Makenzie Patarino

Quote by Paul Sutter which says "The public needs to see scientists as poeple, rather than simply sources of information"

Given the absolutely insane levels of disinformation and growing attacks on science and scientists, all scientists must be taught

- how to communicate effectively
- how to engage the public
- how to engage politicians and policy makers
- how to engage with the media
- how to counter misinformation

This is terrible. A brief statement from us:

Congress must stop it. We call for a provision in any CR/budget bill that explicitly declares these Vought shutdown firings to be illegal, null, and void.

"We're doing the studies to make the proof."

This is not how Gold Standard Science works. Or any science. You do the study to TEST THE HYPOTHESIS, not to prove yourself right.

"So, Democrats have three words for this: no fucking way. It's literally life or death. We will not let Republicans blow up our health care system."

This is, hands down, the best comms work Chuck Schumer has done in YEARS. Surprisingly good.

Opinion | Six surgeons general: RFK Jr. is a threat to the health of Americans It was our duty in office to warn of dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

“Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk.”

Six former surgeons general condemn RFK Jr.

Scientists take on Trump: these researchers are fighting back Through lawsuits, grant tracking, whistle-blowing and more, resistance to the US war on science is growing.

👏🏽👏🏽

Through lawsuits, grant tracking, whistle-blowing and more, resistance to the US war on science is growing

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I inserted myself into a conversation at a bar about Covid and vaccines. Here’s what happened What happened when a public health scientist overheard four men sharing misinformation about Covid — and decided to talk to them about it.

Brilliant piece on how to engage in conversation with strangers about vaccines and public health

@statnews.com @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2025/09/06/c...

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Mass shooters since 2018 who were transgender — 4.

Mass shooters since 2018 who were not transgender — 4,193.

Hope that helps.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC, revealed that RFK Jr. has NEVER been briefed by CDC experts on measles, flu, or Covid:

“No one from my center has ever briefed him on any of those topics…He’s getting his information from somewhere”

Opinion | The Public Health Disaster Everyone Saw Coming

RFK Jr "the nation’s leading public health official does not have any real interest in — or possibly any real understanding of — public health"

@jeneeninterlandi.bsky.social @nytopinion.nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

"This could be the difference whether your child gets cancer. Are you willing for them to die because the therapy for them is delayed?"

Powerful video with voices from top US scientists on the very real and devastating impacts of the funding cuts.

If you want to know what heroes look like (at least in drawing form)...

The practical upshot is that justice delayed is justice denied; or to be more precise, a lab which had to fire all of its researchers and halt work on groundbreaking research isn't going to be able to ever restore itself to the same position it would have been without a multi-year pause in funding.

RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’ HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."

It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.

I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

Dear Dr. Bhattacharya: I have listened to your performance on the “War Room” podcast with Steve Bannon. The segment begins with a discussion of Secretary Kennedy’s recent cancellation of $500M worth of contracts related to mRNA vaccines. You say “You can’t have a platform where such a large percentage of the population distrusts the platform as we use it for vaccines and expect it to work.” Later, you make comments that might explain why a large segment of the percentage distrusts this platform. For example, you say that the vaccine was not protective against contracting COVID and cite your own case on COVID after being vaccinated. However, you fail to cite the evidence for the clinical trials that led to the Emergency Use Authorization.

I listened to Bhattacharya on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast.

If you want to know how it went, see the following email that I just sent.

1/13

🚨🚨🚨‼️‼️‼️🚨🚨🚨
Bottom line: multiyear funding (MYF) will:

Push people out of science. #BrainDrain

Slow scientific advances

Potentially make it easier to cut the #NIH budget.

Time to get loud about this!

This is encouraging to see!! Let’s continue the dialogue with republican congress members about why science funding is so critical!

"The money the government sends to Harvard is, in effect, not a subsidy to advance the university’s mission. It’s a payment for the role Harvard plays in advancing the research mission of the United States."

This looks like an awesome project! Very timely and excited to see how this contributes to public health knowledge!

Great piece, totally agree - hopefully this helps to reach many people across the country! Thank you for writing something with a theme of unity in these divided times!!

This was such a great read! “We will always have more in common with each other than we do with billionaires sitting behind desks with uncalloused hands and unburdened minds.” Let’s stand up for science together!!

NIH cuts quash $323 million for neuroscience research and training “I am frightened for the state of the future of our field if this isn't reversed rapidly,” says Joshua Gordon, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and former director of the National…

Neuroscience research and training has taken a $323 million hit in the form of grants rescinded by the U.S. NIH, according to an analysis by @thetransmitter.bsky.social.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

Drug deaths plummet among young Americans as fentanyl carnage eases U.S. drug deaths dropped by roughly 40% last year among people under the age of 35. It's a welcome pivot for families and communities devastated by fentanyl.

Great @npr.org reporting on positive impact that research and community programs together have had on reducing drug deaths in young adults. Make no mistake, #NIDA funded research has made huge changes in addiction. Congress needs to hear this and support #NIH.

Front-page-style graphic titled “BREAKING NEWS” with photos of RFK Jr. and Dr. Bhattacharya in front of a government hearing chamber. Text reads: “NIH Scientists Sound the Alarm as Health Research Faces Historic Threat” and “NIH Employees Send Trump Cronies Scathing Wake-Up Call.”

🚨BREAKING: 300+ NIH employees call out the harm of censorship & politicized science in scathing email to Bhattacharya, demanding an end to political interference, a lift on funding freezes, & rehiring of fired staff whose work saves lives.

This is historic - insiders are blowing the whistle.
🧵(1/5)

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Trump’s NIH cuts aren’t just numbers. They are delayed cures, abandoned treatments, futures stolen, lives that will be lost. This is why we Stand Up For Science.

#StandUpForScience
#SummerFightForScience

Sure, there are risks of speaking out.

But the risks of NOT speaking out are far greater.

NOW is the time to speak out, otherwise science in America will burn to the ground and you will have sat there with a bucket of water in your hand, watching it burn.

"Imagine the auto industry without 3D printing. NSF funded that. Artificial intelligence? NSF. MRI machines that help doctors diagnose you? NSF. Doppler radar technology that makes aviation safer by conquering wind shear? NSF. Duolingo‘s underlying programming? NSF. The internet itself? NSF."