Gemma

YESYESYES

Imagine escaping the literal Nazis, making it to America, living three quarters of a century there making your life, and then this:

Heavy rainfall floods the camps of displaced Palestinians in Gaza | CNN Displaced Palestinians in Gaza woke up Friday morning to inches of water flooding their tents, after heavy rainfall overnight left their shelters and belongings soaked with no way to dry them out.

I usually share a new Palestinian account every day but today I am going to do a thread of people I’ve already verified impacted by the recent flooding in Gaza. If you can help any of these families- many who lost everything again- please do. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/14/m...

Yes please.

i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

Wow. One can only say "a new low" so many times. AND YET.

I’m so mad at how hard I laughed

Chicago Broadview 🧵

Yupppppp

Potent 🧵, delightful skystorian

Looking to speed up building network of migrant detention centers, Trump administration turns to the US Navy | CNN Politics The Department of Homeland Security is funneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the US in an arrangement ai...

they’ve made it easier to build concentration camps.

Zeteo traveled to Chicago for a first-hand look at the president's militarized crackdown on one of America’s great cities.

Watch @swin24.bsky.social's report:
zeteo.com/p/watch-insi...

Thinking about how much of their violence has been normalized already, how scenes that caused shockwaves 6 weeks ago are now part of the rhythm of daily life. Watched a TikTok from a daughter who has to do her parents' laundry & get their groceries because they're in hiding. This is just it now

ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...

And now @acls1919.bsky.social speaks out. Just. Say. No. To Trump's compact on higher ed. It's extortion plain and simple. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

Reminder that we still don’t know what happened to the 1,000 immigrants who went missing from Alligator Alcatraz.

Their families and attorneys can’t locate them.

They’ve been disappeared.

People are still being sent to that horrible place without any due process.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the right has been working sweatily to re-define grooming and sexual abuse of children to mean accepting or affirming trans young people.

They wanted to keep the cult-like fervor, while discarding the idea that the actual sexual abuse of children is wrong.

📌

🧵 on long term COVID sequelae

We are legitimately looking at a genocide against trans people in the United States. That's not hyperbole. The Department of Justice isn't talking about disarming us so that we can all live quietly in peace.

There is still time to stop this, but only if cis people care enough.

With love to my old home 🧵

My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested. This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough. While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles.

The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.

Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc. I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information. The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.

The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed. For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically. Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.

Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."

I do wish people would treat transphobia as the serious red flag it is, because if someone is repeating bullshit pseudoscience talking points from right wing cranks, that's just as bad as conceding to anti-vax nonsense and undermining trust in science and medicine, alarm bells should be sounding!

Cheers.

"Age verification" laws are actually "upload your ID or get your face scanned to access every website, ending anonymity and associating your identity with everything you do online" laws and if more people understood that they would not be down for this authoritarian nonsense

Love it! We've been doing these in Syracuse for the past year...NYC will be able to bring in even more!!!

COLLABORATION. Sans institutional affiliation it is very hard to work on my own. Weekly workdates with academic friend like @karismjones.bsky.social help me get writing into the world!