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...

"Many scientists have withdrawn from social media, but one could argue that this leaves the global community that seeks health information on social media in the hands of an increasingly imbalanced information landscape."

180 bullets 13 minute meeting Absurd

CDC employees told me the shooting at CDC was much worse than initial police reports suggested. More than 40 bullets hit buildings. “It’s a miracle more people weren’t hit,” said one staffer who was locked down in a building for hours last evening.

"Instead of experts and career civil servants setting funding decisions and priorities, the order places that authority with presidential appointees who, in coordination with the White House, are directed to use their “independent judgment” and “advance the President’s policy priorities.”" Insane.

“[Grant] Award decisions will undergo more rigorous evaluation by political appointees” From the guy who wanted to inject bleach into people to treat COVID

Well, GAO confirmed it: The Trump administration withheld/delayed NIH funding violating the Impoundment Control Act Great reporting from @mmolteni.bsky.social & @aniloza.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/g...

New from my fellow Pitt ID colleagues!: A very interesting story of CSF Cryptococcus neoformans infection resulting from contaminated medical cannabis Patient and cannabis isolates were genetically indistinguishable #IDSky academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...

AP: US childhood vaccination rates fall again as exemptions set another record Exemptions are ⬆️ Rates are ⬇️ Those are some steep graphs #PublicHealh 📄: apnews.com/article/vacc...

The broad termination of federal advisory committee members will only undermine trust in US government agencies. I am particularly worried this will only fuel the persistence of questions about CDC’s independence. insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-a...

I want to get off the roller coaster

I’m just…. so tired

A shimmer of good news #IDSky "Sanders, Democratic HELP Members Launch Investigation into Secretary Kennedy’s Dangerous and Unprecedented Vaccine Committee Firings" www.help.senate.gov/dem/newsroom...

See how much your state benefited economically from NIH in FY2024 here via report from UMR 👀⤵️ @atrupar.com 📄: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/wp-content/u...

Fewer scientists at CDC, more red tape of political appointee approval = fewer publications & public health sharing …I too have been less productive in publishing in the past few months 😅

HHS is now asking states how many providers participate in Vaccines for Children (VFC) program which provides no-cost vaccines for eligible kids VFC must comply with ACIP recommendations/schedule Curious if changes are coming here… Via @reportergoodman.bsky.social ⤵️ amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/...