It’s the appropriate season: @pedsgeekmd.bsky.social and I are having peanuts with candy corn/those pumpkin things. I mean, I haven’t done it yet, but I got a good feeling about this year!!

Used my considerable artistic talent on the chalkboard above our pantry. IYKYK.

Yes - I don’t think the “reduction of disease and complications” is well-appreciated by some people. Like sure my aunt survived polio but she had health issues and required physical therapy and a cane during much of her adult life (and was on disability, etc)

Straight up lying here. Nowhere in her questioning did Senator Cantwell claim vaccines saved hundreds of millions of American lives. Vaccines are estimated to have saved ~150 million lives globally. The only thing RDK shreds here is a straw man.

SIR MIX-O-LOTL

Kids generally get shots at 2, 4, 6, 12, and 15 months, so that's going to be... 25 visits over that time for no demonstrable reason? Science!

His guy is in charge of HHS. If these things were a good idea (they aren't), then CDC and FDA would change the schedule. Instead, they choose to spread fear about vaccines. And has no one *yet* informed him that the individual M, M, and R don't exist in the US?

85% of parents choose to separate the MMR and chickenpox (varicella) vaccines, while 15% choose the combination. The #ACIP will vote on whether to take that choice away from the 15% who want the combination shot.

BREAKING: Disney+ is to replace the two-season run of Andor with a recut version that runs for only five minutes, and is just Mon Mothma apologising profusely to Darth Vader for any inconvenience, and letting him have whatever he wants.

In which I am, yet again, concerned. who13.com/news/iowa-ne...

Oh you all are not going to believe how I am feeling about this now

Hey all, I got my 2025-2026 COVID shot and flu shot at Hy-Vee today without difficulty. If you’re planning to get your updated Covid shot, you might want to do it by the 18th when ACIP meets. It’s hard to predict what accessibility will be like after they make recommendations.

In which I am, and apparently it can not be stressed enough, concerned.

Something has to be done about this declining infant mortality rate! If we don't act, infants won't have any mortality at all! -Florida

Fun fact, the designer of Wellbee was Harold M. Walker, an animator for Felix the Cat.

Antivax leaders can generally be counted on doing the worst things for kids as offensively as possible.

“For decades, the state has required numerous vaccines for kids attending school, including shots that protect against Measles-mumps-rubella, polio, chickenpox and Hepatitis B. “But Ladapo on Wednesday compared these mandates to ‘slavery’ and promised that they all will soon end.” wth is happening

Health and Wellness | What to do when your podcaster and your pediatrician disagree about vaccines for children.

"Your pediatrician has an MD and has worked for over 15 years in their field. Your podcaster is a college dropout who left her job at Sears to become a MAHA influencer. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust."

Why do I blame Bill Cassidy for the destruction of the CDC and the NIH? Because he is a physician. He knew or should have known the danger that Kennedy poses to the U.S. and the globe. Kennedy has never hidden what he is—a predator, a fraud, an anti-science hack, and a gargantuan narcissist.

He’s probably pining for the fjords!

Hey, hey, ho, ho RFK has got to go ...has a nice rhyming cadence to it, just saying.

Now happening, walkout at the CDC. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7Q...

I think one can certainly make a moral argument for staying or leaving the CDC. One might think it is better to stay and have at least some grownups touching the steering wheel, but on the other hand there are valid reasons for leaving, as described here. Not to mention personal and family safety.

As awful as the loss is for public health—3 senior leaders were marched out of HQ by security moments ago—there is a chance that the coordination of these resignations might motivate the public and lawmakers to act against Kennedy’s destruction. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...

With all the awful things going on in the current administration, RFK's damage to CDC, NIH, and public health in general, is underappreciated. And it is only going to get worse with him in charge.

Fin/ So that's what he's really getting at here, and it will likely be a part of his big release on autism. He's not really diagnosing mitochondrial disorders by sight. He's saying he sees kids who are autistic due to vaccines, and mitochondrial issues are the underlying susceptibility.

Yep, this is one way Kennedy is signaling to his antivax base without saying it too out loud.

"I'm looking at a kid as I walk through a spaceport today ...and I see he is just overburdened with midichlorian challenges."

🎶Just walk away, Vinay🎶

Best thing about Ragbrai is… the pie. But also meeting awesome celebs like Iowa’s own NPR reporter @titonka.bsky.social on the route.

I love a good homemade ice cream and public health collab. #RAGBRAI2025

In which i have cause for concern: who13.com/news/iowa-ne...

Anti vaccine grifters and signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration. As Joni Ernst might say, “We all are going to die.” #RFK #ACIPcommittee

Putting aside RFK's lack of understanding (or deliberate misleading) regarding what constitutes a good clinical vaccine trial, what’s disingenuous in his justification of the ACIP firing is that the requirements for vaccine trials are set by the FDA, which he also oversees. 🧵 x.com/SecKennedy/s...

Senator Cassidy will continue to talk to the leopard about restoring a reasonable semblance of his face.

Iowa Joni and the Big Beautiful Bill of Doom

Pediatricians reading the MAHA report on children's health written by a commission made up of 12 politicians, a gastroenterologist, an internist, and an MD that never did a residency.

I don't think I've ever seen a worse response to a question from an Iowa lawmaker, and not for lack of examples.

Do (not review) your own (AI-generated) research (citations) www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Make A.I. Hallucinate Anything R.F.K. wants

Hey Senator Vreenak, what do you think about that MAHA report you have on that data rod there

Not even doing a cursory fact-check on one's own sources is extremely on brand for RFK and the antivax movement.

Radical transparency! Gold standard science!!

Kennedy, Makary, and Bhattacharya announced on X that they are pulling recommendations for Covid vaccines. They will no longer be part of the childhood vaccination schedule, and they're no longer recommended for pregnant people. There's a process for changing recs. It's not posting a video on X.

Bottom line: this is a political decision to throw a bone to the fan base, not a decision made with "good science." COVID vaccines improve outcomes for kids and pregnancies.

Did you know that you might be able to get fluoride varnish from your pediatrician? If your access to pediatric dentistry is limited due to where you live or your insurance situation, ask your pediatrician about getting a treatment. Especially now that public fluoride is under attack.

🎵Lalalalava🎵 🎵Anananakin🎵

Me trying to explain the antivax reaction to the Surgeon General nomination to my not very online colleagues

The new Surgeon General nominee is causing quite an argument among quacks regarding whether this particular quack is quacky enough or controlled opposition quackery.