Monica H Green

FDA’s controversial vaccine chief will exit agency next month | CNN The US Food and Drug Administration’s head of vaccines and biologic medicines will leave the agency at the end of April, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Friday.

Prasad out at FDA www.cnn.com/2026/03/06/h...

A ‘pre-obituary’ as protest by a long-term survivor in Florida

16,000 people living with HIV are expected to lose coverage from the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program due to Florida's funding cuts.

Read Kamaria Laffrey's pre-obituary as a long-term survivor in Florida.

"Kamaria Laffrey writes an indictment of a system that’s failing people living with HIV."

Screenshot of live feed. Shows a covered stage with the heading "Abolish ICE"

Loving this livefeed from the Abolish ICE event in Minneapolis today: abolishice.live

All evidence to date suggests that the CPHE is a partisan political body aiming to transform higher ed in a manner desired by Republican extremists & the donors who back them…a Trojan horse determined to use any power awarded it to bend public higher ed to their ideological agenda.

"These Irish songs are about being colonized, about fighting back, about keeping your sanity when the powerful conspire against you. That’s been true the whole time, but a moment like this occupation forces each of us to confront our values."

Tonight, March 6, at 6 pm I will be discussing the historical roots of women's rights and why medieval debates are important today. Listen at 6 PM on Sauga960AM or watch full episode: lnkd.in/grdBy53d 🎦 video casts can be accessed any time on the web site briancrombie.com
#medieval #medievalists

Perry: This St. Patrick’s Day, don’t forget Irish music’s anti-fascist roots Dropkick Murphys, the iconic Irish American punk band, are headlining a free block party March 6 near where Alex Pretti was killed by immigration agents, contributing columnist David M. Perry writes.

Congrats to @lollardfish.bsky.social for this very fine piece on the protest roots of Irish music: www.startribune.com/st-patricks-...

Survival of Patients Diagnosed With Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic This cohort study investigates the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with short-term survival among patients diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 using US population-based cancer registry data.

To add to the list of pandemic effects: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

And for all those interested in studies on Mercator, have a look at some titles of our collection: tinyurl.com/mrxbhm7h.

The Most Chilling Detail in the U.S. Attack on an Iranian Naval Ship The Iranian warship was taking part in an international exercise with many other countries—including the United States.

This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...

From: Alessandro Brioschi, "Asymmetric Shocks in Pre-Industrial Labour Markets: Evidence from the 1629-1631 Plague in Venice," https://ehs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/81-6d02190d1772a958e3a611aef29300f0/2026/01/brioschi_venice_NR_version.pdf. Using a newly digitised dataset of over 16,000 apprenticeship contracts registered between 1594 and 1663, I reconstruct real apprentice wages and analyse their evolution before and after the plague. Exploiting variation across skill-intensive and low-skill trades within a difference-in-differences framework, I show that while real apprentice wages rose across the Venetian economy after the epidemic, gains were significantly larger in skill-intensive trades. Apprentices in skilled occupations experienced a post-plague wage premium of approximately 10-12 per cent relative to their unskilled counterparts. This result is robust to controlling for contract characteristics, in-kind compensation, and changes in recruitment patterns. The emergence of this skill premium did not reflect shorter training cycles or selective shifts in the composition of recruits. Rather, it points to a differential adjustment in labour demand across sectors. In skill-intensive trades, where human capital was complementary to fixed capital and continuity in production was particularly valuable, the marginal value of trained labour rose more sharply following the demographic shock. By showing how a major epidemic widened wage hierarchies through institutional and sectoral channels, this paper contributes to a growing literature on the interaction between epidemics, labour institutions, and inequality in pre-industrial economies (Alfani, 2022).

This isn't going on my 2nd Plague Pandemic b/c it's beyond my ca. 1500 cutoff, but it looks important: "Using a newly digitised dataset of over 16,000 apprenticeship contracts registered between 1594 & 1663, I reconstruct real apprentice wages & analyse their evolution before & after the plague."

Black Panther’s Hip-Hop Play, in Shakespeare’s House

#GiftLink A surprising read: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/t...

Today, I proudly voted in favor of the War Powers Resolution to stop Trump’s war with Iran.

Our communities are tired of endless wars that put servicemembers and lives abroad at risk. I have no interest in supporting Trump’s actions in Iran and will continue to support all efforts to stop it.

For all you fellow eggheads who know you need to do this but keep putting it off. It's time! www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...

Haitian man dies in US immigration custody with untreated toothache, brother says A Haitian man confined at an Arizona immigration detention center for months after the denial of his asylum application has died in the hospital

Emmanuel Damas, another individual killed in ICE custody.

He had a toothache. They ignored it. He died of spesis. Read that again.

Why do we need to fund this murderous agency?

www.washingtonpost.com/national/202...

NEW in PLOS Global Public Health:

New research highlights how Native American families navigated worsened food & water access during COVID‑19—drawing on resilience, family support, and traditional foodways to protect young children’s nutrition. #IndigenousHealth #FoodJustice

plos.io/409wMmW

New York Times headline, 12:37pm MT, 03/05/2026: Trump Fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary President Trump announced he was firing Ms. Noem on his social media website, and said he wanted Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her.

Hallelujah!

Wow, the predatory journals sure are turning up the dial! Citing my 2020 study as "recent", and then a 2022 study as "older," this solicitation comes not simply w/ a suggestion that I submit an "invited" piece by the 25th, but that I hand over my WhatsApp contact so they can "stay in touch."

CDC warns travelers of polio before trips to Spain, UK and more The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 advisory as poliovirus appears in parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

“The CDC issued a level 2 travel advisory on March 3, warning that poliovirus has been detected in multiple destinations within the past 12 months – including parts of Africa, the Middle East and Europe… In rare cases, the disease can cause permanent paralysis or death” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

A smiling bookfair exhibitor stood behind his stall which has books on the table.

We are fortunate to have SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo back at the #IMC2026 Bookfair! 👍

Make sure to visit their stall and see what titles are on display. Also visit www.sismel.it to discover more exciting books.

www.facebook.com/people/Sisme...
www.instagram.com/sismel_edizi...

#MedievalSky

The abstract for a paper to be presented at the 2026 Denver meeting of the Paleopathological Association meeting. "Plague's Procrustean Bed: Problems in Interdisciplinary Studies of Pre-Modern Disease Monica H. GREEN, Independent Scholar Research objectives) Until the 20th century, plague's (Yersinia pestis) epidemiological history was based on the documentary record, which only captured manifestations visible to humans. Bioarchaeology and paleogenomics can now document plague's material history, while phylogenetics constructs a theoretical account of plague's long-term evolution across Eurasia. These new scientific fields have, however, built their narratives of the 2a and largest plague pandemic-the episode commonly called the Black Death—on the earlier documentary record without acknowledging its inherent limitations. The so-called Quick Transit Theory (QTT) still holds that the entire intercontinental pandemic unfolded within a 10-15 year period before 1346."

Working on my talk for the Paleopathologists' meeting in Denver on 17 March. Why take a #histmed/#histSTM perspective into a gathering of bioarchaeologists? B/c even though much bioarch work is done w/i broad timeframes, sometimes dates (& intellectual traditions) matter. #plague #BlackDeath

I took my eight year old daughter to a protest on Saturday and my heart could hardly take it.

"The children are always ours, all over the globe, every single one of them. And I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this is incapable of morality." -James Baldwin

I know that quote gets tossed around a lot but it - especially in context - really is important.

www.thenation.com/article/arch...

A large crowd of people looking toward a stage.

Tonight’s pinprick of hope: This is only a fraction of the standing-room crowd at a protest-song fundraiser for the Iowa Migrant Movent for Justice in central Iowa. A cross-generational crowd on a Wednesday night, no less.

Colorado folks, it's not just in your head, Colorado has experienced one of the largest increases in ICE arrests in Trump 2.0 around the country.

And almost all of this increase is from indiscriminate arrests of people on the street, at their workplaces, at their homes, etc

never, ever, ever, ever accept "how will you pay for it?" as an argument against social programs.

that's absolutely wonderful

"Galileo prayed each time he sat down with The Almagest." I like this idea that, when assessing the universe & the centuries of human endeavors to understand it, we are in the presence of something that is itself miraculous.

cc: @karlgalle.bsky.social Per our earlier conversation!

Florence ICE detainee dead after untreated tooth infection, official says An ICE detainee, who had been at a Florence detention center for four months, died Monday following an untreated tooth infection.

An ICE detainee in Arizona has died of a TOOTH INFECTION after it went untreated for weeks, a local official says. He was a Haitian asylum seeker imprisoned in Florence, Arizona. @emilybregel.bsky.social reports.
tucson.com/news/local/b...