Alejandra Canales 🟥

Really gratifying to see journalists attend to the administrative burdens that impede access to services and benefits to which people are entitled and desperately need. This really matters for vaccination.

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

RFK Jr.’s CDC may limit COVID shots to 75 and up, claim they killed kids A battle is brewing over mRNA vaccines, which could intensify backlash against Kennedy.

If you haven't gotten your updated COVID vaccine by now, book an appointment fast before next week's ACIP meeting. After that, you might not be able to get one. I plan on getting mine this weekend if I possibly can. arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

It's not just UCLA. UC president warns of Trump push into all campuses and hospitals President James B. Milliken said current federal cuts are "minor in comparison to the threat that looms." Cuts, he said, could go far beyond UCLA and hit all 10 UC campuses as well as hospitals.

The University of California receives $17 billion annually in federal funds. Its president is warning of a possible Trump push across the system, making current federal cuts at UCLA and elsewhere seem “minor in comparison to the threat that looms”
www.latimes.com/california/s...

Can confirm in CA. I got my shot yesterday at my local CVS with no issues 💉

It's official: Updated COVID vaccines have been approved by the FDA, but with restrictions.

Moderna: 6 months and up if high risk

Pfizer: 5 years and up if high risk

Novavax: 12 years and up if high risk

Anyone 65 years and up is eligible for updated COVID vaccines regardless of risk status.

As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under Trump, No One Answered. - KFF Health News Trump officials sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists, slowing their response to the measles outbreak in West Texas. Cases surged and sparked new outbreaks across the U.S. and Mexico. Together...

🚨🧵My latest:

As measles took off in Texas, the Trump administration took actions that prevented CDC scientists from responding.

The outbreak became the biggest in 30 yrs. It’s far larger considering the outbreaks it sparked in other states & Mexico. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

We must see that our lives, our struggles and successes, are bound up in each other. What does collective action look like if you stop being optimistic your discipline's market will improve and instead think about academia as a whole?

cc academic scientists

San Francisco remains under a Tsunami Advisory. Move away from all beaches, harbor or marina docks, or piers now. Stay away from shoreline areas. Leave roads open for emergency responders and be prepared to leave by foot if roadways are blocked.

According to the Supreme Court, the President can cancel the Department of Education but can't cancel the student debt that the Department of Education holds? Do we have that right?

SEIU California | SEIU California Demands Release of CSU Faculty Member Brutalized By ICE SEIU California members call for the immediate release of our brother Jonathan Caravello, PhD, a U.S. citizen and union member, who was brutally assaulted and detained by federal agents as he…

A worker was killed. Dozens detained.

Dr. Jonathan Caravello, A CSU faculty member and US citizen, was brutalized & disappeared by ICE for observing.

Trump’s ICE thugs are escalating terror in our communities. Release them ALL.

seiuca.org/press-releas...

🚨 NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya is testifying before the US Senate Appropriations Committee today.

The hearing is bound to be spicy, after more than 300 agency staff wrote him a letter decrying his leadership and actions as director. 🔥

I'll be live-posting the hearing, so follow along here.

Equipment and testing samples at a reasearch lab at Cal State San Marcos on May 6, 2025. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters Quote: “We’re losing an entire generation of scholars who wouldn’t have otherwise gone down these pathways without these types of programs.” Source: Richard Armenta, a professor of kinesiology at San Marcos and the associate director of the campus’s Center for Training, Research, and Educational Excellence that operates the training grants.

At least 24 UC and Cal State University campuses lost training grants that provided their students with annual stipends of approximately $12,000 or more, as well as partial tuition waivers and travel funds to present research at science conferences. buff.ly/fxVGVtr

📸 Adriana Heldiz

I encounter more and more people in real life lately who think AI genuinely is some kind of truth machine and it feels like they are living on a different planet in a way that is just incredibly distressing

It would be a great moment for literally anyone to do major reporting on the cuts to cancer research but why engage with material realities when you can play imagination games instead?

On a Nature news article reporting that NIH planned to suspend subawards for foreign collaborations: “No, that’s false. There’s going to be a policy on tracking subawards. The NIH and the government should be able to see where the money’s going.” “I’m really uncomfortable with this conversation, because you’re like, actually spreading rumors that you don’t know anything about. … Nature also is spreading rumors. Halt foreign collaborations, that’s not true.” “We’re working on the policy, Jocelyn. You shouldn’t be reporting rumors. I know there’s leaks all over here, but the leaks don’t actually reflect what’s happening. Don’t write about rumors. It actually makes the things that you and I care about worse. Like it spreads panic.” Later that day, NIH released a policy that halted future subawards to foreign scientists and said they will need to apply directly for money under a system still in development.

With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond.

Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘It’s been a tough period’: NIH’s new director speaks with Science Jay Bhattacharya discusses staff morale, grant cuts, and “rumors”

This is a great piece. Bhattacharya insisted that the reporter not "write about rumors" because "it spreads panic.” Hours later, those very leads were confirmed.
www.science.org/content/arti...

Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10

You know that helps stop the spread of measles? Vaccinations and masks. Were discouraging one and many states are banning the other

I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel

UPDATED: At least 83 students -- at campuses for University of California, California State University and Stanford -- have had their visas revoked as of Monday evening.

You can’t say they didn’t warn you.

The new head of the NIH was downplaying Covid *in 2020.* All of this is disappointing but not necessarily surprising.

Exclusive: NIH to cut grants for COVID research, documents reveal Studies on climate change and South Africa are also on the latest list of grants to be terminated, according to updated documents obtained by Nature.

NEW: The NIH has begun terminating grants about COVID-19, leaving long COVID funding in limbo, according to a new internal guidance document I obtained.

“Now that the pandemic is over, the grant funds are no longer necessary,” it says.

We published the full document in my latest for @nature.com:

The Sick Times is working on a story about this. My DMs & email inbox are open for anyone in the Long COVID community who would like to send comments.

DNA of 15 Million People for Sale in 23andMe Bankruptcy There is no way to know what a buyer will want to do with the reams of genetic information it has collected. Customers, meanwhile, still have no way to change their underlying genetic data.

23andMe as a functioning company was a privacy disaster. 23andMe as a bankrupt, for sale company is a fucking nightmare

www.404media.co/dna-of-15-mi...

Across America, Protesters Stand Up for Science, Oppose Trump and DOGE Cuts The Xylom's reporters covered the Stand Up for Science protests from Atlanta, New York City, and Seattle.

RECAP: Thousands of Americans attended @standupforscience.bsky.social protests on March 7th, to protest against Trump and Elon Musk's budget cuts and attacks on science.

Our reporters @alexip718.com @noahdaly.bsky.social @jrmorber.bsky.social were on the ground in Atlanta, New York, and Seattle:🧪

Thank you so much for writing this!