Olivia Kates, MD, MA

One of my patients told me, "the only thing I'm allergic to is Bad Bunny."

He meant rabbit anti-thymocte globulin. rATG. "Bad Bunny."

Rouse the rabble!

This is part of a new section in Clinical Infectious Diseases which Hopkins ID doc and ethicist @katesolivia.bsky.social & I started this year. Since you two are well-established rabble-rousers, please let us know if you have ideas for articles!

Great article on dogma in ID (with parallels to critical care)

We have HUGE problems re: guidelines making recommendations & *redefining* entire diseases based on minimal data.

Gov't metrics exacerbate this further.

@bradspellberg.bsky.social @absteward.bsky.social @drtoddlee.bsky.social #EMIMCC

ID-curious ethicists? Ethics-curious ID folks? We're happy to help you find collaborators to develop your idea!

Welcome to Ethics Rounds Abstract. Ethics is central to one-on-one and population-level infectious diseases care. To give home and voice to the full scope of infectious diseases et

We are eager to see your stories & ideas about ethical issues in the field of infectious diseases!

Ethics Rounds in CID is a new opportunity to share & discover work at the intersection of ethics & ID. Reach out to me & @timlaheymd.bsky.social with any questions.

academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...

“We hereby inaugurate the Ethics Rounds section of Clinical Infectious Diseases to give home and voice to the full scope of infectious diseases ethics, from grand to granular, from bedside to global.”

So proud to work with @katesolivia.bsky.social on this new home for #bioethics dialog #medsky

Immunocompromised Travelers Tailor vaccine and medicine recommendations based on international travelers’ immune systems.

Excited to share the updated CDC yellow book chapter on Immunocompromised Host and travel, here is the official updated website from the CDC. Let me know if you have questions or comments. www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/...

I believe the term is “Ethicist”

Comment On: Respiratory Isolation for Tuberculosis: A Historical Perspective

Comment On: Respiratory Isolation for Tuberculosis: A Historical Perspective

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky

ESGICH Planning Committee for 2026 ESCMID Global This will be a small working group to help develop proposals for ESGICH to propose for the 2026 ESCMID Global Program. If you are interested in help, please complete the form below. This will be o...

Do you have ideas for sessions about infections in immunocompromised hosts for @escmid.bsky.social Global 2026? ESGICH is looking for people to help with session planning and concepts.

To participate in the planning: forms.gle/1gAUw3UuBdxk...

To submit a concept: forms.gle/SyFjuxnbUuCD...

it is grimly hilarious that, given the immense, decades-long fetishization of "leadership" and "leadership skills" in business-oriented academia and politics, even unto the formation of leadership institutes, there should turn out to be no leaders in any positions of power

Trust me, you want “To Say Nothing of the Dog.”

A resistance for ignorance cannot overcome capriciousness. A resistance for capriciousness cannot overcome malice.

Imagine the 100 minutes it would’ve cost to listen to it.

James Harrison, Whose Antibodies Helped Millions, Dies at 88 (Gift Article) James Harrison earned the nickname “The Man With the Golden Arm” because his blood had a rare antibody that may have helped more than two million babies in Australia. He died at 88.

One of todays heroes: James Harrison, R.I.P.

“Saving one baby is good,” he said, after his final donation in 2018. “Saving two million is hard to get your head around, but if they claim that’s what it is, I’m glad to have done it.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/o...

Hardly. If *this* is indeed the great filter, then the events that led us here are all probable and must have occurred many times throughout the universe.

Crucial to recognize where we fall short in getting everyone to transplant so we can do better and enhance equity

Improved Survival in Vascular Pythiosis with Surgery and Azithromycin, Doxycycline, and Itraconazole Therapy: A Phase II Multicenter, Open-Label, Single-Arm Trial Vascular pythiosis, caused by Pythium insidiosum, is a life-threatening disease with high mortality rate in patients with residual disease post-surgery. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a combination therapy of surgery, azithromycin, doxycycline, and itraconazole.

Improved Survival in Vascular Pythiosis with Surgery and Azithromycin, Doxycycline, and Itraconazole Therapy: A Phase II Multicenter, Open-Label, Single-Arm Trial

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky

The consequences are intended.

Compare an institution’s response to restricting use of language about (or not even about) diversity, equity, and inclusion in grants, to the same institution’s response to cutting indirect costs.

What values are being bent “for the sake of the work?”

What values are being staunchly defended?

The 1st year class of Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellows is being terminated today. We don't know the fate of 2nd years nor the future of the EIS program. CDC’s 2-yr EIS fellowship recruits talent from across the world and trains MDs, PhDs, nurses, vets, and others in field epidemiology.

Great example of the interpretation of “journalistic objectivity” that sees lobotomizing yourself as preferable to ever drawing any firm conclusions from any amount of evidence

Figure. Antibody Responses Among Immunocompromised Adults Following Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccination

While immunocompromised individuals had a heterogeneous antibody response to RSV vaccines, those who received the adjuvanted RSVPreF3-AS01 vaccine showed better neutralization.

ja.ma/418nvNj

#MedSky

Trump policies sow chaos, confusion across scientific community U.S. scientists, unaccustomed to shock-and-awe political assaults, are reeling from President Donald Trump’s executive orders on DEI, gender and other subjects.

“You’ve got scientists who should be thinking creatively about their next experiment ... and instead are thinking about their car payment or their house payment because a lot of early-career scientists live paycheck to paycheck"

www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Does anyone else feel like the planet parade is laughing at us?

Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.

the dog house on fire with an i voted sticker saying “they can’t do this it’s illegal”

I’m a seasoned global health teacher

I’m struggling these days to explain the state of the world to young people, give them hope or answer their inevitable question: “what can we do?”

How are other teachers coping??

The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...