Dr. Katie Foss

5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis More than a century ago, the US learned what happens when there is no national response to a major health crisis.

5 years after WHO declared #COVID-19 a pandemic, the U.S. is cutting staff at #NIH and #CDC while facing TB, measles and the worst flu season in 15 years. A scholar examines the role of 3 #publichealth agencies:
Katherine A. Foss @mtsuofficial.bsky.social #episky 🧪🩺

Capturing COVID When health authorities quarantined guests aboard the Diamond Princess on February 5, 2020, the cruise ship abruptly shifted from a dream vacation vessel ...

It's been 5 years since the #WHO declared #COVID a pandemic.
How did the world find out about the "mystery pneumonia" out of Wuhan? I trace the diffusion of news and social media in chapter 2 of my book:
www.umasspress.com/978162534828...

5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis More than a century ago, the US learned what happens when there is no national response to a major health crisis.

I wrote this piece for @us.theconversation.com.

5 years of #COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while #CDC, #NIH and #WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a #crisis theconversation.com/5-years-of-c...

Excerpt from a public letter Roald Dahl wrote encouraging people to vaccinate their children. Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her. “I feel all sleepy,” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunized against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

Let’s have more leaders like this:

We've got outbreaks of measles in Texas, TB in Kansas, and so many cases of flu here in TN that entire school districts are closed.
Way to demonstrate the need for public health, Universe.

And I have never played so much pickleball.

I have filed a criminal complaint with the Colorado State Attorney General against Elon Musk and DOGE for illegally accessing private data through the Treasury Department. I suggest every American citizen do the same in their State. DOGE and Elon Musk are not government agents #Resist

An advertisement for the polio vaccine which reads: "they all got vaccine except dad...don't take a chance...take your polio shots!" It depicts a photo of a family gathered around a father who is in an iron lung.

With science falling under increasing attack, this medical historian is here to remind people of the power of #vaccines. THREAD🧵

Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7

Capturing COVID When health authorities quarantined guests aboard the Diamond Princess on February 5, 2020, the cruise ship abruptly shifted from a dream vacation vessel ...

It's official! My book, Capturing COVID: Media and the Pandemic in the Digital Era is out.

Save 20% if you order directly from the University of Massachusetts Press site with code UMASS20.

www.umasspress.com/978162534828...

Yes! More stuff like this!

Seeking glimpses of hope.

In modern or recorded history, yes, which is a big deal.

Definitely not in American history though.

Thanks for sharing. I will use this article in my health communication class.

Hate this, like that @philinvestigates.com is keeping on top of things.

This is absolutely appalling.

My new book! Links in a future post.

As Elle Woods argued. . .

Well said.

SCOOP: National Institutes of Health ordered by Trump admin to enact 'immediate and indefinite' travel suspension "If staff aren’t able to travel, clinical trials will likely have to be put on hold," a source tells The Handbasket.

SCOOP: The Trump administration has ordered the National Institutes of Health to impose an "immediate and indefinite" ban on all travel, domestic and international. Internal emails reviewed by The Handbasket outline what employees know so far.

Read more here:

2) Trump WH is literally blocking all of this… including all CDC science reports and all FDA public alerts!

bsky.app/profile/drer...

Trump administration freezes many health agency reports and online posts The Trump administration has put a freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public through at least the end of the month.

There's still a dearth of content. So no media messaging from any of the health agencies?
apnews.com/article/trum...

News outlets, for starters.

What’s this about all public health communications being halted and why aren’t we hearing more about it?

WHO comments on United States announcement of intent to withdraw The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization. WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go. The United States was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other Member States, including through its active participation in the World Health Assembly and Executive Board. For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership in WHO. With the participation of the United States and other Member States, WHO has over the past 7 years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost-effectiveness, and impact in countries. This work continues. We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.

WHO comments on United States announcement of intent to withdraw bit.ly/4hrbeJ7

That’s insulting to Mary Mallon.

It might be time for yet another Schitt’s Creek rewatch.

Could you please add me?
Dr. Katie Foss, media history, history of medicine and epidemics. Thanks!

Will you please add me? I study and publish on the history of epidemics and media.

Please add me (Katie Foss).