Joanne Shafer

Hahaha! I considered explaining it like that but I’ve just finished marking papers for the day and words are a bit wibbly wobbly right now.

Because I am an insufferable problem solver, I couldn’t resist the compulsion to solve that one…

Also, my tip for figuring out nonsensical flat-pack instructions: I squint at them like those Magic Eye images. 🤣

I find this troubling. We can’t keep defining ethical review so narrowly. Our frameworks need to urgently catch up. #Bioethics #ResearchEthics #SyntheticData #AIresearch

Authoritarianism feeds on fear and cruelty. Pritzker shows that leadership can be grounded in something very different: not just the will to fight, but a deep care for people, expressed through empathy and kindness. This is the kind of leadership the world desperately needs.

We’ve been given unfettered access to a powerful (and powerfully flawed) tool we don’t understand. We allow world changing new technologies into the world without any real reckoning with the risks. Never has the need for guardrails been more evident. #AIEthics #TechRisks #AIRegulation

I’m comfortable calling myself a pro-regulation paternalist. I don’t believe humans should be infantalised or controlled—I want all humans to be able to flourish. But us humans are not equipped to navigate this new world without constraints on industry. #AIEthics #AIRegulation #ResponsibleAI

‘We’re being cooked alive:’ Europe burns as temperatures soar above 100 degrees | CNN Europe is on track for its worst wildfire season on record as swaths of the continent – including France, Spain, Albania, Portugal and Greece — battle raging, deadly fires as temperature soar above 10...

We need an "In Bed" rule for extreme weather headlines, except add "Thanks to Big Oil's Avoidable Pollution."

‘We’re being cooked alive:’ Europe burns as temperatures soar above 100 degrees Thanks to Big Oil's Avoidable Pollution:

Crucially, no one in authority actively undermined the science—unlike today, where unqualified, anti-science figures like RFK Jr. have significantly eroded that painstakingly earned #trust. We maintain trust through consistent, transparent action. #publichealth #misinformation #scicom

Perhaps the NIH Director needs a history lesson? In 1955, despite a catastrophic vaccine production error, public trust in polio vaccine remained high—not because #trust was freely given, but because federal govt responded decisively & scientists spoke with one voice. #publichealth #scicomm

Why it got under my skin:
There are so many primary source images—creating fake images is unnecessary. This type of manufactured image is designed to manipulate. Whether historical or current events, fake images fuel genocide denial. #AIEthics #criticalthinking #ProtectTheRecord #MediaLiteracy

Cautionary Tales – Would You Trust a Gangster Nanny? Do we trust our fitness trackers too much? How do fraudsters gain our faith? Why do people trust podcasters? And would you trust a drug dealing nanny with a tambourine? Tim Harford is joined by tru…

Yesterday I saw a post which contained an obviously (to me) AI generated Holocaust image. Humanity needs to do some serious work on #trust. This episode of @timharford.ft.com’s Cautionary Tales is really worth a listen. timharford.com/2025/03/caut... #Misinformation #MediaLiteracy #CriticalThinking

We have "the weather event of our lifetime" every year, sometimes more than once a year. We’re seeing longer droughts, bigger & more dangerous hurricanes, deadlier blizzards, & things are only getting worse.

Daniel Medina, USA 🇺🇸
cartoonmovement.com

Thank you! Did I mention I’m not in the US? 😬😬😬 But I care deeply regardless. We all should.

Yes, I guess I’m just feeling uncharacteristically pessimistic about the capacity of the world (whatever that may mean) to mount that resistance. Or at least I suspect we will have to see truly heinous outcomes before enough people mobilize.

How serendipitous! I was just this very moment thinking that sharing @themarginalian.org.web.brid.gy is one way I could contribute to putting joy and beauty into a very dark world right now. 🥰

Mixed feelings. Certainly a fascinating read which gives me a very different perspective on US history and on the failures of the Democratic Party. However, I did not come away feeling positive. I came away despairing. I can’t see a way out in this climate. What made you feel hopeful?

Indeed. It’s grotesque. And chilling.

“The belief that we have a responsibility to others isn’t shortsighted sentimentalism; it’s the moral foundation of a meaningful life.”

This line struck me hard. It captures why I find the impulse to turn away—or to withhold—so deeply anathema.

#bioethics #publichealth #globalhealth

Reminds me of the impact false balance had on vaccine safety discussions in the media. There always had to be a “debate”. An often unsuspecting scientist or doctor would be put next to a conspiracy theorist and be gish-galloped into a polio epidemic.

Thanks for this. Well aware of that mindset, but remain mystified by idea that anyone “deserving” of wealth at other’s expense—especially when there’s enough global wealth for everyone to live with dignity.

I sound naive, but I’m often kept awake by the “it doesn’t have to be this way” of it all.

Keen to work with others in the #bioethics space to address this erosion—not by demanding trust, but by helping institutions earn it. This is an ethical crisis as much as a communication one. If you’re doing this work—or want to—please reach out. I’m keen to collaborate.

There’s so little insight into how those we trust to protect us—public institutions, health systems, even #science itself—have often failed to behave in ways that would actually foster trustworthiness. That failure has a moral weight and demands deeper scrutiny.

YouTube video by British Science Association Trust vs trustworthiness | Onora O'Neill

I don’t pretend to have the answers. I often reflect on our past tactics—we had many successes but I do feel compelled to consider what may have been counterproductive. I keep returning to Baroness Onora O’Neill’s work on #trust vs trustworthiness.
🔗 youtu.be/XWwTYy9k5nc?...
#bioethics #publichealth

But the pandemic—and the social media landscape it unfolded in—was a disaster. The infrastructure to push back was too little, too late and in the US, the disinformation battle was far greater. I won’t deny I feel a sense of despair—and I’m usually an optimistic person.

Many of us involved in public health advocacy here in Australia have been warning about the antivax movement for decades. We were constantly told we were overreacting—that these were just fringe lunatics best ignored.
#publichealth #vaccines

RFK Jr.’s Confusing Disdain for Medicaid The health secretary is cheering on cuts that would worsen America’s health woes.

If you find this confusing you should never comment on American politics ever again.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Undermining research, silencing researchers, and politicizing data weakens an already fragile global health infrastructure. At the risk of hyperbole, with looming catastrophic #climatechange impacts on the horizon this is a waking nightmare.
#sciencepolicy #publichealthethics

The Gutting of America’s Medical Research: Here Is Every Canceled or Delayed N.I.H. Grant (Gift Article) Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

I feel sick reading this—but I’m compelled to share. This @nytimes investigation lays bare the systematic dismantling of #medicalresearch under Trump. The damage will be global—felt most by the vulnerable and marginalised.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/... #bioethics #publichealth

The poignancy of these victories not just through pioneering #science but through public sacrifice & risk-taking—see March of Dimes & Cutter Incident should not be lost on us in this moment. Kennedy’s elevation to this position was grotesque. Those who put him there should be held accountable.

Have you read David Oshinksky’s outstanding book, “Polio: An American Story”. To think that the great #publichealth victories over dread diseases like polio could be overturned by the poisonous minds of RFK Jr et al, is a sickening tragedy. #publichealthethics #vaccines