This is remarkable.

3 new papers on Covid boosters today 1. Less major adverse cardiovascular events in US Veterans jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 2. High effectiveness for older adults jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 3. Improved outcomes across all adults jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Peer-reviewed. Large sample size. Sound methodology. An antiviral pill has, for the FIRST time, been shown to PREVENT COVID-19 in individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Ensitrelvir blocks the enzyme coronaviruses need to make new copies of themselves.

Clever use of a complex behavioral task to show that BLA dopamine tracks emotional salience, not value or prediction error. Threat/Safety cues drive larger, sustained signals than reward/neutral cues. Dopamine in the BLA is very much different than in the striatum.

🚨 Two children in England have died from measles this year. One child died from “acute measles” and another linked to the late effects of measles. So far this year there have been 736 cases compared with 959 cases for the whole of 2025.

Tyneside folk: #CompassionateGateshead is asking for your experience of workplace support (or lack of), while caring for someone terminally ill or after their death. Responses before 12th June please. This questionnaire takes ~5mins. Please pass it on. forms.gle/aYf6DiD6TU5q...

🚨 INVESTIGATION: Private clinics delivering NHS cataract surgery face investigation over claims they have artificially inflated costs for the taxpayer, performed unnecessary operations and incentivised high-street optometrists to refer patients to them: www.thetimes.com/article/245f...

“An internal briefing prepared for NHS leaders in February 2026, seen by Democracy for Sale, says that even after ‘optimisation’, ‘processing time is reported as taking 4-5 minutes’ while similar processes take only ‘30 seconds’ with current systems.” https://goodlaw.social/i108

Celebrities, rich people and ex-prime ministers should not make health policy. Prostate cancer screening is just not as simple as some are making out. There are real harms caused when people are treated unnecessarily.

Section 28 was passed on this day in 1988. It didn’t come out of nowhere. It came from a society where 75% of people thought homosexuality was wrong. It came from a society that believed ignorance was better for children than any knowledge of lesbian or gay lives. 🧵 1/16

Not sure if this is one of my most rightwing or my most leftwing takes, but if you believe there is such a thing as “excessive profits” in a sector you really should just go ahead and insource the service you’re paying for:

In research from the OECD group of developed countries, Britain ranks joint bottom for nursing pay when compared with the average UK wage.

@tflondon.bsky.social I left my laptop in a London blackcab yesterday (🤦‍♂️) The driver's dropped it back to the venue where I'd been speaking. What a kind man! Thank you so much

INVITATION: The Art of Living & Dying Well Centre at St Marys University is seeking insights about awareness of practice of care at the end of life in diverse Faith Communities. All welcome. Sessions are online: May 15 May 21 June 1 Scan QR code or email: [email protected]

Palantir’s access to identifiable NHS England patient data is ‘dangerous’, MPs say

There is understandable concern with potential risks of data sharing in the NHS. There is also actual & real harm that happens regularly because there isn’t enough NHS data sharing. Changes to improve data sharing for NHS & social care services will make real positive difference to people’s lives.

🎯

Yet another economic analysis finding palliative care improves patient experience, reduces bed days and saves money. Cheaper and better - we're a solution to the funding crisis. Yet the NHS continues to cut our budgets. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Geriatricians & physios: can you recommend videos to teach 1. Getting up from a fall 2. Practice exercises to build/maintain strength to get up after a fall. The faller has a sensory peripheral neuropathy affecting joint position sense but not fine touch or pain. Thanks! #falls

If you were horrified watching elected leaders run & scramble because of gun violence, just imagine how my daughter Jaime felt in school running from an active shooter before she was killed. Now, become a part of the solution & only vote for people determined to address gun violence in America.

@hayfestival.bsky.social April book club choice is Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air. I'll be discussing the book with @drrachelclarke.com & Sarah Perry, both writers I admire enormously. Please join us online, Thursday 23rd : 7 - 8pm BST It's free: book for tix share.google/FOowlQLkNNzM...

I start most palliative care consultations with "what's bothering you the most" NHS critics should know that the answer for my American colleagues is often "money". Since health insurance doesn't pay for all chemo, bankruptcy (eg mortgaging own home to pay for chemo) is common ("financial toxicity")

"By moving money away from delivering care that generates health gains more cheaply to drugs that generate health gains at greater expense, the NHS could end up less able to improve overall health from the same budget" - @healthfoundation.bsky.social www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Would switching the NHS to an insurance model fix it? Our new research says no. 🎥 IPPR head of health, @sebrees1.bsky.social breaks down why changing the funding model is a distraction, and what would actually make a difference. 🔗 Read more: www.ippr.org/articles/bismarck-versus-beveridge-revisited

Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

As guest editor of an EoL & palliative care special edition of @futurehealthj.bsky.social from @rcphysicians.bsky.social, it was important to me that a patient voice was given space. Mark has #MND (ALS). He wrote his entire article using eye-gaze technology. Read on ⬇️

#Ophthalmology query: do you see fewer eye injuries amongst clinicians since covid? Since Jeremy Hunt forgot to buy the PPE stockpile he'd promised, we bought/made our own as best we could. Since my garage is now awash with various visors, my eyes are better protected during DIY than ever before.

POLYANALGESIC TITRATION FOR OPIOID-REFRACTORY PAIN In pall care, conventional approach is serial monotherapy Non-opioid analgesics one at a time If partial response, add a 2nd; no response, switch to 2nd. But this takes time. Here we describe an alternative approach spcare.bmj.com/content/earl...

Are we getting a skewed understanding of dying from the stories that gain media attention? I was delighted and honoured to be invited to close the day at End Well 2025. Here's my take. bit.ly/EndWellStory...

You can download @futurehealthj.bsky.social EoL Special here: sciencedirect.com/journal/futu... It's been a pleasure to work with all the contributors, and I'm very grateful to the referees who responded with such willingness to help shape the papers. Great team effort, everyone! 15/

@donnawakefield.bsky.social @libbysallnow.bsky.social & colleagues envision Pall Medicine 2050: rapidly growing demand will continue, & new ways of working, in collaboration with communities, will be vital to meet the need. See their synthesis & ideas at sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Genuinely so excited to see our paper exploring “ #PalliativeMedicine in 2050: How will people live the last part of life” 📖 Thank you @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social for the invitation to contribute to this special themed edition of @rcphysicians.bsky.social @futurehealthj.bsky.social 📚

The reason Joanna Marchong hates the NHS is that she's paid to do so by the right-wing Adam Smith Institute, which lobbies on behalf of the private healthcare industry.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: More than a million teenagers across England have missed out on meningitis vaccines at school during the past nine years www.thetimes.com/article/eaa3...

I was delighted to discuss 'talking about dying' with @dralexispaton.bsky.social & Sir Bod Goddard for their #SickSociety podcast. Should we teach death education in schools? Do doctors fail to recognise dying? What's the impact of failing to explain dying? Is CPR over-rated? Listen in. Links ⬇️

🚨 JUST IN: New research shows nearly 1 in 3 people don’t get the end of life care they need. This is unacceptable. Dying people deserve better. The UK government must make end of life care a priority so everyone feels cared for, comfortable and pain-free when they’re dying.

👀 Did you post this to my office? Written with pink/purple ink? I'd really like to talk to you if so, I can protect your identity but what you sent was really important but not enough on its own. Get in touch via DM email etc... Pls RT.

Cancer patients ditch NHS for private chemotherapy share.google/fKKhDJVQqyrf... 12% ⬆️ from 2021 to now. So if I did my maths right.. is less than a 2.9% annual increase in activity. While the NHS thinks chemo activity increases 6-8% annually. In other words.. private sector under delivering

Maximise your savings by registering early for EAPC 2026. Gain access to cutting-edge research, expert-led sessions, and invaluable networking opportunities. Register now via our website and save! Early bird registration fee expires on 28 February 2026.

Open for applications via [email protected] (not via me!) Our next online CBT Skills for physical health practitioners course. View feedback, find FAQs, enquire via www.cbtbridgetochange.co.uk Skills to integrate into your current role. Join us!

🚨 Clare Welch pleaded for help from NHS 111 as her dying mother screamed in pain in the other room. Told a dr would call, 4 years on she is still waiting for that call back. New @mariecurieuk research has found 170,000 people die in pain every year: www.thetimes.com/article/7552...

Thank you @shaunlintern.bsky.social for covering our new Marie Curie research. 🚨1 in 3 people in England and Wales die with unmet palliative care needs. 🚨That’s 170,000 people each year. 🚨Meaning that every three minutes someone dies with suffering that could and should be alleviated, but is not.

A terrible consequence of anti-vaccine untruths www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Bacterial metabolites induce cell wall remodeling, antifungal resistance, and immune recognition of commensal fungi: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

This "real world" study in pancreatic cancer related VTE reported in a JCO meeting abstract found apixaban was associated with less bleeding, fewer strokes and lower overall mortality compared to rivaroxaban ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1...

British.

I enjoy medicine; obviously it can be stressful, but there's nothing I'd rather be doing. But I am relieved that my own children do not want to follow me. It's nothing to do with salary; it's because UK trainees have no job security, no stable training pathway, and little sway over where they work.

The most generous explanation for this is that he's an idiot who just hasn't even bothered to look at how vaccines work. The worst is that he's deliberately spreading misinformation that will put actual lives at risk, in order to please his conspiracy-theory loving base

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

Latest UK supply problem to impact drugs used to alleviate distress in the dying: parenteral clonidine. Shortage predicted until start of February (though these estimates are too unreliable to plan with). Options: Import it Use oral tablets sublingually SC dexmedetomidine Clonidine patch (import)