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Mother Jones •

Palantir has a hand in NIH's most ambitious health initiative

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes, and to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier,” Obama said with confidence. “We can do this.” He was met with applause. That announcement introduced the National I...
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The populist Paralympian who wants to roll into the Senate

It was the final quarter of a US men’s national wheelchair basketball game at the Tokyo Paralympics against Turkey in 2021. Josh Turek was benched for most of the game. Fouled soon after coming in, Turek sank both his free throws to widen the US’ two-point lead in a game it went on to win. Turek, who played in all eight US men’s games at that year’s Paralympics—the team went on to win gold—had no complaints about sitting out most of the game. Ryan Neiswender, Turek’s teammate on that squad, call...
Mother Jones •

The new frontiers of aging

Daniel Reilly takes 19 pills in the morning and 13 at night. He lives with hemophilia and HIV, which he contracted in the 1980s. No one expected him to live this long. In most respects, that’s a blessing—the product of generations of extraordinary medical advances. But it also means there are entire medical specialties he can’t find.  “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as [a] geriatric hematologist,” Reilly, who is 58 and retired, told me: a physician who would know what it means to age...
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Home care wasn't ready for the climate crisis—even before Trump's Medicaid and FEMA cuts

In 1981, Congress amended the Social Security Act to help millions of disabled people and older adults move out of institutions. Through home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers, some 7 million Medicaid recipients now receive support that lets them stay in their communities. But after years of neglect under both parties, experts fear that sweeping cuts to both Medicaid and FEMA—especially under the GOP’s most recent budget bill—may be the final straw for the often small, privatized, and...
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ASL interpreters are unionizing—and they say they're getting fired for it

On a quick break between calls, Kathleen’s coworker asked her where she could learn more about unionization efforts at their company. Check Instagram, she replied. Kathleen’s manager quickly came over to reprimand her; two days later, she was fired. Workplace crackdowns on union activity are a familiar story; most go unchecked. But Kathleen’s employer has drawn fire repeatedly from members of Congress. Kathleen worked for ZP Better Together, one of the two major American video relay service pr...
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New England cherishes its local elections—but many disabled voters are locked out

Kate Larose will not be able to participate in Vermont’s Town Meeting Day. Vermont is home to one of the oldest and most cherished forms of local election in the country: town meetings, a day-long form of deliberative democracy that reads as the antidote to authoritarianism. It’s the kind of American tradition the White House seems to be at war with. Every first Tuesday of March, Vermonters participate in their local town’s elections via floor votes, long conducted entirely in person in states...
Mother Jones •

Turns out fighting fascism helps you live longer

Terri Williams, who lives in northern Texas, started volunteering as a high schooler in the mid-1970s—at first for Planned Parenthood, educating people about birth control. In retirement, she hasn’t stopped. Linda McMahon’s 2024 nomination as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education, a prelude to attempts in dismantling the department, led Williams to double down on her efforts, which now center on helping elementary schoolers excel.
Mother Jones •

Welcome to the new era of Covid vaccine tourism

In 2021, as the first wave of Covid vaccines became more available to the general population in the US, international travelers from Latin America and elsewhere came to the country to get the lifesaving shot. At the time, an array of federal subsidies and guarantees made it possible for almost anyone to immunize themselves against Covid at little or no up-front cost—a safety net that saved countless lives. Then, this year, the Trump administration—pandering to anti-vaccine activists—rolled back...
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RFK Jr. is getting personal authority over who to kick off of Medicaid

Freddie Elmore hasn’t worked for around 20 years. Now, he’s trying to figure out how, and if, he can return to the workforce—not because he thinks he can do so while managing his health, but because he is concerned that he will lose Medicaid. To retain Medicaid coverage, Elmore, who lives with disorders including central pain syndrome and Long Covid, may soon have to work at least 80 hours a month—while caring for his autistic son 49 hours a week, commitments he’s afraid he won’t be medically a...
Mother Jones •

The 4chan-coded ideology behind Elon Musk's war on normies

In September, Elon Musk amplified a post from Autism Capital—a pro-Trump X account that he often reposts—that read: “Only high T alpha males and aneurotypical people (hey autists!) are actually free to parse new information with an objective ‘is this true?’ filter. This is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. Democratic, but a democracy only for those who are free to think.” Musk called the claim, which originated on the infamous web forum 4chan, an “interesting obser...
Mother Jones •

Forced sterilization of disabled people isn't a relic of the past

“In order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence,” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the majority in 1927’s Buck v. Bell, the state could—and should—”prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.” Forced sterilization, the court held, was not only legal but laudable. In 1924, 17-year-old Carrie Buck was institutionalized, having been deemed “feebleminded” on the grounds of “promiscuous” behavior. In reality, Buck was raped by her foster family’s...
Mother Jones •

Project 2025 would make workplace discrimination a lot easier

Only some 40 percent of disabled people are employed. But even that low figure is buoyed by federal laws against employment discrimination—a target of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s roadmap for a right-wing transformation of government by a second Trump White House. A key institution for the just treatment of disabled workers is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal bans on workplace discrimination. Viewed with distaste by many on the right since its found...
Mother Jones •

Disability advocates are winning the right to plain language voting

When Daniel Francis enters a voting booth, ballot measures can be very anxiety-inducing: Many are above his reading level. “If it’s using words that I don’t understand, I just kind of rush on to answer, whether I know what it means or not,” says Francis, who lives with mental disabilities including autism and ADHD. Francis likes voting at the polls without assistance, as it’s a way for him to feel independent.
Mother Jones •

New Hampshire's GOP are taking a stand—against the polio vaccine

New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in childcare to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only state in the US to have such a law, although many states allow religious exemptions to vaccin
Mother Jones •

Millions of Americans will soon lose web access. That's a crisis for rural health.

On New Year’s Eve 2021, the federal government launched the Affordable Connectivity Program, which has helped over 20 million American households afford internet access with monthly subsidies of $30 (or up to $75 on some tribal lands). But funding for the program is set to run out in April unless Congress acts by Friday—depriving many of those homes of vital resources, especially access to online telehealth.
Mother Jones •

What we lose by armchair diagnosing Biden and Trump

Last week, a special counsel report looking into President Biden’s handling of classified documents described the president’s memory as “poor,” with “significant limitations.” Speculation about Biden’s cognitive state immediately followed. In its coverage, Fox News featured a doctor—not Biden’s—who said the president had symptoms of age-related dementia. Also stopping by the network was Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who said Biden either had dementia or should be charged with a crime. Some Democr
Mother Jones •

Will California keep funding sickle cell care?

In June 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the state’s annual budget into law—which that year included around $15 million (of some $215 billion total) to create and fund a statewide network of treatment centers for sickle cell disease, with training for health workers and improved diagnostic screening. Sickle cell disease, a group of rare genetic disorders characterized by abnormal hemoglobin, can be very painful, cause reduced life expectancy, and involve complications like severe anemi
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