Laughing, language, health(MPH), equity, data-driven policy. I traffic in analogies, dot connecting. Population Health at @ourhospitals, but tweets my own
Mar 15, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
One of the most dangerous things about the administration's utter failure in mounting #covid19 testing is how it creates an environment in which the numbers contradict the facts, fueling not just confusion but complacency. 1/
With so few tests, and therefore so few positive tests, yet experts warning an avalanche of illness and death approaches, it creates a mental disconnect. If the documented cases better matched actual cases, it would be easier to process what's coming. 2/
Jun 20, 2019 • 26 tweets • 8 min read
It is impossible to overstate how inhumane and terrifying this is. The Trump administration simply doesn't believe migrants are people.
Reminder: You cannot ban abortion. You can only ban safe abortion.
Abortion rates in countries that outlaw abortion and those in countries where it is legal are statistically the same.
ALL the steps to reducing abortions lie in making more of them unnecessary: e.g., providing sex ed, contraception and healthcare, and reducing poverty, inequity, rape and domestic violence.
Mar 19, 2019 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
A short thread connecting the dots from one of the most useful articles I've ever read to one of the most important things I've learned from people of color on Twitter. 1/
First: this article is one of the most useful frameworks ever. It's short and great and you should read it. Still, I'll sum it up in a few tweets 2/ articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/07/op…
Mar 7, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Dr. Angela Diaz of @AdHealthCenter shares data on adolescent patients: high prevalence of trauma/abuse, correlated with running away, suicide attempts, substance abuse and many more negative outcomes. #SK19
Dr. Diaz underscores: we can cultivate *resilience* in young people who've experienced trauma, but cannot reverse the brain changes caused by childhood trauma. #SK19
Sep 6, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
"I work for the president but... colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations" says someone who let him wrench thousands of children from their parents with no plan to reunite them, leaving all traumatized & hundreds likely orphaned.
I finally got a chance to read this, and all I feel is sick.
There's a LONG list of health care experts who, interacting with the health care system themselves, find it a nightmare. Each one on that list is an alarm: it's EVEN WORSE for everyone else. Imagine if the people with power listened to the people with the nightmares & expertise.
I've been bookmarking some of these accounts for awhile now-- of physician-researchers, and others well-versed in health care, who nonetheless get mired in the morass of the US health care system, and often suffer for it.
Aug 22, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
"If he hadn't broken the law, police wouldn't have shot him"
"If they hadn't broken the law, the US government wouldn't have stolen their children"
"Sure the President broke the law but what's the big deal really"
Only certain crimes count. And the dividing line isn't, say, violent/not. It's *the kind of person* (race, wealth) who commits it. And as "criminals," they deserve whatever happens to them--even trauma, death. Other kinds of criminals? "Criminals?!" The mere accusation is unfair
Jul 27, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
What's more horrifying: Trump administration tricking/coercing parents into giving up their children, or that some people will excuse it, with "if they didn't want [to be tricked into giving away their kids], they should've crossed the border legally." pbs.org/newshour/amp/n…
Many of these parents DID cross the border legally, to seek asylum, and STILL had their children taken. But those who didn't? The penalty for misdemeanor improper border crossing isn't *having your children taken miles away, indefinitely.* In fact, it's *usually* a $10 fine.
Jul 23, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Read this thread. Feel the churning in your gut. And stay angry. And LOUD.
FOUR HUNDRED parents deported while the US government keeps their children. NINE HUNDRED parents deemed "ineligible" to be reunited with the kids the US government took. These are human rights abuses. This is torture.
Hey who called it Fox News instead of the White Noise Machine?
I guess I'm supposed to use the "what idiot" joke formulation.
Jul 2, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The unfounded fear that vaccines cause autism (they don't!) is largely rooted in a fraudulent study (that led to the author's medical license being revoked). The "debate" about vaccine safety isn't a debate at all; it's mostly a panic resulting from a dangerous lie.
Comprehensive sex ed (and access to condoms) doesn't lead to more sex (just safer sex). And abstinence-only sex ed doesn't lead to less sex (just less safe).
The news includes 2 black men arrested for sitting at Starbucks, and a 14-year-old black boy shot at for knocking on a door. And many of us are silently or vocally grateful none of the 3 ended up dead. THAT'S where we are with race in the US.
Often, "how did this [egregiously racist thing] happen?" is "fuck up at multiple levels" (eg, by Starbucks AND the cops). That often leads to parties evading accountability, when it should be cause to hold ALL parties accountable for their roles. THAT'S how systems change.
Mar 21, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Strange how many of the same people who say mass shooting victims "should've had guns" say of black men killed by cops "well, the cop thought he had a gun."
There is NO excuse for cops shooting a man 20x when he's holding a cell phone. The prevalence of guns exacerbates the impact of racial bias in policing. With SO MANY guns, "I thought it was a gun" feels true, letting too many scared/racist cops take lives.
