Thomas Christie Williams

Police arrest 365 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London Met officers and other UK forces form ‘significant presence’ in largest protest since group was proscribed as terrorist organisation

“The fact that unprecedented numbers came out today risking arrest and possible imprisonment shows how repulsed and ashamed people are about our government’s ongoing complicity in a livestreamed genocide, and the lengths people are prepared to go to defend this country’s ancient liberties.”

Illustration of a woman standing in a lit doorway, casting a long shadow down a dark hallway. Text on the image reads: 'Restricting access to safe abortion drives women and girls to unsafe procedures.'

Access to safe abortion protects the health of women and girls.

As with all other health services, women and girls should be able to access safe and respectful abortion care, when they need it, without fear of harm, punishment or recrimination.

#HealthForAll

Nirsevimab, a long-acting and highly effective monoclonal antibody to protect against RSV will be introduced for high-risk infants across the UK this autumn- learn more about this at this @RCPCHtweets webinar
www.rcpch.ac.uk/education-ca...

GAVI board

exciting news for the RSV field as @GAVI approves the opening of a funding window for the establishment of a maternal RSV vaccine programme
www.gavi.org/news/media-r...

great annotation of this photo by Dr. Emily Willoughby emilywilloughby.com

Photograph 51, XR diffraction image of B form of DNA

Happy Birthday to Rosalind Franklin! Photograph 51, taken by her PhD student Raymond Gosling, was key to solving the structure of DNA

Read our August issue!

Featuring pertussis vaccination in pregnancy in Gambian women, whether STIs can be prevented using doxycycline post-exposure, and definition of the primaquine dose to treat P. vivax malaria.

www.thelancet.com/issue/S1473-...

As of 15 July, 877 fatalities and 5666 injuries have been reported among people trying to access food supplies. Image of an empty bowl and spoon against black background.

People are getting killed trying to get food.

877 people have died and 5666 were injured in #Gaza trying to get food in recent weeks.

BronchStop logo

for a more detailed description of the background to the paper and our findings see this thread x.com/Williams_T_C...

our new paper just out in @lancetchildadol.bsky.social show that the new maternal RSV vaccine is highly effective in a real world setting- we estimated that it prevented 72% of hospital admissions with RSV infection when given more than two weeks before birth www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... 1/n

"We must recognise health problems are information problems"

@adamjkucharski.bsky.social explains why tools like vaccines are 'not enough' to tackle disease epidemics, #PublicHealth interventions should now include steps to counter health #misinformation.

www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...

Illustration of a baby. Text reads: 'Immunizations are still not reaching every child, everywhere. 14.3 million children received no vaccines in 2024.'

⚠️ Lack of access
⚠️ Conflict
⚠️ Disrupted supply
⚠️ Misinformation

are causing millions of children to miss out on one or more life-saving vaccine.

Even worse 🚨 over 14 million children received NO vaccines at all in 2024 👉 bit.ly/4kFzSGW

Illustration of a child with spots on the skin. Text reads 'Measles can be fatal. Know the symptoms. - Rash that starts on the face and spreads over the body - Fever - Red and watery eyes - Runny nose - Small white spots inside the cheeks - Cough'

#Measles can be fatal. Do you know its symptoms?

🔸 Rash that starts on the face and spreads over the body
🔸 Fever
🔸 Runny nose
🔸 Cough
🔸 Red and watery eyes
🔸 Small white spots inside the cheeks

Seek health care if you suspect you or your child has measles.

Doctors’ groups sue Kennedy over Covid shot changes for kids, pregnant people They say the decision “erodes trust” by pitting providers against federal recommendations that aren’t grounded in evidence.

Very proud of our specialty societies for suing RFK Jr. over changes to COVID vaccine policy.

Go AAP, ACP, IDSA, and SMFM!

And thanks again to Dr. Georges Benjamin @apha.org who is always on the right side of justice!
#MedSky

Vaccination rates in children from 2016 to 2024

we face a similar, slow burning problem closer to home here in Scotland, with childhood vaccination rates consistently falling over time publichealthscotland.scot/publications...

Global, regional, and national trends in routine childhood vaccination coverage from 1980 to 2023 with forecasts to 2030: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 Our estimates of current vaccine coverage and forecasts to 2030 suggest that achieving IA2030 targets, such as halving zero-dose children compared with 2019 levels and reaching 90% global coverage for...

and a fall in childhood vaccination rates globally
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

US children’s vaccinations to be reviewed, as RFK Jr defunds Gavi The newly appointed US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has announced two working groups that will review the US children’s vaccination schedule. Opening the first ACIP meeting sin...

Whilst a lot of attention has focused on Robert F Kennedy's activity in the vaccination sphere in the United States (e.g. www.bmj.com/content/390/...)

really excellent post regarding vaccine safety @livvyswann.bsky.social @ting-shi.bsky.social @ryanthwaites.bsky.social @prof-tregoning.bsky.social

my favourite section is the really excellent summary of the evidence base for vaccines that have saved millions of lives and years of disability since their introduction @profdevisridhar.bsky.social @helenbranswell.bsky.social

this is a sober, detailed and well-informed response to the clear vaccine misinformation provided on national TV by @rfk-junior.bsky.social, Secretary of State for Health and Human Services in the United States

to make sure there are no challenges to vaccination effectiveness as a result of viral evolution

a lot of interest now globally on RSV immunisation/vaccination, so a timely release from @who.int iris.who.int/handle/10665...
with recommendations for the scale of genomic surveillance required globally - as the vaccine gets rolled out important that we have representative global data

Ousted CDC vaccine adviser says RFK Jr.'s message is clear: ‘Scientific expertise is no longer of use’ Terminated CDC vaccine adviser Helen Chu spoke with STAT about her fears for the future of vaccine policy

ICYMI: Fired #ACIP member is deeply worried about the committee she worked years to get a seat on, and the future of vaccination policy and vaccine access in this country. www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/c...

Parents sue over son's asthma death days after inhaler price soared without warning Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, had insurance but couldn’t afford to refill his asthma inhaler after the cost jumped from $70 to more than $500.

This is “healthcare” in the United States. A pharmacy benefit manager randomly decided they just weren’t going to cover this man’s inhaler anymore, so he couldn’t afford it. He died of an asthma attack. Devastating.

www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

when compared to sites in the UK and Italy

however year to year variability in LRTI/bronchiolitis attendances/admissions, and differences in coding between sites, might make the impact of maternal vaccination harder to gage

Real-world impact of nirsevimab immunisation against respiratory disease on emergency department attendances and admissions among infants: a multinational retrospective analysis Nirsevimab had a clear impact in reducing attendances and admissions for infants with bronchiolitis aged <6 months in Catalonia. However, the impact on older infants was less clear.

our paper just out in @thelancet.com Regional Health Europe just out shows a clear impact for nirsevimab for the youngest infants (0-5m of age) in reducing attendances to, and admissions from, emergency departments in Catalonia, Spain
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

there is also a real-time, interactive dashboard for this living review v1xerunt.github.io/VaccineUptak... which will be very helpful in seeing how interventions continue to be rolled our globally

however the marginalised groups who are highest risk of severe disease are also those with the lowest uptake, meaning the burden of this now highly preventable disease is distributed doubly inequitably

these products are very effective in reducing the risk of hospitalisation with RSV, but uptake has been highly variable

congratulations to Daira Trusinska and @ting-shi.bsky.social for their paper just out in @eclinicalmed.bsky.social looking at uptake of new RSV immunisation products: nirsevimab, maternal vaccination, and vaccination for older adults www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...