While all attention is on #COVID19 our National School of Tropical Medicine @BCM_TropMed (work led by @Rojelio) found widespread toxocariasis in low-income areas of #NYC, led by the #Bronx.
Thank you @CathFlowers for introducing us to city leaders/reps
A reason this is significant: Earlier in @JAMAPsych (my first paper in a psychiatric journal) I highlighted the role of toxocariasis for its role in developmental delays among socioeconomically disadvantaged kids (based on work from @sunydownstate)
1/n update on Covid in U.S. first some good news, latest from CDC shows we’re now at about our lowest levels of new COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic…
2/n also Covid wastewater numbers looking pretty good, so as I said a few weeks ago, it looks like we might a low Covid spring or at least May. Good for HS or college graduations
3/n the concerning trend is one @EricTopol and others pointed earlier today namely these newer FLiRT variants, if and when they go over 50% will the numbers rise again?
1/n I’m seeing on social media and popular podcasts, awful nonsense and false claims about Covid immunizations in pregnancy causing autism in newborns. This is dangerous health disinformation at multiple levels. Here is the real story.
2/n First the adverse health impact of Covid on both pregnant mother and new baby is undisputed, it’s devastating for both, especially high maternal morbidity and mortality journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
3/n moreover the health benefits of Covid vaccinations for both mother and newborn are also indisputable and life saving. This from @LancetDigitalH thelancet.com/journals/landi…
1/n Latest from @IHME_UW and their new Global Burden of Disease 2021 data for COVID19 excess mortality in 2021. A few things: First, it helps dispel the myth that LMIC nations on the African Continent were spared the ravages of Covid. A reason…
2/n a reason is low vaccination rates. My view: the overemphasis on speed or new technologies and innovations, there were insufficient mRNA and particle vaccine doses made in 2020-21, and these were bought up quickly by high income countries.
3/n I believe if our @TexasChildrens vaccine group received more international assistance we could have moved faster to help LMICs in Africa. As it is even without that help (or very modest help), at least 100 million doses of our low-cost, patent-free Covid vaccine administered
1/n Nuremberg 2.0 is a QAnon far-right fantasy that the Covid vaccine scientists & virologists will be tried at some sort of military tribunal similar to those following WWII. It’s an excuse to invoke Nazi imagery, designed to intimidate scientists, portray us as public enemies
@JHUPress 3/n the use of Nazi imagery to intimidate scientists has a historical basis, which I wrote about in a paper last year @ProjectMUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/902035…
1/n Our @TexasChildrens laboratory is rapidly accelerating a new human hookworm anemia vaccine for LMICs.
Fyi hookworm, malaria, yellow fever, dengue once common in East Texas (and in some cases returning). Here’s a hookworm map from early 1900s. Even Harris County,