Dr. Cecília Tomori

I think it is absolutely scandalous that in just one year of an HHS under the leadership RFK.Jr the US has lost its Measles elimination status and is now on track to do same for perinatally acquired Hepatitis B. These are huge public health wins that took years to accomplish.

Forecasting the Next Pandemic Led by scientists from Yale and the University of Oklahoma, the Viral Emergence Research Initiative (Verena) is one of the largest pandemic prevention research

Very special to wake up today to a profile of @viralemergence.org from Yale. We’re in month eight of turmoil right now, and it’s hard to focus on the science, but the truth is: we have a lot more work to do.

ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

CMS Weaponizes Fraud Against Medicaid in Minnesota: Part 2 At a White House press conference last Wednesday, Vice President J.D. Vance, newly tasked with leading a war on fraud, announced that “we have decided to temporarily halt” $259 million in federal matc...

As promised my colleague Andy Schneider with a *must read* blog taking a deep dive into the Trump Admin's latest unprecedented effort to block federal #Medicaid funding in order to punish Minnesota. A few key takeaways to follow (1/x): ccf.georgetown.edu/2026/03/02/c...

Congratulations, Aziza!! I need this in podcast form too :) Can't wait to read!

How Feminists Transformed the Law and Science of AIDS Veena Dubal interviews Aziza Ahmed about the exclusion of women from early AIDS definitions, the feminist lawyers and activists who transformed the government's response to the epidemic…

Thank you to the most brilliant @veenadubal.bsky.social for being my conversation partner about my book on the @lpeblog.bsky.social and to the masterful @jamesbrandt.bsky.social for his support. lpeproject.org/blog/how-fem... @bulaw.bsky.social

Measles outbreaks are costing the U.S. millions of dollars. The true losses can't be counted. As vaccination rates decline, the economic consequences will increase, research suggests.

Maybe the slogan "Measles will make us lose money" is what would finally break through in a society suffering from end stage capitalism.🤷🏽‍♀️
1.5 billion dollars cost annually for every percentage drop in vaccination coverage just might be what does it.
www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-...

Oppose Nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General The Senate HELP Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the nomination of Casey Means to serve as U.S. Surgeon General on Wednesday, February 25th. While we were hoping this nomination was dead, i...

It's Monday morning and Casey Means still doesn't have the votes to become Surgeon General. Let's keep it that way. Send a letter to your Senators now. If you have friends, famiy, colleagues who can do so, urge them on to act now. actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo...

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

“In a pair of recent interviews with STAT, Plotkin expressed dismay at seeing the achievements of his career & his field slip away. He knows what lies ahead…
“All I can say is that I’m beginning to regret having lived so long —because we’re going downhill,” Plotkin said” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

I really feel it’s irresponsible to not include the fact that it’s *totally ineffective* against cancer in the post text and headline here

Turmoil Takes Hold at CDC as Top Officials Keep Leaving Trump plans to nominate a new director at the nation’s top health agency following months of upheaval.

Inside the turmoil and leadership vacuum at the CDC

The Trump administration intends to nominate a permanent director soon

One person already turned the job down

NEW [gift link] www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Timeline clense

ICE Moves Minneapolis Fleet to Williamsport Detention Warehouse As ICE builds out a detention infrastructure across the mid-Atlantic, equipment from its Minneapolis operation is heading to Maryland.

New reports that ICE is moving around 100 vehicles from Minneapolis to Washington Co, MD are alarming.

I’m pressing for answers & will continue to fight back against Trump’s lawless ICE & mass deportation operation in our communities. This is not what Marylanders want.

My new article in @jhppl.bsky.social situates the current attacks on public health in a historical perspective.

What I found surprised me. We've seen this before, and it's not as unprecedented as it feels.

Thanks to @sarahgollust.bsky.social @oberlanderunc.bsky.social for editing! Read free below.

Realizing I should include the main things you should do to support native bees/other insects

1) Plant native plants
2) Don't use pesticides, and tell your friends and neighbors to stop using pesticides
3) Leave fallen leaves in the winter
4) Leave dead stems over winter for overwintering critters

We are really going to regret the technology we have built.

Sign the Petition Keep the Classical Languages Major at the University of Iowa

Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.

Seriously... and hope you are as well as can be in these times!!

Hard for me to understand how even a passing knowledge of the us’ own history doesn’t lead others to the same conclusion. Hope you’re well, Cecília!!

ZheRebised a @TheRevised_96. 2h X Replying to @natseckatrina and @sama Did they use ChatGPT's intelligence to carry out the recent attacks in Iran? Il 1.7K 贝 NatSecKatrina @natseckatrina • 2h No, that wouldn't be possible. Our models are not yet available in accredited or classified government regions, so there was no way for them to be used in any current operations . 2 17 3 16 ill 2K 贝

Turns out Anthropic’s Claude was specifically the one used for the attacks in Iran.

ChatGPT explicitly was not.

Co-signed by this anthropologist (who grew up in a different colonial regime). Lives should not be treated as toys or chess pieces to move in an effort to consolidate power and wealth under the guise of “freedom.” Mere weeks ago the same powers were fine with slaughter of thousands seeking democracy

Maybe it’s because I’m a colonial historian but so many of these white nation states seem to behave exactly like they did in the 19th century: ‘your leaders aren’t right for you,’ ‘we’re only killing you/colonizing you/installing puppet leaders for your own good’

That is what prompted the post - I agree. We just don’t have all the details yet. So horrible. And OpenAI will remove even the constraints they may have had.

Waiting for the news report that links the AI target identification to this horror…

User Chris: What was the core difference why you think the DoW accepted OpenAI but not Anthropic Sam Altman: I can't speak for them, but to speculate with the best understanding of the situation. *First, I saw reporting that they were extremely close on a deal, and for much of the time both sides really wanted to reach one. I have seen what happens in tense negotiations when things get stressed and deteriorate super fast, and I could believe that was a large part of what happened here. *We believe in a layered approach to safety--building a safety stack, deploying FDEs and having our safety and alignment researcher involved, deploying via cloud, working directly with the DoW. Anthropic seemed more focused on specific prohibitions in the contract, rather than citing applicable laws, which we felt comfortable with. We feel that it it's very important to build safe system, and although documents are also important, I'd clearly rather rely on technical safeguards if I only had to pick one. *We and the DoW got comfortable with the contractual language, but I can understand other people would have a different opinion here. *I think Anthropic may have wanted more operational control than we did

I saw some folks asking what the difference was between what OpenAI signed with the DoD and what Anthropic said they wanted, and Sam more or less admits here the key point: OpenAI's deal requires them to trust the NSA. Anthropic's contract had real safeguards.

WSJ reporting that the U.S. used Claude for the air strikes in Iran. Centcom has been using Claude "for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios" www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

ICE Moves Minneapolis Fleet to Williamsport Detention Warehouse As ICE builds out a detention infrastructure across the mid-Atlantic, equipment from its Minneapolis operation is heading to Maryland.

Roughly 100 ICE vehicles are on their way to a warehouse in Western Maryland, as signs mount of an impending operation here.

Southern California air board rejected pollution rules after AI-generated flood of comments The opposition appeared overwhelming: Tens of thousands of emails poured into Southern California's top air pollution authority as its board weighed a June proposal to phase out gas-powered appliances...

They were going to pass rules to phase out gas stoves, until they received 20,000 public comments against the regulations. Except, oops, it turns out the comments were generated by AI.

What OpenAI just agreed to is positively horrifying, on an unimaginable scale actually

what a crazy night for sam altman to be like "yeah we got that dept of war deal, and there's no moral concerns here"

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Trump wearing a USA hat 1.76k ReTruths 4.84k Likes 2/28/26, 2:30 AM

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump X.com Trump wearing a USA hat 7:59 2:44 AM • 2/28/26 • 602K Views • 4.9K {> 77K 21K 2.5K

Trump posted an 8-minute video on Truth social, his own social media network, on his own account, at 2:30a, announcing that “the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.”

He did not post the video on X, again on his own account, until 2:44a.