Published today! Victoria Bastos, @KerrieGreene_ et al found two distinct immunotypes of ME/CFS based on the cerebrospinal fluid analysis. Great collaboration with @MBVanElzakker @microbeminded2 and the Bragée clinic in Sweden. (1/) academic.oup.com/jimmunol/artic…
This is perfect timing as Victoria will present these data at the @polybioRF symposium today. (2/)
Based on cerebrospinal fluid cytokines, we identified two clusters of ME/CFS patients. Cluster 1 had elevated matrix metalloproteinases & many cytokines compared to cluster 2. Other than older age (Cluster 1), clinical presentation of these clusters was similar. (3/)
Published today📣
Our nasal booster in the "Prime & Spike" vaccine works without adjuvants (which are needed to induce adaptive immunity but also cause inflammation). @Kwon_Dongil @tianyangmao @BenIsraelow et al. asked how this is possible. (1/) nature.com/articles/s4159…
Prime & Spike is a vaccine strategy that leverages preexisting immunity primed by conventional vaccines to elicit mucosal IgA and T cell responses that prevent COVID infection and transmission in rodents. The nasal booster is simply the spike protein (2/) science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Our new study shows that the nasal spike protein booster converts lymph node memory B cells into IgA-secreting cells in the lung with the help of memory CD4 T cells. Ag-specific CD4 T cells replace all the necessary functions of adjuvants without nonspecific inflammation! (3/)
This prospective observational study led by @connorbgrady @bornali_27 @SilvaJ_C @hmkyale examined the impact of the primary COVID-19 vaccination on the symptoms and immune signatures of 16 people with #longCOVID. Here is what we found 👇🏼 (1/)
This study asked: Does COVID vaccination improve symptoms of long COVID? If so, is the improvement due to robust T and B cell responses leading to the clearance of the viral reservoir? If not, is there an immune feature that predicts worsening of LC? (2/)
The self-reported impact of vaccination was variable. Of the 16 long COVID patients, 10 felt better, 3 had no change, and 3 had worse health (1 hospitalized) 12 weeks after vaccination. Both physical and social effects of symptom burden appeared to decrease after vaccination. (3/)
"We will take your baby and deport you without her.”
Blockbuster new report from us @RefugeesIntl and our partner @humanrights1st documenting shocking stories of asylum seekers unlawfully disappeared, abused, and expelled by Trump's @CBP and @ICEgov.
Read on. 🧵
Our teams interviewed numerous asylum seekers who have been unlawfully expelled from the US to Costa Rica, Panama, and their home countries (where they face real risk of persecution or torture, likely constituting refoulement).
We found a consistent pattern of government abuse and deception intended to subvert legal oversight and to deny people's rights.
Some of these accounts appear consistent with the practice of enforced disappearance under international law.
I saw firsthand the impact of stop-work-orders/terminations at USAID & now Harvard.
My new @NewYorker piece is on the serious implications for the lives of millions across the world and the US – including for my own family and very possibly your own. 🧵 newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…
These attacks are part of a broader assault on America’s health-and-science infrastructure. >90% of the $9B in federal dollars for Harvard that Trump has threatened supports life sciences – including heart disease research that saved my son’s life and guides his future care.
My family is far from unique. If you or someone you love has cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or diabetes, you have likely benefited from the university’s federally funded discoveries. harvard.edu/research-fundi…
Most people haven’t heard of this test, which is available in the US. It accurately predicts Alzheimer’s (not just if there’s a risk, but when). It is favorably affected by exercise and likely many other lifestyle factors.
Here’s (almost) everything we know about it. In Ground Truths (link in my profile d/t X-suppression)
A major @Nature paper this week found a significant decline in dementia after an outdated Shingles vaccine.
I've reviewed the study and many other relevant ones in a new Ground Truths (link in profile)
A Table from the post
The effect in the 2 natural experiments differed substantially by sex with the benefit predominant in women
We’re still learning about the steep cuts to CDC, but I want to focus on the particularly dangerous and misguided elimination of CDC’s tobacco control program. If it’s not reversed, this would have devastating consequences and put American lives at risk.
Although FDA regulates tobacco products, setting rules on manufacturing, requiring warning labels, and overseeing how tobacco products are advertised and marketed, FDA alone can’t prevent tobacco addiction.
CDC plays a distinct and essential role—tracking tobacco use, analyzing the burden of tobacco-related disease, and sharing vital data with communities, researchers, and policymakers.
Aid leaders have been warning for 2 months that the gutting of @USAID would leave US unable to respond to major global disasters.
We are now seeing that play out in real time with the Myanmar quake - reality is calling bullshit on the Trump admin's narrative.
🧵
In today's press briefing @statedeptspox bizarrely "rejected the premise" that a meaningful US response requires USAID staff "to be physically there."
As the guy who used to deploy those teams - this is total nonsense.
You can't conduct search-and-rescue virtually. Come on.
The reality is that other countries began deploying their teams immediately - and the US would have too, under any prior administration (including Trump 1).
But Elon, Pete Marocco, and Rubio have wrecked the USG's ability to do this.
I posted this over a month ago on some specific line items on DOGE's wall of receipts, explaining how these violated the Rubio guidance on protecting lifesaving activities.
Seattle’s only national park honors the grit of the Klondike gold rush, where Donald Trump's grandfather built the family's early wealth.
But the DOGE cuts have placed the park’s future at risk.
A 🧵 about the park and Frederick Trump...
There are some fascinating twists of history in this story.
Frederick Trump had his first foray into the world of hospitality as a 22-year-old in Seattle, when he opened a restaurant very close to the site of the current national park.
In 1896, Frederick Trump made the family's first foray into U.S. politics in the mining town of Monte Cristo. In a local campaign, he apparently allied himself with William Jennings Bryan, the populist Democrat who railed against tariffs.
On claim after claim about @USAID / foreign aid, Elon is just making shit up as he goes along. No truth to any of it.
This claim is demonstrably false. Deaths have already been documented from the aid freeze. And the so called "sanity check" is a clown show of incompetence.
This is not a "brief pause." Aid orgs doing critical lifesaving work are being denied reimbursement for work already completed, and can't access USG payments to continue operations.
Many had their programs waived from the freeze, then terminated, then un-terminated.
A farce.
This is all hugely disruptive and the practical effect is global drawdown of lifesaving humanitarian and health activities.
Our @RefugeesIntl teams in the field over the past two weeks have documented widespread breakdowns of lifesaving relief operations in Syria & Bangladesh.
So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at @USAID.
This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.
What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.
Normally there would be:
- resources rapidly pushed to partners & host govt
- robust interagency (USAID/CDC/DOD) teams deployed to field, backstopped by Ops Centers in DC and Atlanta
- real-time operational cooperation and info-sharing with WHO
It is clear as day that Marocco has made no effort to comply with multiple orders from the court to lift the arbitrary & capricious aid freeze.
He is likewise defying @SecRubio's order to waive lifesaving assistance.
Virtually no money has been unlocked by either order.
And Marocco's ongoing purge of @USAID personnel means it's functionally impossible to comply with these orders.
He and DOGE have pushed out nearly the entire workforce that would normally process these payments, knowing full well this makes compliance with the orders impossible.
Our preprint on post-vaccination syndrome is out. We studied immune signatures and examined spike protein in the blood of people who have developed chronic illnesses after COVID-19 vaccination. (1/) medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
Vaccines have saved countless lives and inspired me to become an immunologist. While generally safe, some people experience adverse effects, including Post-Vaccination Syndrome (PVS). Studying PVS is crucial for improving patient care and enhancing vaccine safety & acceptance. (2/) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37986769/
One of the most common tropes is that measles is fine & doesn’t cause damage…
This is highly inaccurate
Measles literally grows by infecting and killing memory immune cells. It causes loss to existing immunity creating vulnerabilities & acute damage that is often severe
2/
To discover the massive-stealth-impact measles has on immune protection against infections not associated w measles, we looked at what happened in populations after measles outbreaks swept through, decade after decade across nations…
1/ After residency at Mass General Hospital, I reported to Atlanta to meet my fellow CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers.
I have never felt so intimidated by my peers
The best and the brightest, they were star clinicians, had served in disaster zones; MD/PhDs and MSF.
2/ We were placed at various centers throughout CDC, learning from the world's experts- in tuberculosis, mosquito-borne diseases, food-borne diseases, ...
and some of us were placed with state & local Health departments to be on the front lines of outbreak response
3/ In my first day on the job, I got into a city sanitation car to investigate an outbreak of bloody diarrhea at a state psychiatric facility.
My boss has served in the EIS. Her boss, the legendary head of the NYC Bureau of Communicable Disease had also.