Amy Maxmen, PhD

@amymaxmen.bsky.social

37181 Followers 2811 Following

Award-winning public health reporter at KFF Health News. Bylines at Nature, New York Times, National Geographic & more. AmyM@kff.org Signal: AmyMaxmen.25 www.amymaxmen.com & https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/amy-maxmen

RuntimeWire has been operating since May, publishing nearly 2,000 stories that it sources by crawling the internet, including court databases, web forums, traditional and new media, company filings, social feeds, and more. It focuses on granular tech news; recent stories include coverage of biotech startup funding rounds, Microsoft's Copilot upgrade, and backlash over Claude Code's watermark policy. Right now, quantity and speed trump quality. The OpenAI agents piece has a typo in the subhead and focuses, strangely, on the fact that agents rebuilt a message board rather than the fact that they created one in the first place. Overall, the stories are flatly written and tend to have an info-dump quality. (The RuntimeWire backend has a number of tonal modes the AI can write in, including “Bloomberg” and “contrarian.”) But overhead is minimal. The project costs about $100 a day to run, Merket says, and he’s able to operate it while on the go, even when he’s out camping. “I was in Big Bend National Park and I didn't have any internet except for my phone, and I managed the whole site through iMessage,” he says. “I put out over 80 articles that week.”
Reality check: AI is working from its training data, not the actual text. The vibes can be right while the details are wrong. After I read James Jones' "The Thin Red Line," AI confused Captain Stein with Captain Staros, the corresponding character in the movie adaptation.
Trahern W. Jones, a pediatric infectious disease specialist based in Salt Lake City: So I’m coming into a room and just hearing the most awful barking cough, just a cough and a high-pitch stridor as the child is trying to breathe. And he’s just coughing so hard it just makes you feel short of breath. He looks like he’s been beaten down for days, but he can’t rest, because the cough keeps him awake. The parents tell me they’re not anti-vaccine, but in the past, somebody they know had a reaction to a vaccine — or something they thought was a reaction to a vaccine — and so they paused vaccines when the child was a baby. They were planning to catch up later.
Most concerning, Lipsitch and Cody mischaracterized the stated conclusion of our Lancet study, which was that NPIs were effective. We found states that imposed more protective mandates, such as mask use and mobility restrictions, maintained them for longer, and also those that had better compliance with those policies had lower infection rates.
On Treating Unvaccinated Children Hospitalized for Measles Trahern W. Jones, a pediatric infectious disease specialist based in Salt Lake City: So I’m coming into a room and just hearing the most awful barking cough, just a cough and a high-pitch stridor as the child is trying to breathe. And he’s just coughing so hard it just makes you feel short of breath. He looks like he’s been beaten down for days, but he can’t rest, because the cough keeps him awake. The parents tell me they’re not anti-vaccine, but in the past, somebody they know had a reaction to a vaccine — or something they thought was a reaction to a vaccine — and so they paused vaccines when the child was a baby. They were planning to catch up later.On Treating Unvaccinated Children Hospitalized for Measles Trahern W. Jones, a pediatric infectious disease specialist based in Salt Lake City: So I’m coming into a room and just hearing the most awful barking cough, just a cough and a high-pitch stridor as the child is trying to breathe. And he’s just coughing so hard it just makes you feel short of breath. He looks like he’s been beaten down for days, but he can’t rest, because the cough keeps him awake. The parents tell me they’re not anti-vaccine, but in the past, somebody they know had a reaction to a vaccine — or something they thought was a reaction to a vaccine — and so they paused vaccines when the child was a baby. They were planning to catch up later.
Graph shows massive rise of measles cases in 2025 and 2026
It’s a good day if I can have a conversation with someone who doesn’t want to vaccinate, even if I don’t convince them. I try to help them think through things rather than shoving anything down their throat. When they’re done talking, I’ll ask, “Can I share my perspectives on this?” Some will say yes enthusiastically, and others will say yes because they’re being polite. A lot of parents aren’t sure what to do, and those are the people I focus most of my time on. I focus our conversation on their specific concerns, and I’m open about specific side effects that different immunizations can have. For example, I’ll tell them that some children get a fever after a vaccine, which is OK. The fever is not harmful, but it can make babies feel crummy as their body is building up antibodies against viruses and bacteria.
We need consistent messaging from state leadership, which has been pretty absent. I want to see commercials on TV about the safety of the MMR [measles, mumps, and rubella] vaccine and the dangers of the measles, sponsored by my state leadership. I’d like to see this on billboards and in schools, in public buildings and grocery stores. I want to go to a sports event and see messages about the measles and the MMR vaccine. Right now, people have to go out of their way to find information from reputable sources. We also need policy changes to support vaccination. This train is going in the wrong direction, and it can feel like a helpless situation, because we’re just not seeing the public messaging and leadership that’s needed to turn this around.
President Trump calls transgender people insane in a recent executive order.
The ruling ideology of the Jim Crow era treated policies that advantaged whites and excluded Blacks as simply the natural order of things. The all-pervasive, habitual employer preference for whites was invisible to those who benefited from it. Employers simply assumed white superiority over unqualified Black people. In 1963, the Southern Regional Council, an Atlanta-based interracial reform group, released a survey detailing corporations’ attitudes about discrimination in hiring practices. Many of those interviewed could not imagine hiring African Americans in sales or service, let alone technical work. A manager for Kaiser Aluminum said it would be “rather ridiculous” to hire a Black salesperson for a company serving mostly white customers.
Emails show how RFK Jr. ordered the end to flu vaccine promotion amid a bad flu season.
Readings from a scroll
Products claiming to detoxify vaccines sold in southern Utah. The sale of these products appeal to misinformation: Vaccines are not toxic.
Last year under President Donald Trump, US measles cases exceeded 2,000 for the first time since 1992. Six months into 2026, the US has already surpassed that threshold. Prolonged outbreaks exact a toll on children, who have spent days in hospitals for severe infections and missed weeks of school for mild ones. Adults with measles miss work. Parents delay day care to keep their babies safe. Doctors in Utah have enacted labor-intensive protocols to keep measles from spreading in clinics. Newborns and people with weakened immune systems who have been exposed to the virus receive infusions of concentrated antibodies costing $500 to $1,000. Medical visits for measles can cost more than $33,000 per patient. Health departments spend millions trying to curb infections.
2014 Tweet from Trump about an Ebola patient, saying "KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE"
The International Hantavirus Society has released an excellent summary with critical information about the transmissibility of Andes hantavirus (ANDV), which is linked to the ongoing cruise ship outbreak. With the rampant spread of misinformation, this two-page summary highlights what is known and unknown about the person-to-person transmissibility of Andes hantavirus. The statement is clear on several important points: i) person-to-person transmission of ANDV is not hypothetical; household clusters and nosocomial events do occur; ii) no evidence of efficient community transmission has been observed; and iii) the precise timing of infectiousness remains incompletely defined. The last point is of particular interest, since some public health agencies, including the US CDC, have already issued statements claiming that only symptomatic individuals can transmit the virus to others, despite the absence of definitive scientific evidence. That is simply not known.
Molly: For me, the Bund and Zionism represent these diametrically opposite answers to the question “What do you do with how fucking racist Europe is?” The Zionists were like: “You can’t do anything about it. These people just are racist. They just hate you. The only thing that you can do is you can leave, and you can get out of their claws.” Whereas the Bund was like: “Yes, it’s hideously racist here, but also it’s not genetic. It’s not that these Europeans are fundamentally evil. It’s because of these systems that blame Jews to take the heat off of the autocracy or off of the capitalists or off of the ruler. And we can actually fight alongside Russians or Poles or French or German people for a better world.”
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, who often disagreed with Dr. Malone, said the vice chair’s stated desire to step down to avoid drama “contrasts with his prior dramatic and confusing statements.” “It is good that Dr. Malone wishes now to decrease drama regarding vaccines,” Dr. Hibbeln said. Dr. Malone also feuded with the staff at the health department after the ruling. He claimed in social media posts that the administration would name new members to the committee rather than appeal the ruling.
A chart of ICE data showing a surge in the number of immigrants detained by ICE without a criminal record.
Key distinction number two: journalism vs. the media (vs. the press) I think of the media as the attention business, an industry whose product is audiences. Journalism is a social practice, the purpose of which is to keep publics informed and hold power to account. 7/ Most journalists are employees of the media, and thus part of the attention business. This creates endless problems and compromises, which I read and hear about nonstop. The press — to my way of thinking — is the institution that endures over time as journalists come in and out of it. 8/ Media, journalism, and the press are not interchangeable terms. Yet they are bound up with one another. Media is the attention industry Journalism is a social practice The press is a key institution in a democracy Put it all together: Journalists who work in the media carry forward "the press."
The agents were kind of on their way back to their car, an agent grabbed pepper spray out of this car, came to us, and methodically sprayed the intake vent. The two SUVs pulled forward for another 30 seconds. They stopped again. “The car is in park. You can go forward,” my friend yelled. She told me later she was thinking about Renee Good, and didn't want there to be any doubt in their minds that the car could drive into them. We put our hands in the air. The agent replied, “Shut the fuck up.” An agent came to my side and said, "You are under arrest." I just held my hands in the air and I waited for instruction. I didn't know if he wanted me to come out of the car or stay in the car. At one point, one said to my friend: “You need to stop. You need to stop obstructing us. That's why that lesbian bitch is dead.” Then he smashed the passenger window. Another agent smashed the driver window at the same time. The doors were unlocked, but he never attempted to open the doors. He just smashed the window. I was just thinking about Renee Good and what happened to her, and all I thought was I need to stay calm and make this agent feel safe. So I put my hands in the air and I slowed my breathing as much as I could, and it was very surreal and kind of out-of-body, but the smashing itself was loud and chaotic. (Later, when I was frisked in the detention facility, they found glass in my coat pocket.)
In preparation for the session, Dr. Daskalakis, the C.D.C.’s top infectious disease expert, said he asked agency scientists to assess the benefits and risks of thimerosal. Their 17-page report showed that while thimerosal in vaccines given to pregnant women had fallen steadily, autism rates were still rising, suggesting that the preservative was not to blame. The C.D.C. posted the report on its website the night before the meeting. But during the meeting, it suddenly disappeared. An explanation came from Dr. Robert Malone, a close ally of Mr. Kennedy’s and staunch opponent of Covid vaccines who now sits on the committee. “My understanding,” Dr. Malone said, “is that article was not authorized by the office of the secretary, and has been removed.” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview that he was not aware of the document.
This is the number of people who are exposed to bird flu who are tested. Those exposed are almost exclusively people on poultry or cattle farms. The number of those tested has remained the same since April.
Ali Rogin: The FDA is moving to remove these warning labels from hormone replacement therapy, citing the needless fear that it instilled in women. But the FDA is also calling for a label change to acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol, citing an association between use and pregnancy and autism in children, although no causal relationship has been established. Does the FDA have a consistent standard here in the application of these warning labels? And how do you respond to people who might see those two examples as contradictory? Dr. Marty Makary: So, first of all, no comparison whatsoever.
These ecological analyses identified positive correlations between autism/ASD prevalence and indicators of both prenatal and very early life paracetamol exposures. If these patterns are confirmed in formal epidemiologic studies, the use of paracetamol during pregnancy and at the time of circumcision may help to explain autism/ASD prevalence variations between the sexes, among countries, and within U.S. states and ethnic groups.
It is important to acknowledge that this analysis has numerous and significant limitations. First and foremost, correlation is not causation and as such no causal inference is intended. Homogeneity of exposure and prevalence assessment methodologies among the studies has been assumed, but each may be subject to misclassification, confounding and bias. The change in autism/ASD prevalence, circumcision prevalence and paracetamol usage rates over time may not have been adequately addressed. Circumcision rates are presented as a proxy for an early male neonatal exposure to paracetamol. However, this assumption is not without significant limitations. The timeline for the actual implementation of child pain management protocols and the utilization of paracetamol with circumcision is not known. Additionally, pain management guidelines suggest that paracetamol alone is not sufficient to manage circumcision pain so a nerve block or local anesthesia may also be administered, which may be confounding factors.
Citizen app video captured the chaotic scene, and neighbors say there were dozens of ICE agents. "As I got to my unit to stick my key in the door, I was grabbed by an officer. And, I said, 'What's going on? What's going on?' He never actually told me. He said I was being detained.," said Alicia Brooks. Neighbors like Eboni Watson say they ducked for cover as they heard several flash bangs. "They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
Brazzaville — Response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is accelerating, with a range of control measures being scaled up leading to quicker detection of the virus, early start of treatment and care, contact tracing, as well as vaccine rollout. Two weeks since the declaration of the outbreak on 4 September 2025, over 90% of contacts of confirmed cases are being monitored and followed up, from just 19% a fortnight ago. Monitoring of contacts is important for—among other measures—rapid detection, prompt isolation and quick initiation of treatment when Ebola symptoms appear. A total of 943 contacts are being followed up in Bulape health zone, the current epicentre of the outbreak. The goal is to disrupt the chain of transmission in the community. Sixteen patients are receiving treatment at Bulape treatment centre, where a 34-bed treatment centre has been set up with clinical care experts and therapeutics deployed to improve treatment. The first two patients to recover from Ebola were discharged on 15 September. Laboratory testing of samples is now being conducted on site in Bulape. Sample testing turnaround time has also significantly improved, with results now obtained within 4—6 hours, down from 4—5 days previously when samples would be shipped to Kinshasa To reduce community transmission as well as safeguard the health workers who are at most risk, a total of 523 frontline health workers in Bulape health zone and contacts have been vaccinated as of 16 September. Six teams are carrying out the vaccination. Around 45,000 additional doses of the Ervebo vaccines have been approved and an initial consignment of 2000 doses has been delivered. “While we’re witnessing important improvements in the response, we’re still in the early days of the outbreak. A determined action is vital to consolidate these positive steps, gain ground against the virus, end its spread and protect the population,” said Dr Mohamed Janabi, World Healt…
"While CDC scientists held their tongues, Kennedy exaggerated the power of nutrition and vitamin A while furthering mistrust in vaccines. “We’re providing vitamin A,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News. “There are many studies, some showing 87% effectiveness,” he claimed, “against serious disease and death.” The studies Kennedy referenced were conducted in low-income countries where children are malnourished. Evidence suggests that vitamin A supplementation is seldom useful against measles in the United States, because deficiency is exceedingly rare."
There are five primary, interconnected forces behind the assault on science and reason. We call them the “five Ps”: the plutocrats, the petrostates, the pros (eg paid promoters of anti-science), the propagandists and – with important exceptions – the media. Together they have generated a perfect storm of antiscientific disinformation that now threatens humanity.
Our analysis demonstrated evidence consistent with an association between exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy and offspring with NDDs, including ASD and ADHD, though observational limitations preclude definitive causation. This analysis, using the Navigation Guide methodology, synthesizes evidence from several population studies and supports an association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased NDD incidence, including ADHD, ASD, and other NDDs. While population-level trends in NDD rates have risen, potentially due to several factors including improved diagnostics and external exposures, further research is needed to confirm these associations and determine causality and mechanisms. A causal relationship is plausible because of the consistency of the results and appropriate control for bias in the large majority of the epidemiological studies, as well as acetaminophen’s biological effects on the developing fetus in experimental studies. Further, a potential causal relationship is consistent with temporal trends—as acetaminophen has become the recommended pain reliever for pregnant mothers, the rates of ADHD and ASD have increased > 20-fold over the past decades[6–108]. While this association warrants caution, untreated maternal fever and pain pose risks such as neural tube defects and preterm birth, necessitating a balanced approach. We recommend judicious acetaminophen use—lowest effective dose, shortest duration—under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk–benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation.
The director of the CDC’s chronic diseases center is gone. So are the heads of the centers on HIV, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis; on birth defects and disabilities; on public health infrastructure; and on occupational health and safety. So are the directors of the CDC’s office of science, office of health equity, and the office handling Freedom of Information requests. These leaders have been laid off by HHS or pressured to leave. Amid an outbreak of measles, HHS fired CDC scientists who specialize in respiratory diseases and infectious diseases. In June, Kennedy fired all the scientists who advise the CDC on vaccines and replaced them with researchers who lack relevant credentials and have spread misinformation. And even after the Covid pandemic exposed the critical need for data modernization at the CDC, the agency’s information center is now gutted, and funds for disease surveillance are cut. “CDC offices already have been closed and work has already ceased,” warned Fleming and other members of the advisory committee in a letter to Congress, obtained by KFF Health News. “Resources already appropriated by you for FY25 are not reaching states and localities, resulting in significant and ongoing disruption” of programs, it added. Such realities fly in the face of a new editorial from Kennedy, which explains the changes by arguing that the agency was overly bureaucratic, politicized, and “corroded” by “mission creep.” Kennedy lists priorities for the CDC moving forward: strengthening infrastructure to detect and respond to outbreaks; modernizing data systems; investing in the public health workforce; applying gold-standard science to vaccine recommendations; and empowering state and local health departments. Each of these stated priorities is contradicted by the drastic measures above, and cuts to public health funding more broadly.
"The agency then added layers of political review to the grant-making process that would rule out any research at odds with Mr. Kennedy’s “scientifically unsupported position that vaccines caused harm, including autism in children,” the complaints say. Even as it cut some vaccine research, the complaints said, the health department awarded $500 million in May to a universal vaccine project that many scientists said relied on badly outdated technology. "
"WHO Africa Briefing Please join us for a World Health Organization (WHO) Africa press briefing. The briefing is to provide an update on the outbreak of a suspected viral haemorrhagic fever in Kasai Province and the outcome of the ongoing investigations and immediate response measures. Health authorities, with support from WHO and partners, are mobilizing rapid response teams and emergency health supplies and equipment to quickly scale up disease surveillance, laboratory testing, infection prevention and control in health facilities, engaging communities to curb spread of infection. WHO experts will share the latest information, outline priority actions in epidemiology, laboratory, case management, and risk communication, and take your questions."
“The future is uncertain, and I know this is an unsettling time for many of us,” she wrote. “Every day we show up and do our jobs is an act of resilience.”
A bar chart shows the number of confirmed cases in Texas over time.
"Our Concerns About Mississippi’s Approach While we share the goal of protecting young people online, we have concerns about this law’s implementation: Broad scope: The law requires age verification for all users, not just those accessing age-restricted content, which affects the ability of everyone in Mississippi to use Bluesky. Barriers to innovation: The compliance requirements disadvantage newer and smaller platforms like Bluesky, which do not have the luxury of big teams to build the necessary tooling. The law makes it harder for people to engage in free expression and chills the opportunity to communicate in new ways. Privacy implications: The law requires collecting and storing sensitive personal information from all users, including detailed tracking of minors. What We’re Doing Starting today, if you access Bluesky from a Mississippi IP address, you’ll see a message explaining why the app isn’t available. This block will remain in place while the courts decide whether the law will stand."
"Mr. Kennedy has previously called the C.D.C. a “cesspool of corruption” and a fascist enterprise. He has accused the agency’s scientists of ignoring vaccine harms to children, comparing it to the Catholic Church’s coverup of child sex abuse. He has also disparaged the Covid-19 vaccine, calling it the “deadliest” vaccine ever made."
Homepage of climate.gov on June 23 on the wayback machine. It allows the public to look at trends in sea ice, CO2, glaciers and greenhouse gases over time.
Hello Guys, I know you and we have a stressful past week. Some of you is still in distress because you have lost your family members in this disaster back in home.Deeply condolence from me and all the students from CUNY Burmese . This situation made me realize one thing that how bless we are studying in the most prestige colleges and being in safe environment. Let's use this as the most beneficial way and not take for granted. Whatever filed you are studying , give it all the best you can so that in future we can help our country and educate the upcoming generations. I know all of us try hard ,study hard but whenever you feel lazy to study , just remember that we have a duty and future nurses, doctors, filmmakers,Finance specialists , Politicians ,Lawayers ,IT specialists and every others subjects that we in are all which will gonna be a part of good future for every aspects of our country.