Aerosolizing pathogens from sink drains? New study shows it can happen & possibly cause transmission Drain biofilm bacteria found in droplets and aerosols ▶️ spread into room Possible sources of HAIs #IDSky 📄: www.ajicjournal.org/article/S019...

Check out @vatsalars.bsky.social new paper! Genomics can help deduce sources of transmission for respiratory viruses acquired in the hospital setting ⤵️ #IDSky

Our new pre-print: ACCIO 🪄🦠💨 A new tool led by @nathanraabe.bsky.social detects plasmids from short, long, & hybrid assemblies w/ high accuracy It uses a curated local plasmid database & structural similarity metrics to infer which plasmids are present #IDSky Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Due to the USG Shutdown, I wasn’t able to attend or present @idweek.bsky.social. I was supposed to give the talk on top viral studies that will impact your practice. Here are the papers I was going to highlight: See next posts

Our newest paper is now on medRxiv! We used WGS to identify overlap in transmission between university students and the local community. The results highlight the need for integrated genomic surveillance, coordinated interventions, and data-driven public health policies!

Great to see the CLEEN trial highlighted in the #IDWeek2025 session Influential Publications in Health Care Epidemiology! Strong work @1healthau.bsky.social 👏🏻 Presenting by @trtalbot.bsky.social 📄: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

It looks so amazing up close!! Beautiful - I’m absolutely ecstatic and can’t wait to show it off in my office 😃 Pic from my visit in 2023 😅

"We can stop hospital outbreaks before they grow. We can save lives. But first, we have to look." @sundermannaj.bsky.social argues that genomic surveillance can prevent infections, save lives, & reduce healthcare costs by catching outbreaks before they spread. www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

truth

My new piece in @medpagetoday.com We Can Stop Deadly Hospital Outbreaks - So Why Aren't We? Genomic surveillance can prevent outbreaks from spreading, save lives, and costs. So what’s holding it back from being implemented in hospitals? #IDSky www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

While yes, EIS folks will be back, there will definitely be discouragement for the best of the best to apply for future cohorts of EIS that will have lasting long term effects. Folks will have to consider to apply knowing they may get RIF’d on a whim

“Whoops, we didn’t mean to fire them (again)” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Soooo no more MMWR? “The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

With the elimination of AHRQ and cuts to CDC, research on antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA will no longer be possible in the US. Sad for all my colleagues and our patients. @sheaepi.bsky.social @ichejournal.bsky.social @ashejournal.bsky.social

A journal's Publication Charges for a paper I just had accepted were so high that I had to ask my University to increase the limit on my University credit card just to pay for it... Academia is crazy

Such a wild story! 3 human cases of NDM-CRE likely acquired from their respective pets who likely acquired it from a veterinary hospital outbreak! Big reason for animal and human cases to be compared Paper: academic.oup.com/cid/advance-... #IDSky Reporting via @cvdall.bsky.social

#IDWeek2025: I always procrastinate registering/booking travel for conferences... I guess I should get on this now 😬 Who from #IDSky will be going?!

You've heard me talk about it. You've seen me write about it. And now it's your chance to pre-order my forthcoming book Coverage Denied! Combining survey & administrative data with extensive interviews, my book highlights the harms caused by coverage barriers. Hope you'll read it! cup.org/4nfM2IM

STAT digging into HAIs, NHSN reporting, and avoidance Great piece on the debacle of penalties driving undertesting and underreporting Brings me back to my days as an IP, knowing that CDC NHSN manual like the back of my hand #IDSky via @tarabannow.bsky.social ⤵️ www.statnews.com/2025/09/22/h...

Come join #IDSky at the unofficial @idweek.bsky.social Social Media Meet-Up! All are welcome.

NEW: CDC has been ‘censored’ and ‘politicized’ under RFK Jr., former officials plan to tell senators www.statnews.com/2025/09/16/c...

In DC (for my first time) for a conference. Reached out to my Senator’s office and asked to share my personal concerns on science and public health. Had a great discussion! Personal stories are often more impactful than data and numbers. That was my goal to share today

*tapping the sign* VAERS own website (still) says ‘don’t this this with this dataset’

My colleague @sundermannaj.bsky.social and I discussed in The Hill why GOP attacks on AHRQ are both dangerous and misguided, and based on an incorrect claim that its functions are duplicative. Postdoctoral training programs will be cut. Health systems research will suffer thehill.com/opinion/heal...

@mirandayaver.bsky.social and I have an op-ed out today in The Hill on why cutting AHRQ is a dangerous move. From its work in patient safety and HAIs to funding research grants and to its support of the USPSTF - AHRQ has repeatedly shown its value thehill.com/opinion/heal...

Our new paper in @ichejournal.bsky.social: a cluster of healthcare-associated Burkholderia sola infections via WGS ➡️ B sola is a newly described BCC species ➡️ We detected 2 infxs via donor derived lung Tx + forward transmission #IDSky www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Curious point about this new Salmonella outbreak: the implicated company (Metabolic Meals) uses another company (HealthSpan Foods) which actually MAKES the meals So is it the brand problem or the manufacturer problem or even the supplier problem? www.cdc.gov/media/releas...

Friday highlight: getting a new sticker in the mail today from @drrossanarosa.bsky.social to add to the new laptop 😎👏🏻 Clean the shared equipment! 👀Peek “not today MRSA” too! #IDSky

Correlation =\= Causation Are cat memes responsible for air bag recalls? Hell no. 🐈‍⬛🚗 Spurious Correlations is one of my favorite websites for making this point

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo is a brilliant physician scientist and her whistleblower report here is concerning as many other federal agencies are seeing these concerns arise of Trump appointees interfering with good science #IDSky www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/h...

The House bill officially calls for the elimination of the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ), which my colleague @sundermannaj.bsky.social & I discuss in a forthcoming op-ed is based on a faulty claim that its function is duplicative. appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

It’s the cooling towers - always the cooling towers! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/n...

After six months of turmoil, the loss of the new director and a round of high-profile resignations marks a new low at the CDC (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...

Washington Post EDITORIAL BOARD has had it with RFK, Jr. [Gift link] wapo.st/4lLZOkH

AP Livestream - CDC coming out in force to support our ousted leaders.

rfk jr. had armed security march these public health heroes out of the agency *that they helped build* just to prevent CDC workers from saying goodbye and clapping/saluting them out in the afternoon, like they did for anne schuchat.

I have known Dan Jernigan for nearly 2 decades and this is 100% correct. CDC scientists with integrity and expertise are being forced out by an anti-science zealot with neither.

BREAKING (AGAIN): The White House said it has fired CDC director Susan Monarez, who clashed with @seckennedy.govpeeps.us over vaccine policy. Confirmed by the Senate, she had refused to resign unless the WH fired her. GIFT: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...

“We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground—he must be fired.” www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murr...

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” That’s from the resignation of CDC’s Demetre Daskalakis @drdemetre.bsky.social (on X) 🧪

due to funding cuts, foodnet is no longer requiring state-level monitoring for campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and yersinia. the 10 foodnet states can still do that, but they’ll need funding to replace CDC’s

🚨🧵My latest: As measles took off in Texas, the Trump administration took actions that prevented CDC scientists from responding. The outbreak became the biggest in 30 yrs. It’s far larger considering the outbreaks it sparked in other states & Mexico. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

“Endemic” Legionella strain 0 SNPs for >10 years in NYC 👀 2017: “strict protocols regarding tower operation, maintenance, and cleanup … might help to minimize risks associated with locally circulating L. pneumophila strains” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

I've been watching the NYC Legionella outbreak rise and rise. 6 deaths and 111 infections. Looks like NYC finally uploaded some Legionella genomes on NCBI - environmental isolates are 0 SNPs to clinical isolates according to Pathogen Detection #IDSky

I've been watching the NYC Legionella outbreak rise and rise. 6 deaths and 111 infections. Looks like NYC finally uploaded some Legionella genomes on NCBI - environmental isolates are 0 SNPs to clinical isolates according to Pathogen Detection #IDSky

NEW: In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies. We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left. They refused to give us numbers. So we conducted our own analysis... 🧵 projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

Could not have signed this faster Please read / sign ⤵️

Anti-vaccine myths surged on social media ahead of the CDC shooting. “On X, for example, verified accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers openly claimed in recent weeks that Covid vaccines act like ‘chemical lobotomies,’ which is false.” www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...

“Soho puts handle back on pump” www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...