Caitlin Gilbert

FDA to impose strict new vaccine requirements, claiming child covid shot deaths Vinay Prasad, the nation’s top vaccine regulator, said his team concluded that coronavirus shots were linked to children’s deaths, necessitating a new approach.

Big change: FDA to impose strict new vaccine requirements under RFK Jr ally

Vinay Prasad signaled changes to annual flu shots, concurrent vaccines + more

Prasad said his team found link between covid-19 shots and kids' deaths, necessitating a new approach overall

with @rachelroubein.bsky.social

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

Exclusive: Hegseth ordered everyone killed in the first alleged drug boat strike on Sept. 2, prompting a second hit to finish off survivors in the water in a mission led by SEAL Team 6. Ordering no quarter could legally perilous www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

normal people: so excited for the holiday to spend time with family and get a break from work
me: finally I have uninterrupted time to watch the latest 4+ hr defunctland video

TRUMP they still have that Phantom of the Opera musical on Broadway

MAMDANI it's an immersive theatrical experience now. it's called Masquerade

TRUMP that Phantom's a jerk, isn't he

CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on rejecting vaccines-autism link Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who voted to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he pledged not to remove language stating vaccines do not cause autism from the CDC website, condemne...

The frontline CDC staff first asked to change the vaccines-autism website to promote a false link between the two wouldn't do so, @lenasun.bsky.social discovered wapo.st/3X9Mr43

We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com.

We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans.

washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

RFK Jr had committed to Bill Cassidy, as a condition to win his vote, that he would keep website language.

Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Note the language in second photo.

Tracking the spread of bird flu using genetic markers, satellite imagery, property records, and more reminds me of John Snow’s Cholera investigation/map. Howe’s Hens is the modern day Broad Street Pump. Amazing work from @natlash.bsky.social & @chrisalcantara.com. www.propublica.org/article/meth...

So so excited to welcome the very talented @chrishacker.me to @wpdatateam.bsky.social!! Chris is our team's newest hire, joining us as a computational journalist embedded on the national desk. 🙌

Congrats!!! Such great news

‘God is an anti-vaxxer’: Inside the conference celebrating RFK Jr.’s rise An anti-vaccine conference in Austin celebrated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rise to political power, highlighting his influence in Trump’s Washington.

stellar coverage of the CHD conference this past weekend from @laurenweberhp.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

The unregulated industry that coaches veterans to pile on benefits The number of vets receiving 100 percent disability ratings has surged in recent years. For-profit firms, influencers and the VA play a large role in the trend.

Of the 6 million veterans receiving disability payments last year, about 1.5 million were designated 100 percent disabled — a nearly ninefold increase since 2021. A whole industry has popped up around getting people to 100% by @caitlingilbert.bsky.social, @reinlwapo.bsky.social & Craig Whitlock:

Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.

That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

my poll site this morning in Brooklyn was the most packed I’ve ever seen it (there were actual lines!) for *any* election in the past five years

He is, instead, a 59-year-old Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio, who merely responded to an email from a journalist seeking his views on Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s policies. “I’m Bill DeBlasio. I’ve always been Bill DeBlasio,” DeBlasio said in an interview conducted Wednesday evening through his Ring doorbell in Huntington Station, Long Island, from his current location in Florida. “I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio told Semafor Wednesday evening. “So I just gave him my opinion.”

I’m crying

www.semafor.com/article/10/2...

Personally extremely motivating when I hit the Eric Tao audio samples that are like him absolutely laying into someone

plugging the great Industry soundtracks from Nathan Micay as *excellent* music for coding

Such an amazing article and very well-written. Really happy I got to chat with @caitlingilbert.bsky.social about the problems of social media, specifically TikTok. The harm of TikTok constantly engaging its users can be linked to studies showing that overuse of social media decreases well-being.

Picture of “Oh, Mary!” Playbill held in front of the stage at the Lyceum Theater

third time seeing this beauty for jane krakowski’s debut as mary 😌

genuinely fell to the ground when I heard the D’Angelo news. rest in power, king.

Americans can’t stop betting parlays. Sportbooks are cashing in. As betting booms, parlays are accounting for an increasing share of the money wagered on sports, according to a Washington Post analysis of state data.

Parlays have become incredibly popular, with many betting apps encouraging these high-stakes multi-leg bets. But as legs are added, the chance of winning drops faster than the growth of the potential payout - which means sportsbooks have the advantage. Explore the math and and try your own bets:

always read Lauren + Rachel

Such great work!!!

YouTube video by NBC News Top Story with Tom Llamas - Oct. 8 | NBC News NOW

Was so great to talk in-person about our latest TikTok reporting with Tom Llamas last night! Thanks to the great folks at NBC for having me.

Segment at 30:39: youtu.be/4jH6LmHI1UE?...

Thanks so much for featuring our reporting!

Today in Reliable Sources:

How TikTok hooks you; Ted Cruz's anti-censorship fight; creative public TV fundraiser; and much more: cnn.it/4nMYIr0

So grateful to the news engineers, researchers, lawyers and technicians who helped guide us in the proper way to handle folks' personal data. It was a TREMENDOUS lift to deal with this much (15 million unique videos watched 50-some million times!) and to make sure no personal info was compromised

Here’s how TikTok ‘power users’ end up scrolling 4 hours a day or more Washington Post reporters analyzed data from over 800 TikTok users to learn how the app turns people into power users, some of whom spend hours per day scrolling.

🤳EXCLUSIVE: We analyzed real data from over 800 U.S. TikTok users to reveal how the app transforms casual users into power users.

Extremely proud of this one, over a year in the making w/ @richardsima.bsky.social Leslie Shapiro @asteckelberg.bsky.social @ence.bsky.social

wapo.st/4obueib

I think that’s a fair take, but we asked users themselves about what they preferred too and landed on “power users” but we do use that term and “heavier users” interchangeably in the story itself as our neutral nomenclature.

Thanks so much, Scott, that means a lot!!