An extraordinary turnaround for Jay Bhattacharya—now he loves his lockdowns It’s almost as if his rage against life-saving public health measures on Fox News and right wing podcasts, from the comfort of his home office, was entirely performative

Jesus www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/h...

Ebola is worse now than it had to be, after Trump and Rubio savaged funding www.statnews.com/2026/05/19/u...

For any new outbreak there is a lot of daylight between "Panic! It's COVID 2.0!" and "Nothing to worry about". 1) There's never a time to panic. 2) Mass panic is very improbable (didn't even happen with COVID -- unless you count hoarding toilet paper) 3) Minimizing infectious disease causes harm.

‪‼️🔥 5 full days, 20 CPD Credits, of Infectious Disease Education now available to stream! BONUS: Includes our wildly popular Case Challenges & Panel Discussions! 52nd Annual Remington Winter Course in Infectious Disease ON-Demand. www.wintercourse.org for more info & to register #IDSky #MedSky

New CDC MMWR shows 50 large TB outbreaks in the US, 2017–2023. 1,092 cases. 23 states. 79% of outbreak cases were US-born. TB is doing what TB does, exploiting the cracks that inequality created through homelessness, substance use, incarceration, poverty. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

Uhhh, no, not even close open.substack.com/pub/youcankn...

It's insane how the bar for officials appointed to leadership roles in HHS has shifted to "this person demonstrates views that aren't completely divorced from reality," instead of "this person has extensive qualifications that make them the best candidate for the job."

Stalin fundamentally crippled Soviet #science in the 1930s and almost a century later it still hasn't recovered. That's what Trump, RFK Jr., Vought, and MAGA are doing right now to the United States.

Thank you Senator Pingree (@pingree.house.gov) for leading a bipartisan letter (bit.ly/41YdS3g) calling for robust FY27 investment to address antimicrobial resistance & strengthen our ability to detect, track and respond to drug-resistant infections across health systems. Congress must act.

I saw this yesterday. I love when words have multiple meanings.

This is correct. Best available estimates suggest that the destruction of USAID, in which musk played a central role, will kill over 14 million people by 2030, 1/3 of them children aged < 5 years www.thelancet.com/article/S014...

New in plos with colleagues from Pfizer vaccines and IQVIA journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Convince me that this episode hasn't revealed in stark contrast Director(s) Bhattacharya's true motivations and values.

SCOOP: Two weeks ago, the head of the CDC delayed publication of a report showing covid vaccine cut likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations by half. Now that report is no longer allowed to be published in CDC’s flagship scientific journal. My latest. 1/2 www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

An emerging contageous virus, like a flu virus, will easily spread in the confines of a military base or a military operation…unless the troops are vaccinated. So the brilliant leaders of HHS and DOD decide to stop protecting the troops by no longer requiring flu vaccination. In 1918, before

The task of de-Trumpification of science and public health will take a generation and a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild. Without a bold, expansive vision to guide us, there is no coming back. Small-bore, poll-tested versions of the future will not help us. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, FIDSA, MPH, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America discusses the growing measles outbreak in the US, which has surpassed 730 cases and represents the largest surge in decades #IDSky @dandiekema.bsky.social @drjeannem.bsky.social www.pharmexec.com/view/us-meas...

IDSA is championing evidence-based policy and investments in ID research, public health and care. Your donations to the IDSA Foundation fuel the experts, education and advocacy needed to protect access to lifesaving vaccines and more. Donate today: https://bit.ly/4cxqZhT

So excited for this paper to be released during #SHEASpring2026! Was so great working with Dr. Sarah Turbett on this piece. “Mindful Diagnostics: A CNS Infection Case Study” We dive into MEP, Karius, and CSF metagenomics diagnostic stewardship! #IDSky www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Disgraced ACIP member and scientific disinformation trebuchet Robert Malone is spilling tea all over podcasts and Twitter. He alleges that Trump is hiding information about COVID19 vaccines because he Trump doesn’t want his accomplishments besmirched. Malone also calls out Marty Makary.

Just my opinion, but there should be a constitutional remedy for when the President of the United States addresses the nation and everything he says is either pure lunacy, an unhinged claim or a blatant fabrication. Just like the 25th amendment, but real.

‼️🔥 5 full days of Infectious Disease CPD available to stream! 20 CPD Credits available BONUS: Includes our wildly popular Case Challenges & Panel Discussions! On-demand access 52nd Annual Remington Winter Course in Infectious Disease www.wintercourse.org 4 more info & to register #IDSky #MedSky

OMG Thanks to the authoritarian leadership of HHS and its divisions (CDC, NIH, FDA, CMS), including retaliatory firings of whistleblowers, only 8.7% of federal workers at HHS feel they could report illegal activity Congrats to RFK Jr, Jay Bhattacharya, Marty Makary, & Dr Oz—heckuva job, dudes!

Really sad to see @health.nationalacademies.org whitewashing Jay Bhattacharya with the help of Emily Oster, who loves to pontificate on subjects she knows little about. What a clusterfuck.

Robert E. Lee got his ass beat at Gettysburg by a professor of rhetoric and oratory from Bowdoin College and generations of reactionary fantasists have died mad about it.

Exciting session at #fungal26 in Asilomar on Emerging and are-emerging Fungal Pathogens First talk is from award winning scientist, @ameliabarberphd.bsky.social on Candida parapsilosis #MedMycoSky

On-demand access is now available for the 52nd Annual Remington Winter Course in Infectious Disease. 5 full days of course lectures are now streaming including the Case Challenges and Panel Discussions. 20 CPD Credits are available. www.wintercourse.org to register. #IDSky

Pete Crow-Armstrong with the third multi-homer game for USA in the World Baseball Classic, joining: 3/19/23 Trea Turner 3/10/06 Ken Griffey Jr.

There have already been two games this WBC where a team hit 4+ home runs The only WBC with more such games was 2009 (4)

IDSA President Ronald Nahass, MD, MHCM, FIDSA, President-Elect Wendy Armstrong, MD, FIDSA and Misha Huang, MD met with @degette.house.gov. Thank you, Rep. DeGette, for meeting with us to discuss the ID workforce and support for public health, ID research and outbreak preparedness!

Nearly 80% of U.S. counties lack an ID physician. Thank you to the office of Sen. Susan Collins for meeting with us to discuss the value of ID care.

Vinay Prasad has been an a noxious influence on public health and drug regulation. Good riddance. UCSF should not take him back. He should wander in the wilderness forever. www.cnn.com/2026/03/06/h...

Thank you to the office of @peters.senate.gov for hearing why strong public health funding, more ID physicians, and research support matter for patients and communities. 💗

Thank you to the office of @pingree.house.gov for meeting with our members @kinnathakarar.bsky.social and Lisa Chirch, MD, FIDSA, and IDSA associate director of advocacy Rabita Aziz, to discuss how we can keep patients and communities safe! 💗

My most unconventional view is that I think people who wrote stuff like this hold a sliver of blame for the loss of public trust.

That's right. Worse than Pointless www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

Trump says he’s sending a “great hospital boat” to Greenland to help “the many people who are sick”, but the catch is that the only supplies it is carrying are ivermectin, beef tallow, and pull up bars.

Breaking: The U.S. dispatches health insurance claim denial ship to Greenland.

New from @cidjournal.bsky.social and Mayo Clinic, a modern cohort of Legionella PNA: 344 adults with Legionella (85% L pneumophila) 1/3rd ICU, 1/8 died at 30 days Urine Ag only + test in 42.4%, but among those with +PCR/Cx, UAg+ in only 25.6% #IDSky #Legionella academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...

On-demand access is available now from the 52nd Annual Remington Winter Course in ID. 5 days of course lectures are now streaming including the Case Challenges and Panel Discussions. 20 CPD Credits are available. www.wintercourse.org to register. #IDSky

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

Prasad “is less an exceptional character than a representative figure in R.F.K.’s MAHA alliance — an outsider critic, swept into power on a wave of pandemic backlash, and poorly suited to the work of helping to actually run the public-health establishment rather than merely finding fault with it”

Why are we still platforming these assholes in the Journal, exactly? www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya is now also the temporary head of the CDC, a role in which he is expected to continue to do nothing but appear on right-wing podcasts and further cement the complete lack of respect of his colleagues.

4-5 years ago there were MDs like Lucy McBride crowing about the urgency of normal, getting kids back to school. There were PR hacks like David Zweig supporting them. Now kids are being sent to immigration detention, getting measles & these folks are nowhere to be found. It was never about the kids.

Check out our article and guidance on Epic chat messages in CID. Anyone doing frontline clinical work understands the substantial downsides of constant, on-demand, text communication in the EHR. So great to write this with ID fellows. doi.org/10.1093/cid/...

This is such terrible advice that I should use it to update my example of when stretching your y-axis is misleading, and truncating your y-axis is fine. Hint: Only a fraction of people in a trial will get infected regardless.