Jim Alwine

Local opinion: Arizona Republicans want to make our children sick We have a vested interest in protecting our communities and everyone in them. “Medical freedom” is the antithesis of community.

The idea of “medical freedom” weighs one parent’s decision to refuse vaccines as more important than another’s decision to protect their own children from contagious, vaccine-preventable diseases”.

@jimalwine.bsky.social and I in a new OpEd about AZ trying to ban childhood vaccine requirements.

Let’s change our headshots to make us look serious and angry. We don’t write about smiley topics.

RIP Country Joe McDonald

Thanks for the “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die” Rag. Seems timely right now.

Viral infections are not beneficial. They all harm you in greater or lesser ways. Come on Kelly and Sayer, stand by their lie and have sex with people with genital warts so you can have the benefits of an HPV infection. Put you money where your mouth is….oh, that might be head and neck cancer

Do you want somebody to blame? Start with Russell Vought at OMB, Jay Bhattacharya, Matthew Memoli, Jon Lorsch at NIH. These are evil, small minded men. I hope one day they’re held accountable for the destruction of biomedical research in the United States.

FDA’s controversial vaccine chief will exit agency next month | CNN The US Food and Drug Administration’s head of vaccines and biologic medicines will leave the agency at the end of April, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Friday.

Vinay Prasad has been an a noxious influence on public health and drug regulation. Good riddance. UCSF should not take him back. He should wander in the wilderness forever. www.cnn.com/2026/03/06/h...

A lie runs around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.

Meeting on U.S. Measles Status Is Delayed Until November

Measles is out of control in the US, yet RFKJr lies and manipulate the system so the US won’t lose its measles elimination status until after the mid term elections. Just hideing the fucking mess this shitbird has made of US health. Well I won’t let anyone forget. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...

Freedom, Responsibility, and the Lessons Polio Taught Our Generation | Common Dreams ​Those of us who lived through the polio era know something that is easy to forget today: Vaccines did not take freedom away, they restored it.

The fabulous and prolific @nurseteria.bsky.social and Dr. Arthur Lavin have a piece out about the lessons that polio taught us about vaccines and public health.

It’s ludicrous that RFK Jr. and his minions want to destroy the progress made against infectious disease.

What Makary’s Plan For Expanding OTC Drug Access Could Mean For Safety There are political and safety considerations as the FDA looks to make more drugs OTC. Also, antibiotic resistance is a huge problem where those meds are OTC.

From @drjudystone.bsky.social

Skipping vaccines could be a constitutional right in Arizona A measure awaiting a vote by the full Hose would ask voters to decide whether to put a "right to refuse medical mandates'' in the Arizona Constitution.

What about the constitutional right to life - to live not fearing deadly diseases. No these shitbirds want medical freedom, the selfish pigheaded attitude that they can do whatever and the rest of society be damned. Well, history shows this will bite you in the ass. tucson.com/news/state-r...

When I moved to Tucson From Philadelphia (which is getting clobbered with snow right now) I left a large Honda snowblower with the house we sold. I hope it is still functioning so the present owners can clear the long downhill driveway. Good luck with the storm.

The rise of vaccine-preventable diseases in the US (now including mumps) is being suppressed by RFKJr’s anti-vaccine efforts. Most Americans are unaware of how hideous and deadly his MAHA movement is. And its all to benefit Big Wellness that will fleece millions selling snake oil.

Medical Freedom, the darling of the Republicans is really support for the Big Wellness, an industry which is much, much bigger than Big Pharma, and is largely unregulated. It makes those medical clames that their products are what “your Dr. won’t tell you about.” That’s because it’s snake oil.

What To Watch For When ICE Buys Local Warehouses DHS is buying huge warehouses raising concerns about economic impacts on towns, adequate water and infrastructure, and outbreaks of measles, other infectious diseases.

Unfortunately as an Arizonan I am all too familiar with ICE purchasing warehouses to use as detention camps.

The incredible @drjudystone.bsky.social takes on this cruelty in her latest.

Tucson sunrise 2-16-26

The Trump Administration Is Waging a Global War on Children | Common Dreams ​By cutting aid abroad and the social safety net at home, while spreading vaccine skepticism, the administration is ensuring that more children will suffer and die.

The Trump Administration Is Waging a Global War on Children. An OpEd with my friend and co-author @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
www.commondreams.org/opinion/trum...

Another blow to public health and science.

with the flood of lies and misinformation from RFKJr and his plague mongers. Or it may be the invasion of another pandemic virus that the US will be completely unable to deal with because public health, biological science and the ability to creat a vaccine have been decimated in the US.

a beeping metal sphere orbiting the earth that causes awakening. It will be the frightening morbidity and mortality as vaccine-preventable diseases rise exponentially in the US over the next few years. All because of vaccine hesitance caused by lack of knowledge, combined

education in the US, the utter lack of critical thinking. We need another Sputnik moment to make us aware of how far we have regressed under the burgeoning authoritarian regime and realize how much we must change and repair. Unfortunately, it won't be

the most vulnerable. What really worries, indeed scares me, is the dreadful ignorance of so many Americans about the most elementary science, the lack of critical thinking, the rampant Dunning-Kruger effect, the belief in conspiracy theories…the basic lack of adequate

and commentaries about virology, the misinformation propagated during the pandemic, and now on the anti-science and anti-vaccine misinformation being propagated that is a threat to the health of every American, especially children and

postdoctoral work in molecular biology and virology and in 1980 I started my 38 year career directing my own virology research lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I retired in 2018, but maintained my contact with science and the state of science in the US. Since 2020, I have written 50 OpEds

was a cold war victory for Russia. The US was shocked at being beaten. It set off an awareness of how far behind the US was in science and science education. The increase in all science education was wonderful for me. I got a BS in chemistry, PhD in biochemistry,

I have been a scientist for nearly all my life, starting with the fascination I felt with my first science classes in school; then in 1957 Sputnik was launched. For those who don’t know, Sputnik was the first satellite launched into Earth orbit. It

The FDA refused to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine application. The first shot at eliminating US flu vaccines. Actually RFKJr and the plague mongers want to severely limit or eliminate ALL vaccines. I can hear the viruses and bacteria cheering as they prepare to spread pestilance.

DomainShifters By 2085, government rule by the authoritarian conservatives, also known as the AuthCons, had taken the freedoms of the people, concentrated the wealth to a few, and ignored climate change. Society was...

In the SciFi novel “DomainShifters” portals like this are how the DomainShifters came back from 2085 to stop the AuthCons from taking power and destroying civilization and the Earth. Be careful not to step into it otherwise you’ll be transported to a parallel universe and a different time.

promotion of raw milk are the work of RFKJr and his plague mongers at HHS, NIH, CDC, FDA and the administration. This is outrageous and insane, it’s time for change, but a lot of children will be damaged or die before this will be turned around.