Anne Bishop

I was with two wheelchair-bound polio survivors in Sunderland today discussing sharing and archiving of their memories from thecpre-vaccine era. They are horrified that vaccine preventable diseases are on the rise.

Surely we can consider issues of import and have healthy lifestyles. Caffeine is an addictive drug that messes with sleep & creates withdrawal headaches for many - good to keep it in check. Agreed, obsessive anything is mostly bad. Who said no sex? Last I heard consensual sex was great for health.

Ignore the sceptics: with this new vaccine, chickenpox could become a thing of the past | Wes Streeting Thousands develop serious complications from the varicella virus. Today the NHS rolls out a new jab, alongside measles, mumps and rubella, says health secretary Wes Streeting

A good summary here for non-scientists.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Once impacts other than mortality were included (morbidity, economic impact to parents & work places, GP visits, hospital resources) it's an obvious national benefit and international safety & efficacy data is compelling.

More exciting news about drops in RSV hospitalisations after roll-out of monoclonal antibody shots for newborns in Spain.

RSV USA cases promisingly low thanks to pregnancy vaccination and infant monoclonal antibody shots! In the UK we also have RSV vaccine & now monoclonal particularly for prem' babies (close to my heart, my twins were born at 25 weeks).
BBC Prem' babies to be immunised...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A reminder that news outlets, focused on entertainment and excitement, paint a very different picture to reality. Here shown in data for causes of death in the US.

Stay curious, listen, don't judge, have a proper two-way conversation with vaccine hesitant people and don't hide uncertainties in the science. All great advice, summarised in this video, that I will be trying to follow in my science communication practice.

What's the n-number and is it random polling? I want to know how horrified to be, and I haven't time right now to go to the source.

Although they may all be at home on Social Media taking antidepressants instead. Still, something to celebrate.

Yay! Less violence in UK society. Well done GenZ!

✍️🗓️ Mark your diaries!

We are excited to welcome Prof Stephan Lewandowsky from
@bristolunipsych.bsky.social to present on new ways to engage with #vaccine hesitant patients.

Followed by a reception, so make sure to join us in person
@lshtm.bsky.social if you can🍹

👉 bit.ly/42MO0ss

Good news indeed!

From a post about a child surviving heart surgery, as did mine. Thoughts:
1. If antimicrobial resistance steps in 'routine' surgery may become risky again.
2. These child survival stat's require investment in biomedical technology, trained experts, herd immunity.

Let's keep it a good time to live.

Interesting work, giving hope for improving oral vaccine efficacy against bacterial gut pathogens.

Boosting vaccines with harmless bacteria to fight intestinal pathogens - Dunn School Published in Science, a ground-breaking study by the Slack group reveals how combining vaccines with friendly bacteria can boost vaccination efficacy and potentially reduce reliance on antibiotics.

New study by @mucosalimmunology.bsky.social (Dunn School and @ethzurich.bsky.social) with Médéric Diard (@biozentrum.unibas.ch) reveals how combining vaccines with friendly bacteria can boost vaccination efficacy and potentially reduce reliance on antibiotics

www.path.ox.ac.uk/news-article...

Well said!

What an interesting and important study and a beautifully written post. I particularly love the digression into art. 👏

The power of vaccines!

For even better global outcomes, scientists developed a more stable oral vaccine for where injected vaccines are too expensive & poor sanitation+low vaccine coverage can lead to circulating vaccine-derived polio eg. a child recently paralysed in Gaza

youtu.be/cyquCUQV3XE?...

Happy to chat about infectious diseases from a science and history perspective, if you get to that.

A powerful story about the power of genomics. Wonderful work from both the scientists and the writer!

Wow! A possible treatment for one of the least treatable cancers, pancreatic.

This is a small trial and it's potentially quite expensive to screen for an antigen in each cancer that's not on normal cells and deliver an mRNA to match it, but still, wow!

The 3 year survival data is stunning.

Tuberculosis rates plunge when families living in poverty get a monthly cash payout A program in Brazil that gives a monthly cash sum to families living in poverty has an unexpected — and welcome result. A new study shows that it is dramatically reducing tuberculosis rates.

"The study is impressive in its scale...cases and deaths dropped by more than 50% and in the Indigenous population the drop was even more dramatic: more than 60%."

Nature Medicine study shows the effects of Bolsa Familia strongest in Black and Indigenous populations

www.npr.org/sections/goa...

Resist the urge to measure so many things. You will never analyze all those data before having to move on to other projects, and neither will anybody else. You are just burdening patients and research staff.

My father's cousin was a polio survivor and struggled with a short leg all his life. As an infectious diseases researcher with a passion for science communication, it's so important to share real stories of vaccine-preventable disease. Well done for your advocacy Grace R @candidkitten.bsky.social !