Dr. Lucky Tran
@luckytran
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Science comms, public health, climate justice. Bylines @guardian @washingtonpost. @WHO Fides member. @grist Fixer. Opinions my own & don’t reflect my employer.
Joined June 2010
Brilliant protest. Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down American flag — traditionally a symbol of distress or a national threat — thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan.
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New Yorkers are lining up at 83rd and 2nd to buy chicken over rice to support Mohamed Hussein, the street vendor who was harassed by Islamaphobic former US State Department official Stuart Seldowitz. You gotta love this city ❤️
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We are witnessing the biggest global anti-war protests since the Iraq war in 2003.
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800 doctors submitted a letter of support of RFK Jr’s HHS secretary nomination. It turns out most signatories weren’t real doctors, or were doctors who had their licenses revoked or suspended. Using fake experts to create an illusion of credibility is a classic anti-vax tactic.
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A wise person once said that you will experience climate change through a series of increasingly wild videos, until you are the one taking the video.
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This is what many cities in the U.S. looked like before the EPA. Why the heck would anyone celebrate deregulating it?
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Imane Khelif sold scrap metal to pay for her boxing training, is a UNICEF ambassador, stood up against horrific bullying, and is now an Olympic champion.
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Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities in New York celebrating the Lunar New Year with a lion dance and calling for a ceasefire.
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The entire archive of all CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025 has been backed up on Internet Archive. Incredible work everyone. Science will never be silenced!
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Céline Dion has a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness called stiff person syndrome. There is no treatment and she has not performed in 4 years. She just opened the Olympics with this stunning performance. Magnifique.
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Coronavirus cases:.US - 1,482,916 .Russia - 281,752 .United Kingdom - 244,603 .Brazil - 235,331 . The four countries who are hardest hit by the pandemic are all run by right-wing, authoritarian governments.
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"Living with COVID" shouldn't mean getting reinfected with COVID over and over because the government doesn't want to try anymore.
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As someone who trains scientists to speak to the media for a living, I can tell you that if your talking points sound like eugenics, your problem isn't media training, it's ethics.
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Asheville is over 2,000 feet above sea level, and ~300 miles away from the nearest coastline. No place is safe from climate change. We all suffer the consequences. We must all take action. We are all in this together.
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It's a stunningly dangerous precedent to censure a member of Congress for speaking up about the mass killing of an ethnic group, who is part of that same ethnic group.
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"Our job is to play basketball. You've got people getting up at 6 am doing 12-hour shifts. Those guys are tired. For us, we’re playing a game…. We gotta keep that in perspective." — Josh Hart ❤️.
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A memo leaked to the Associated Press reveals that the White House has told the U.S. CDC to stop working with the WHO immediately. This breaks protocol which requires the approval of Congress and a one-year notice to leave the WHO.
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"I’m not traveling like this because I want everyone to do so, I’m doing this to send a message that it is impossible to live sustainably today & that needs to change. It needs to become much easier.". Great messaging by @GretaThunberg as usual! .#COP25.
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Universal masking and social distancing at the start of the pandemic were so effective that they eliminated a strain of flu, and now annual flu vaccines have been redesigned because that strain no longer needs to be included in the shot. Amazing.
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Let’s get this right. Scientists didn’t fail to communicate the risks of climate change, they have been warning us for a century. Our policies are failing because after knowing the risks, fossil fuel companies spent billions of dollars blocking meaningful action on climate.
Scientists failed for decades to communicate the coming risks of rapid sea-level rise to policymakers and the public, a new study has found.
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When factory workers are fired for leaving before a tornado. When teachers are scrambling on the floor for dollar bills to fund their classes. When healthcare workers are quitting from burnout because we refuse to stop a deadly virus. It's time to radically overhaul your society.
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I'm sorry, but I am not interested in any economic growth that is facilitated by the death and sickness of millions, or the destruction of the planet.
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Letting a single Trump appointee with no public health experience overrule the CDC in the middle of a deadly pandemic is not a good precedent for how we are going to handle future crises.
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100,000 deaths was an “incalculable loss,” but 1 million deaths is “learning to live with the virus.”. A masterclass in narrative control by the rich and powerful.
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This is unethical. Bosses are forcing employees to come into work sick with active COVID. This is why labor organizers need to incorporate public health into their demands.
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In the coming days, students, teachers, nurses and workers will be striking to demand safer working conditions. Do not gaslight them. Do not blame them. Do not cross the picket line. This is the time to show our support and solidarity. No one is safe until everyone is safe.
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For those who keep saying they don't understand why we are so focused on masks: Mask mandates are the policy that would instantly make a huge difference to the lives of higher risk people. It would mean they could go on public transport, access medical care, & other basic needs.
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Reminder: When you say that the pandemic now only affects "the unvaccinated," that includes kids.
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For those saying "there isn't much more the US government can do," look at what someone in Japan gets sent when they test positive for COVID so that they can recover and isolate. We need to push our leaders to do more, and stop excusing their inaction.
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Congratulations, scientists! You've made it through an entire year of being gaslighted by people who did their "research" on YouTube 🥳.
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A timeline of New York's destruction of public health.
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Historically, pandemics are a gateway into fascism. People are paranoid and crave discipline and order. It's strange watching it in real time. Instead of doing anything to question it or prevent it, people eagerly feast upon the boot pressed firmly on their necks.
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@MarcusRashford @England Taking a penalty in a cup final isn't real pressure. Real pressure is not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Thanks to @MarcusRashford millions of families around the country will feel slightly less pressure. Helping others is what true champions do ❤️
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I never want to hear anyone say that a Green New Deal is too expensive ever again.
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The fact that many people are relying on the Walgreens website and Yankee Candle reviews on Amazon in order to get reliable data about COVID surges shows you just how much our leaders have failed at building trust and communicating about the pandemic.
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COVID killed people in prisons at disproportionately higher rates, and has been the leading cause of US police deaths over the last few years. Yet, police officers are ripping masks off protestors.
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Universal mask wearing is not a lockdown. It’s the opposite: Mask mandates make society accessible to many more people, especially those at higher risk.
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Tonight I'm thinking of the 208,000+ Americans who died from COVID-19 because of the utter negligence and cruelty of this administration. They did not have access to the medical care or attention that the President is receiving now.
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COVID level: High. Business/Organization: No mask mandate, we are going by county guidelines. County: No mask mandate, we are going by state guidelines. State: No mask mandate, we are going by CDC guidelines. CDC: It’s up to local places to decide. Accountability: Zero.
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The pandemic doesn’t end until higher risk people can safely rejoin society.
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Telling people “you’re going to get infected, better get used to it” is not a public health message. It’s a message of complete government abandonment.
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According to a senior CDC official, some of the pages that were removed on Friday have been reinstated due to backlash from the scientific community and the public. Keep speaking up, it matters!.
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It's official: Mask ban in Nassau County, New York passes along party lines, 12-0 (7 abstentions). It makes wearing a mask a misdemeanor (with unclear health and religious exceptions) and gives police the power to fine people wearing a mask $1,000 and sentence them to jail time.
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We are not “learning to live with COVID”. When we give up on protecting our healthcare system, workers, the immunocompromised, and the vulnerable, in reality we are “surrendering to COVID”.
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I keep thinking about this headline. In May 2020 100,000 deaths was an incalculable loss. Yet we have now lost nearly 400,000 people to COVID in the US over the last year (Sep 2021 to Sep 2022), & "the pandemic is over.". This is what the normalization of mass death looks like.
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Scientists have been warning us for decades that prolonged extreme heatwaves and out of control disease outbreaks will become more frequent and deadly due to climate change. We need to completely change our ways of living instead of continuing our "back to normal" denial.
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It isn’t a coincidence that we are failing at controlling covid, monkeypox, and climate change all at the same time.
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We are not only seeing high levels of COVID, but we are also seeing surges in several respiratory viruses all at once. Masks work against all airborne viruses. Why are we willfully ignoring valuable lessons of the last two years just to go "back to normal"?.
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Can't wait until everyone complains that their flights are cancelled because all the staff are out sick with COVID
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It makes no sense that as COVID becomes more highly transmissible, the dominant policy has been to completely abandon masks, when the logical reaction should have been to do the opposite and increase mask protection by recommending and distributing N95s to everyone.
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The United Nations building surrounded by an apocalyptic orange sky is the perfect image for how world leaders have failed at stopping the climate crisis.
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The censorship begins: According to officials, the Trump administration is instructing health agencies including the CDC, FDA, NIH, and HHS to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts.
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If you are recommending masks instead of requiring them, that means you know what is the right thing to do, but you'd much rather placate a minority of selfish anti-maskers instead of protecting the health of the majority.
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Saying you "can't take COVID precautions forever" but also "people who are immunocompromised, disabled, elderly etc. can stay home to protect themselves" is completely ableist. We need policies like mask mandates & ventilation to keep society safe, open, & accessible to all.
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I don't know how many times we need to say this, but the transport mask mandate doesn't just apply to planes. It applies to buses and trains too. Millions who rely on buses and trains to get to work, and access essential services every day, will now be put at much greater risk.
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Almost 30% of all global COVID deaths a week are happening in the US, despite the US containing only 4% of the world's population. Yet, headlines are claiming COVID is under control in the US. American exceptionalism is deadly.
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This is big news that isn't being reported widely enough: The Supreme Court has ruled that the TSA can issue mask mandates on planes, trains and other forms of transport.
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Long before COVID appeared, everyone should have been staying home when they were sick, and wearing a mask when they really needed to go out anyway. It’s incredible that we are still struggling to do this in the midst of a pandemic that has killed millions.
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We are in the middle of the second-largest COVID surge of the pandemic. This decision is not based on science, it’s based on worker exploitation.
California health officials shorten COVID isolation period to 1 day.
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The CDC has instructed its scientists to retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal. The move aims to ensure that no “forbidden terms” appear in the work. Banned terms must be scrubbed.
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Pfizer says it will price Covid treatment Paxlovid at $1,390 for a five-day course, which researchers estimate only costs Pfizer $13 to produce. That's a 10,000%+ markup. Shameful.
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Saying "we can't mask anymore, because at some point we have to get back to normal" is racist. Asian countries have been masking for years. What is normal is taking collective action in order to protect others, especially those most vulnerable. #BringBackMasks.
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The White House is essentially saying that they don't like getting involved with public health policies. This is such a dangerous statement.
🇺🇸 2nd biggest wave of Covid Pandemic Jan 2024.“Make your own decisions, that’s not something we get involved in”
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According to the latest CDC COVID-19 wastewater data, we are currently in the second-biggest surge of the pandemic. It will peak in the next week, with ~2 million infections per day. During this surge, ~100 million people total (~1 in 3 people in the US) will likely get COVID.
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How Stevie Nicks responds to mask-shaming 🔥. "I dare anybody to give me a dirty look. I would just say, 'Hey, you know what? I’m Stevie Nicks. And if I get sick, my entire thing goes down. Forty families are out of work. So that’s why I have a mask on, asshole.'"
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This Japanese poster is around 100 years old. It reads: "The germs of the fearsome influenza! If you don’t wear a mask, you don’t value your life!". Japan's success with COVID can be traced back to the 1918 pandemic, while the West ignored key lessons & paid the price years later
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The world owes a lot to South Africa's incredible monitoring of variants. Many countries have been silent on genomic surveillance, because it is politically inconvenient to report a variant, & be (wrongly) blamed for it. But to end the pandemic, we need data & transparency.
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Violet Affleck: "To confront the Long COVID crisis I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers and mask mandates in county medical facilities. We must expand availability of tests and treatment.
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This is heartbreaking. Noah Lyles has asthma and is at higher risk for severe COVID. They had no preventative measures & let him race & collapse while sick with COVID. Lives & careers are being put at risk because governments & institutions insist on pretending COVID is over.
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GOOD NEWS: The US government has announced that it will again offer free at-home Covid tests starting in late September. You will be able to get 4 more free test kits sent through the mail.
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We are living in an age of denial. Denial of a genocide. Denial of an ongoing pandemic. Denial of a climate crisis. Acknowledging reality is an act of rebellion.
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Just days after the CDC weakened its COVID isolation guidelines, the White House is suspending its free home rapid test program. This week is your last chance to order free COVID rapid tests here:
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UPDATE: After advocates submitted thousands of comments, the rule passed!. US hospitals will be required to report key COVID, flu, and RSV hospitalization data again outside of public health emergencies, after initially ending the requirement earlier this year. Advocacy works!
Last month the requirement for US hospitals to report key COVID data to the federal government ended. This is reckless! But there's a rule that would reinstate hospital reporting requirements outside of public health emergencies. Comments close Jun 10! ➡️
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People at higher risk for severe COVID—the immunocompromised, disabled, elderly—have every right to take precautions and have every right to be angry. They are not "hysterical" or "risk averse." They are being intentionally excluded from society by bad pandemic leadership.
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The truth is that unless we rapidly reorganize society to center around the collective instead of the individual, we will continue to completely fail at dealing with global crises like COVID and climate change.
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The White House is not following the CDC’s COVID isolation guidance. They are actually going way beyond and telling people to stay home if they have tested positive within 10 days (ie. following what the science tells us). Very indicative.
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Breaking: Biden is announcing a COVID task force, which will be chaired by 3 scientists: former Surgeon General @vivek_murthy, former FDA Commissioner @DavidAKesslerMD and @Yale epidemiologist Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.
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Imagine if instead of making COVID isolation guidelines as weak as the flu. We approved combo rapid tests and made them free and available for everyone. So that people could tell how long they need to isolate based on science and not feelings, whatever the pathogen.
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Cops are not medical professionals. They should never be given the power to decide who can legally wear a mask for health reasons.
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When people get COVID, they should not have to work. They should get paid time off. Leaders should stop doubling down on toxic work culture, and provide sick pay and financial support for those impacted by COVID.
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Wearing a mask doesn't mean you're anxious. Wearing a mask means you're responsible.
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Western Australia just confirmed its *first* COVID-19 case in 10 months. The response? Full lockdown & mandatory masks. The US has had *hundreds of thousands* of new cases every day for several months. The response? Reopens indoor dining for Valentine’s & allows big weddings.
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The positive tests from DNC attendees are rolling in. The "surprise" guest was COVID.
"What is it like being in a room where four years ago this would have been a superspreader event?". There is so much misinformation in this interview. The DNC convention is a superspreader and happening during the peak of one of the largest summer COVID surges of the pandemic.
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2022 isn’t the year that we emerged from the pandemic. It’s the year we chose to normalize ignoring it and leaving the most vulnerable behind.
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Studies show white people are less likely to wear a mask, less worried about spreading COVID to others, and are less supportive of safety measures after learning COVID disproportionately harms communities of color. If you are a leftist that's ignoring COVID, what are you doing?.
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"It's up to individuals to decide their own risk tolerance" they say, while also taking away the tools like testing and case rate reporting that provide people with the data they need to actually understand what risks they are facing.
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10 INCREDIBLE ways to BOOST your immune system:. The Measles vaccine.The Mumps vaccine.The Rubella vaccine.The Tetanus vaccine.The Diphtheria vaccine.The Polio vaccine.The HPV vaccine.The Pneumonia vaccine.The Hepatitis B vaccine.The Covid-19 vaccine.
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Reminder: The tools that protect us from COVID — masks, air filters, and structural policies like expanded healthcare access — are the tools that we need to protect us from the climate crisis, which is causing a decrease in air quality and increase of disease outbreaks.
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This photo from 2020 continues to be the defining image of our time
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It’s so horrible for the FDA to announce an updated COVID vaccine and at the exact same time the CDC end the program that provides them for free to people who are uninsured and underinsured.
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The Trump admin has cancelled the panels that approve NIH grants, & is banning scientists from communicating with the public, attending conferences, & hiring. NIH is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research. This will halt discovery of lifesaving treatments. Devastating.
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A bald eagle dying of bird flu is an apt symbol for the state of the US in 2025.
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Sorry we couldn't fund COVID prevention and treatment, we've spent all our money funding genocide. - The US.
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Whether it's caused by an airborne virus, guns, or war, refuse to normalize mass death.
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