Cheryl

Several times a day, I discover I'm carrying around a backpack full of rocks.

And then I realize I can simply...put it down. A short thread on my rage in 2025. 🧵

Media and digital literacy are key to disrupting disinformation.

--clapping back/arguing just helps to amplify bad faith accounts & false material

--don't share "funny" disinfo to dunk on it; some will still believe it

--BLOCK, REPORT, and tell others to do same *without* sharing disinfo content

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at Stanford Medicine have devised an influenza vaccine that prompts immunity to ALL four major flu subtypes AND shows potential against bird flu, indicating a significant advancement in flu prevention and a potential increase in vaccine efficacy. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️

Here's the visual proof of why vaccines do more good than harm See year by year how vaccines beat back nine dangerous infectious diseases

Sadly, it’s a good time to once again share this amazing infographic that we ran at @science.org more than 7 years ago
🧪 #IDsky
www.science.org/content/arti...

📌 Pro Publica letter to health insurance for claim denial records

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...

I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases)

projects.propublica.org/claimfile/

Trans folks held a dance party in the Capitol bathroom to protest the bathroom ban on there.

Re-upping this.
Check out @sarahkendzior.bsky.social's substack, too. While she's one of the most clear-eyed chroniclers of our times, she's not a screaming doom-shrieker. You'll also find some of the most moving, edifying prose about beautiful american places with really good photos.

Study confirms face masks' effectiveness in reducing disease transmission, calls for improved public understanding Researchers reviewed the benefits, practicalities, and harms of masks and masking, finding that masks are effective in reducing respiratory disease transmission despite some adverse effects, and empha...

When the mask mandate was lifted from Mass General Brigham in May '23, hospital transmission of resp virus went up. When the mandate was re-instituted in Jan '24, infection rates went down. www.news-medical.net/news/2024052...

Isn’t it funny how the U.S. media is suddenly posting stories about the improving inflation picture now that the election is over? 🧐

Learning a ton about the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis in my German classes in high school and then watching the changes in the American political climate over the last decade has been a really special kind of bleak

The cover of the new Indivisible Guide: “A Practical Guide To Democracy On The Brink Strategies, Tactics And Tips For How Everyday Americans Can Fight Back Together Wherever We Live”

This is our plan for getting through the next two years with our democracy as intact as possible. Our new guide provides tangible ways to organize locally and leverage the power we have to block the most dangerous elements of Trump’s agenda: indivisible.org/guide

Post showing precipitous decline of share of deaths in Massachusetts from diseases for which vaccines are now available, from 70% in 1840 to low digits % by 1950-60 where it is stayed. Caption: There are not many places on earth where we have detailed cause-of-death data from before the era of widespread vaccination. Massachusetts is one of those places. From 1842-1877, 70% of all deaths were from diseases which we today have vaccines to prevent.

Anyone who is anti-vax is pro-death. Period. The science and data do not lie. And they don’t care about your podcast.

A road curves away to the left, with a tree on the right nearby and a tree on the left further away. Above the horizon the sky is clear, and very pale blue. Above that there is one solid flat cloud. The bottom of the cloud is bright glowing yellow which blends into orange, then pale purplish grey at the top of the photo.

Sunset a few days ago

I've done the first two of these things many times, but never with croissants. Always glad to learn of opportunities for self improvement!

YouTube video by M & M Arts What is capoeira? (1min teaser)

Short intro on my favorite hobby
youtu.be/SecqYX_wPxI?...

How we can meet the challenges of authoritarianism This is not our first rodeo with authoritarianism. Americans have collectively risen to seemingly impossible challenges in the past, and we can again.

Important set of resources here
wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/how-...

If you’re looking for a gift or some holiday reading, please consider my book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.“ You can order a personalized, signed copy from Ann Arbor’s Literati Book Store by completing the “order comments” section here. https://buff.ly/3OesPHG

I want you to be too!

Sun rays coming through the pine trees and reflecting off the early morning mist.

What the normal immune response to a vaccine is, that it's expected to happen and means the vaccine is working, and not that the vaccine "gave them" whatever disease they were vaccinated against.

The biggest superpower in a autocracy are saying the words "no, I won't comply."

We outnumber them. Autocrats require constant effort to maintain control. Forcing them to expend effort to enforce compliance is our asymmetrical advantage.

2.
DEFEND INSTITUTIONS

👉🏼Institutions will not automatically defend themselves. They need to be defended.
👉🏼Many reasonable people assumed in Germany in 1933, as many do now, that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot destroy them. This assumption was wrong.

#SnyderOnTyranny

I took this six years ago today but I like it so much I'm using it for my first post here. All the real science, pretty photos, and book stuff here are great. Hope it lasts.