University of Delaware professor. Medical and science writer. bsky.app/profile/dfallik.bsk…

Joined March 2009
91 Photos and videos
Dawn Fallik retweeted

N95 Masks Nearly Perfect at Blocking COVID, UMD Study Shows Researchers Found Even Lower-Performing Masks Were Protective. The science is clear respirators are effective when used. today.umd.edu/n95-masks-near…
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
We knew this 5 years ago, Goddammit! #LongCovid My husband did not call scientists from different countries, run around like a crazy man trying to find a dye, take my blood & test it personally to find microclots in the year of our Lord 2021 for you people to call it breaking news in 2026! @resiapretorius has been on this case for more than half a decade now!
BREAKING🚨: People with COVID now have sticky micro-clots in their blood
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
Heard it’s the 4-year anniversary of Tom Holland’s most iconic screen role so here are my academic drawings 😇
You know how Degas did studies of ballerinas? Well I do studies of Tom Holland performing Rihanna’s Umbrella ayyyyy 😂
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
I feel furious and utterly devastated. I've looked up to Nitasha my whole career and have been jealous of her scoops for as long as I can remember
My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely love(d) my job, my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting at the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
The Boston Globe has some truly great jobs open, including a sports investigative reporter and a food editor. If anyone affected by Post layoffs wants to talk about working here or freelancing for the Sunday magazine, reach out.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
anyone looking to freelance after today's Washington Post layoffs: I'm the editor of Discourse, the magazine arm of Business Insider. I'd love to talk: zjason@insider.com.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
for any Washington Post people left dangling: I'm always looking for pitches for the Voices section of @theintercept. Op-eds, reporting with a viewpoint, more. feel free to reach out any time: katherine.krueger@theintercept.com
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
For those of you looking for freelance work in the wake of WaPo layoffs: I'm an editor at large overseeing Ideas & Culture at Bloomberg, including our Books coverage. Find me at skillingswo2@bloomberg.net
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
Six Years and Six Winters Without Getting Sick I haven’t been sick since 2018. No flu. No colds. No COVID. Nothing. Same for my wife. Same for my son. Six winters. Six holiday seasons. While people around us got hammered by one infection after another, we stayed healthy. There’s no fucking secret. We wore masks, everywhere. Not those useless blue surgical masks that leave gaps the size of freight trains around your cheeks. Not the limp cloth things that might as well be made of tissue paper. Real respirators. N95s and KN95s that actually seal to your face and filter the goddamn air you breathe. Here’s what they don’t tell most: There’s a significant difference between a mask and a respirator. A surgical mask is just fancy fabric that catches, well, spit. An N95 has an electrostatic charge that grabs particles and holds them. Think about rubbing a balloon on your head and watching your hair stick to it. That’s the science working to keep viruses out of your lungs when you breath, instead of letting them waltz right in. I know a nurse. Seventy-three years old. She worked in a busy family practice through the worst of the pandemic. Small exam rooms. Sick patients all day long. She wore an N95 every single shift until she retired last year. Guess what? She never caught COVID. People want this to be complicated. They want it to be about genetics or expensive supplements or some elaborate wellness routine they can sell you. Most of the time, it’s not complicated at all. If a virus spreads through the air, the air you breathe is where the battle happens. A properly fitted respirator changes everything. Can’t take vaccines? Mask up. Immune system issues, well now you have an option, for many viruses. Once I found masks that actually fit my face (Dräger X-plore 1950 for me ), the discomfort I’d imagined just wasn’t there. I can talk, walk, shop, and travel without constantly fiddling with straps. Half the time I forget I’m wearing one until I catch my reflection somewhere. But here’s the real reason I keep doing it. Millions of people are living with Long COVID right now. They’re carrying damage to their hearts, blood vessels, brains, and immune systems. For them, another infection isn’t just a shitty week in bed. It’s another step toward disability. More pain. Another organ system pushed past its breaking point. They can’t afford to get hit again. When I put on a mask, I’m not just protecting my family. I’m breaking transmission chains that could lead straight to someone whose body is already hanging by a thread. The cashier at the grocery store. My neighbor. The person standing behind me in line whose immune system can’t take another round. We’ve normalized getting sick. People shrug and say everyone’s down with something this month. Everyone caught the latest bug going around. That’s one way to live, I guess. Another way is to admit we have tools that work. Simple tools. Effective tools. Tools that can cut your risk of infection dramatically. My family chose the second way. It’s not heroic. It’s not perfect. It’s just looking at what repeated infections do to people and deciding that wearing a piece of filtered material over my face in crowded spaces is worth it. You want to know how we’ve gone six winters without getting sick? That’s the answer. We wore real masks for ourselves and for all the people who can’t survive another hit. The science works. The question is whether you’re going to use it.
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31 Oct 2025
Honestly, so many people are having such a hard time that the posts about living a worry-free life filled with love etc. come across as tone-deaf. People who are lucky enough to have that life right now.. just be grateful.
Because that one lady posted about drinking coffee with her husband and people lost their minds.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
Replying to @Brett_Taylor94
As a sports director, why is she alone in an unsecured space and why are you posting this instead of her? Crowd shots should only happen if you have the ability to protect your reporter. She has no eyes behind her and she has a bright light in her face. Disorienting unsafe.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
This guy literally dropped the best prompts
🚨BREAKING: GLM-4.6 just changed the game. From PPT upgrades to full-stack dev tools, Magic Design, and deep research - this isn't just an update... it's an all-in-one Al powerhouse.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
11 Oct 2025
one of my friends who knows I’ve been feeling a little lonely lately with my bf gone for fire season just asked me if I’d want to have dinner with her every thursday for the foreseeable future, & she said she’d cook vegan & we could eat outside so I can unmask. I am loved 😭
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
⚠️ BREAKING: California county reinstates COVID-19 mask mandate to protect its most vulnerable residents amid rising infection risk A California wine country county is bringing back mask rules and urging more vaccinations as COVID-19 and flu cases rise.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
Here is something to think about. The US National weather service is tracking a major nor'easter that will bring heavy rains winds and coastal flooding with beach erosion to the east coast. The US Government is currently shut down, meaning they are NOT being paid to track a major storm.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
This is bad news. This is very bad news. The US government has stopped the funding of PubMed, the most comprehensive database of biomedical literature. Why would you do this? This database it literally a matter of life and death.
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Dawn Fallik retweeted
1 Oct 2025
Abortion has already been banned for 3 years in Louisiana. This was just a “fuck you” to the poor and to women in our majority female state.
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30 Sep 2025
I'm a reporter looking for people who experienced journeys at a psilocybin center in Oregon or Colorado. I'm interested in expectations, before/after care and your thoughts on the experience. #PsychedelicTherapy #Psilocybin #Colorado #Oregon @psychedemus @PsychedlicNews
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