Brian Vastag

Former science reporter at The Washington Post and elsewhere. Disabled by complex chronic post-viral illness. Living on #Kauai #Hawaii. Grew up in Wisconsin. Occasional SCUBA diver.

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brianvastag_at_sciencemastodon.com@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-08-17 06:28:09

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@npub1n3f…vxat Jazz trombonist Ray Anderson heartily agrees.
https://youtu.be/-BZNYJ_VPuY?si=fsHl6sOAtrI3_8H6

2024-07-25 03:23:10

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@npub1h56…ch5t Still waiting to see my first trombonefish.

2024-07-25 02:45:51

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Trumpetfish: Why the long face buddy?

2024-07-14 19:38:40

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@npub1h56…ch5t Drone shot?

2024-07-13 21:26:38

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@npub154x…usd7 What information? That Biden authorized FEMA aid?
https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240712/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-amends-texas-major-disaster-declaration

2024-07-12 22:17:20

Trump punished states that didn't vote for him.
Biden just quickly promised aid to Texas after Hurricane Beryl.
But it's not breaking norms or exciting so I doubt any political editors will take a second glance at it and few people will learn about it.
#USpol #journalism

2024-07-02 04:06:35

The story of Hawaii's future is private property vs public good vs rising seas. The state's approach is...piecemeal, to put it politely.
#climate #hawaii
https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/06/repair-or-retreat-an-ocean-battered-maui-condo-complex-grapples-with-an-uncertain-future/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

2024-06-18 00:25:16

Really enjoying this young German jazz/fusion musician Joshua Milo, who Spotify served up to me. Sometimes the algorithm finds good stuff.
#music #jazz
https://youtu.be/KQyaBICRzmw?si=Kg-qnTEekSpYDBS4

2024-06-16 02:59:54

Making more this I'm using. Always a nice feeling. I tend to run the washer/dryer and dishwasher mid-day because it's free free free.
(Green is consumption, blue is generation.)
#solar #PV #energy #climate
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/624/059/226/019/340/original/230e10fb221e5c1c.png

2024-06-12 02:49:01

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@npub1uce…950w Well I'm fond of the Post because they hired me and provided a salary for food and rent and stuff.

2024-06-12 02:14:32

WaPo splashing HUNTER BIDEN GUILTY on the homepage in 48 point type reminds me of the day Don Graham, then the publisher & CEO, stood over a layout person's desk and said "BIGGER!" as they keyed in a headline about the Fukushima meltdown.

2024-06-11 17:32:12

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Patient advocate Karyn Bishof is talking now but she's talking too fast for me to provide any notes.

2024-06-11 17:26:36

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Fineberg says their definition should be used by Social Security and other social safety net programs.
Definition needs to be updated as science progresses.
Committee recommendations: Definition should be adopted by everyone working on long covid; federal, state, local governments; medical societies; care providers, etc. "We believe this definition deserves wide dissemination and implementation."

2024-06-11 17:23:55

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NAS defintion of long covid does *not* require a positive home or laboratory test for SARS-CoV-2, given the high prevlence of false negatives.
Requires 3+ months of symptoms.

2024-06-11 17:17:56

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He emphasizes long covid can follow asymptomatic, mild, or severe infections, and that the infection may be unrecognized. He also emphasizes it can affect anyone.
Can be mild or severe, may resolve or persist.
There is currently no biomarker that can definitively ID long covid, he says.
Can impair ability to work, attend school, care for themselves.

2024-06-11 17:16:01

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Chair of the NAS committee Harvey Fineberg: Defintion of long covid says the condition can be continuous, relapsing-remitting, or progressive.
I feel like I haven't heard many people talk about *progressive* long covid.

2024-06-11 16:43:35

In 20 minutes (1 pm Eastern), the National Academies is holding a webinar (awful word) to release their report called *A Long COVID Definition: A Chronic, Systemic Disease State with Profound Consequences*
https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/42882_06-2024_report-release-webinar-a-long-covid-definition
#LongCovid #medicine #ChronicIllness

2024-06-06 18:22:14

‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame.
"Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma...a lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases."
https://wapo.st/3Kvhb9d
#covid #medicine

2024-05-26 19:33:08

Deciding not to vote in the US as a protest against the system is like dropping out of school to show how smart you are.

2024-05-21 18:56:21

Wow, tickets for Dead & Company at The Sphere in Vegas next week are as low as $100 on stub hub. Tempting.
I'm not a huge Deadhead, more Deadhead adjacent, but I once ate a taco with Billy Kruetzmann and his wife so feel a special kinship.
#music #DeadAndCompany #Vegas

2024-05-19 17:35:10

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@npub1pln…zdmx It's called the North Shore! To locals at least. Beautiful area.

2024-05-19 02:09:04

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@npub15dz…hthf This is one big reason I enjoyed being a science reporter: Discovery stories are inherently hopeful and they tend to be well-read at general news sites despite the usually woeful investment in the beat.

2024-05-19 00:59:51

I was poking around the rugged south shore of Maui today when a young boy came up to me and said, "Do you want this?" I did.
#gifts #shells #hawaii
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/465/042/457/771/123/original/bd50e889095a1ca7.jpg

2024-05-18 21:11:14

At an airport yesterday a woman spent 45 minutes on a work call forcefully saying "AI" every third word.

2024-05-18 21:09:17

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@npub19xe…x896 Great spot for watching surfers and turtles and sunsets.

2024-05-18 18:27:37

Count the turtles (my friend got up to 57 before deciding it was impossible because they're on top of each other and moving around).
#Hawaii #Maui #Beach #Reptile #Turtle
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/463/501/875/290/505/original/dca9c6cb79e41308.jpg

2024-05-18 01:15:27

Front of my 🧠 : Believing a car rental agency that uploading my driver's license will allow me to 'skip the line' & go to straight to the car.
Back of my 🧠 : Uh dude you've lived in Hawaii long enough to know this will never work.
Back of the 🧠 wins again!

2024-05-17 21:25:07

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@npub1c2n…4ge3 A flight over might be cheaper.

2024-05-17 21:18:05

A new local coffee shop has a...$19 pour over.
I like supporting local businesses but these are Zuckerberg prices (although I doubt he makes the big 10-mile trip all the way down to Kapa'a.)

2024-05-17 20:46:31

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@npub1urf…hseg You can find plenty of stories of people getting turned down by these companies.

2024-05-17 19:46:03

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@npub1urf…hseg The companies require a remote consult with an MD, who gives a prescription if deemed appropriate. So it's not recreational in this case.

2024-05-17 19:40:35

Learned last night that people in the US can now mail-order prescription ketamine from several vendors, and as someone who began reporting on psychedelic medicine back in 2001, I'm not so sure about this. The companies typically send you the pills and say they'll have someone on a video call with you during the ketamine experience. But after reading reviews, the guides seem barely-trained & dosages are all over the place. Not super-duper great IMO.
#medicine #psychiatry #ketamine

2024-05-17 17:28:18

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@npub15v4…35m8 A system designed by corporations that make money from debt...

2024-05-17 17:27:02

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@npub1ztj…vflw Gorgeous fish

2024-05-17 00:30:30

My #cat meditates to Schubert.
#cats #catsofmastodon #music #piano
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/453/601/600/077/229/original/091c8ba0d1a46729.mp4

2024-05-16 23:39:15

My friend put me in a group chat with a bunch of strangers who are just phone numbers exchanging ultrasound fetus pics and no I did not ask for this.

2024-05-16 23:34:49

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@npub189n…satx I'm disabled and live off of Social Security Disability Insurance. Not looking forward to the anxiety of possibly losing it.

2024-05-15 22:59:49

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China insisting that the single most conflicted international scientist in the matter, EcoHealth director Peter Daszak, lead the WHO investigation into COVID-19 origins was Machiavellian.

2024-05-15 22:58:04

DHHS suspends grants to EcoHealth Alliance, saying they failed to adequately monitor coronavirus experiments in China.
Watching my former colleagues in the science journalism world present any challenge to the wet market hypothesis of SARSCov2 emergence as nothing but Sinophobia was discouraging.
U.S. halts funding to virus research organization linked to pandemic probes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/05/15/ecohealth-hhs-funding-covid
/

2024-05-15 04:55:19

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@npub1efz…58zc Some ancient Greek person who probably also named their children "Snickers" and "Whatchamacallit."

2024-05-15 04:35:32

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@npub1zsx…zcfs Why do you need to tell them at all? If they're invested in the idea, why not let them have it?

2024-05-15 01:47:34

"Hollywood Con Queen" on #Apple #TV was an engaging watch. I appreciated how the reporter who brought the vast con to light feeling so conflicted about the perpetrator as he got to know them.
tl;dr - Hundreds of aspiring actors, photographers, etc were lured into a scheme to pay for travel & martial arts lessons & the like by a con artist pretending - very effectively - to be various powerful women in Hollywood.

2024-05-14 06:29:47

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Currently watching an episode with Screamin Jay Hawkins, Bob Weir, a guy who plays spoons, and John Lurie.

2024-05-14 06:22:05

Given the news of the death of #jazz saxophonist David Sanborn, I've been watching so,e olf episodes of his short-lived live TV show, "Night Music." He got everyone to join him despite the show only running 44 episodes in 1989-90, including, yes, Miles. Goth rock, country, avant garde, punk...Sanborn smuggled it all onto network TV.
#music #TV
https://youtu.be/TIVaXHMt5mA?si=Vv7_fQVBT7kSzzMR

2024-05-14 05:41:37

I would like a $12,000 EV that would be perfect for the small island where I live but Biden admin is putting a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs and American EVs cost $10,000,0000.
https://apnews.com/article/china-byd-auto-seagull-auto-ev-cae20c92432b74e95c234d93ec1df400

2024-05-13 17:58:44

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@npub1tah…4mlz That's too bad. He was a gateway into classic jazz for me.

2024-05-13 04:33:17

Hoping for a global catastrophe to get out of having to make a big decision.

2024-05-12 21:27:40

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@npub1sfl…gczt It seemed to start a year or two ago.

2024-05-12 21:25:49

Still extremely weird to me that people now say "Happy Mother's Day" to anyone and everyone like it's Christmas.
I've had four today.

2024-05-12 20:48:31

#Aurora seen in #Hawaii for first time in a century.
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/northern-lights-seen-in-hawaii-first-time-in-over-a-century/amp/

2024-05-11 02:48:56

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@npub1h55…jfjp People are seeing it in Alabama and Georgia tonight.

2024-05-11 02:46:44

This geomagnetic storm is so intense I'm wondering if we *might* see some faint aurorae at 22 degrees north...not much light pollution out here.

2024-05-10 00:12:01

Solar storms incoming. I did some reporting on scientists trying to predict how damaging these events could be a while back and was surprised to learn that not only can they affect radio comms & power lines but trans-polar airliners often have to divert to more southerly routes & induced current can damage & weaken oil pipelines.
So...let's hope the sun god isn't *too* angry this time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/05/09/sun-storm-flares-cme-aurora-lights/

2024-05-09 22:07:23

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@npub13aw…kayf Oh yeah I'll always wear a KN95 or better while here.

2024-05-09 22:04:54

Welp the last little pocket of #covid sanity has collapsed. The infusion center I go to regularly just eliminated mandatory masking. One nurse out of eighth I can see is wearing one. And I'm the only patient of four masking.
I kinda thought it'd be a permanent policy in a roomful of cancer patients and other sick people. Nope.
#healthcare
#

2024-05-09 05:54:11

Anyone have any guesses as to why #Russian botnets work so hard to deny the existence of so-called Havana Syndrome???
What a mystery. (60 Minutes & Insider reported recently on evidence that a Russian military unit is behind some of the incidents.)
https://theins.press/en/news/271400

2024-05-09 00:31:52

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@npub1xwt…zcsy I've lived in Hawaii 10 years and it was only my second "get outta deez islands" interaction I've had.

2024-05-09 00:04:58

I lost my temper on social media yesterday so today no cookie.

2024-05-08 04:04:13

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@npub1w52…rqkr Lessee, I moved here because I'm disabled. My partner died in December. And I'm getting priced off the island.
You: GO HOME HAOLE

2024-05-08 03:31:55

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@npub1w52…rqkr I've lived here 10 years so kindly fuck off.

2024-05-08 03:15:14

1000 sq ft 2BR house on Kauai now goes for ...$3450.
Landlord greed knows no end. The county has been trying to build moderate income housing, and has built some, but it's a struggle.
#housing #Hawaii
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/403/288/672/542/846/original/4aef6afadd625c22.png

2024-05-08 02:55:50

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It's clear from the info I saw that Kalmbach is winding down, corporate speak for calling it quits.
Will be interesting to see if Discover survives.

2024-05-08 02:50:25

Just learned that Kalmbach Publishing of Wisconsin has sold most of its hobbyist magazines (Model Railroader & the like) and is looking for a buyer for Discover magazine.
Kalmbach is 90 years old & a relative of mine drew model train layouts for them for *his entire career.* Bygone era going buh-bye now.
#media #magazines #Discover

2024-05-08 00:17:14

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@npub1qyn…gc4x There will be immense pressure for a fix.... elections, etc. will matter here.

2024-05-07 23:38:52

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@npub1zpz…6530 I sympathetize. Have spent many days of my life waiting for O'Hare delays.

2024-05-07 23:35:09

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@npub1zpz…6530 Midwest spring storms: O'Hare delays
Midwest winter storms: O'Hare delays
Midwest any other time: O'Hare delays

2024-05-07 21:48:51

My therapist has canceled two appointments in three weeks because her kids are always sick. I appreciate her not wanting to expose her clients but...I don't know how families navigate this new kids-always-sick world.

2024-05-07 19:26:34

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@npub1y3s…346h Turns out they're saying, "Se hablas ingles?" (Stolen from Gary Larson)

2024-05-07 17:27:50

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@npub1kz5…ysxq Egregiously overhyped press release. I've been on LDN 11 years. Helps with some symptoms but nothing like a cure.

2024-05-07 16:44:33

Some figures struck me from this piece: California spends $100m a year hardening infrastructure against #climate disasters. And they're spending the same amount to repair one stretch of Hwy 1 near Big Sur right now.
Probably going to have to let the highway collapse in places rather than trying to fix it. Terrain there is unforgiving.
Why Highway 1 is the climate challenge that California can’t fix
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/07/california-highway1-climate-change-landslide
/

2024-05-07 03:36:15

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@npub1fh6…zu76 I remember writing the "Mauna Loa hits 400ppm" story in May 2013. Not long ago at all.

2024-05-07 02:27:34

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@npub1de2…8vdd commentator: "They never call that. What a great acting job." lolol

2024-05-07 02:06:44

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#NBA reffing makes NFL reffing look like a model of integrity and consistency.

2024-05-07 02:06:09

Refs hand the Knicks the win. Lol.
"That is a great acting job," says commentator.
#NBA #sports

2024-05-06 21:02:58

God bless the creatures, even this thing, whatever it is.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/396/163/601/444/387/original/ab0ed6c4505e85a5.jpg

2024-05-06 17:09:09

Saw somebody say that yelling on social media accomplishes something and...well yes, you get to yell.

2024-05-04 19:10:34

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@npub1qyn…gc4x In month five after losing my partner. Can hard relate.

2024-05-04 02:24:36

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@npub1jla…zr22 of course we constantly joked that they didn't want to ruin morale by letting us know that only 12 people read our stories..

2024-05-04 00:38:19

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@npub1f4p…u5dl When I worked at WaPo a decade ago I was so grateful the editors kept us reporters largely shielded from metrics. If it was top read, we'd see it on listed, otherwise pretty much nada.

2024-05-04 00:27:59

A Truck Trundles By: A Play in Two Acts
#cat #cats #caturday (in Europe)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/379/979/749/614/022/original/6fcb48b2b67b3c82.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/379/980/250/410/486/original/7796bfae8f8c1e3f.jpg

2024-05-03 17:51:37

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The song I shared, "Sometimes," is one of the poppier songs during this show. The rest of it is pretty fusion-y.

2024-05-03 17:50:32

Discovered this young German #jazz / #fusion musician Joshua Milo last night. He's clearly listened to a lot of the best stuff in the genre from the 70s and 80s. His band is killer too.
#music #videos #bands
https://youtu.be/KQyaBICRzmw?si=TtqxDQBZbriFmnuL&t=2821

2024-05-03 16:39:37

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Someone has made dozens of these.
https://youtu.be/4tw6XnG1oXs?si=3PpIoIDBEIXoyfKw

2024-05-03 16:37:53

I watched a bunch of "Super 70mm Panavision" AI-generated highly stylized movie trailers of films like Dune, Star Wars, LOTR etc. The first four or so were mesmerizing. Then it felt like I had eaten a bag of Cheetos and I got a little nauseous & I never need to see them again.

2024-05-03 07:16:57

This morning I woke up wanting to remember the name of someone I worked with in 1999. Totally blank until now, an hour before bed, and I remember it. Fuck yeah, brain.

2024-05-03 03:14:31

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@npub1t76…4l63 my friend is a news editor over there...a curious & rare cockup. i'll mention it to him.

2024-05-03 03:11:45

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@npub1h56…ch5t poke not so cheap anymore

2024-05-03 02:51:32

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@npub16q0…9v64 i mean...what would happen if...thousands of people spammed it?

2024-05-03 01:32:31

#Hawaii is walking into a store for three things, walking out two minutes later and the vehicle (windows down of course) has been drenched by a shower that's already over. It's like movie set rain with and one-off button.

2024-05-02 17:00:08

Big congrats to Jaime Seltzer, scientific director of @npub1cvm…f5nx for being named to Time magazine's new Health 100 (which they oddly render as TIME100 Health), one of the 100 most influential people in American #health and #medicine. Well earned.
https://www.meaction.net/2024/05/02/meactions-jaime-seltzer-selected-for-time100-health-2024/?mc_cid=87c5bb8c63&mc_eid=70638fc8c9

2024-05-02 16:11:43

I am trying to remember the name of someone I worked with 25 years ago and chatGPT isn't helping me at all. Shut it down.

2024-05-02 03:04:31

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@npub1p5l…tqn2 I feel like if I understood the words, the video would still be incomprehensible because German "humor."

2024-05-01 19:06:18

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@npub1f7z…j038 thinking of driving up that way today

2024-05-01 19:05:27

So many of my friends with #ChronicIlness are experiencing relapses, exacerbations, downturns, and other very unpleasant fuckery.
I don't know what's going on but I don't like it at all.

2024-05-01 18:04:22

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@npub16v7…qj7w I'm not sure who you're talking to, I didn't call menopause a disease.

2024-05-01 17:13:47

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Cathy DeAngelis threatened to close down the entire news section, which at that time employed about six or eight people. She was going to shitcan all of us, and close down the most-read section of the journal, because she had failed to do something she claimed to do - read every JAMA article before it went to print. If she had been paying attention, she would have seen my piece and held it. 6/

2024-05-01 17:12:32

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The day it published, my boss, JAMA's news editor in Chicago, told me that the journal's editor-in-chief, Cathy DeAngelis, had gone fully thermonuclear. She was incensed because, unbeknownst to me or my editor, JAMA was preparing to print the research paper with the data used to halt the WHI.
I had scooped my own journal. 5/

2024-05-01 17:10:54

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I wrote a story titled, "Hormone Replacement Therapy Falls Out of Favor With Expert Committee."
It was a scoop - no other reporter had been at the symposium. I was proud. It was my job to get scoops...right? RIGHT??? 4/

2024-05-01 17:10:01

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One of the talks was stunning: The WHI - a huge study with thousands of participants - was being shuttered early, as the Data Safety Monitoring Board had seen a signal of increased risk of breast cancer. The risks outweighed the benefits of HRT, they said. 3/

2024-05-01 17:06:31

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From 2000-2004, I was JAMA's Washington news person. I covered research & some policy. In 2002, I saw NIH was holding a symposium on the Women's Health Initiative, a major federally-funded study of HRT in women. I went up to NIH and sat in the auditorium and took notes - ya know, being a reporter. 2/