It was a tough time: This spring summer I saw a deliberate anti-science disinformation campaign emerging from the White House, and how it was both targeting scientists (me) and decimating Hispanic and other low-income communities. To say nothing I felt was morally indefensible
I’m in a scary place, definitely out of my comfort zone, but having the support of my family and the scientific community (including many govt scientists who feel similarly threatened), gives me a lot courage to keep going.
Back in May in a paper published in @MicrobesInfect I predicted the attacks on science and scientists would escalate in the weeks prior to the 2020 US presidential election, and pretty much that’s what’s happening.
Also troubling is the accelerating globalization of anti-science and links to QAnon and neo-nazi political activities. I have a new paper out in @MicrobesInfect this coming week..
I took some comfort in the writings of Elie Wiesel, Abba Eban, others, and that helped. Here's what EW said in his @NobelPrize acceptance speech on Dec 10, 1986 in Oslo, Norway. L'Shana Tova
Long COVID impacting more than 1 million children: CDC study suggests. Also a reason why it was important to vaccinate kids vs COVID. It wasn’t only about deaths and hospitalizations. Covid vaccines reduce the risk of long Covid. Papers attached abcnews.go.com/Health/long-co…
1/n But remember: the risk of myocarditis after Covid infection is much higher than it is following vaccination, and it’s not just myocarditis it’s also heart attacks and strokes. So Covid vaccination is an important way to protect your heart health
PolitiFact | Yes, there have been placebo-controlled studies on childhood vaccines. Good article by @PolitiFact FYI I recently did a PubMed @NLM_NIH search on placebo-controlled RCT and other trials approved for vaccines. Lists attached politifact.com/factchecks/202…
This is what I found for MMR vaccine, this is not intended to be comprehensive, but to debunk the idea that there are no such trials. You can do this yourself, it’s an open access database and just takes a minute. There are many, in fact:
H5N1 not a reason to be terrified. We know a lot about zoonotic flu, have been preparing for it 20 yrs (unlike when COVID began), + we have candidate vaccines, antivirals, diagnostics
It was actually the leadership of the W Bush Admin that prioritized a national response to zoonotic flu in 2000s, recruited my mentors, like DA Henderson, Maj Gen Phil Russell, Stewart Simonson, WI Gov. Tommy Thompson, Mike Osterholm, Bruce Gellin, Peggy Hamburg, to name some
So we can defeat H5N1, but it will need to be made a national priority
Another reminder: in U.S. we must now expect a regular cadence of pandemic threats: SARS in 2002, SARS-2/Covid in 2019, likely SARS-3; avian flu; Nipah; Ebola 2014, 2019; Zika 2016, soon dengue, YF. So we can’t screw around, the Trump Admin needs serious players for CDC, FDA, NIH
The Trump Administration and the Republican-led Congress must take this seriously. If we’re going to have a chance vs this onslaught of pandemic threats - and they are coming - we cannot waste time with ideologues, lightweights, propagandists, and antivaccine activists
In his first term in office: they missed the entry of the SARS-2 virus into NYC from Southern Europe bc they focused on travel from China, couldn’t organize testing and tracing, lost time and lives bc of fake hydroxychloroquine cures that didn’t work. We can’t do that again
1/n I’m concerned: the health disinformation empire has begun accelerating with this new RFK Jr GOP partnership, also worried about the muted/invisible response from our U.S. HHS agencies, health professional societies/academic health centers. Troubling pics in this thread…