Brandon Park

Graph answering whether or not you can get a COVID vaccine. Text reads: Can you get a COVID Vaccine? Are you younger than 6 months? Wow! Look at you reading already! But no, the vaccine is not approved for anyone under 6 months old. Are you 6 months or older? YES, you can. Are you without a prescription? Yes, you can. Are you covered by insurance? Yes* *Like in previous years, COVID and flu vaccines are covered at no cost under most health insurance plans, including Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Vaccines for Children Program, and by insurance plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act. Are you over age 65 or immunocompromised? Definitely, yes. Are you pregnant? Yes, you can.

Text reads: Where can I get a vaccine? Vaccines are available through pharmacies and health care providers. Your local health department may also offer seasonal vaccine clinics. Here are tools for locating one near you: VaxAssist at vaxassist.com. VaccineFinder at vaccinefinder.org. CVEEP Vaccine Locator at veep.org/vaccine-locator.

COVID vaccines are now available to anyone—no prescription needed! Swipe for resources on where to find one near you.

The "nice and pretty" published version of our Perspective discussing the ACTUAL evidence of naloxone's "enabling" consequences (which there is very little) and the research examining the PERCEPTION that naloxone is "enabling" is out now, if you haven't read it yet!

doi.org/10.15288/jsa...

Oh my gosh congratulations!! 🥳🎉 You should definitely be feeling proud and excited!!

Just 7 days until the panel discussing lived perspectives on the opioid vaccine! 💉 Hope to see you there in-person or on Zoom!

The Drug war was built for control, not care. Now history is repeating itself. 🧵

(Thank you to the amazing Morgan B. at the UMSL-MIMH Addiction Science Team for helping draft this post!)

Authored by @rayraywino.bsky.social & myself, this piece challenges how we frame harm reduction. A must-read for anyone working in addiction science, policy, or public health.

Read the pre-proof here: bsky.app/profile/jsad...

Framing matters. How we talk about moral hazard vs. risk compensation shapes the evaluation of safety net strategies like naloxone. Let’s focus on evidence, not stigma.

In our new Perspective in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs @jsadjournal.bsky.social we dive into how critiques of naloxone often confuse moral hazard (population-level) with risk compensation (individual-level). Two different concepts that can (and should) be tested with real-world data.

What do naloxone, PrEP, helmets & seatbelts share? They’re tools that reduce harm, as a safety net that only “activates” when risk is present. Yet naloxone gets uniquely branded as “enabling.” WHY? And why does it MATTER?

In recent years, the life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications (OORMs), naloxone and nalmefene, have been lumped into an ideological concept of harm reduction which has been used to advocate for policies that are incompatible with federal laws and inconsistent with this Administration's priorities.

What an insult to our harm reduction movement and elders who fought so hard for naloxone and fentanyl test strip access.

Check out the atrocious language in the latest letter from SAMHSA claiming these tools are "not harm reduction."

www.samhsa.gov/sites/defaul...

a cartoon of a man and a dog with the words now 's the time for action written on the bottom ALT: a cartoon of a man and a dog with the words now 's the time for action written on the bottom

IMPORTANT UPDATE IMPORTANT UPDATE

Regarding APHU/ACLU et al. vs. NIH Lawsuit

This panel is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 29th, 12:00pm-1:00pm Central Time, and will be hosted in-person (in Benton Hall on UMSL campus) and on Zoom (please refer to the QR code in the banner).
Questions or comments? Email me (or DM me on Bluesky), since I'm moderating the panel!

Have you heard about the novel opioid vaccine / fentanyl vaccine?
If not (or even if you have!), our next SURG Brunch 'n Learn meeting will feature our first-ever Translational Panel - composed of four people with lived experience in drug use - discussing the novel opioid vaccine in development.

‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels “There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says

If I hear one more reporter say these attacks on universities and science are about "antisemitism," I am going to lose it. This is about destroying higher education full stop and it doesn't help to parrot the White House's talking points. www.science.org/content/arti...

The truth? Medicaid (largest payer of addiction treatment) faces $800B in cuts. SAMSHA's been cut by $1B and lost 1/3 of its staff. This all threatens access to treatment, fentanyl withdrawal meds & naloxone. In NC, Project Lazarus lost DOJ grants for jail-to-treatment diversion.

In no particular order, thank you for saying hi, as it made my day each day! Cecilia Bergeria, Denis Antoine, Justin Strickland, Kelly Dunn, Matt Novak, Jennifer Ellis, Eric Strain, Andrew Huhn, Caitlin Durgin, Kevin Xu - and new connections Tanya Saraiya, Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, Phillip Coffin!

I appreciate @kaytryncampbell.bsky.social for keeping me company all the time and @cpddorg.bsky.social for coordinating mentor-match so I could meet Delisa Brown (to whom I am also grateful)! Also, I remember being so kindly welcomed as a First-Time Attendee by CPDD Board Member Qiana Brown! 🥰

I'm still in awe after attending and presenting at #CPDD2025, which marks a big personal and professional milestone to see all my mentors and senior scholars in action! Alongside them, I'm proud to have garnered plenty foot traffic at my poster on MOUD stigma among residents in recovery housing!

Hands hold up two signs. One says "Free speech, free country. ACLU." The other says "Save free speech."

Someone holds up a sign in front of their face that says "Democracy dies when we remain silent." They're in a poncho and also holding an American flag.

Someone holds up a sign that says "We the people." Other people with umbrellas stand around them.

A sign is held over a crowd of people. It has a large monarch butterfly and says "Immigrants grow communities."

While the Trump administration was having a birthday party, we were marching across the nation for our rights.

And we’re not slowing down.

Open Letter: A Call to Preserve the Future of American Science The Scientist Network for Advancing Policy (SNAP) invites early-career scientists (e.g., student, post-bacc, PhD candidate, post-doctoral researcher, early-career faculty) in the United States to join...

Science is under unprecedented threat in the US, and we need to speak out to save it.

If you are an early-career researcher, please consider signing our open letter calling to preserve the future of American science: tinyurl.com/mcclintockle....

Our futures, and our country's future, depend on it.

Super grateful to my co-authors who reviewed my analyses and contributed to writing on this fun "summer project" (... it's June again, right? 🫢), and to the ART Production Team for their patience as this was my first time being responsible for submitting and proofing a manuscript! 😅

Applying the Dualistic Model of Passion to opioid use with a treatment-seeking clinical sample? Interestingly, observed higher 'obsessive passion' mean than 'harmonious passion' mean, which contrasts past DMP + substance use studies but aligns with one DMP + gambling study!

doi.org/10.1080/1606...

Please excuse my bedhead 😴 - feeling proud to have presented at my first #CPA2025, examining differential stigma toward MOUD among recovery housing residents based on their own lived experience with these meds! Thank you to mentors, co-authors, and friends for their support with this project!

Thanks to mentors, co-authors, and friends for their support and presence throughout this project. 💜
And look out for the upcoming papers from this MO I-STARR grant!

Come check me out Saturday morning at 8:30 am #62!!! I’ll be discussing Missouri’s first federally funded CM program for stimulant use disorder #CPA2025

What a great presentation, and a bonus to see a familiar face, @juststrickland.bsky.social !!

NEW: Researchers have sued the NIH and HHS, alleging that they have engaged in a "reckless and illegal purge to stamp out NIH-funded research that addresses topics and populations that they disfavor" by terminating hundreds of grants, violating the APA, Fifth Amendment and the Separation of Powers.

finally joined bluesky thanks to #CPA2025 this week 💅🏻