ID Chief @ UMich

Wish scientists could get over their love of a cool idea and focus on the disregard of ethics committees, the multiple violations of scientific practice that we’re supposed to be training folks in, and all this performed by a government employee funded by all of us.

If you really care about solving a problem and helping people, you don’t do gimmicks. You actually test your vaccine to ensure it is safe and effective. You take your responsibility seriously and work with your ethics committee. Especially if you are funded by the public.

Unethical in so many ways. There is a system for evaluating vaccines and this isn’t it.

I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

We're hiring! Clinical Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases. Great group of physicians and great community!

This only happens to you once

We’re trying to figure out the Bluey situation.

Wow, it's been a while since I've had to prepare a powerpoint in 4:3 aspect ratio!

A bizarre dogma has emerged among the anti-mRNA crowd that the only data we have on vaccines is from the original trial papers, rather than the HUGE volume of studies that came out subsequently...

Multicenter evaluation of blood culture contamination and blood cultures practices in US acute care hospitals: time for standardization | Journal of Clinical Microbiology Blood culture contamination (BCC) is associated with patient harm and unnecessary use of healthcare resources. BCC thresholds have been established; however, multiple BCC definitions exist. There is l...

Blood cultures - the next frontier in diagnostic stewardship? Anastasia Wasylyshyn from the Division contributing here.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Genomic Epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile

New review on genomic epidemiology of C diff from Evan Snitkin in the Division.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

RSV Vaccine Effectiveness Against Hospitalization Among US Adults Aged 60 Years or Older During 2 Seasons This study investigates respiratory syncytial virus vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization among US adults aged 60 years or older during 2 seasons.

New data on RSV VE from the CDC sponsored IVY network. This sort of work could be in jeopardy given events of the last several weeks.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

He’s not a therapy dog but I’m willing to bring my dog Wilmont to our noon conference 😂 @martenhawkins.bsky.social @lcahuaymemd.bsky.social

The federal government has decided to severely limit access to vaccines that have been shown to reduce illness, hospitalization, and death. Whereas we used to argue about whether government was forcing you to be vaccinated, now we government saying you can’t get vaccinated.

Benefit of Early Oseltamivir Therapy for Adults Hospitalized With Influenza A: An Observational Study Among influenza patients hospitalized during the 2022–2023 influenza season, initiating treatment with oseltamivir on the day of admission (compared with l

Benefit of Early Oseltamivir Therapy for Adults Hospitalized With Influenza A: An Observational Study url: academic.oup.com/cid/article-...

The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight.

www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

open.substack.com/pub/clauswil... this is very true and highly under appreciated. Not just for a PhD but any high level accomplishment.

ID fellows: join IDSA Fellows Community of Practice & CPSolvers for a virtual Fellows Case Conference this Friday at 3PM ET! This session will include an interesting case presentation and small group discussion, featuring Daniel Minter, MD, and Varun Phadke, MD.

Register: https://bit.ly/47bJczm

Lack of Association Between Histoplasma Urine Antigen Values and Clinical Response in Persons Without HIV AbstractBackground. Histoplasma urine antigen detection, a valuable diagnostic tool, is often used to monitor response to antifungal therapy, but persisten

New from Marisa Miceli in the Division!

Lack of Association Between Histoplasma Urine Antigen Values and Clinical Response in Persons Without HIV url: academic.oup.com/ofid/article...

Opinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.

Take 5 minutes and watch this. Destroying biomedical research is dangerous, quite literally. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Friday emails of funding opportunities from the NIH used to take a little time to digest. They've gotten a lot easier lately, today's especially.

'They're not going to live normally': A devastating disease has surged in Calif. Cases are on pace to surpass last year's record-breaking levels.

California’s Valley Fever cases have jumped 1,200% in 25 years - from 1k to over 12.5k a year. Climate change, construction, agriculture - and perhaps increased familiarity and testing - are driving the surge.
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

I spy Jacco Boon!

one small consolation of being a 60+ year old investigator is the ability to submit to 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘙𝘌 family journals — sure they’re low impact (for our knees) but they have an early bird special if you submit between 4:00 and 5:30 on weekdays

Novel oral polio vaccines, now in type 1 and type 3 “flavors”!

I share this in case you're very literal like me and wonder why people keep insisting it's because coronaviruses look like they have a crown, when they don't.

Coronaviruses are named after the solar corona not crowns.

Apropos of nothing...

www.nature.com/articles/220...

Not to mention what it would do to society journals.

JID for Clinicians: Advancements in defining post-COVID conditions, therapeutic success of adjunctive carbapenems for MRSA and more Learn about the impact of HPV vaccination programs in Sweden, ceftriaxone-resistant N. gonorrhoeae strains in Vietnam and other research ready to inform clinical practice.

On IDSA’s & HIVMA’s Science Speaks blog: Learn about JID’s latest monthly roundup of papers relevant to clinicians, including advancements in defining post-COVID conditions, therapeutic success of adjunctive carbapenems for MRSA and more. buff.ly/Qvbuhxj

Nice work from Marisa Miceli in the Division.