Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 22, 2023 20 tweets 12 min read Read on X
A #CROI2023 special session on #mpox. Some live tweets: Image
Dr. John Brooks, an internist at CDC office of prevention, speaks about #mpox. He notes that we've seen declines worldwide in new cases. 2/ Image
Mpox likely transmitted most via contact with skin and the anorectal area. #CROI2023 3/ Image
Dr. Brooks says, "We don't really know" why #mpox has declined so dramatically. He speculates vaccination and sexual behavior change in gay and bi men likely contributed. He does not mention my theory that the virus ran out of people with high frequency of new partners to infect. Image
Dr. Brooks calls for completion of the clinical trial of antiviral TPOXX , something that is difficult without many cases of #mpox occurring. He says people need to get vaccinated against mpox now before Pride season returns. #CROI2023 Image
Dr. Brooks notes that presymptomatic transmission of #mpox is possible. #CROI2023 Image
Dr. Sharon Frey, Clinical Director, Center for Vaccine Development, St. Louis University: MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS AND THERAPEUTIC TARGETS FOR MPOX VIRUS lecture
Jynneos has been vaccinated intradermally: Image
Dr. Frey compares smallpox and #mpox at #CROI2023. "The presentation of mpox when it is sexually transmitted is very different from what we know of mpox in the past." Image
Dr. Frey reviews the history of smallpox vaccination. #CROI2023 Image
Post-9/11, Iraq war era, Bush's administration was afraid that Iraq would use biological warfare. It turns out Iraq did not have smallpox on hand. Regardless, a program began to develop a new vaccine for smallpox. #CROI2023 Image
The history of #mpox. #CROI2023
Dr. Frey says that quote about the virus disappearing because of ecological changes has the matter backward. Image
The 21st century #mpox outbreaks.
#CROI2023 Image
A play-by-play of the 2022 #mpox outbreak. Note that researchers later realized there had been signs of the virus in the UK by early April. #CROI2023 Image
The CDC's John Brooks says that there are an est 2M Americans who would be good candidates for #mpox vaccination, because they are a man who has sex with men at risk of sexual acquisition and/or a person with HIV. 1.2M doses have been given; only 470,000 people have both doses.
A PhD student from @fredhutch says there has been "historical revisionism" going on in the talks in today's session. Yes, he says, there was decrease in sexual activity. "I think the LGBTQ community felt very let down by the public health infrastructure."
The @fredhutch student says, "We kind of had to take care of ourselves." He refers to the delay in the vaccine arriving on US shores. "I don't mean to tell you that this is bad or anything, but I don't necessarily think this is as rosy as being presented." (Applause)
"Now is the time to protect yourself. Prepare to be protected so you can take care of yourself in the future," said Dr. John Brooks of CDC at #CROI2023, anticipating that #mpox might rise again with the arrival of #LGBTQ Pride season. Will we see another mpox summer? Image
@MegDoherty_HIV of @WHO in Geneva says there's no guarantee that the public health emergency of international concern regarding #mpox will continue. She asks about the best way to continue monitoring and surveillance and not to lose momentum in combatting the virus. #CROI2023
Dr. John Brooks says, "We have the tools that work, how do we make sure we have equitable access to those around the world." The problem of #mpox, he says at #CROI2023, is growing in W and Central Africa.

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More from @benryanwriter

Mar 3
IN DEFENSE OF EFFEMINATE GAY BOYS

If anyone had suggested that I might really be a girl, I don’t know how I would have responded, by @BenAppel for @TheAtlantic.

GIFT LINK: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/…Image
Similarly, @chadfelixg wrote:

thefederalist.com/2020/02/24/if-…
@chadfelixg Harvard Law School clinical instructor and trans activist Alejandra Caraballo is unhappy about @BenAppel’s article in @TheAtlantic, calling it the “‘they're transing the gays’ conspiracy theory.” Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 24
"The science doesn’t seem so settled after all, and it’s important to understand what happened here. The approach of left-of-center Americans and our institutions — to assume that when a scientific organization releases a 'policy statement' on a hot-button issue, that the policy statement must be accurate — is a deeply naïve understanding of science, human nature and politics, and how they intersect," writes @JesseSingal for @NYTOpinion.

GIFT LINK: nytimes.com/2026/02/24/opi…Image
For @NYTOpinion, @JesseSingal writes:

The A.P.A. presents a particularly striking case of why transparency is important. In 2024, it published what it touted as a “groundbreaking policy supporting transgender, gender diverse, nonbinary individuals” that was specifically geared at fighting “misinformation” on that subject. But when I reached out to the group this month, it pointed me to a different document, a letterwritten by the group’s chief advocacy officer, Katherine McGuire, in September in response to a Federal Trade Commission request for comment on youth gender medicine.

The documents, separated by about a year and a half (and, perhaps as significantly, one presidential election), straightforwardly contradict each other. The A.P.A. in 2024 argued that there is a “comprehensive body of psychological and medical research supporting the positive impact of gender-affirming treatments” for individuals “across the life span.” But in 2025, the group argued that “psychologists do not make broad claims about treatment effectiveness.”

In 2024, the A.P.A. criticized those “mischaracterizing gender dysphoria as a manifestation of traumatic stress or neurodivergence.” In 2025, it cautioned that gender dysphoria diagnoses could be the result of “trauma-related presentations” rather than a trans identity, and noted that “co-occurring mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder) … may complicate or be mistaken for gender dysphoria.” It seems undeniable that the 2025 A.P.A. published what the 2024 A.P. A considered to be “misinformation.” (“The 2024 policy statement and the 2025 F.T.C. letter are consistent,” said Ms. McGuire in an email, and “both documents reflect A.P.A.’s consistent commitment to evidence-based psychological care.”)Image
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@nytopinion @jessesingal Jesse Singal on youth gender medicine in @NYTOpinion: “I’ve been covering this controversy for about a decade from a left-of-center perspective, and I’ve found that anyone who questions these treatments, even mildly, is invariably accused of bigotry.”

Bluesky: “YOU TRANSPHOBE!! Image
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Read 9 tweets
Feb 23
NEWS: Mt. Sinai, the sprawling hospital system, has joined NYU Langone in shuttering its pediatric gender clinic in the face of threats from the Trump administration of cutting off its Medicaid funding.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani @ZohranKMamdani @NYCMayor pledged in his campaign to spend $65M in city funds on gender-transition treatment to evade pressures from the Trump administration to cut off such access. But since NYU announced it would no longer provide gender-transition drugs or surgeries to minors, the mayor has been mum on the potential for spending public funds on these interventions.Image
The blue-state pediatric gender clinic closures started with Children's Hospital Los Angeles last July and have continued steadily since then. benryan.substack.com/p/dr-johanna-o…Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 19
Taylor Lorenz Plagiarism Scandal Erupts

YouTube sleuths found: @TaylorLorenz apparently copied substantial portions of a TechDirt article about Joseph Gordon-Levitt @hitRECordJoe and Section 230.

Lorenz appeared to pass off the article's text as if it was her own script.🧵⬇️Image
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Go to 4:22 in this video to see the part where the YouTube hosts assert that @TaylorLorenz has plagiarized her narration from a TechDirt article about Joseph Gordon-Levitt @hitRECordJoe and Section 230:
youtube.com/live/JXI9uRwfG…
Here is @TaylorLorenz's video in which Lorenz appears to have lifted much of her script from a TechDirt article. Go to 9:34:
youtube.com/watch?v=b0RRxR…
Cross reference with this article: techdirt.com/2026/02/12/jos… Image
Read 11 tweets
Feb 18
I can’t even begin to enumerate all the nasty things Parker Molloy has said about me in an effort to punish me for reporting about pediatric gender medicine and to scare off other reporters who might dare to enter this arena. My policy with responding to such behavior is I report what people such a Molloy say or do, and will often fact check errors. They then turn around and make vicious and demeaning claims about who I am.
Update: Parker Molloy is expressing her rage toward me on Bluesky right now.
Update: Parker Molloy is not an activist. Nothing in her behavior, rhetoric or discourse would suggest she is one. Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
The Federal Trade Commission has opened a consumer protection probe into the American Academy of Pediatrics and has demanded its records regarding pediatric gender medicine.

In 2018, the AAP published its foundational policy document on the gender-affirming care method. It was written by a single medical resident, Dr. Jason Rafferty, and edited by a small committee. It was subjected to a brutal fact check by Canadian sex researcher Dr. James Cantor the following year. The AAP never responded to the fact check. In 2023, the AAP reaffirmed the policy statement with no changes.

The statement asserts that even very young children know their gender identity as well as anyone and should be trusted to guide the way in their own pathway of transition.Image
Read 6 tweets

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