Richard Sima

5 years of covid means 5 years of long covid. I wrote about the immense neurocognitive costs of LC, the effects that covid can have on the brain - and why it all continues to matter. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

Ending routine vaccination for hepatitis B at birth, as health secretary RFK Jr. has proposed, would increase the number of chronic infections by as much as 83 percent. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/19/h...

The surprising way walking can benefit your brain. Moving your body may help free your mind, research shows, by @richardsima.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202... via @washingtonpost.com

Our amazing data team reviewed over 8,000 midterm election ads worth $1.6 billion. Here's what we found about how Democrats and Republicans are treating the economy, Trump and other issues differently. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Washington Post: '‘Long flu’ can linger for months. Here’s how to reduce your risk.' 'The more we understand what acute infections are doing, the more we understand their long-term consequences, Al-Aly said. “It sort of eats something...." www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

BREAKING: TV pool will not be providing coverage of presidential events until further notice b/c of CNN's ban, pool chair and FOX News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton said. It's effectively a boycott by the fellow members — ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Humaning.

Research shows that over time, alcohol can change the brain. And even relatively low levels of alcohol may worsen feelings of anxiety and depression, disrupt sleep, and, over time, increase dementia risk, in addition to upping other health problems.

THREAD: The boy is called a liar. He’s told not to defend himself. Then the private school owner encourages all of his peers to attack him, one by one. She hits him, repeatedly, with a plastic pipe-like object. How does this school still exist — and receive state funds? 🧵

My latest: Our sense of smell is linked to our brain health. In fact, over 85% of patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have smell dysfunction. But there is evidence that smell training can boost our cognition: washingtonpost.com/wellness/2026/07/14/how-smell-training-may-improve-cognition/

NEW: Months after FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, she and a guest accepted Kennedy Center gala tickets from the company worth more than $12,000.

"In downtown D.C., Arlington and the Capitol Hill area, where pollution will be 'very unhealthy,' the document says that people should 'expect irritation symptoms' and limit their postshow exposure to the pollution." @jakespring.bsky.social

Imagine she says no though

So painful. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

Column: Research shows that mothers undergo dramatic changes during pregnancy and following childbirth. Studies suggest that fathers may also undergo a shift in their biology in preparation for and in response to the responsibilities of parenthood.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... “As I joked … backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story,” Vance said in remarks at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California. “The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.”

When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.

Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com

My crankiest old man take is that referring to all art/entertainment/journalism/criticism/comedy/advertising as “content” helped pave the way for broad-ish acceptance of AI slop.

Campos: While I want to thank CBS news for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship.

If you're reading this, my cat and I have boarded a one-way flight out of the United States. The Trump administration wrongfully denied my work permit renewal; after months of demanding that they follow the law, we have run out of legal recourse, and I have no choice but to leave the country. (🧵)

This was a hard story to report. Newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop a condition where they bleed uncontrollably. But more and more families are declining the shot. And babies are dying. www.propublica.org/article/more...

The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of DOGE and the federal workforce. It’s the second time The Post has won the prestigious award in five years. Read more about our winning coverage here: https://wapo.st/3OX3l5A

Hall of fame FT correction

always relevant @xkcd.com xkcd.com/2347/ - except this rather essential project of archiving the internet is run by some random person who uses said project to carry out a grudge

Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.

Join us Thursday for a rally to #SaveThePost!! The rally will run from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday at 1301 K St. NW!! Bring friends! Bring gloves! Bring a love of journalism!

It always feels like all the wrong people die, but I think it’s because there are far more beloved people than there are bastards.

The Washington Post Guild is alarmed and appalled by federal law enforcement’s search and seizure of reporter Hannah Natanson’s property and personal devices. Hannah is a valued member of our union whose work covering the federal workforce has been essential (1/3)

This is brilliant and worth reading

went back and grabbed the full video of her intro. absolutely incredible 🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌

EXCLUSIVE: @laurenweberhp.bsky.social & I have spent the last year collecting school+county-level vaccination data from across the US and found that only about 28% of counties now have herd immunity for kindergartners from measles—that leaves about 5.2mn kids unprotected. Gift link: wapo.st/49zDc43

Video games may improve our cognition. But how we play them matters when it comes to the benefits they provide. Experts caution against overdoing it. Here’s what they say about cognitive engagement:

The Post (me and @kcrowebasspro.bsky.social) analyzed the social media posts and appearances of prominent politicians across the country. We found that no one is talking about climate change anymore. In 2025, mentions are 60% lower than in 2024. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

NEW: I spoke with Norman Rosenthal, the psychiatrist who first described and named SAD (seasonal affective disorder), about what he does to address his own SAD—and what the rest of us can do to brighten our winter days. 🔆 www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

“The reductions take effect Friday. Details about which markets would be affected will be announced Thursday, administration officials said.” www.washingtonpost.com/transportati... @loriara.bsky.social

DHS says our new piece is "dishonest, slanted, and fundamentally inaccurate" but won't say why. Here's the story where we show with evidence that DHS spliced together clips spanning years and multiple locations to create its own reality. Gift link wapo.st/4nuDGwf

Scoop: The Trump admin's videos boasting triumphs on immigration have used misleading footage from months ago or thousands of miles away When we showed them the errors, DHS said they make a lot of videos and the White House said it'll keep making "banger memes" wapo.st/4nuDGwf

It’s like if a broken escalator became a slide instead of stairs

Stop and read this deep dive on TikTok and how it's consuming much more than hours of our time. One user: "It was harder for me to create my own opinions, it was harder for me to express my own thoughts in the day, and I think that took a toll with me." www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...

🤳EXCLUSIVE: We analyzed real data from over 800 U.S. TikTok users to reveal how the app transforms casual users into power users. Extremely proud of this one, over a year in the making w/ @richardsima.bsky.social Leslie Shapiro @asteckelberg.bsky.social @ence.bsky.social wapo.st/4obueib

Children and teens who had a Covid reinfection had a doubling of #LongCovid risk (PASC) and a significant increase in many other adverse outcomes (Figure) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...