@billhanage.bsky.social
Refugee from the Twix takeover. Also Arsenal fan and occasionally doing science about infectious disease. Opinions my own.
open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi...
In the midst of a measles epidemic that killed 3 people, RFK Jr. reminds us that vaccines don't save lives.
“It’s hard to explain how the Secretary can think that the President deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for this, while at the same time believing that these vaccines are the most harmful that have ever been made”
Me on mRNA vaccines
hsph.harvard.edu/news/slashin...
Official communication from FDA to physicians on acetaminophen use in pregnancy acknowledges there is no causal link between its use in pregnancy and autism. Also states clearly that this is the safest over the counter treatment for fever and pain in pregnancy. It is very different from what was communicated at the press conference.
This is the official communication from the FDA to physicians on acetaminophen use in pregnancy.
- They acknowledge the lack of a causal link with autism
- Essentially tell physicians to keep doing what we've been doing anyway
It's very different from the press conference.
Pass it on.
My understanding is that the situation for H1B visa holders outside the US today is urgent: if a current H-1B holder seeks entry into the U.S. after 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, it is too late to avoid the fee—entry will be restricted without the newly-imposed $100,000 employer payment.
20.09.2025 14:44 — 👍 22 🔁 8 💬 4 📌 3
There have been some… extensive changes to this web page. This thread will include resources to help understand them cdc.gov/about/cdc/in... 1/2
17.09.2025 20:21 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Crikey atomic mass is a hard concept to explain
15.09.2025 00:27 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
“If a new pandemic began today, mRNA vaccines are currently the only type of vaccine that could be developed quickly enough to disrupt its spread”
www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/h...
Recently we published a report describing what I *think* is the longest known continuous case of Covid-19 to date.
For some reason I've not found time to post about it. While I get around to doing so you can read a summary here 👇
www.contagionlive.com/view/persist...
This astonishing feat has been dismissed across the political spectrum
Some are upset about things the administration did/did not do
Warp speed still delivered and deserves recognition
Others applaud things the administration did/did not do
Warp speed still delivered and deserves recognition
This astonishing feat has been dismissed across the political spectrum
Some are upset about things the administration did/did not do
Warp speed still delivered and deserves recognition
Others applaud things the administration did/did not do
Warp speed still delivered and deserves recognition
Imagine doing something that saved quite literally millions of lives
That’s a summary of Operation Warp Speed, started under the first Trump Administration. And everyone involved including the president should be proud
Vaccines don’t care how you vote
Operation Warp Speed was arguably one of the most successful policy initiatives in recent history, accelerating vaccine delivery that saved millions of lives.
It’s remarkable to see some now urging the leaders who backed it to disown the achievement.
Well who’da thunk it?
08.09.2025 23:05 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Discussions grounded in science and clear that pandemic response involves hard choices, are a vital part of how we *should* respond to Covid. Even if they are thin on the ground right now
08.09.2025 15:17 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Thanks to Braver Angels & David Zweig for engaging in this debate on the primary effects of the first year of the pandemic (540,000 deaths), the secondary effects (one year of learning loss for kids, unemployment, isolation), and things that we did right and wrong 1/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Gg...
Excellent primer on Tylenol (acetaminophen/paracetamol) in pregnancy from @jeremyfaust.bsky.social which just happens to quote me insidemedicine.substack.com/p/tylenol-ha...
08.09.2025 13:25 — 👍 13 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 1
Key “His supporters don’t trust the agencies he oversees, and his detractors don’t trust him.”
Public Health is certainly a political issue - it is about how much we invest in human lives and wellbeing, so how could it not be?
But it should never be *politicized*
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...
And we certainly know that millions of lives have been *saved* by the very vaccines that the Secretary has singled out for attack
05.09.2025 12:21 — 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
05.09.2025 00:37 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0The point of this is that freedom and reality are connected. And that those who would deprive us of freedom are frightened of reality because it will be there after they are gone
05.09.2025 00:19 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 1
New ebola outbreak in DRC. According to this 4 health care workers among the 16 already dead.
actualite.cd/2025/09/04/r...
2009 was when we saw the emergence of H1N1 - swine flu. I was on my hospital's transport team back then and the number of critically ill, previously healthy children we had in our PICU with the flu that year was heartbreaking. A difficult time for everyone in pediatrics.
04.09.2025 21:12 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Last respiratory virus season 278 children in the US died of influenza, more than any year since 2009.
The majority were previously healthy, but 90% had *not* received a flu vaccine.
Facts are stubborn things
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/h...
Just saying…
04.09.2025 16:47 — 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years?
Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
What a figure!
03.09.2025 00:41 — 👍 34 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 0If you are in or around Philadelphia this Friday, check this out. With any luck it will be enlightening!
03.09.2025 20:19 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Well said Rick Bright
“In national security terms, mRNA is the equivalent of a missile defense system for biology. The ability to rapidly design, produce and deploy medical countermeasures is as vital to our defense as any military capability“
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o...
Whether a vaccine protects you depends on your immune response, not trust
Whether you receive an effective vaccine? Yes that has a lot to do with trust
It is important to build and support public trust and access to effective vaccines. This does the opposite
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
