Kerry Cullinan

US Speeds Up Signing Of Bilateral Health Agreements, DRC Lawyers Challenge Minerals Deal - Health Policy Watch The United States has moved at speed to secure several new bilateral health Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) in the past week, including, for the first time,

The US speeds up signing of 'extractive' #Bilateral health MOUs, but #DRC lawyers have challenged their govt's minerals deal with the US. #Kenya faces a similar court challenge.
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healthpolicy-watch.news/us-speeds-up...

Trump Orders Government to Stop Using Anthropic After Pentagon Standoff

#Anthropic didn't want the US military to use its AI model in "fully autonomous weapons" or for "mass domestic surveillance". Google, X & ChatGPT seem ok with that.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

The US Health Secretary #RFKJr poses a threat to his country's health and science - precisely the opposition of the role he is supposed to play.

As usual, @thelancet.com does not shy away from calling out the threat! ☑️☑️☑️

A paragraph from the article, which reads: Under the America First Global Health Strategy, however, health cooperation is explicitly subordinated to geopolitical calculation. As the State Department makes clear; “the President and Secretary of State retain the right to pause or terminate programs which do not align with the national interest”.3 In this context, political divergence or non-compliance does not unfold gradually. It occurs abruptly, unevenly, and often without institutional recourse. The suspension of crucial HIV funding to South Africa illustrates this shift. Citing diplomatic positions on major conflicts, land expropriation laws, and alignment with alternative geopolitical blocs, the USA has shown how political alignment now overrides epidemiological logic.4 Disease burden, programmatic performance, and technical capacity provided no insulation. A high-capacity health system was exposed to withdrawal without buffers, timelines, or negotiated safeguards. For many low-income and middle-income countries, the central risk is no longer inefficiency or reform failure. It is abandonment.

A new Comment in The Lancet Global Health lays out the necessary strategic shifts to protect global health in the era of "America First", covering:

- Institutional cooperation
- Legal counterweights
- Redefining the role of multilateral institutions

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The US bilateral health agreements with African countries are extractive & linked to access to minerals and pathogen data. #Zambia and #Zimbabwe are pushing back. What does this mean for people living with HIV?
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Access to #vaccination is being undermined by #RFKJr, who is pushing #CaseyMeans as Surgeon General - but there is pushback from the American Academy of Pediatricians, @standupforscience.bsky.social and others:

Almost 40% Of Cancers Could Be Prevented By Curbing Tobacco, Infections And Alcohol - Health Policy Watch Almost 40% of global cancer cases could be prevented, according to a new global study from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its International Agency

Nearly 40% of global cancer cases could be prevented.

@who.int – IARC research shows tobacco, infections & alcohol remain the leading modifiable drivers of 7.1 million cancer cases worldwide.

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@cleanairfund.bsky.social @natmed.nature.com
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📖⬇️ & 🔁🙏

Monsanto has set aside $7.25 billion to settle claims against its pesticide, #Roundup, by people who contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma after exposure. 'This doesn't mean an admission of guilt,' says parent company #Bayer 😵‍💫

‘A different set of rules’: thermal drone footage shows Musk’s AI power plant flouting clean air regulations Images confirm xAI is continuing to defy EPA regulations in Mississippi to power its flagship datacenters

Thermal drone footage shows #ElonMusk AI power plant in Mississippi is flouting clean air regulations:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Spain To Restrict Social Media Access As Evidence Mounts Of Health Harms For Children - Health Policy Watch Spain announced this week that it would tighten its social media laws, aiming to ban access for children under the age of 16 as part of a global tide against

📲From Australia to France, governments are tightening youth protections as studies link social media use to rising depression & anxiety among adolescents.

Spain will ban social media access for children under 16.

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📖⬇️ & 🔁🙏

WHO Welcomes US States To Its Global Disease Outbreaks Network - Health Policy Watch GOARN is a global network of public health institutions, governments, academic bodies and laboratories that helps to detect and control infectious disease

California, Illinois, New York State & NYC join the @who.int Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. A state-level commitment to global surveillance and outbreak response. Multilateralism continues — even amid federal withdrawal.

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Powerful WHO Members Hint At Delay In Pandemic Talks If No Legal Certainty On Pathogen Information - Health Policy Watch Powerful member state blocs at the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed on Monday that they will not compromise on the final outstanding piece of the

🌍 @who.int pandemic talks face a defining test.

LMIC blocs demand a legally binding, enforceable Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system — warning they won’t accept loopholes just to meet the May deadline.

🚨Global pandemic preparedness hangs in the balance.

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
📖⬇️ & 🔁🙏

2025 Transparency Report Overview - Bluesky In 2025, as Bluesky grew from 25 million to 41 million users, we improved the trust and safety infrastructure to better enable our mission. Here's what that looks like in plain language.

In 2025, as Bluesky grew from 25M to 42M users, we took actions to keep it welcoming, using proactive design to reduce toxic content by 79%.  Our 2025 Transparency Report shares how we're building a safer platform while keeping a transparent and human-centered approach: bsky.social/about/blog/0...

Danger Remains Despite A Drop In Measles In The European Region - Health Policy Watch Measles cases in Europe and Central Asia dropped by three-quarters in 2025 compared to the previous year – but the decline is partly due to the virus running

UNICEF warns that unless all children are reached with vaccines — and misinformation is tackled — measles deaths and serious illness will continue.

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healthpolicy-watch.news/danger-remai...

Offline: Meditations of melancholy So here we are. An email last week: “tensions are very high…one has little control over the chaos of the moment. I'm so angry, and so sad. It's exhausting”. These feelings, I suspect, are pervasive. A...

Excellent editorial by Richard Horton, editor of #TheLancet and one of the globe's sharpest public health commentators, who writes about the #Trump administration's war on science, including his own journal:

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Save America Movement | The Save America Movement | Substack The Save America Movement is a citizens committee aimed at opposing the corruption, abuses of power and divisions of the Trump regime. Click to read Save America Movement, a Substack publication with ...

Its worth subscribing to the substack of @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social saveamericamovement.substack.com?r=c15sy&utm_...

Sad. The new Namibian president was pretty nasty as education minister and looks like she’s continuing in the vein.

Namibian journalist ‘shaken’ by arrest threat for asking the president a question - Committee to Protect Journalists Lusaka, February 4, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Namibian authorities to respect and safeguard reporters, following Jemima Beukes expulsion from the president’s official residenc...

#Namibian journalist ‘shaken’ by arrest threat for asking the president a question anout ber family’s involvement in oil deal cpj.org?p=559590

Latest US Restrictions On Aid 'Bully' Recipients To Accept 'Extremist Ideology' - Health Policy Watch Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or

🚨 Global health organisations warn the US has expanded the Global Gag Rule to all non-military foreign aid—threatening reproductive, humanitarian & LGBTQI+ health services worldwide. 🌍⚕️

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@ipas.org @reprorights.org ights.org @msf.ca @kff.org

📖⬇️ & 🙏🔁

Donald Trump is mentioned hundreds of times in the latest batch of Epstein files. Among the new documents is a list compiled by the FBI last year of allegations made against Trump by callers to its national Threat Operation Center tip line.

US Health Secretary #RFKJr is jeopardising the #immunisation of hundreds of thousands of children in poor countries by refusing to contribute to #Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, unless it removes a preservative he deems dangerous, without any science to back him. ⬇️

Latest US Restrictions On Aid 'Bully' Recipients To Accept 'Extremist Ideology' - Health Policy Watch Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or

The Latest US Restrictions on Aid 'Bully' Recipients to Accept 'Extremist Ideology' & export #MAGA views, says critics. #GlobalGagRule
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healthpolicy-watch.news/latest-us-re...

The #Taliban & #MAGA 'Christian' leaders think alike about #women and #reproduction. ⬇️

What kind of person posts 56 Tweets in an hour about someone who is getting under their skin? #Trump apparently has nothing better to do - and #Newsom is clearly rattling him

Latest US Restrictions On Aid 'Bully' Recipients To Accept 'Extremist Ideology' - Health Policy Watch Global health organisations have reacted with anger to the new US foreign aid policy, which prohibits all aid recipients, bar military, from performing or

The Latest US Restrictions on Aid 'Bully' Recipients to Accept 'Extremist Ideology' & export #MAGA views, says critics. #GlobalGagRule
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healthpolicy-watch.news/latest-us-re...

Melania Trump Documentary Pulled From South African Theaters

Grateful that we South Africans are being spared this: #Melania Trump Documentary Pulled From South African Theatres 😊

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/w...

Did you know that data protection should be part of your communication activities?

It might not be the flashiest part of your work, but it’s super important!

Use our practical checklist to ensure your work complies with EU data protection rules: link.europa.eu/dNq4jv

🧪 #SciComm

Whom Is ICE Actually Recruiting? ICE has lowered standards to facilitate a massive hiring spree. Many of the new recruits are plainly unqualified. Are some also white supremacists or domestic terrorists?

ICE recruitment efforts appear openly calibrated to catch the attention of white nationalists and other right-wing extremists:
https://bit.ly/49I0bds

‘The land will be left as ashes’: why Patagonia’s wildfires are almost impossible to stop Funding cuts, conspiracy theories and ‘powder keg’ pine plantations have seen January’s forest fires tear through Chubut in southern Argentina

‘The land will be left as ashes’: why Patagonia’s wildfires are almost impossible to stop

‘Suspended Or Cancelled’: Guinea-Bissau Health Minister Halts Controversial Hepatitis B Trial - Health Policy Watch A controversial trial to examine various impacts of the hepatitis B vaccine on newborn babies in Guinea-Bissau has been “suspended or cancelled”, the

⚠️ Health experts warn it is unethical to withhold a proven vaccine from newborns!

🍼 The halted trial would have given only half of 14,000 babies a hepatitis B vaccine at birth — despite strong evidence early vaccination saves lives.

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