Elizabeth Fitelson

If you can’t answer these questions (and many others!) you don’t know what role Tylenol plays in any outcome

What do you give for fever? What causes fever? What causes pain? How might those causes also affect pregnancy? How do genetics affect pain/fever (ie migraines)? How might external stressors (poverty, trauma) also play a role? Are people who take Tylenol also more likely to have other problems?

One AI writing to another AI ad infinitum with the material of human suffering as fuel

Image of the Dish of the Day from the Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Ugh. Recent conversation about AI with colleagues, consensus is that human therapy and physical presence will become more valuable but less accessible, insurance won’t pay unless you failed the AI. Human therapists doling out AI slop?

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To put it more simply: Historically, authoritarian takeovers often coincide with a rejection of scientific and factual reality.

This isn’t accidental.

It’s a strategic dismantling of shared reality, which destabilizes democratic institutions and makes populations easier to manipulate.

Children in a mental health crisis can spend days languishing in the ER A new study finds that nearly 1 in 10 kids on Medicaid visiting an emergency department for mental health care remain stuck there for days waiting for follow up psychiatric care.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

It’s almost as though it was never about the kids…

Is the FDA about to keep pregnant women from taking antidepressants? A panel of experts repeated what one women's health expert called "MAHA talking points."

Women are “naturally experiencing their emotions more intensely, and those are gifts. They’re not symptoms of a disease," said Roger McFillen, a doctor on an FDA panel that largely argued against pregnant women taking antidepressants.

I Randomly Decided To Pay Off A School’s Lunch Debt. Then Something Incredible Happened. “I immediately wondered if this was real.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/utah-s... I love how the author grapples with the contradictions of abolition feminism. The both and that we all face when trying to change systemic cruelties and tending to the urgency at hand. Best thing I read in a while.

And look at this propaganda that landed in my inbox!

Thinking about my postpartum moms who present with new-onset intrusive thoughts in the setting of hormonally mediated changes in the same circuitry

Very cool! Downloading article now. Congrats on this important work

Two answers to “how could X let this happen” and they boil down to 1) greed and avarice on one hand and 2) political violence on the other.

American authoritarianism will be the dumbest iteration imaginable — memes, masks — but no less horrible.

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at a Crossroads In this Viewpoint, former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) caution that the sudden change in the ACIP may reverse the achievements of US immunization policy, includin...

👀 Hot off the press: A scathing open letter co-authored by all 17 former ACIP members. It's a frank look at ACIP history and the hard truths America will grapple with in the upcoming months.
Turns out the former ACIP members have more spine than CDC leadership 🙄
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Hi - not due to blood levels , but to adjust symptomatically for premenstrual exacerbation of an underlying mood/anxiety d/o it’s often worth a shot to minimize SE’s the rest of the month

Photo of President Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, during a meeting in the Oval Office in April 2025. Trump has praised Bukele as “one hell of a president.” Credit: Al Drago/The Washington Post/Getty Images

In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison.

But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇

He Died Without Getting Mental Health Care He Sought. A New Lawsuit Says His Insurer’s Ghost Network Is to Blame. The mother of Ravi Coutinho, the subject of a recent ProPublica investigation, is suing Centene for publishing “misleading” information that gave her son a false impression about the kinds of mental h...

NEW: The mother of an Arizona man who died after being unable to find mental health treatment is suing his health insurer, saying it broke the law by publishing false information that misled its customers.

By @maxblau.bsky.social

Five Months in Jail—for a Miscarriage 5.20.25

A woman in Texas was just released from five months in jail because she had a miscarriage. A miscarriage! Five months (with $100k bond)! And they let some forced birthers name and bury the fetus!

To say this is a grave miscarriage of justice is a severe understatement.

Opinion | Medicaid Work Requirements Are Cruel and Pointless

Medicaid work requirements are bad, cruel, stupid policy www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/o...

Texas’ Abortion Ban Killed Josseli Barnica. Who Will Be Next? The young mother was happily expecting her second child when, like millions of women, she suffered a miscarriage.

4/n But above all, this mother's day, I am thinking of the moms who should be with us today-- but unnecessarily and tragically lost their lives due to abortion bans. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

On Mother’s Day, we honor the many paths to motherhood and the strength of those who nurture, guide, and care for others. ACOG is here to support you with expert care, advocacy, and compassion, today and every day.

Experiencing postnatal depression: Sarah's story - Centre for Mental Health Chief executive Sarah shares her experience of postnatal mental health problems after the birth of her first child

In honour of #MaternalMentalHealthWeek I’m reposting the blog I wrote whilst at the @centreformh.bsky.social about my own experience of #PND - rereading it this morning takes me back, hard to believe how far we come - kids are now 15&12, time heals. www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/experiencing...

Columbia Will Pay Survivors of Abusive Doctor $750 Million After ProPublica Revealed University’s Failures The sweeping deal means the Ivy League school’s settlements will total more than $1 billion for over 1,000 claims of sexual abuse by former patients of OB-GYN Robert Hadden, who worked at the universi...

“I’m grateful that I’m involved in this,” Laurie Kanyok, who called 911 on Hadden, said about the settlement. “At the same time, I feel like I want to see people held accountable and not just somebody’s insurance company or checkbook.”

New: @propublica.org

Ignoring abusive behavior is extremely costly, a lesson institutions unfathomably seem committed to learning over and over again. Columbia has now awarded over $1 billion to survivors of Robert Hadden’s abuse, abuse Columbia ignored for over 10 years! Imagine if they’d just believed patients.

YouTube video by Netflix Unbelievable | Official Trailer | Netflix

The Netflix series about it was great, too

Trump's Legacy Will Be the Countless People Killed by His Policies Millions across the world could die because of the choices Trump has made in his first 100 days.

100 days ago, we couldn't envision the toll of death and suffering this man would cause. Now scientists are estimating the body count, the new rise of infectious diseases once subdued. My latest for The Nation. @mathewkiang.com @nathanlo.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Here are the two key reasons why I think highlighting this is important (no, it's not about patting ourselves on the back and being happy with how things are):

Pulitzer Prizes Public Service Winner: ProPublica. Image (right) displays headline that reads: Their States Banned Abortion. Doctors Now Say They Can't Give Women Potentially Lifesaving Care.

JUST IN: ProPublica’s “Life of the Mother” series, which exposes the fatal consequences of abortion bans, has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

This is the second consecutive year we’ve been awarded this distinction and our eighth Pulitzer: www.propublica.org/series/life-...