I appreciate this @npr.org piece that doesn't sugarcoat Watson's racism and misogyny. "But Watson was never one to give into critics and doubters, which may have made it hard for him to see when he was wrong. Holding on to his convictions, come what may, seemed to be part of his own DNA."

I guess not being allowed to sexually harass people at work really killed the vibe.

Mamdani: Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall—your struggle is ours too

😂

These seem like boring votes, but this is a huge deal for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. 🙌🏼

With SNAP/EBT cuts looming I highly recommend downloading this app! Basically restaurants and other food businesses will have available bags of random food they don’t wanna waste for ppl to buy for hella cheap! This has saved me sooooo many times when I only have $5 and need some food.

For #WorldPolioDay, @asm.org named the University of Pittsburgh a Milestones in Microbiology site to honor Dr. Jonas Salk for developing the world’s first polio vaccine. After use in the early 1950s, it reduced paralytic polio in the U.S. by 96% in only a few years.

No Kings today in Pittsburgh, PA!!!

This is what democracy looks like! No Kings Pittsburgh protest #2 today!

This is what democracy looks like! @indivisiblepa.bsky.social #indivisible #pittsburgh

My quote of the day He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Congratulations to Morgan Jackson-Strong from the @gottschalklab.bsky.social who will defend her thesis in a few weeks! 👏

🔱🔱

🔱 Only 3 more to go before the WS! #SeizeTheMoment

Disgraceful

Any junior PIs out there? Take a look at this. Deadline is 27 November!

Dr. Fauci gave an inspiring lecture and Q&A last night in Pittsburgh. I’m appreciative of his 50+ years of medical and public health service for the US and the world.

Today at noon!

🔱 🔱 #SeizeTheMoment

I’m hosting @laty.bsky.social for our department seminar series on Wednesday at noon! Please join us! (Happy to share the Teams link!)

Watching Sarah McLachlan’s documentary reminded me that I used to be cool. I was at the first Lilith Fair concert on July 5, 1997 at the Gorge at George, WA. Girl power!

ER wait times are going to be much longer when 13.7 million Americans lose their Medicaid coverage over the next decade due to this administration’s billionaire tax cuts, not to mention the higher premiums from expiring ACA subsidies, the thousands of jobs being lost every month, & massive inflation

ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants

Check out this cool paper from my colleagues @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org on phages that can affect bacterial evolution!

Congress must end the government shutdown and enact funding that provides robust investments in federal science agencies and public health. Read our statement: asm.social/2CS

Check out PMI talks tomorrow at the SOM Grad Student Symposium: @catmphelps.bsky.social (in @meisellab.bsky.social ), Daria Jelic (Doug Reed lab), Kelsey Ertwine (Abby Overacre lab), @febrigunawan48.bsky.social (in Renfeng Li lab), and @dariavantyne.bsky.social !

This is the official communication from the FDA to physicians on acetaminophen use in pregnancy. - They acknowledge the lack of a causal link with autism - Essentially tell physicians to keep doing what we've been doing anyway It's very different from the press conference. Pass it on.

24 long years! Finally! 🔱

Congratulations to PMI and @pittdeptofmed.bsky.social professor @dariavantyne.bsky.social for receiving the 22nd annual Distinguished Mentor of the Year at the University Pittsburgh School of Medicine for her outstanding mentorship of PhD students & junior scientists!

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro 2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute 3) Center for Vaccine Research 🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Congratulations to Paul Zdinak from the @alokjoglekar.bsky.social lab, who will be defending his thesis next Tuesday!

Congratulations to Sean Roberts from Dr. Mark Shlomchik's lab who will defend his thesis on Monday! 🎉

A reminder that the my department has an ongoing faculty search! Would love to have more colleagues here!

It’s been a long time

Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, resulting in direct savings of $540 billion and societal savings of $2.7 trillion.

Good luck with that.

So proud of my friend and colleague @mccarthy-kr.bsky.social on giving an outstanding lecture on his research in the Senior Vice Chancellor's Research Seminar Series today! 👏

Officially finished the resubmission of our 20-year virology T32 training grant. We scored a 20 impact score (10 is the best and the payline is 15). I worked so long and hard on this for our training program that really doesn’t directly benefit me. Hoping we can get years 21-26! 🤞🏼

COVID-19 vaccine ✅ Influenza vaccine ✅

Yay! I'm so proud of Jessica! She's worked hard and is off to finish medical school next October! Looking forward to her upcoming new manuscript, too. Stay tuned!

Sequence data from the new Ebola outbreak in DRC suggests it is indeed a new spillover. And just incredible to see the virus sequenced and the data publicly shared less than 24 hours after confirmation of the outbreak. #IDsky 🧪 virological.org/t/the-16th-e...

Yay! I'm so proud of Jessica! She's worked hard and is off to finish medical school next October! Looking forward to her upcoming new manuscript, too. Stay tuned!

Wyden asked that the witness (RFK Jr) be sworn in due to how much he lied last time. Crapo (the committee chair) didn't go for it. RFK now freely lying

Wyden just asked that RFK Jr. be sworn in because he has lied to the Senate Finance Committee (he has). Crapo refuses and claims this is a partisan issue. It it not. Kennedy has lied to the committee.

Pittsburgh area people! CVS has COVID-19 vaccines! Just scheduled mine (along with the flu vaccine). 💉💉

This 👇🏼

So excited to share our work with our collaborator Dr. Ling Lin. TB, the disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, led to 1.25 million deaths globally in 2023. HIV is the greatest risk factor for TB and HIV-M. tuberculosis co-infection causes worse clinical outcomes for both infections. 1/

Florida is a center of international tourism and has one of the top 3 populations of retirees. Ending childhood vaccine requirements for school entry there is so dangerous I don’t even know where to start. Ground zero for massive unchecked outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease.

KASIE HUNT: Over the summer you said, “There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective”. Do you still believe that? RFK JR: “I never said that.” KASIE HUNT: “Play the clip.” RFK JR (clip): “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” (March 2024) ht: @cwebbonline.com