mattmotta.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

RFK Jr. promised under oath not to take away vaccine access. He broke that promise again today. ACIP determines which vaccines are covered by major insurers. Replacing career civil servants w/political appointees (or disbanding ACIP altogether) will reduce access for millions of Americans

submitted 4 hours ago • 16 comments

From a week and a half ago: “As of Monday, the model shows, about 96,000 adults and 200,000 children have died because of the administration’s cutbacks to funding for aid groups and support organizations. The overall death count grows by 103 people an hour.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

submitted 1 day ago • 412 comments

It's the Washington Monument in the background that really takes this to next-level dystopian

submitted 2 days ago • 379 comments

Huge thank you to @mattmotta.bsky.social and @repandyvargas.bsky.social and all the other advocates who showed up today to support strong vaccine policy to protect our state!

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

When it comes to vaccine promotion, Massachusetts is falling behind. That could hurt some of the Commonwealth's most vulnerable people. I was honored to testify today in support of @repandyvargas.bsky.social 's proposed legislation to close the vaccine exemption loophole. My testimony, below:

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

She might need to ask "A-One" about it.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Imposter syndrome had a great run, but unfortunately someone found it stabbed to death right in front of the FEMA head who’s unfamiliar with hurricanes

submitted 7 days ago • 36 comments

We have the technical ability and innovative spirit to solve some of the most pressing public health problems of our time. But, without the political will to solve those problems, we're going to continue to put people in harms way. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

"...the number of American doctors creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca, which is “typically the first step” to being licensed in Canada, has increased more than 750% over the past seven months..." Our primary care provider shortage could be about to get a lot worse. That hurts all of us.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

This unprecedented assault on academic freedom is motivated by RFK Jr's distrust of research funded by the private sector. Ironically, though, Kennedy's HHS is doing exactly what he hates -- pushing researchers to the private sector by cancelling govt contracts that fund life-saving research.

submitted 12 days ago • 3 comments

Google Gemini -- clearly auditioning for a pundit role on "First Take with Stephen AI" -- claims that the 3-game series is currently tied at 2-2. 😂😂

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Over on X, Kennedy, Makary & Bhattacharya just announced they are pulling recs for childhood covid vax & pregnant people from CDC schedule. Vaccinating pregnant people has been shown to protect mother & baby. The benefits outweigh the risks in these populations. #healthpolicy

submitted 13 days ago • 8 comments

"America has the freedom of inquiry…that is attractive to talented students from all over the world and it’s a mystery to me why the administration would want to take on such a successful aspect of the American economy and American culture." Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on @cnn.com

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

“The judge, Allison D. Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against the federal edict, agreeing that Harvard had shown that its implementation would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the university.”

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

🎙️ep 1 live : “Trust, Mistrust, and the Messy Middle of Health Info” w/ @mattmotta.bsky.social why do ppl believe things they know might be wrong? why facts alone don’t fix trust. listen on spotify/substack/youtube : open.spotify.com/episode/4TbD... www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzQU... #health #podcast

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Every news outlet that fails to refer to this as an ILLEGAL revocation is engaging in editorial malpractice. Trump's efforts to issue unconstitutional bills of attainder against his political enemies aren't just an attack on academia; they're a deeply personal attack on academics.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Tonight at the Brookline Public Library! 📚💉 I'm looking forward to having a conversation about the prevalence, causes, and public health consequences of vaccine politicization in the US. If you happen to be in town, come on by! (Also streamed virtually on Zoom!)

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

submitted 19 days ago • 27 comments

Whether he's aware of it or not, it is on Kennedy's watch that HHS is gutting research on the same chronic illnesses that he and the MAHA movement claim to care about.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: Dozens of staffers walked out of Jay Bhattacharya’s first town hall event on Monday after the NIH director said he believed the lab leak conspiracy theory. We got video. www.importantcontext.news/p/i-believe-...

submitted 21 days ago • 47 comments

new working paper (reposted with fixed/public link): osf.io/gbkn5

submitted 21 days ago • 3 comments

From an implementation standpoint, this sounds like a disaster that will exacerbate coverage losses (and a huge boon for the vendors who need to work more hastily to get the systems to support work requirements)

submitted 21 days ago • 3 comments

Severe cuts to the National Weather Service led to the Jackson NWS going without a full-time overnight forecasters. Warnings for the 3 AM tornado that claimed at least 18 lives were delayed as a result. DOGE is killing Americans. It needs to be stopped. Science needs protection. MAGA needs a cage

submitted 23 days ago • 70 comments

Poll: weekly, more than 90% of ppl use weather forecasts, job market reports, food safety warnings, & other info based on fed sci. But only 10% concerned cuts to fed support for science might impact their access to that info. 🛟📈🧪 Policysky sociology

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

I think this AP poll finds more apathy about attacks on science than the headline suggests. E.g.; most either support or have no issue with ideologically-motivated grant cancellations. If Americans don't send clear signals to our elected officials to stand up for science... they likely won't.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

100% this. Rep. DeLauro delivers the most succinct summary of the ways in which RFK Jr. and the Trump White House are breaking the law (Impoundment Control) that I've seen so far.

submitted 26 days ago • 2 comments

Wow! Each $1 spent on Universal Pre-Kindergarten generates between $3-$20 dollars in aggregate earnings. That's enough to offset the costs of Universal Pre-Kindergarten through higher tax revenues.

submitted 28 days ago • 5 comments

Excellent NYT graphic. In the space of about 3 months, tariffs on China: -- doubled; -- went up ≈ 2.5X from there; -- roughly doubled again; -- went up ≈ 40% from there; -- and now have dropped ≈ 80% from the peak -- but are still 3X what they were in February. www.nytimes.com/article/trum...

submitted 28 days ago • 196 comments

One of the tough things about covering Trump’s 2nd term is that he is breaking so many laws & norms that when you cover them each on their own, you come off as an anti-Trump Dem pundit w “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” But when you list it all out things indeed look pretty alarming

submitted 29 days ago • 34 comments

Partisanship often blinds us to objective reality; even when it hurts us. But, less engaged voters typically hold weaker partisan commitments. So, they may be responding to real declines in their quality of life under Pres. Trump.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Harvard will no longer receive ANY federal research money, per letter to the school: "Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided. Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution."

submitted 35 days ago • 17 comments

Hey! Press covering Trump! The statute that lets him impose tariffs at will? It EXPLICITLY excludes movies. He has no authority to do this. Not just bc of an absence of authorization, but bc the law says “you CANNOT do this.” Do NOT say “Trump has imposed movie tariffs,” bc he did not. He CANNOT.

submitted 35 days ago • 156 comments

If statements like this don't shake every American to their core, democracy is not going to survive a second Trump presidency. www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.

submitted 36 days ago • 120 comments

Hearing now that every National Science Foundation grant is having to go through a new “DOGE review”. So existing grants and long term science and technology research having to undergo review by one of Elon’s interns. Huge percentage not passing their muster.

submitted 38 days ago • 112 comments

Indirect rates are supposed to be negotiated; not dictated. The Trump administration's illegal efforts to unilaterally renegotiate those costs will devastate universities, the people who work at them, the communities they support, and the people who attend them.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

The same Tim Cook who donated $1M to Trump's Inauguration festivities? 🤔

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature. https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V

submitted 39 days ago • 7 comments

Placebo testing to assess vaccine safety is already part of the approval process. Adding a new administrative hurdle to updated versions of already-approved COVID-19 vaccines could make it harder for immune compromised people to protect themselves this Fall. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u...

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

New at Vaccine: we show that stories from people who regret not vaccinating against RSV increases vaccine uptake intentions in RSV-eligible populations. With: @thcallaghan.bsky.social @jencornacc.bsky.social and partners at RIDOH & The Policy Lab. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment