Mary Prahl, MD

Access in Action: How UCSF is Expanding Care to Support San Francisco’s Pediatric TB Response | Department of Pediatrics When a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak emerged at a San Francisco high school at the end of 2025, the scale was immediately clear. More than 1,200 students required evaluation, with high rates of infection...

With the ongoing #TB outbreak at an SF high school, we will leverage our expertise in child TB, with the @citc-tb.bsky.social and @ucsf-ctb.bsky.social. @ucsfchildrens.bsky.social is working closely with SF public health to support students and families.

pediatrics.ucsf.edu/news/access-...

Whose ethics govern global health research? Ethical research must not exploit scarcity as an experimental variable.

"Ethical research requires that participant safety remains central, not subordinate to hypothesis testing....Vulnerability should never be seen as an opportunity to advance research at the expense of those it claims to serve." @natureportfolio.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Yes, have been hearing from East Coast colleagues that pediatric ICUs are filling up with severe pediatric flu cases, presenting with sepsis symptoms

So happy to see this study and the positive results!

So great to see this study out. Raises the bar for pregnancy related vaccine research

Heterologous two-dose Ebola vaccine regimen in pregnant women in Rwanda: a randomized controlled phase 3 trial - Nature Medicine In this phase 3 trial, a two-dose Ebola vaccine regimen in healthy pregnant women in Rwanda was found to be safe and immunogenic in women and offspring through passive transfer.

Important and timely study
Pregnant women face higher risks from Ebola: maternal mortality up to 89%, and nearly all pregnancies lost. Until now, they’ve been excluded from Ebola vaccine trials. A landmark phase 3 RCT in Rwanda changes that.@natureportfolio.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding

We should be able to agree that funding research for pediatric cancer should be prioritized and expanded. Not canceled. Clinical trials that can be the last hope for kids with cancer stopping recruitment due to funding loss is heartbreaking 💔
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨 "Pregnancy and lactation induce distinct immune responses to #COVID19 booster vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection" from the Roan Lab in
@jci-insight.bsky.social

YouTube video by Gladstone Institutes Discovery Spotlight | Pregnancy, Lactation Shape Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccine and Infection

A team of scientists, led by Nadia Roan, found that pregnant and lactating women have strong immune defenses to COVID-19, and identified key benefits that could guide future vaccine design.

Pregnancy, Lactation Shape Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccine and Infection Study finds strong immune defenses in pregnant and lactating women, with key benefits that could guide future vaccine design.

Study finds strong immune defenses in pregnant and lactating women, with key benefits that could guide future vaccine design.

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨 "Pregnancy and lactation induce distinct immune responses to COVID-19 booster vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection" from the Roan Lab in @jci-insight.bsky.social

On a day that the congress has decided to go on an early recess and take 6 weeks of paid leave it is important to remember that in the U.S there is no federal law that guarantees paid maternity leave or family leave.
Just something to think about in case you need more things to think about today.

Led by Kailin Yin and Lin Li. Many thanks to the incredible participants and our awesome COVIPAL team @gawlab.bsky.social and Roan lab collaborators. @ucsfchildrens.bsky.social @ucsfhealth.bsky.social @gladstoneinst.bsky.social

Pregnancy, Lactation Shape Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccine and Infection Study finds strong immune defenses in pregnant and lactating women, with key benefits that could guide future vaccine design.

Another interesting finding was that T cells in the blood of lactating individuals were less activated after vaccination. Which may be related to differential trafficking to the mammary glands for T cells into breastmilk. More details here by Julie Langelier gladstone.org/news/pregnan...

after COVID-19 vaccine and infection. Some major findings include that COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy elicited just as strong as an immune response as non-pregnant women. We found that vaccination in pregnancy had some unique immunologic benefits including increased "stem-like" T cells (3/n)

Many pregnant front-line workers had some of the same concerns. We developed the COVIPAL study to evaluate the immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy and lactation. Working with our close collaborators in the Roan lab at @gladstoneinst.bsky.social, we did deep immune profiling (2/n)

Happy to share our new work @jci-insight.bsky.social insight.jci.org/articles/vie... When I was pregnant in Dec 2020, one of the many things that concerned me was if the COVID-19 vaccine would protect me as well as non-pregnant people, as I knew the high risk of COVID-19 infection in pregnancy (1/n)

🚨BREAKING: IDSA, along with AAP, APHA, ACP and others, has filed a lawsuit against HHS/Secretary Kennedy to stop unlawful changes to vaccine policy and defend public health.

We refuse to stand by while America’s public health safeguards are torn apart. bit.ly/4lm7UkW

Medical Societies Sue Kennedy and H.H.S. Over Vaccine Advice

BREAKING: Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the health dept, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public.
(Gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/h...

Hepatitis B can be passed from parent to baby at birth - and when that happens, the consequences can be deadly. It is unscientific and dangerous to intentionally ignore the success of U.S. vaccination programs or argue that the U.S. should not vaccinate babies for hepatitis B at birth.

We now have presentations on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness:
www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

These presentations can become very confusing so I need to explain a bit about them:

T and B cell responses against Epstein–Barr virus in primary sclerosing cholangitis - Nature Medicine Interrogation of electronic health records and the B and T cell repertoires of people with PSC shows a link between Epstein–Barr virus and primary sclerosing cholangitis, an incurable autoimmune liver...

In case you needed another reason to hate Epstein-Barr virus- it looks like it might cause primary sclerosing cholangitis:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Stool processing methods for Xpert Ultra testing in childhood tuberculosis: A prospective, multi-country accuracy study AbstractBackground. Centrifuge-free processing methods support stool Xpert Ultra testing for childhood tuberculosis (TB), but there are limited data on the

New Publication: We conducted a multi-country prospective comparison of 3 methods for stool processing for Xpert Ultra testing for childhood TB, and found they performed similarly and were usable and acceptable by lab workers: academic.oup.com/cid/advance-.... @cidjournal.bsky.social #tbsky #idsky

RFK Jr. Says Healthy Pregnant Women Don’t Need Covid Boosters. What the Science Says. - KFF Health News Despite opposition by the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services, existing evidence on the safety and efficacy of getting a covid vaccine during pregnancy all points the same way: The s...

You’re pregnant, healthy, and hearing mixed messages: RFK Jr. says you don’t need the covid vaccine, but experts at the CDC still put you in a high-risk group of people who ought to receive boosters.

Here's what the science says. 👇
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

When Americans raised concerns about RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine views, he said he was "not gonna take away vaccines from anybody."

But now he's taking them away from millions of mommas and babies.

Vaccine recommendations should be based on science, not RFK Jr.'s political agenda.

ACOG is deeply disappointed by HHS’s move to drop COVID-19 vaccine recommendations in pregnancy. The science is clear: COVID-19 remains dangerous in pregnancy and vaccination protects both patients and newborns. The vaccine is safe and protects families. Read our full statement: buff.ly/OGue7sO

CDC ends Covid vaccine recommendation for healthy kids and pregnant women Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a Covid vaccine critic — made the announcement on X.

News on CDC's COVID-19 vaccine recommendation removed for pregnant women and children. #IDSky
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

RFK Jr. says Covid-19 shot will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women | CNN US Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday said the Covid-19 vaccine will no longer be among the recommended vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children on the US Center...

Pregnancy is a major risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes (read: death). GOP, if you want women to have more babies, how about making it easier for women to do that without dying?

RFK Jr. rolls back Covid vaccine recommendations for healthy children, pregnant people HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he has unilaterally struck the recommendation that healthy children and healthy pregnant people get Covid booster shots.

This is one of the dumbest health policy decisions I have ever seen.

CDC ends Covid vaccine recommendation for healthy kids and pregnant women Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a Covid vaccine critic — made the announcement on X.

It's quite obvious RFK.Jr has been spared the trauma of seeing pregnant people intubated in the icu with severe covid infection fighting for the lives.
Pregnancy is a risk factor for severe covid. Not recommending vaccines in pregnancy is reckless and unscientific.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...