Pediatric infectious disease physician, author, runner, metal fan. Dislikes Pseudoscience and bigotry. Views ≠ my employer 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Prescription: Ice Cream available now! https://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Doctors-Journey-Discover-Matters-ebook/dp/B0CY347H4D
8,038 followers 549 following 178 posts
view profile on Bluesky
A reminder that countries that have implemented mass HPV vaccination are on course to ELIMINATE cervical cancer entirely (with no discernible common adverse effects). RFK Jr and Lied Suddenly want women (and men) to die a painful death from a preventable disease.
Let me get this straight: RFK Jr’s $500m cut to mRNA contracts was based on a non‑peer‑reviewed, self‑published, anti-vax bibliography authored by his cronies who are all tied to a ‘vaccine detox’ supplement company? Got it 👍 www.importantcontext.news/p/experts-ci...
This is clownish nonsense. A) What on earth is Bhattacharya doing on this guy’s show? B) Why is he spreading ridiculous nonsense on this guy’s show? To claim *all* mRNA vaccines are no longer viable is just absurd. He is an embarrassment. Bought and paid for.
Insanity. No other technology promises to provide as much protection against an array of diseases. Now this anti-vaxx weirdo has shut them all down. Never has America been more vulnerable.
😊😊😊
EXTREMELY proud to announce that my memoir, “Prescription: Ice Cream”, has been long-listed for the Sunday Times Literary Prize. If you’re interested in a story about working in the busiest hospital in the world, overcoming addition, or finding the meaning of life-check it out!
It is the first time that Jewish-led organizations in Israel have made such accusations against the country during nearly 22 months of war.
Robert F. Kennedy jr. has taken a slash and burn approach to health agencies. Experts expect people to die from his actions. via @andrewgumbel.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...
Charlotte lost her sister to measles. She has a hard time watching today's outbreaks.
Serving sugary drinks with cane sugar in glass bottles won’t significantly change anyone’s health. This is performative nonsense that summarizes how silly the “MAHA” movement is.
HUGE new study of >1.2 million kids looked to see if the aluminium contained was associated with a number of childhood conditions. Long story short: NO association with ANY of them. The tiny amount of aluminium in vaccines is safe. #Vaccineswork
Stilllllll at it…
In case you were worried by this despicable lie: There is ZERO association with receipt of vaccination and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In fact, many studies have found a negative association between vaccines and SIDS (ie they’re associated with REDUCED SIDS)
Disingenuous nonsense. We know why autism rates have increased. Expanded diagnostic criteria and increased awareness. The causes are not fully elucidated, but predominantly genetic. (RFK Jr wants to blame vaccines. We all know it).
😂😂😂
I thought I would spend my days on social media making funny memes and nerding out with fellow medics. Instead, I’m debunking AI-generated anti-vaxx slop from the head of frikkin Health & Human Sciences. While pointing out that Pubmed searches aren’t evidence. Astonishing.
So, overall, a gish gallop of nonsense. No compelling data. Lots of not-studies. Mostly irrelevant. No RCTs. Designed to overwhelm rather than illuminate. This is so far from “gold standard science” that it’s not in the same zip code. We deserve better.
23- Random interview. Not evidence. 24- Weak observational study for influenza vaccine. Irrelevant and not evidence, 25. Safety review showing nothing concerning- not evidence 26- Duplicate of ref 22. Not evidence 27- Russian study from 1977. Come on man. 28. Opinion piece /4
18- mechanistic explanation. Not evidence. 19- study on environmental exposure. Not relevant. 20- Uncited PowerPoint - not evidence. 21- Mechanistic animal study not demonstrating harm. Not evidence. 22 - “Systemaric review” evaluating half life of mercury. Not evidence /3
Refs 1-6 are simply Pubmed searches. Not evidence. 7-8 are old debates of politicians discussing stuff. Not evidence. 9-14 are outdated data sheets. Not evidence. 15&16 - not studies. Not evidence. 17- mammalian data not demonstrating harm. Not evidence /2
Kennedy provides a bunch of references for his claim that thimerosal in vaccines (barely used anymore) is harmful. If a high-school student submitted this as their reference list, they would fail. I will do what Kennedy didn’t - actually look at them. 🧵
The result of the antivaxx movement is death for kids. Whooping cough can be fatal for young infants - it causes them to stop breathing. Kids can only be vaccinated at 6-8w of life. Before then, protection is provided by vaccinating mum during pregnancy.
Two babies have died from whooping cough in Kentucky. Neither they nor their parents had been vaccinated. The current whooping cough outbreak in the U.S. hasn’t grabbed the media spotlight as much as measles has, but it’s important to update your vaccination if you’re going to be around babies.
These parents clamored to enroll their children in the Covid vaccine trials. But they say it'll be tough — and unethical — to enroll children in placebo trials again. And they feel betrayed that their sacrifices are now going ignored. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Gorski calls this nonsense “methodolatry”, and he’s right. The slavish notion that only a “placebo controlled RCT” can inform decision-making.
The intellectual dishonesty to publish a paper showing that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID… … and then to stand with an antivaxxer and NOT recommend the vaccine for that high-risk group … is astonishing.
😂😂😂 Seth!
Just… profoundly unserious people.
See: www.notus.org/health-scien...
RFK Jr and MAHA promised a return to “gold standard science.” Their report (likely AI generated) cites studies that don’t exist, and misrepresents existing ones. “Gold standard”? I’d fail an undergrad kid for this.
Do these folks have absolutely no shame??
The whole notion of a white genocide in South Africa is so profoundly stupid, it hurts my very bones…
Harm reduction reduces harms. Period. That’s why it’s called that. We have decades of data. There are mountains of evidence showing that it does not increase drug harms (a pure fallacy) & does not increase drug use. Most of the data actually shows harm reduction interventions LOWER rates of drug use
🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
Jay Bhattacharya is a profoundly weak and unserious man who is WAYYYY outta his depth. www.science.org/content/arti...
Pertussis (whooping cough) causes babies to stop breathing… I’ve seen older children cough so hard their eyes bleed… It’s an awful illness and it’s prevented by an incredibly safe vaccine. Mums should get it when they’re pregnant and babies when they’re old enough.
Couldn’t disagree more. Medicine and the real world are inextricably intertwined. To advocate for our patients is to engage beyond simple academia. Essentially, this article argues we should remain detached in our ivory towers. THAT is what causes decreased trust.
Who cares what substances Rabada ingests in his free time as long as they’re not giving him a competitive advantage?
A total bald-faced lie. There is NO fetal tissue in the MMR vaccine. Period. This man is unfit to lead HHS.
This isn't a new product. It's an updated vaccine to account for new strains and viral evolution. Are they going to do this for all COVID and influenza vaccines yearly? Because that effectively shuts them down. There isn't enough time between identification of strains included & release of vaccine.
An absolutely catastrophic consequence of the antivaxx movement. Thousands of children potentially harmed. Some of whom will die. All because of misinformation around a safe vaccine. Horrific.
Well the NIH has cancelled the Women's Health Initiative, the largest study of women in history It has been running continuously since 1991 and has provided massive key knowledge about diseases in women Unreal www.science.org/content/arti...
There are things you just don’t cut. A hotline for suicidal youth is one of them. Taking away a basic call for help when someone is at their lowest is not just cold. It’s evil.
To talk about children with autism like this - like they are irreparably damaged and a burden to society - is ignorant, mean and callous. This man simply has no idea what he’s talking about. He brings shame to America.
The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has repeatedly claimed: “If you’re healthy, it’s almost impossible to die from an infectious disease in modern times.” That is dangerously false. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
A THREAD 🧵: Why “studying” the vaccine-autism link again is dangerous pseudoscience and not “open-minded inquiry”
Aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin don’t treat measles (it’s a virus- it doesn’t respond to antibiotics). For the head of HHS to be messaging this in the middle of an outbreak that has killed two children is… despicable.
A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia Neurotropic herpes viruses may be implicated in the development of dementia. Can vaccines reduce this risk? Yes, they can! www.nature.com/artic... 1/10
Kennedy's dismantling of public health has begun. Thousands of doctors, scientists & admins, w deep cuts to HIV, minority health & injury prevention. Several CDC center directors—have been offered a random (and likely remote) reassignment: Indian Health. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
CDC ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging. “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” a spokesperson said, echoing a line from a recent editorial RFK Jr. wrote
🤮🤮🤮
If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.
It’s tragic she lost her job. That sucks. But something about leopards and faces leaps to mind…
This is such an embarrassing take…
School Bully Shocks Nerds With Further Lunch-Money Demands
*Unvaccinated child gets measles, develops pneumonia which is a well-known complication of measles, and tragically passes away.* Anti-vaxxers: “See?! It was pneumonia, not measles, that killed her! This was medical error!” 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
Good. An immature billionaire and his crew of adolescents don’t have the right to shut down life-saving functions that benefit the poorest and neediest.
🤣🤣🤣
Good riddance!
RFK Jr with more scientifically illiterate ramblings: The vaccine confers life long immunity to 95-98% of people who get 2 doses. Breast milk does NOT provide reliable protection to infants, regardless of mother’s immunity (infection vs vaccine).
Lemme get this straight - Trump inherited a booming economy with stocks at an all-time high… And now he’s crashed it and made a recession very likely… All over stupid tariffs and other poor decisions?
Slide courtesy of @sebpoule.bsky.social
Marco Rubio announces that he has killed PEPFAR. An organization that provided critical HIV care to the poorest and neediest. All while professing to follow the teachings of Christ.
Killing PEPFAR means killing millions of people All to save 0.08% of the budget. www.vox.com/future-perfe...
According to a former editor of JAMA, we need more studies on whether or not vaccines cause autism. What mistakes does he make? 🧵
Please don’t have “measles parties.” Even for kids who fully recover, measles is a miserable experience. And a substantial number will have complications. Just get vaccinated instead.
Cartoon by @billbramhall.bsky.social.
😂😂😂
RFK Jr. Vows To Make Measles Deaths So Common They Won’t Be Upsetting Anymore
This is so profoundly dumb on so many levels. Yeah- French fries cooked in beef tallow is what will make Americans healthy 🥴🥴🥴 Just a profoundly unserious man.
This follows the first death of a Canadian child in Ontario last year. NO child should be dying of measles in 2025. We need to do better. 💔
New article in JAMA shows NO increase in sudden cardiac deaths in young athletes during and after the C19 Pandemic. Bottom line: all those ghouls claiming it was the vaccine were lying. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
the way i learned it at my catholic med school was "yes HPV is transmitted sexually but it's so ubiquitous it's not really an STI"
“It funds work that makes no sense like giving CT scans to homeless people” The research was to address the fact that unhoused people have a mortality rate for lung cancer that’s more than 2x that of housed people. CT is the gold standard for lung cancer screening. Doesn’t make sense to him, though
They’re 100% going after childhood vaccines… www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
*Large systematic review appears showing vaccines are safe* Antivaxxers: “Can’t trust these biased ‘studies’ from BiG pHaRmA!” *Tiny study appears showing 10pints of turmeric drowned 1 colony of bacteria in a test tube* AVers: “See! The science is clear! We don’t need vaccines!”
I do find RFK Jr's addiction relevant in one infuriating way: he describes his heroin use as self-medication for ADHD and yet, rather than recognizing this holds lessons for drug policy and mental health care / medication access, he believes all paths except his current one should be illegal.
New: Last night, hundreds of CDC post-doc fellows were fired, including all in the group who call themselves the "disease detectors," and are the future of public health lab leaders. One senior official told me, "It is going to cripple public health for decades." www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...
“I never thought antivaxx policies would be put first in MY state,” sobs man who single-handedly cleared the way for antivaxxers to dictate health policy for the entire country
I have had patients have HPV disease such that it required surgical management who had only ever had one partner. About 80% of us have HPV at some point in our lifetimes. The HPV vaccine is highly effective at preventing infection from the types of HPV most likely to cause cancer
A common misunderstanding is that HPV is only a problem for people who are “sexually promiscuous.” The truth: you can get HPV even if you’ve only had ONE partner. Its prevalence in adult populations is very high. So we vax everyone.
“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”
These firings immediately & severely jeopardize our national & local responses to disease outbreaks. This is incredibly dangerous, especially during an active TB outbreak in Kansas, measles outbreak in Texas, & ongoing monitoring of H5N1 (bird flu). This puts the health of all Americans at risk!
The cost of indiscriminate and wholesale cuts to the HHS.
Bonkers. Vaccines have saved millions of lives and the US has put an antivaxxer (and HIV denier, and antisemite, and conspiracy mongers, and and and…) in charge of its nation’s health. The dumbest timeline. globalnews.ca/news/1101730...
Sure. I guess. But you don’t just suddenly yank funding. You withdraw slowly to allow the systems to adjust and plans to be made.
Govt closes all HIV clinics in Uganda thanks to Elon Musk and Donald Trump interfering with USAID. Regardless of your thoughts on countries relying on international aid, this is NOT how you treat poor people. Shameful.
BREAKING: A federal judge has determined that the Trump administration is violating his order lifting the blanket spending freeze on federal grant programs. He is orderin gthe administration to immediately unfreeze funds, including for NIH and the IRA. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Shout out to all the fuckwits who told me, two months ago, that scientists must strive to remain apolitical.
Such a shock to see that the folks who screamed the loudest about being “censored” during the Covid pandemic are now cheering on & applauding Trump’s censorship. It’s almost as if they were never really free speech advocates at all (“free speech for me but not for thee”)—Who could have predicted it?
As a scientist, I am not going to attend any conference happening in the US. I am not giving Canadian public money to the US . #CanadaStrong #CanadaIsNotForSale
I don’t know what’s worse about RFK Jr: His anti-vaxx nonsense. Or the fact that he’s too cowardly to own his anti-vaxx nonsense. Truly, the backbone of a jellyfish.
Only live vaccines can shed. The COVID-19 vaccine is not live. Therefore, it is impossible for it to shed. Pierre Kory needs to revisit his vaccinology lectures from med school.
One headline to rule them all
This can't be repeated often enough: batteries are getting cheaper incredibly fast. This not only means that our cars can drive on electricity. But also that solar and wind become "firm" sources of power, and we can use our electricity grid much better. www.iea.org/reports/batt...
Whenever people say there are ToO MaNy VaCciNeS now, I always respond with: Which of the following are you ok with young children catching? Meningitis? Polio? Severe diarrhea? Pneumonia? Measles? Incurable hepatitis? Pertussis? Tetanus? Diphtheria? Seriously- which one?
RFK Jr makes a fortune from his anti-vaxx lies… and then lies about it… www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-admit...
Ivermectin kills parasites. Febendazole kills worms. Neither has any clinical effect on cancer. Yet on the JRE, Mel Gibson opined that they cured his friends. Rogan uncritically amplified it. This stuff gets people killed.