Matthew Kavanagh

infographic showing dates and titles of this semesters workshops

Tomorrow, join us & our colleagues at the Pardee Center for their next Global Health Politics Workshop, "A Political Economy of Inequality & Pandemics," featuring @matthewkavanagh.bsky.social from Georgetown University.
Join on campus or Zoom:
spr.ly/63329hsIL7

Dear politician texting me to ask for money, you are not a movement. Electing you is not a movement. Movements are "an expression of collective power" "engaged in political or cultural conflicts, on the basis of shared collective identities..."
Sorry you got me on a political science-y day.

When I say the weather is rough in DC tonight I mean it’s just me and the ducks out here…

Current events confirm the achieved wisdom of time-honored classics in the social sciences.

Thank you all the 300+ folks who turned up today and for heading to the hill tomorrow. And @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social for coming to DC and your inspiring words.
TB does not have to kill a Houston,TX size population every year.

We are so glad to get to welcome @tbfighters.org @pih.org @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social to Georgetown. Hundreds of grassroots people from across the US to engage policymakers on Tuberculosis.
@ghpp.georgetown.edu

Lenacapavir for PrEP was the big "star" of #CROI2026 after showing almost 100% effectiveness in preventing HIV in 2 large RCTs.
Unfortunately at a pricing point of 28000$ a year it remains inaccessible to most. A drug is only as great as the number of people who can access and benefit from it.

infographic showing dates and titles of this semesters workshops

We're looking forward to supporting our colleagues at the Pardee Center for their next Global Health Politics Workshop, "A Political Economy of Inequality & Pandemics," on March 5th featuring @matthewkavanagh.bsky.social from Georgetown University.
Join on campus or Zoom:
spr.ly/63329hqwuL

Painful to read this and think about the 2021 coup attempt, which was as blatant as it gets. An utter failure of US elites to seize the moment when everybody saw the threat right in front of their eyes.

If we have history books in the future, they will be unkind.

I might have caught the infection. But c’mon it’s utterly necessary to connect ideas that are really one sentence. What you want a semicolon??

I love a good em-dash and dont really care that this makes me seem like a bot.

NIAID staffers ordered to remove biodefense, pandemic preparedness language on website Experts say the move will hobble the United States’ ability to respond to future infectious disease threats.

I realize this is not news because of the structure of news right now, but still...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/bioterrorism...

Excited to announce publication of new JHPPL special issue: Public Health Under Siege (ungated) that explores the fate of public health during the second Trump administration:

read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/issue/...

Some of you commenting on the Supreme Court tariffs case have clearly never read social science about courts. A ruling like this this is less sign of independence than a legitimacy-building exercise for President and Court, costs little, protects ruling coalition. See e.g. Hungary, Chile, Uganda.

This was always about having someone to blame politically. It’s pure domestic politics

We aren't predicting the death of WHO, but we are warning that it is possible, even foreseeable, and urging those of us in public health take the steps that history suggests would be needed to prevent it.

Our concern is that it may be the latter--that the norms that WHO has relied on to help it navigate major shifts in geopolitics in the past decades are quickly evaporating in both the US and world. Which leaves WHO unmoored in a dangerous way...

Or is US withdrawal a sign of the decline of WHO as an international organization, with the Pandemic Agreement adoption a pyrrhic victory symbolizing disinterest and the decreasing importance of multilateralism in health?

...How should we understand the deeply conflicting situation for the WHO facing US withdrawl + passage of pandemic treaty? Is the US move an anomaly, one largely attributable to the unique politics of Donald Trump that can perhaps be ignored until “normal” is restored?

Public Health Under Siege. So pleased to have our piece on @who.int in this powerful new special issue, coordinated by the brilliant @sarahgollust.bsky.social @oberlanderunc.bsky.social. We draw on IR research on "IO Death" to suggest WHO faces a major threat that its not taking seriously enough...

Inequality Will Make the Next Pandemic Worse Joseph E. Stiglitz, Monica Geingos and Michael Marmot explain why preparations for the next global health crisis must address socioeconomic disparities.

"We have the means to detect outbreaks immediately, sequence pathogens in days, develop new vaccines in months. Yet pandemics are coming faster, threatening more lives and livelihoods...
@josephestiglitz.bsky.social
@michaelmarmot.bsky.social
Monica Geingos
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/i...

...what it might do, another clear Trump goal, is undermine WHO. Whether it does will depend on how other states react. Will they go along? Will others get on the bandwagon? Will they hide and pretend it goes away? Or will the world act to reinforce @who.int?

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Trump admin discovering its far more costly, and less effective, to try to address global health threats through nationalism than through cooperation. $Billions to replicate what WHO does will be wasted--it will not keep Americans safe.
But what it might do...
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Today @nytimes.com Daily podcast on Cuba, not a word about anything Cuban govt accomplished or why Cubans might support it. Of course its complex, plenty to critique, but also many reasons to prefer the Cuban govt to those toppled by US, say, Haiti. Starting with 13 years of additional life.

DC lost a legendary leader today. For decades, Rev Hagler was the moral compass of DC. Having marched next to him, been schooled by him, and watched as he put shame into DC politician who knew he was right, very sad to hear he has passed on. Rest in power.

sigh

A right-on read. There is a huge and important set of policy wins here that could improve people’s health and pocketbooks that doesn’t actually require that much legal change and is essentially free for the govt.

Pandemics and inequality are feeding each other. A new report by the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics explains the cycle — and how we can break it. www.inequalitycouncil.org/breaking-the...

Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief and an archit...

Hard to imagine something more cynical than using money intended for global public health to instead pay for bodyguards for the person who violated the constitution in order to stop congressionally mandated funding for being used to fight disease and save lives.
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...

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