actions have revealed the inherent constitutional
fragility of the existing centralized public payments architecture. A nation in which a single govt IT official can effectively commandeer all federal budget activity is a
nation vulnerable to attack & compromise by a dictatorial president.”

Graph showing the FY24 federal budget: Dept of Defence: $841B NIH: $47B NSF: $9B IMLS: $0.3B NEH: $0.2B

The bloodbaths at IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) and NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) show that Musk's DOGE has NOTHING TO DO WITH SAVING $.

IMLS budget: $295M

NEH budget: $211M

These are tiny drops in the federal spending bucket.

This is about ideological control.

Vaccines have important benefits even beyond their designed purpose. Viral infections contribute to dementia, MS, Parkinson's, ALS, and more. The link between past viral infections and neurodegenerative disease is not a fringe theory; it was part of the curriculum for my neuroscience PhD. 💉🧠

This. Authoritarians win by creating an atmosphere of hopelessness in order to preemptively suppress mass actions that could effectively challenge their power. Every single public act of defiance plays a critical role in stopping them.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The administration says they're cutting a trillion in government spending. So far, 2025 spending is $1.89 trillion. It was $1.76 trillion at the same time last year. Spending is on pace to increase by 7.4% from last year.

www.marketwatch.com/story/despit...

Wow what timing. Who needs environmental health anyway? 💀
www.wired.com/story/cdc-gu...

‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts.

On health economist Jay Bhattacharya’s first day as head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the chiefs of four of the 27 institutes and centres that make up his agency were removed from their posts.

https://go.nature.com/3QZ8GGT

Neighbor Tuesday: NIH updates - grants, indirect rates, and leadership changes NIH funding is good for the health of the economy and its people.

I highly recommend reading this because:
a) it has fascinating historical tidbits (🙌 Ida A. Bengtson)
b) it illustrates how unanimous support for the NIH has historically been across parties and time
c) it demonstrates succinctly how the NIH is good for the economy

New paper alert! The amygdala is key to emotional, social & appetitive behavior— but how do its subregions develop in preadolescence? In ~4,000 youth, we found:
🧠 Age → near-global amygdala expansion
🧬 Sex differences in apportionment
⚖️ Higher BMIz → smaller basolateral subregions

Reminder: the publicly stated reason that Hegseth, Vance et al. - the people who accidentally texted secret operational strike-package details to the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic - oppose DEI at the DOD is because they claim that it might lead to incompetent people holding positions of authority.

The Matts and Noahs saying "DEI failed" and we need to abandon it should be forced to drill down.

Which do they oppose?

Diversity? Equity? Inclusion? All three?

If diversity, who is it that should be removed?

If equity, what inequities should be restored?

If inclusion, who should be excluded?

The Four Core Genotypes model is the gold standard for investigating whether health disparities between men and women are related to genetics or hormones. Scrapping this research will harm so many (human) women.

I can’t believe this needs to be said.

TransGENIC mice

are not

TransGENDER mice