Travis Bias

Our “unilateral disarmament” is a huge gift to our competition.

China is all too happy to fill the quickly forming vacuum.

In tennis, we call this an “unforced error.”

But the origin of #COVID doesn’t change two key truths:

- #Vaccines miraculously created within 11 months saved millions of lives.
- Engaging with the @who.int (including China) remains essential to effectively respond to any infectious threat in the future (flu, COVID, etc.)

“These half-truths and strategic deceptions made it easier for people with the worst motives to appear trustworthy”

Great piece. The truth and facts are the cornerstone of science, and thus public health.

Basically: China First, America Second.

Trump’s Agenda Is Undermining American Science Research funded by the federal government has found useful expression in many of the defining technologies of our time. This Administration threatens that progress.

“Without scientific progress, no amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation.”

Great context from @dhruvkhullar.bsky.social on the role of American scientific institutions.

#science #health #research
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Could not agree more.

Time for strategic retreat.

Give the people what they voted for.

@nytopinion.nytimes.com #democrats
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/o...

U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails.

“People will die,” said Dr. @ckyobutungi.bsky.social, ED of @aphrc.bsky.social, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

@stephanienolen.bsky.social covers the many cruel & dangerous cuts to lifesaving USAID projects.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/h...

Emergency Food, TB Tests and H.I.V. Drugs: Vital Health Aid Remains Frozen Despite Court Ruling The Trump administration appears to be flouting a judge’s order pausing the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D.

Imagine the impact this has on the reputation of America around the world.

Abruptly removing aid is not the right way to reform or change.

#publichealth #usaid #diplomacy
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/h...

HHS orders CDC to halt some vaccine ads, saying RFK Jr. wants message focused on ‘informed consent’ The CDC was ordered to shelve promotions it developed for a variety of vaccines after Health Secretary RFK Jr. said he wants message focused on "informed consent."

Informed consent includes mentioning the benefits.

Like you and your family not being one of 40,000 dead Americans during each flu season.

@helenbranswell.bsky.social #vaccineswork #vaccines #publichealth
www.statnews.com/2025/02/20/c...

Great episode. Compelling health communicators - like you all - will be even more important in the coming years.

Opinion | I Shudder to Imagine Kennedy Running Our Health Agencies. We have to go toe-to-toe with this administration and resist its attacks on public health.

Compelling piece, in which @gregggonsalves.bsky.social reminds us:

“you don’t turn your back on those who have the most to lose.”

@nytopinion.nytimes.com #hiv #aids #publichealth
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/o...

“In Kenya alone, at least 40,000 health care workers will lose their jobs.”

“Ethiopia’s health ministry has fired 5,000 #healthworkers recruited under American funding.”

These systems will collapse without their health workforce.

@declanwalsh.bsky.social
#health #diplomacy #healthsystems #usaid

Travis Bias, DO: The Family Medicine Business Ambassador One Click At a Time: Technology Empowered Family Medicine Podcast · Episode

It was an honor to join Lalita and Kelly for this discussion about “how technology can scale the magic of Family Medicine."

#medicine #primarycare #MedSky
open.spotify.com/episode/0eqV...

Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work.

This NYT piece describes the devastation being wrought in the global health sector by the foreign assistance freeze. Let me say a few words about what this looks like in the sector I work in, often called democracy and governance (DRG). 🧵

What’s happening isn’t reform. It’s an attempt to capture and destroy the single most critical piece of infrastructure in global democracy and rights support—US funding. And it’s working.

End Appears Near for U.S. Aid Agency, Democratic Lawmakers Say A sense of crisis among aid groups was growing as U.S.A.I.D.’s website went dark.

The amount of damage this will do to the US reputation around the world definitely will not put America first.

#health #diplomacy #globalhealth
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...

US competitors will be happy to fill the vacuum:

“The fallout from the aid freeze is likely to reverberate geopolitically, giving American rivals, like China, a window of opportunity to present itself as a reliable partner.”

#usaid #health #diplomacy

How the World Is Reeling From Trump’s Aid Freeze President Trump’s order to halt most foreign aid has intensified humanitarian crises and raised questions about the United States’ reliability as a global leader.

“At stake is not just the good will that the United States has built internationally, but also its work to promote America’s security interests.”

Beyond the moral case there is a clear self-interest case that the Admin is missing.

@declanwalsh.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/w...

This was maybe the most sobering moment in my reporting this week – a scientist doing the tabulation of how long the tail of this would be, even if funding resumed shortly.

Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid (Gift Article) Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work.

I hated having to write this, but I'm grateful to the many people who risked their ability to do critically important work they love, by talking to me. (And I will continue to cover it, so if you want to talk to me, DM for my Signal.) www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...

Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work.

“You could open the funding floodgates again tomorrow and you will still have children dying months from now because of this pause.”

The scale of this is difficult to capture.

@stephanienolen.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...

Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance The potential for devastation is made plain by another order, concerning the crucial work of U.S.A.I.D.

What a nightmare.

@agawande.bsky.social
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Trump Aid Whiplash Hits Refugees, AIDS Patients Worldwide Muddled orders from the administration have left global charities confused about what they are and aren’t allowed to do with American money.

This will end up being a deadly and costly (financial, credibility) freeze for the US.

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/africa...

What an incredible testament to the importance of:

- Investments in #healthsystems; “Rwanda, for its part, has invested heavily in its healthcare system.”
- Partnerships & relationships
- Preparedness, such as Table Top Exercises.

…all to bring the 100 Days Mission to reality.

My first thought was: is this from a decade ago? Is Rand Paul still in office?!

The Perils of Isolationism The world still needs America—and America still needs the world.

"Generating support for an internationalist #foreignpolicy requires...a vivid picture of what that world would be like without an active US.

Isolation has never been the answer to the country’s security or prosperity." ...or #health

@foreignaffairs.com
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

A Tour of Assad’s Monumental Palace, With a Scruffy Rebel as a Guide The televisions may be stripped away now, but a presidential residence still contains many remnants of a brutal reign.

A few visuals of the #corruption that siphoned off resources from the health system.

Among other health impacts of the regime…

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/w...

When Geriatric #Millennials envisioned our generation taking power, these were not the personalities we had in mind.

Now the anti-war anti-interventionist views? Oddly, we can find common ground.

This is an oligarchy.

The founders never intended people to have this much power… EVER

Stop the oligarchy

This is a phenomenal and heartbreaking piece about how conflict contributes to antimicrobial resistance.

#amr #conflict #MedSky