Andy Pekosz

Happy Godzilla Day to all those who celebrate. Give a little love to the man-in-rubber-suit 50s-70s era Godzilla we all love - either openly or secretly! #GodzillaDay

Slide with the title “The anti-vaccination movement has no new material”. Montague R. Leverson, Lawyer, Liar, Quack 1895 Robert F. Kennedy, Lawyer, Liar, Quack 2025 Accuse expert vaccine advisory committees of pro-vaccine "bias" "That commission was deliberately packed at its very outset..." "The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine". Falsely state that vaccines cause death "Vaccination has caused more deaths and diseases than ever has smallpox". "This [COVID19 vaccine] is the deadliest vaccine ever made..." Claim that healthcare practitioners and scientists are only in it for the money, not because of scientific evidence "...Jenner was a mercenary charlatan whose ignorance and impatience of scientific methods were equaled only by his mendacity..." "Doctors are being paid to vaccinate, not to evaluate. They're pressured to follow the money, not the science". Use false and inflammatory words about vaccines The "Blood-poisoning process of vaccination" "They went on a search... looking for the most toxic things that they could find...to

The anti-vaccine movement has the same talking points now as it did in the 1800’s. It’s always been a rejection of science, scientists, and progress, with a soupçon of paranoia.

Below is a slide for a talk I’m preparing that illustrates the identical strategies. I have more examples, too.

My department at Dartmouth Medical School is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor. We are looking broadly for a biochemist or cell biologist. Please share this add! apply.interfolio.com/171438
@dartmouthbcb.bsky.social @futurepislack.bsky.social

Shot in the Arm SHOT IN THE ARM explores vaccine hesitancy historically and in the context of Covid-19.

If you need more scary fun this weekend, the documentary “A Shot In The Arm” is free on PBS until 11/9. Lots of interviews with RFK Jr pre-HHS fame. Narrated by @neildegrassetyson.com from @scotthamkennedy.bsky.social. #Virosky #LoveVirology #TruthisScarierThanFiction

www.pbs.org/show/shot-in...

Support from the @ceirrnetwork.bsky.social and @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social helped drive this work. 6/6

All of which may speak to the importance of balancing antigenic changes with replication fitness changes in order for IBVs to maintain their ability to circulate in humans. There is a lot that IBV can teach us about respiratory virus circulation. 5/6

The emergence of the C.5 clade of IBV came with a slight loss of replication fitness but its replacement by clade C.5.1 seemed to be driven more by increased replication fitness and not by antigenic changes. 4/6

...and with respect to their in vitro replication fitness (measured by plaque size and replication in human nasal epithelial cell cultures) at both 33C and 37C. 3/6

We looked at influenza B viruses from 2020 to 2024 to see how they changed antigenically (recognition by serum from influenza vaccinated individuals)... 2/6

In-vitro characterization of 2019-24 Influenza B Viruses reveals increased temperature-dependent fitness in later timepoints independent of antigenic drift Seasonal influenza viruses continually acquire mutations that can alter both their replication efficiency and antigenic properties. While recent seasonal Influenza B viruses (IBV) are characterized as...

A new preprint from the lab led by PhD student Elgin Akin is up at medRxiv: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/6

lovely signature for influenza C virus. rarely surveilled for in the US but it holds a special place in my mind as i spent 4 years as a postdoc working on it.

Photo of cookies decorated like adenovirus and HIV.

Baked and decorated 100 cookies for our Fundamental Virology class! Hopefully everyone will do well on their final exam tomorrow, but if not, a cookie can’t hurt, right? @andrewpekosz.bsky.social

Last class in our Fundamental Virology class. Record number of students this term @karidebbink.bsky.social
@johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social

blue and green watercolor of DNA gel

blue and green watercolor of 6 different viruses

Viruses and Gel electrophoresis in vibrant watercolor #sciart artologica.etsy.com

I do biomedical research to help people. When people come in this space making things up, it makes it harder for people not in the field to trust the extensive studies that we do and distinguish fact from fiction. Baseless claims reduce future cures. Willful ignorance drives us backwards.

PhD Candidate & @andrewpekosz.bsky.social Lab member Camille Wouters defends her PhD thesis tomorrow.

Good Luck, Camille!

📆 Friday, Sept. 26, 2025
⏰ 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
📍 @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social
🏢 W2030

JHU Center of Excellence leads global fight against influenza Experts at Johns Hopkins and across the country work together to better understand the behavior and characteristics of respiratory viruses, how our immune system responds to them, and how we can preve...

A profile in @jhu.edu's HUB highlights JH-CEIRR's @ceirrnetwork.bsky.social important influenza research,
led by co-directors @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social virologist & professor @andrewpekosz.bsky.social & @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social Richard Rothman, MD

More here:
hub.jhu.edu/2025/09/10/j...

Virologist, @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social Professor & @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social vice-chair @andrewpekosz.bsky.social explains mRNA vaccine technology on @npr.org @wfae.bsky.social Charlotte Talks

Listen here for answers & clarity around COVID-19 vaccines
www.wfae.org/show/charlot...

Found this book in my department mailbox yesterday. No envelope, no shipping information, no note and I was the only person to receive this "gift". Clearly, someone needs to come to my lecture on the origin and evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic to get educated on the facts.

Shop is restocked with itty-bitty paintings #sciart ko-fi.com/1626SLXL3044F neuro, micro, genetics, algorithms

RFK Jr Pulls Millions Of Dollars Of mRNA Vaccine Funding, Citing Misinformation – Here's What To Know The Health and Human Services Secretary claimed, against all scientific consensus, that these vaccines are ineffective.

“It’s not so much that the virus has become less dangerous, it’s that we have immunity, so we fight off the virus more efficiently than we did early in the pandemic,” said @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social @jhu.edu Professor and Virologist @andrewpekosz.bsky.social

www.iflscience.com/rfk-jr-pulls...

Requiring grant review by political appointees will continue to delay and disrupt critical research and interferes with scientists’ ability to help protect the nation’s health and security. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...

Congratulations to Jerome Edwards on defending his PhD thesis on mechanisms driving the attenuation of Live attenuated measles vaccine virus replication. Jerome did great things and is yet another example of Diane Griffin's mentoring. @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social

An image showing the ARTIC and Pathoplexus logos connected by blue lines, with the text "Hiring: post-doc/software engineer" and "Global open-source pathogen tools" and "Join Swiss TPH, Work on ARTIC2 and Pathoplexus, Basel, Switzerland"

📢New job posting!📢
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻‍💻🧬

My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!

1/5

gray and black brain painting with curving lines and text - there is no such thing as artificial intelligence

There it is
artologica.etsy.com/listing/4338...

Lives and life-Years Saved From COVID-19 Vaccination This comparative effectiveness study analyses the number of lives and life-years saved worldwide among those who had been vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2024 years.

Covid vaccination saved ~2.5 million lives between 2020-2024
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Our two summer students wrapped up their stays in the laboratory with posters on the influenza viruses that circulated this past year. One preprint is up and another is coming. lots of thanks to @ceirrnetwork.bsky.social and @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social for support and collaborations!

Dept of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Johns Hopkins (@johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social) Basic science dept focused on control, prevention & treatment of infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi. MMI is part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Heal...

Read the paper for more data and some speculations as to why we are seeing such changes in age susceptibility and antigenic drift with C.3re. Lots of support for this study from @ceirrnetwork.bsky.social @johnshopkinsmmi.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social

Second, C.3re escaped influenza vaccine induced serum neutralizing antibody in a very significant way.

Why is this important? First, the C.3re infections skewed to a much younger age group than the C.5 infections that had been occurring earlier in the influenza season.