Irena Hwang, PhD

To the ProPublica Board: We Need a Fair Contract Now — ProPublica Guild Last week, we reached out to ProPublica’s board of directors to raise serious concerns about ProPublica’s harmful disciplinary process as well as our collective interest in getting a fair contract now...

1/ Last week, we delivered a letter to @propublica.org's board members, urging them to direct management to agree to a fair contract now. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/to-t...

ACTION: NewsGuild-CWA joins calls on DHS to withdraw journalist visa proposal | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA The NewsGuild-CWA calls on DHS to withdraw its proposed rule that would change the I visa program for foreign journalists working in the United States.

🚨 ACTION: The U.S. should welcome foreign journalists—not kick them out.

DHS is trying to gut the journalist I visa program and weaken press freedom at home and abroad.

▶️ Will you join over 13,000 and submit your own comment?:

newsguild.org/action-newsg...

People wearing union shirts stand outside a red carpet at the entrance of an event as people walk in.

People wearing union shirts and stickers smile and hand out ProPublica Guild buttons.

Five people sit at a table for an event wearing stickers and buttons supporting the ProPublica Guild.

Two people walking into an event wear stickers in support of the ProPublica Guild.

We ❤️ @ire.org! @propublica.org employees wore buttons & flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract.

The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible.

You can help by signing our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Absolutely!! Can't wait to hear your first episode :)

Ahh congrats!!!!!

In the episode, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis touches on:
- RFKJ turning down briefings from the CDC
- Vaccine policy changed without input from CDC leaders
- CDC leaders denied access to data after policy changes were made
- Worry that public health policy will be driven by ideology, not science

"Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who led the center that oversees emerging diseases and vaccine safety, said he decided to resign before he was dismissed, in part hoping that doing so would allow Dr. Monarez to continue as the director."

Inside the CDC director's ouster: Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused Susan Monarez’s resistance to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s moves to assert control over vaccine guidance is at the center of her dismissal as CDC director

"She had two lines in the sand ... One was anything that was deemed illegal. And the second was anything that she felt flew in the face of science. And she says she was asked to do both of those.”
www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

Kennedy Sought to Fire C.D.C. Director Over Vaccine Policy

CDC director Susan Monarez declined to fire agency leaders or to accept all recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel made over by Mr. Kennedy, according to people with knowledge of the events.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...

1/ Yesterday, the FDA changed the license for the #Covidvaccine.

The vaccine label has been limited to everyone over 65 and for those 6 months through 64 years old with at least one condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19. This is a deep dive to bring you up to date👇

Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies More than 20,500 workers have left or been pushed out of federal health agencies, a ProPublica analysis found. Staffers say the cuts will leave their agencies less equipped to conduct studies, perform...

a heartbreaking - gutting - overview of the scientists we have lost so far under this administration by my colleagues @bxroberts.org @anniewaldman.bsky.social and @pratheekrebala.bsky.social

projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies. We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left, and the admin refused to give us numbers. So we conducted our own analysis, a thread...

NEW: In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies.

We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left.

They refused to give us numbers.

So we conducted our own analysis... 🧵

projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

I'm a science journalist for @statnews.com looking to talk with folks who applied to biomedical Ph.D. programs and had offers rescinded earlier this year. What have you been up to since then? You can reach me at jonathan.wosen@statnews.com or via Signal (username jwosen.27). #journorequest

"GPT-4o had been known for its sycophantic style, flattering its users to the point that OpenAI had tried to tone it down even before GPT-5’s release... The extent to which people were attached to GPT-4o’s style seems to have taken even Mr. Altman by surprise."

HHS staffers implore RFK Jr. to ‘stop spreading inaccurate health information’ in wake of CDC shooting | CNN More than 750 current and former staffers at the US Health and Human Services implored Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in a letter Wednesday to “stop spreading inaccurate health information” after a ...

HHS staffers implore RFK Jr. to ‘stop spreading inaccurate health information’ in wake of CDC shooting. Story by @megtirrell.bsky.social www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/h...

RFK Jr. Vowed to Find the Environmental Causes of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying to Do Just That. While touting a $50 million initiative to identify the causes of autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is helping lead an administration that is rolling back protections against pollution and toxic chemicals,...

My latest on the Health Sec who promised to figure out what causes autism and the autism research that's been stopped along the way www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...

1/ Popping back in with another #fallvaccine update. 👇

In case you missed it, Friday (or soon after) the FDA is expected to license the Covid-19 vaccine. Word is that the label will be restricted to adults 65+ and people at high risk.

But a few organizations have made different recommendations.

It looks like officers stopping a Massachusetts family as they drive home from church on Mother’s Day, shattering their window, and letting the kids in the back of the car watch as their dad is forced to kneel, then slammed chest-first to the ground. 9/

An article screenshot reads: "YOUR CAR is a constitutional gray zone. It doesn’t have the same Fourth Amendment protections as homes. You can refuse to open the door of your home if officers don’t have a judicial warrant; you can’t refuse to step out of your car. The Constitution still limits when officers can use force and how much they can use. But there are no firm rules. Should they shatter windows just minutes or seconds after making a vehicle stop? Should they drag someone through broken glass when they could wait to make the arrest another day? “Use of force has to be objectively reasonable,” says Bruce-Alan Barnard, a retired Fourth Amendment instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where ICE officers train. The problem with “objectively reasonable,” Barnard says, is that “it’s an oxymoron. What’s reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me.” Immigration officers are given little guidance on whether or how they should breach car windows, former federal law enforcement..."

So “Is this legal?” may be the wrong question. “Is this normal?” was the better one. We did eventually find 8 instances of ICE and Border Patrol smashing car windows in the decade before Trump’s second presidency. But we’ve found nearly 50 instances in the six+ months since. 5/

THREAD: All over the country, immigration officers are smashing car windows to get at the people inside.

As we began tracking incidents, my @propublica.org colleague @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I had two questions: First, is this legal?

Second, is it, well, normal? Was this happening before? 1/

With Deep N.I.H. Cuts, Research Into Health Disparities Falters In its campaign against “woke” science, the Trump administration has closed down studies and programs focused on the gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups.

We can't address health disparities if we can't study them. These actions will harm so many communities.

With Deep N.I.H. Cuts, Research Into Health Disparities Falters www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/h... via @nytimes.com CC: @irenatfh.bsky.social @sarahpeitzmeier.bsky.social @sungheelee.bsky.social

What one historian says White House vetting of Smithsonian means for U.S. cultural institutions The White House said it wants to ensure the museums show the "unity, progress and enduring values that define the American story."

AHA executive director Sarah Weicksel appeared on @wbur.org's Here & Now today to speak about the sweeping review of the Smithsonian ordered by President Trump. 🗃️

Visa Whiplash Threatens Foreign Doctors Who Keep This Brooklyn Hospital Running Residents at Brookdale Hospital mostly come from overseas, working in jobs American medical students overlook.

"New York City’s hospitals... depend heavily on international residents... At Brookdale, the rate of visa-holding residents is even higher, in part because the hospital has challenges attracting American medical graduates." by @annaoakes.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/14/b...

‘Distracting the public’: group of health professionals call for RFK Jr to be removed Ahead of the second Maha report, grassroots Defend Public Health warns that everything HHS is doing is ‘horrifying’

#IHAT #IHATnotMAHA

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Nonprofit Refuses $1.5M Science Grant Due To New Federal DEI Rules A coding nonprofit turned down a $1.5M NSF grant after new DEI restrictions, highlighting the clash between federal policy and scientific community values.

I spoke with Kari Jordan and Erin Becker of The Carpentries about why they declined a $1.5M NSF grant intended to expand data science training. Their decision highlights the growing intersection of #science, #DEI, and federal policy.

Read the full story on Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Our New York members took their lunch outside today to demand that @propublica.org management agree to a fair discipline and performance evaluation system ✊

The FDA Let Substandard Factories Ship These Medications to the U.S. ProPublica identified more than 150 products that were exempted from import bans since 2013. Our list provides the names of the drugs or ingredients and their manufacturers, many of which are no longe...

NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned.

Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.

“We all show up every day in pursuit of a healthier country and world, and the person at the top of the HHS ladder is one of our biggest haters"

📽️ WATCH: Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla, one of the men Trump sent to CECOT, told our reporters he was beaten the moment the plane landed.

He says when he regained consciousness and saw the polished concrete floor, the bright lights, the men in uniform, he just asked God: What am I doing here? Why?

These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency. Many of the same Republican lawmakers who have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cuts have collectively directed thousands of constituents’ complaints about banks, credit cards, lo...

NEW from me: The CFPB's consumer complaint system is more popular than ever, fielding over 2.7M complaints last year.

But Republican lawmakers still voted to slash the CFPB's budget, even after referring thousands of their own constituents' issues to the agency.

www.propublica.org/article/cfpb...