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

About that assurance that Sen. Cassidy got from Robret F Kennedy Jr that he would “work within” existing vaccine approval and safety frameworks...

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

It's a pretty tough flu season, and the FDA cancels advisory meeting to discuss next year's flu vaccine mix.

submitted 12 hours ago • 2 comments

So, he's thinking that they can raise raise funds by selling the Gold Card visas to tech firms... We sell 200K that will go a long way toward bringing down the deficit adds the Commerce Secretary... Are there that many H1B visa requests? And would companies really want to pay up $5 million a piece?

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

The Texas measles outbreak now claims a life. Per the CDC, before the MMR vaccine in 1963: - 3-4 Million were infected per year - 400 to 500 people died - 48,000 were hospitalized - 1,000 suffered encephalitis (swelling of the brain)

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

What if DOGE had been around when EV credits helped Tesla sell cars? wapo.st/41uIOJ4

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

This, as health care folks push for special visas to ease nursing and homecare worker needs and tech firms lobby for H1B visas for people with engineering skills...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

This makes me sad. When I started out back in the 1900s, I made most of my clothes. I sewed my interview suit from a Vogue pattern. I used to buy my patterns and notions at JoAnn. You can those online now, but buying fabric is still best in person, so can see the color and feel the texture.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Seems like maybe they don’t think about people working on confidential things like keeping agents who are undercover safe, or working on weapons development, or reviewing intelligence… apple.news/AGbjga8KmSSK...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Whoa. Lester is among the greats and a true gentleman.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

We don’t need to be gazillionaires to have a positive impact on others and support good causes. But if you’ve got big bucks you can put toward #philantrhopy you might want to take a page from ‪@mackenzie45.bsky.social‬’s playbook. #womenleaders www.barrons.com/articles/mac...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Kind of ironic that smack in the middle of the WSJ story on $UNH billing that there's an ad for rival $Cigna's Health services and PBM unite, Evernorth.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

A Boston federal judge on Friday extended her hold on a Trump administration proposal to slash reimbursements from the NIH for research grant costs, a move colleges, hospitals and other institutions have said would wreak havoc on scientific research. www.law360.com/artic...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

"While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts and layoffs across the federal government, funding for their 'Department of Government Efficiency' has soared to nearly $40 million, ProPublica found in a review of Office of Management and Budget records." www.propublica.org/article/doge...

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

I remember begging my dad to go see A Chorus Line. He complained his construction buddy had told him it was about "sissies." We went and he felt the motion. Papi wound up really liking the show, though I'm not sure he ever admitted that to his coworker.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

$HIMS CEO on FDA declaring end of semaglutide shortage: "we will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law to meet patient needs. We’re also closely monitoring potential future shortages..."

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

These Republican House members with high shares of Medicaid coverage in their districts are all in states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility under the ACA. @sahilkapur.bsky.social

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Shares of $HIMS are cratering after FDA declares the Ozempic/Wegovy shortage over. The FDA order provides a 60-day grace period to stop production for compounders and 90-day grace period for outsourcing facilities. www.fda.gov/media/185526...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Maybe we'd be in a better place if they'd just spend the $9 million to upgrade the software.. @apnews.com: Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

A year after approval of sickle cell gene therapies, in some ways the 7-figure drugs are still waiting to launch. DJ Chow completed treatment at @cityofhope.bsky.social last month. His folks feel lucky their insurance covered the cost but it's going to take more than luck to cover a more patients.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting observation from the Food is Medicine folks at Vive digital health conference in Nashville: "No discussion about RFK Jr.. No willingness to comment about what might change, too much controversy surrounding the appointment and the new administration for most in the healthcare industry."

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

“In a fund-raising email on Saturday, Mr. Trump asked recipients… ‘Are you sick of being targeted and harassed by the I.R.S.?’ Mr. Trump asked. ‘Well maybe it’s time that somebody audited them for a change!’”

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

BREAKING: An IRS employee who is affiliated with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has accessed an IRS system that holds sensitive taxpayer information, according to a Trump administration official.

submitted 10 days ago • 138 comments

The prospect of aging with Alzheimer’s in the US is even scarier, especially if you have no kids to care for you in your dotage. Consider that one in five boomers in the US is childless, and we don’t really have resources to support solo folks at that stage of life. #healthpolicy

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

It's a like a Dickensian headline. Gotta be tough when your name is Sinner.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Watching Ken Burns' documentary on Lady Liberty from 40 years ago. Amazing how the interviews about the meaning and fragility of American liberty, and the hope it has presented to so many around the world, resonates so very much right now...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

This is incredible. The source code for the new DOGE “official US government website” points to X as its primary source of authority. Sharing links to the DOGE site sends users to x dot com. www.wired.com/story/doge-w...

submitted 13 days ago • 115 comments

President Trump issued MAHA EO after swearing in RFK, directing agencies to work together to combat chronic disease in the U.S. #healthpolicy www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who are suing UnitedHealth Group over allegedly wrongful denials of care that were based on artificial intelligence scored a victory Thursday, as a judge ruled their case could move forward. Could open up discovery. www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/l...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

🙈 I’m not caught up yet…

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

52-48, Senate votes to confirm RFK Jr. as the next Health and Human Services secretary. All Republicans voted YES except one: Mitch McConnell, who joined all Democrats in voting NO.

submitted 13 days ago • 163 comments

BREAKING: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine critic, is confirmed by the Senate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. nbcnews.to/42VC34e

submitted 13 days ago • 82 comments

Funny how he who slashes government spending somehow doesn’t think about slashing this line item… 🤔 www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

JUST IN: In a court filing, the Trump administration reveals about 200 USAID contracts that have been terminated since yesterday. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

submitted 14 days ago • 64 comments

A mom found a promising treatment for her young daughter’s mysterious illness. Their health insurance denied it. They discovered that appeals are daunting—but often successful. via @wsj.com

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

The House budget resolution calls for a reduction in mandatory spending of $2 trillion over a decade. Much of that could come from Medicaid cuts. docs.house.gov/meetings/BU/...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

While some of us are focused on Powell, this apparently just happened at the Doge subcomittee hearing...

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

$CVS shares surging on Q4 beats across the board: $1.19 EPS vs. $0.93 Est. on $97.7B Rev. vs. $97.2B Est. -Health Services (PBM) saw $47.02B Rev. vs. $44.06B est. -Health Care Benefits saw $32.96B Rev. with a near 100bps beat on MLR: 94.8% vs. 95.9% est.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Universities sue the Trump administration over order to cap indirect costs… In the second post of this 🧵 @kkjetelina.bsky.social explains how those work..

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Elon Musk in oval office today: "our tax dollars need to be spent wisely on things that matter to the people" Johns Hopkins lawsuit brief: NIH cuts imperil 600 Hopkins clinical trials and the patients with “life threatening conditions or diseases that have failed to respond to treatment elsewhere.”

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

"the results are surprising because the team found that so-called 'good' cholesterol is associated with greater risk of developing glaucoma, and 'bad' cholesterol is associated with lower risk. This result challenges some earlier studies that have reported the opposite association."

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Trump/DOGE funding freeze has led to community health centers in Virginia closing their doors, a West Virginia disability services organization laying off three of five staff members, while California clinics have received notices that grants used for HIV prevention will be terminated. #healthpolicy

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

“.. the NFIB small business confidence index finally succumbed to all the policy-induced chaos coming out of Washington .. “.. businesses are shelving capex plans — the index here dived to a four-month low .. tied for the steepest decline on record ..” app.rosenbergresearch.com/dashboard/pu...

submitted 15 days ago • 22 comments