Amazing work by the team at Lead Exposure Elimination Project x.com/Parthion/statu…

It is really weird that we have collectively chosen to memory hole this fact.

A million lives at risk? Charles Kenny and I estimate the possible toll from the aid cuts in the White House's FY26 budget request. There's huge uncertainty here, of diverse kinds, so we explore 3 broad ways we could be wrong and by how much. cgdev.org/blog/million-l…

This is one of the most sickening things any modern American administration has ever done. Whenever you think both sides are the same, just ask yourself why the Democrats never did this.

I have no patience for the people *still* doing moral posturing over the whole Harris/Trump dichotomy because this is among the most real consequences of electing Trump. Most of you pundits will be fine. But slashing Medicaid and USAID will harm millions. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

This is a travesty and a nightmare. The US was a founder of @Gavi. It lowers vaccine costs for the world, has vaccinated 1B children, and averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year -- and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.

Kennedy provides a bunch of references for his claim that thimerosal in vaccines (barely used anymore) is harmful. If a high-school student submitted this as their reference list, they would fail. I will do what Kennedy didn’t - actually look at them. 🧵

Lest anyone ever claim there was any rhyme or reason to the USAID programs Rubio killed, any strategic logic or moral case, it's important to remember this was actually how it happened -- a 19-yo internet troll set loose to wreak havoc. And Rubio signed off.

The legacy of Elon Musk’s short stint in government

“Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” Also: Babies starved.

We're hiring! Come help us take on global lead (pb) exposure

Not nothing. Many people who received AIDS drugs via PEPFAR have probably died. More people will die because of the cuts to GAVI. But it previously cost so little to save these lives that letting these people die won’t generate enough savings to show up on the graph.

I could live with the face coverings if they were uniformed and had a prominent badge number in huge letters on their uniform. But as far as I can tell there is literally zero conceivable defense of dressing like armed robbers and accosting people on the street.

This is so incomprehensible to me. Congress has repeatedly told the White House that they want to continue support for PEPFAR. It's a conservative initiative. It's shockingly cost-effective. Who is the constituency for this???

Today, the folks The New Atlantis have lifted the paywall on the new installment in "How the System Works"--my series about the systems that undergird our days, that have vastly improved life for billions of people, and that--arrgh!--we seem to be forgetting about paying attention to.

Back to blogging after an extended hiatus. Indonesia's nickel policy has become an industrial policy model for the developing world. But what has it done for poverty? (link in reply)

i know you guys are friends with him but it’s actually entirely reasonable to get critical articles written about you when you’re responsible for indirectly killing millions of people. the article isn’t even that bad.

One lesson of DOGE is that a lot of federal govt spending is sent to old ppl (social security, Medicare) and affluent individuals/orgs (defense, health spending) but the spending with the highest “lives saved per dollar spent” tends to go to v poor people or to scientists working

New article by me! Cardiovascular disease mortality rates have declined by around three-quarters since 1950, but we rarely hear about it. I explore some of the reasons behind the decline.

There's an old saying - you can't build a peeing section in a swimming pool. This move puts kids everywhere at risk - not just those who refuse to vaccinate. And the damage won't be limited to Florida.