@gavinyamey
Hymowitz Family Professor of Global Health & Professor of Public Policy at Duke University. Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health. DJ at WXDU (Thursdays, 4-6pm ET, wxdu.org). TIME columnist. He/him. Tallest Jew on Earth.
Summary of recent HHS departures:
-Unqualified weirdo Jim O’Neill out as CDC Director
-“Measles outbreaks are the cost of doing business” Ralph Abraham out as his Dumbass Deputy
-Venomous podcaster Vinay Prasad out at FDA.
Yet human cassowary and denim enthusiast RFK Jr. remains.
This is an appalling thing to say about one of the best respected, best informed, and most compassionate public health professionals on this site. You’ve also twisted and misrepresented his words.
FDA’s Controversial Vaccines Chief Will Leave the Agency Dr. Vinay Prasad will depart in April, after a year leading the division that approves vaccines and biotech drugs By Liz Essley Whyte Follow Updated March 6, 2026 at 5:09 pm ET
Total clown show. He’s gone again! The MAGA/MAHA leadership is utterly chaotic & hapless.
The blood splattered backpacks were just unbearable, our kid has a backpack like that
I think it was a mistake to put right-wing hot-take podcasters in charge of the FDA, NIH, CDC, and CMS—the so-called “MAGA podcaster to policy pipeline”
Thank you, this is a beautiful tune
It’s not regime change unless the new leaders are from the town of Changé in the Mayenne department in north-western France
This is TMI but they’re cotton that is thick and made to look like wool, cuz I’ve had lifelong eczema since I was a baby & wool causes my skin to itch & break out, see I told you it was TMI!
Look what happens when you report out claims instead of resorting to conspiracist takes about how “they” want to stop your man. I’m no Mills supporter. I don’t think Platner is a Nazi. I think he’s a troll. & I think like that other troll, Newsom, he’s a breaking point for any possible coalition.
These folks openly and proudly show their love for Nazism
I love how every defense sounds like "May he who did not get a Nazi tattoo while drunk in his 20s throw the first stone?" because that is truly an insane position.
I sometimes think we overuse the George Orwell quote from 1984 but in this case
Federal data shows that #NIH lost ~4400 people, 20% of the workforce. Many scientists have been pushed out.
~80% of NIH $ is awarded to universities & research institutions. Funding cuts are having a trickle down effect all over the country, affecting job prospects.
🧪 www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...
Thread 👇
I wonder if Claude would be “anxious” because the military is using it to bomb schoolgirls or because it’s poisoning the air around data centers or because it’s going to crash the economy or because it’s encouraged thousands of psychotic delusions or all of the above
Surely Republicans, who spent decades crassly singing “Bomb Iran” to the tune of Beach Boys songs would never have launched a war with Iran if not forced to by Netanyahu. Certainly not Donald Trump, who during his first term withdrew from the JCPOA with Iran & assassinated Iranian military leaders.
Take a look at my Duke colleague; he brings joy to the clinic with his clothes
neurology.duke.edu/news/durham-...
OMG I will tell my spouse you said that 😎
“When people are being shot, detained inhumanely, deported, and abused for having the same identities we are removing from grants, it is abundantly clear we are participating in hate”
-anonymous NIH program officer
I’ll keep saying it: if you can’t see the links between ICE & THIS, wake up already
My mid-century socks and floral slip-ons
🧦👟 It’s pretty bleak out there, so I cheered myself up by wearing yellow and black mid-century socks (inherited from my father in law after he passed) and, um, floral slip-ons
As I’ve said before, nobody should ever take fashion advice from me, lol
I am frankly more concerned about the apathy of the American public and even more importantly the lack of leadership in the Democratic Party.
This is not a dress rehearsal. Every single American must speak out against this Facist administration.
In every Republican presidency of my lifetime there's been a recession and a new war in the Middle East.
Volunteer Site Award In recognition for providing a unique program for volunteer persons with disabilities
One thing I appreciate about the Red Cross site in Durham where I donate blood is that it has a “Unique Program for Volunteer Persons with Disabilities” (it won a mayor’s award); the program supports volunteers as well as donors
Premeditated mass murder, with no attempt to rescue any survivors
Read this story and weep
I’m so repulsed by the MAHA parents: they support RFK Jr’s deadly anti-vaxx campaign & Trump kidnapping & torturing kids & putting them in concentration camps & the MAGA/MAHA administration worsening climate change & damaging the environment. MAHA folks are happy to pay this price for food dye bans
This is the world that RFK Jr dreamed of—now that he runs the US health system he’s able to achieve his dreams each & every day, aided & abetted by Drs Bhattacharya, Makary, Høeg, Kulldorff, Prasad & Oz
We can’t rebuild the devastation until all 7 of these federal health agency leaders are gone
So Philip Glass just joined TikTok. He only has like 4 posts and they’re simply him in what I assume is his living room playing the piano. First comment on one I saw was “your piano is too close to the fireplace, you’ll dry it out” and if that’s not the internet in a nutshell I don’t know what is.
NPR just reported that Trump wants to choose Iran’s next leader, and, like, I’m not an Iran scholar, obvs, but I’m, like, pretty sure that this is not how things work?
RFK Jr in a suit
So does his buddy RFK Jr
There should not be billionaires
Those who exist should be like MacKenzie Scott, who gave away $26 billion from 2019 to 2025–including $18 million to Durham Public Schools (no strings attached)