Ali Ely, Ph.D.

Everyone knows that the classic scientific method is saying something that is wildly stupid and then trying to find proof for it.

I no longer say that every overdose is a policy failure.

Every overdose is a policy *decision*.

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.

Academics seeing today’s date

a little girl is making a funny face while wearing a blue shirt with a leopard print . Alt: a little girl is making a funny face while wearing a blue shirt with a leopard print .

(This is also my first last-authored pub)

Just published in WestJEM! Using the reallocation paradigm at Cooper, patients with OUD were offered XR-BUP in the ED and over 70% of them showed up for a second shot a month later. Lowering the barriers to treatment means more people can do better.

escholarship.org/uc/item/4w26...

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

Indiana Jones and the dissertation student just trying to schedule their defense in time to graduate in five years

I’m troubled even if it is a blip but taking all the funding away for overdose prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and the social safety net is probably not going to help

Kennedy guts CDC's vaccine panel of independent experts The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices helps the agency make recommendations on who should get certain vaccines.

An outspoken vaccine conspiracy theorist just fired every last member of CDC's vaccine advisory committee.

RFK Jr. is paving the way to reshape vaccine policy based not on decades of science, but on his own unhinged fanaticism.

This is unprecedented, and unthinkably dangerous.

I made a plot of my affection towards a research project based on the stage of the project.

If you weren't angry enough already, here are the rates of non-competitive renewals through May.

4008 Non-competitive renewals were due to be funded in May.

The total funded was 99!

Some is due to terminations, but most is due to slow grant making due to DOGE review and other impediments.

1/2

“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so…

We asked people who lived in homeless encampments that were cleared out in city “sweeps” to write about what object was the hardest for them to lose.

“They took my baby pictures and my moms obituaries,” a 29-year-old in California wrote.

‘Devastated’ and ‘Hopeless.’ Researchers Speak Out on Funding Cuts | ACLU

⚖️Heartbroken but proud to stand with fellow researchers in court today⚖️

NIH’s sudden grant cuts:
🚫 Silence lifesaving health equity work
⏳ Undermine years of progress
⚠️ Put vital discoveries at risk

We won’t stop fighting for science & justice 🧪

👇More details from our @aclu.org representation👇

OPINION: Federal cuts put addiction treatment and recovery at risk I vividly remember growing up and my grandmother warning me to be careful with alcohol — because addiction “runs in our family.” She wasn’t wrong. For generations, both sides of

New op-ed out in the Albuquerque Journal. I share about the importance of federal substance use and addiction funding for families like mine.

www.abqjournal.com/opinion/arti...

and in case you hit a paywall: unmm-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...

RFK Jr. just said he wants NIH to support “younger scientists instead of older folks" but is cutting funding that supports entire areas of research and career support for generations of scientists.

Drug Overdose Deaths Plummeted in 2024, C.D.C. Reports

Drug fatalities in the U.S. fell by about 30,000 last year, the CDC reported, a drop of nearly 27%.

Exactly my point - brain changes may make “different thinking” but they don’t make bad people, so saying dude is a bad person because of the brain changes is inaccurate

Hi kids! Helping people is fun and just as cool as professional sports! 😭

Worst case scenario: I signed up to present to my first graders class for career day and I’m paired w a guy who works with the OK City Thunder

Plenty of people with histories of opioid use (and related brain changes) are not callous snake oil salesmen, however, suggesting the brain changes are not the reason for the badness

📌 this has been on my mind while grading this week, will definitely revisit during class prep over the summer

Oh no am I doing the terrible parenting “just wait” thing? Ugh

My 6 was a beige food aficionado but his palate and willingness have both expanded considerably over the last year - there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

Making any declarations about toddler food preferences out loud tends to lead to the pendulum swinging wildly in the opposite direction (but only after you’ve stocked up on their favorite thing)

“Fentanyl Awareness Day” seems to lack any awareness of fentanyl

RFK Jr. to End 'Godsend' Narcan Program That Helped Reduce Overdose Deaths Despite His Past Heroin Addiction Despite overcoming heroin addiction himself, RFK Jr. is backing plans to cut a critical Narcan program that helped reduce overdose deaths.

There are few things as cost effective as Narcan, especially in a country where (entirely preventable) opioid overdoses have been a leading cause of death for years. For every 6 kits distributed 1 OD is prevented. The $56M in this grant trained >66K people and distributed >282,500 kits in 2024 alone

Bookmarking this for the Fall semester!

The key is getting folks in the door and treating them with the care they deserve 💜