Danielle Beckman

How lucky we are to have Peter Hotez @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and Michael Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social here on Bluesky! Strongly advise following them if you haven't done so already! 🤓

Trump policies at odds with emerging understanding of COVID's long-term harm Studies offer insights into the health risks and burdens faced by people who have had COVID infections. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has narrowed COVID vaccine recommendations and cut research.

Possible risk of autism. Dormant cancer cells awakening. Accelerating aging of the brain.
And much more.

Federal officials in 2023 declared an end to the pandemic. But more than 2 years later, a growing body of research continues to reveal more about COVID, even when symptoms were mild. #LongCovid

A confocal microscopy image showing early tau accumulation in the brain with Alzheimer's Disease. Everything in blue (all nuclei) and green (neurons) is healthy. All the other colors are composed of a combination of different markers for pathological tau. The key question is: how do we avoid this tau spreading from cell to cell via neuronal connections? If we can avoid this, we can avoid memory loss.

Guess you can use a timeline cleanser? Can I show you some microscopy? My job is to see beauty even in sad things (so we can learn how to prevent them!). This is a brain with early Alzheimer's. This image was acquired in 3D and took 72 hours to get ready!
#Microscopy #Neuroscience

Chernobyl pancakes

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

Our method paper entitled: "Semi-quantitative RT-PCR Assay for the Analysis of Alternative Splicing of Interleukin Genes" is out now on the volume "Immune Mediators in Cancer"!

🧵 Thread 👇

#AlternativeSplicing
#SpliceVariant
#Interleukins
#Cytokines

I'm so sorry, Nick... 🫂

Child delivering assembly to school

Nine-year-old educates the next generation, her teachers, then their parents.

After months of delays, we finally did it.

Our first school assembly on indoor air quality.

All good, it was a tricky one :)

That's why the text said in 2016 *we elected* a president born in 1946, which is still true. Trump was elected that year, not that he was the current president in 2016.

The only good thing is that Cher was born. We should elect her as the new president instead.

If we are going to live a 1946ocracy, can we pick Dolly Parton as the next president?

This chart shows which of Congress’s oldest 24 members are running for re-election (13 members), which aren’t (six members), and which are uncertain (four members). Each politician’s current age is shown, and for those running, the age they would be at the end of the term they could be re-elected for is shown. The party of each member is also shown. All of these politicians are at least 80 years old, most are younger than 84, and one is in his 90s. The uncertain politicians are, on average, the oldest, though there are three politicians at or near 88 who are running for re-election.

Also this: 24 members of Congress are 80 or older. More than half are running for re-election.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

The image shows an illustration of the comic book character Doctor Manhattan from the graphic novel Watchmen, depicted sitting on Mars. The text reads: It is 1996, we have a president born in 1946 It is 2006, we have a president born in 1946 It is 2016, we have a president born in 1946 It is 2026, we have a president born in 1946

As someone who spent the last 15 years working with aging brains & dementia, I can't stop thinking about this. It is gerontocracy: leaders who are substantially older than most of the adult population. When did we accept this? The new generations can't show up because the old generations never left.

I interviewed with six different countries, including Switzerland, Canada and Netherlands. Most places want senior, already established scientists. Very few places want to give a chance to early-career people, despite we being the most vulnerable ones right now.

When the American empire finally collapses, historians won't be stunned by the greed of the elite; they'll be stunned by the loyalty of the poor. The working class didn't just vote against their own interests. They worshipped the billionaires robbing them. They slashed their own benefits, gutted their own healthcare, and cheered while the rich wrote off private jets as tax deductions. Not because it helped them. But because they were told it would hurt someone else. And that, right there, is how you rig a democracy without even breaking a single law.

This is so accurate, it’s scary.

The 1968 flu pandemic occurred between 1968 and 1970 and killed up to 4 million people globally.
It is among the deadliest pandemics in history. Apparently, we didn't learn much because viral pandemics keep happening again and again and again...
#Airborne #Cleantheair

Awn, I wish you could come to northern California as well! How long are you staying?

What do you suggest as an alternative?

Thank you very much, Kim!

I relocated from Brazil to the US in 2017 for a Postdoc in Neuroscience. A dream coming true, the US was the place to be in my field. The country I moved to no longer exists. Now I'm preparing to move to Germany, and sad about all the scientists who don't have the same chance to escape. #BrainDrain

ICanCME Research Network

Hey everyone. Our #ICanCME2025 #conference videos are up on YouTube. 💙

The theme of our #Canadian conference was “Nothing About Us Without Us”.

Please #subscribe to our channel to help us drive engagement and watch and like our videos too.

youtube.com/@icancmerese...

Blaming vaccines is easier because it feels like it’s something controllable. Covid is airborne and this is a much more concerning reality. There is no need to panic, we have the science to prevent. Problems can only be fixed however, when we are able to talk about them.

#TalkAboutCovid

These are good questions! Yes, it is the tubular void in the middle! We do see an alter GFAP expression in the #NeuroCovid brains. The endfeet don't detach, but it does become thicker and disrupted. It is a challenge to quantify these differences, but they are associated with a neuroinflammation.

Haha, it's here!

Beautiful study coordinated by @resiapretorius.bsky.social
Open Access here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Manuscript: Virus-induced endothelial senescence as a cause and driving factor for ME/CFS and long COVID: mediated by a dysfunctional immune system Figure shows: Overview of the present hypothesis. Acute viral infections induce endothelial senescence via direct and indirect mechanisms, which is then sustained by immune dysfunction and impaired clearance of senescent endothelial cells. (EC - endothelial cell).

New important publication in #LongCovid & #MECFS!

After a viral infection, cells lining our blood vessels can become damaged and enter senescence, similar to accelerated aging. These cells are not healthy, but they also don’t disappear. Instead, they send out constant stress & inflammatory signals.

Confocal microscopy image showing astrocytes in the human brain

Human astrocytes are among my favorite things to photograph under the microscope! I feel like I’m looking at stars in the sky!
Can you identify the blood vessel in the middle of the image?
Markers: 💙 Dapi 💛 GFAP
🌟 🔬 🧠 #Microscopy #Neuroscience

Graphic with the text “whn.global” at top left. Headline: “Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised”. Subheadline: “Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid”. Below is a side-by-side photo: on the left, a man wearing a blue surgical mask; on the right, a person wearing a white FFP2-style respirator and a black hat and scarf, facing each other in profile. Caption under the photo: “Surgical masks, such as the one on the left, which became ubiquitous during Covid, should be replaced by respirators like the FFP2 face mask, right. Composite: Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock”. Bottom text: “The World Health Network is a network devoted to global compassion—working together to inspire collective action through science for a safer, healthier world.”

Graphic with the text “whn.global” at top left. Centered excerpt text reads: “The WHO has been criticised for being slow to describe Covid-19 as spreading via ‘airborne’ particles and the letter also calls for it to revisit earlier statements and ‘unambiguously inform the public that it spreads via airborne respiratory particles’.” Next paragraph: “Prof Trisha Greenhalgh of the University of Oxford, whose research is cited extensively in the letter and is one of its signatories, said: ‘A germ that does not get inside someone cannot make them sick. By sealing against the face, respirators force airflow to pass through them, filtering out the airborne germs. Respirators are designed to fit closely around the face and meet high filtration standards. Medical masks, in contrast, fit loosely and leak extensively.’” Final paragraph: “The letter’s supporters include members of the World Health Network, prominent US epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, and Guardian columnist George Monbiot.” Bottom text: “The World Health Network is a network devoted to global compassion—working together to inspire collective action through science for a safer, healthier world.”

World Health Network was featured in The Guardian as experts urge the WHO to update global guidance: surgical masks are inadequate, and respirators should be standard protection in healthcare settings.

Evidence-based public health matters.

Read the full article here
theguardian.com/global-devel...

Comic from @perrybiblefellowship that shows scientists observing a robot admiring a flower and a butterfly in the first square. In the second square, a scientist places a human heart inside the robot, saying, "Today I shall give you what you've been missing." 3rd square shows the scientist saying: humanity. The last square shows scientists observing the robot killing all life forms around it.

Let's humanize A.I. What could possibly go wrong?
@perrybiblefellowship

If you're wondering how the medical community can ignore a disease that causes all of the damage laid out in the thread below, take note of the fact that continuing medical education processes are so outdated and ineffectual that many can't even recognize #longCOVID when they get it themselves.