Gabi Kattan Khazanov

Veterans’ Care at Risk Under Trump as Hundreds of Doctors and Nurses Reject Working at VA Hospitals Amid concerns about the stability of the agency, records show nearly 40% of the doctors offered jobs at the VA from January through March of this year turned them down — quadruple the rate of…

One disabled Marine veteran has not had a primary care doctor assigned to him since his previous doctor left in the winter, his wife said. The VA “was never like this before. There’s a lack of staff, empty rooms, locked doors.”

Many people were motivated to use AI therapy because of their frustration with systemic challenges limiting their access to mental healthcare and their sense that this care is costly and inadequate.

Positive comments included: (1) AI avoids some of the downsides of the current mental healthcare system (e.g., mental healthcare is degraded, inaccessible and expensive), and (2) potential upsides to AI (e.g., accessibility and cost, benefits of AI like a lack of judgment).

Negative comments included: (1) societal concerns (e.g., technology cannot solve structural drivers of mental illness), (2) treatment effectiveness concerns (e.g., the human therapeutic relationship is key), and (3) safety and regulatory concerns (e.g., concerns about data privacy).

We find more negative reactions (n=213) than positive ones (n=142).

New preprint! In which we qualitatively analyze comments on news articles covering the first randomized controlled trial of a generative AI therapy chatbot (Therabot)

osf.io/preprints/ps...

When ProPublica reporter David Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, he set out to understand why a single pill of his medication, Revlimid, cost the same as ... Behind the Art: Why Is Cancer Drug Revlimid So Expensive?

For our story on a cancer drug that costs nearly $1,000 for each daily pill, art director Lisa Larson-Walker handmade several pill-shaped ceramic piggy banks, stuffed them with cash — then smashed them with a sledgehammer in the middle of the office.

Go behind the scenes with this short video:

Folks at Princeton have put together an aggregator to highlight example of how federally funded research has directly impacted people's lives. They are looking for more studies to highlight, so send along suggestions and help make the benefits of science more visible!

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

YouTube video by The On Being Project “Dead Stars” — written and read by Ada Limón

When the world is so heavy, there is this beautiful poetry.

"What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain
for the safety of others, for earth...if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big
people could point to us....rolling their trash bins out, after all of this is over?"

Trump’s Focus on Punishing Drug Dealers May Hurt Drug Users Trying to Quit

What a tragedy - defunding SAMHSA, reducing naloxone distribution, cutting harm reduction - all while we’re finally seeing a reduction in overdose deaths.

Episcopal Church refuses to resettle white Afrikaners, citing moral opposition The church said it's terminating a decades-long partnership with the federal government to help refugees arriving in the U.S., citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa.

The church said it's terminating a decades-long partnership with the federal government to help refugees arriving in the U.S., citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa.

This administration takes antisemitism seriously. That's why we removed The Diary of Ann Frank from all federal libraries.

Being back in person full-time is new, and so are the daily emails checking to see where we are…not at all creepy

Remembering Pope Francis: Philadelphia’s 2015 papal weekend, in photos Pope Francis died Monday at age 88. Here’s a look back at his historic Philly visit as part of the World Meeting of Families.

Remember this visit so clearly, including the pope-mobile. Such an amazing model of leading by example. Pope Francis inspired this Jew, especially at a time when we so lack brave leadership.

Do Gun-Purchase Waiting Periods Save Lives? - PubMed We study the impact of gun-purchase waiting periods on suicide rates using county-level mortality data from 1991-2019. We find that waiting periods are associated with a reduction in both firearm and ...

New, interesting study shows that gun-purchase waiting periods reduce firearm and overall suicide rates, but not for counties within 50 miles of a state without waiting periods.

Opinion | Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. America’s Police State Has Arrived. Those of us who’ve seen secret police in action can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.

“It’s the unmarked cars…It’s the forced mass transports of immigrants…It’s the growing irrelevance of the law and the helplessness of judges and lawyers…It’s the shifting goal posts…It’s the lists. More than anything else, in fact, it’s the lists.”

By attacking science:

We are less safe because science informs national security and medical care.

We are less prosperous because science drives innovation and economic benefit.

We are less free because science and democracy depend on the liberty to ask questions, and seek and share knowledge.

For Our Health

If, like me, today's mass firings of CDC, NIH, and FDA scientists has left you heartbroken and looking for ways to fight for science and public health - check out @apha.org

www.forourhealth.org

Why Tim Walz has a bad case of main character syndrome by Chris

Kill the beast, kill it.

Have always wondered why I got all that training

Supreme Court upholds federal regulation banning 'ghost guns' The court says ghost guns, which are virtually untraceable weapons that require assembly, are considered "firearms" and subject to ATF regulation.

A small win amidst the chaos

Dear fellow academics, hope today's hilarious news regarding mind boggling incompetence of the white male 'meritocracy' has permanently cured your imposter syndrome. You all know that you've never been nor will ever be THAT BAD at your job.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Prevalence and Disparities Among U.S. Adults: The Roles Played by Job Loss, Food Insecurity, and Vaccinations During the COVID-19 Pandemic - PubMed Racial and ethnic disparities in GAD were largely due to disproportionate experiences of job loss and food insecurity across different racial and ethnic groups during the pandemic. Social distancing m...

“Racial and ethnic disparities in GAD were largely due to disproportionate experiences of job loss and food insecurity across different racial and ethnic groups during the pandemic.”

a close up of a man 's face with the word ok behind him ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the word ok behind him

You know what’s really efficient? Going back into the office without an office. Hallways…the most efficient type of office.

We’re so interested in Greenland’s culture! It’s so…green…oh my, we really like it here…

Lifetime and Past-Year Defensive Gun Use This survey study examines the frequency and characteristics, including exposure to gun violence, associated with defensive gun use among US adults.

Brand new study on defensive gun use and exposure to gun violence, out now in @jama.com Open from our team @njgvrc.bsky.social.

The bottom line? Defensive gun use is rare, especially compared to the risks of exposure to life-altering gun violence.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil A chaotic restructuring order threatens to degrade services for veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Clinicians warn that the changes will degrade mental health treatment at the V.A., which already has severe staffing shortages...They expect wait times to increase, and veterans to eventually seek treatment outside the agency.”

Which, of course, is the point.

This is even better and cheaper than single session interventions

America isn’t Canada, but might get a lot of applications from American researchers pretty soon. Anyone in Canada interested in adopting the NIH?