Sarah Tortora

Eyes on ICE: Document and Record · No Kings On Saturday, federal agents horrifically shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for veterans, in the Eat Street neighborhood of south Minneapolis after brutally beating him in...

I was wondering where to get trained, and of course No Kings has us covered. See you there. www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Madison, WI 🧀🇺🇸

“A deranged maniac impersonated a police officer and killed lawmakers but if you’re an immigrant be sure you immediately comply with plain clothes people who won’t identify themselves telling you to get in a van”, what a fuckin country

A tweet from NBC news: Measles vaccination among babies skyrocketed in Texas as the outbreak grew, new research shows. Reply by Alex Griswold: Because in practice anti-vaxx is a luxury belief based on the assumption that your neighbors' vaccines do in fact work

I've never seen it so well put before.

-$1.5T in new tax cuts predominantly for the rich
-$700B in Medicaid cuts
-$500B in Medicare cuts
-$300B in SNAP cuts
-Leasing public lands to Big Oil
-Ending IRS Direct File
-Ending clean energy tax credits
-Banning AI regulation in the states

The oligarchy's wish list.

Moderna withdraws application for COVID-flu combination vaccine Moderna said on Wednesday it has withdrawn an application seeking approval for its flu and COVID combination vaccine candidate after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This is absolutely terrible news.

With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately.

h/t @merz.bsky.social

Just deranged. This was a *solved* problem.

Trump to Bukele: "Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough."

Trump orders U.S. government to stop tracking "super gonorrhea" that is resistant to most antibiotics:

www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Wholly unsurprising, yet enraging all the same.

Hands Off Madison Wisconsin! Hands off our democracy!

Find Your Voting Locations | WISDEMS Voter Protection Team This searchable map shows you early voting and dropbox info for hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across Wisconsin. Enter the address you're registered at and your options will pop up!

Wisconsin! Judge Susan Crawford will work to protect your rights and freedoms. So get out there and vote today by 8pm. You can find your polling place at wisdems.org/vote.

If you have any questions about voting, call or text the Voter Assistance Hotline at 608-336-3232.

Elon Musk Returns to His Trump Playbook in a Big Wisconsin Race The billionaire, now a White House official and no longer a private citizen, is spending millions of dollars to elect a conservative judge, and making himself a main character in the race.

Elon Musk is spending millions of dollars to elect Brad Schimel, a conservative judge in Wisconsin, to the State Supreme Court. If he succeeds, conservatives will retake a 4-to-3 majority and be in a position to push the state rightward on issues like abortion, labor rights and congressional maps.

The question is settled, this is going to funnel money to quacks and grifters to create a CDC-approved fake "study" that supercharges vaccine misinformation.

It's not just a public health failure, it's a terrorist attack on public health.

U.S.A.I.D. Memos Detail Human Costs of Cuts to Foreign Aid (Gift Article) The world is likely to see millions more malaria infections and 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year, according to an agency whistle-blower.

SCOOP: The world is likely to see millions more malaria infections and 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year, according to a whistle-blower from USAID.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/h...

No, this is the most ashamed you've felt as an American *so far*.

U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails.

The Trump administration terminates funding for polio, HIV, malaria and nutrition programs around the world.

“People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

🧵 PIH condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the Trump Administration's mass termination of United States Government grants and contracts supporting essential health care delivery and humanitarian assistance around the world.

Here’s what you need to know—and how you can take action 👇

The right wing attack on transgender people was already evil, but the attack on transgender members of the military is INSANE. It's never been about a random NCAA swimming meet or anyone getting cancelled over a slip of the tongue on pronouns. It's about good old fashioned HATE.

CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.

New: Last night, hundreds of CDC post-doc fellows were fired, including all in the group who call themselves the "disease detectors," and are the future of public health lab leaders. One senior official told me, "It is going to cripple public health for decades."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

the single most un-american and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an american president

Figure 1. Trends in Biannual US Infant Mortality Rates, 2012-2023

🧵 US states that implemented abortion bans saw higher than expected infant mortality rates, with larger increases among Black infants and those in southern states, according to this analysis of US national vital statistics data from 2012–2023.

ja.ma/4aVchPn

#MedSky

This period under Musk/Trump feels like early February in 2020—when a terrible thing was happening with breakneck speed, and the people paying close attention were hair-on-fire about it while the rest of the country carried on as normal.

Abrupt shift in federal funding will jeopardize medical research, UW-Madison says UW-Madison said the change to NIH funding, which is its largest source of federal support, will delay its ability to conduct lifesaving research into cures for disease.

Cutting the research to find cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s so they can cut taxes for billionaires. That’s their plan.

You can bet I’m fighting back. madison.com/news/local/e...

Musk's team takes control of key systems at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the latest target of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

The closure of CFPB highlights the grand lie at the heart of DOGE.

CFPB is cheap to run & delivers billions to victims of corporate scams. It’s the definition of value for money.

But X & Meta hate it because it targets big tech fraud.

DOGE is not about waste. It’s about enriching the oligarchy.

When TB treatment is interrupted, patients are far more likely to develop drug-resistant TB, which is a catastrophe both individually (the disease becomes harder to cure) and societally (we're allowing the bacteria millions of new opportunities to develop further resistance). Many people will die.

Photograph of a warehouse in Kinshasa where unboxed tuberculosis medications are going undistributed due to the stop work order by the Trump Administration.

Just received this photo from a friend of a warehouse in Kinshasa. These are tuberculosis medications--ALREADY PAID FOR--that aren't being distributed due to the Trump Administration's stop work order.
TB treatment is being interrupted in SO many patients around the world. What does that mean? (1/2)

Trump Administration Halts H.I.V. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries (Gift Article) PEPFAR’s computer systems also are being taken offline, a sign that the program may not return, as Republican critics had hoped.

BREAKING: The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/h...

US FDA drops web pages on improving clinical trial diversity The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has pulled draft guidance from its website requiring companies to test medicines and devices in diverse populations as part of a purge of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at U.S. health agencies.

Diversity in clinical trials is not performative. Diversity in clinical trials literally ensures that all humans benefit from therapeutics, interventions, and preventive medicine.

www.reuters.com/business/hea...