My commentary on methane with Mike Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social also appears here, with a nod to Virginia's leadership. virginiamercury.com/2026/05/15/m...

The key Figure from a 2020 publication on a hantavirus outbreak, buried in the supplement of the paper. @donmilton.bsky.social, an international authority on airborne transmission and respiratory viruses, discussed this with me yesterday. erictopol.substack.com/p/assessment...

Read more in THE FINE PRINT Magazine about how the ongoing cruel and barbaric healthcare policy whiplash in the United States distresses families and harms our fellow citizens emotionally, financially and physically. #Violence

This isolation includes going out in public if you so choose.

Xi: America is declining as a world power Trump: HE MEANT UNDER SLEEPY JOE!! No, you assclown - he meant because you’re intentionally isolating the US on the world stage and GIVING our influence away.

Never forget the lackeys. Never forget the cowards. Never forget the enablers. Whether they are in the GOP Or in Rupert Murdoch's Fox Media.

Almost every Senate Republican voted against a Democratic effort to restore the CFPB’s advisory opinion on deceptive or unfair medical debt collection practices. www.senate.gov/legislative/...

Sorry to hear this.

Shameful

OUR NEW BMJ editorial: Andes virus should reset WHO’s default approach to airborne risk. 🧵 1/ For severe pathogens with person-to-person transmission, the starting point should be precautionary airborne protections — not waiting for definitive proof after spread occurs. www.bmj.com/content/393/...

@theguardian.com This should be the way WHO deal with Hantavirus. Already we are off to a poor start.

🤯 Right-wing lab leak & “plandemic” (“planned pandemic”) conspiracy kooks have come out of the woodwork—it’s giving Covid vibes Some argue the WHO caused it🤦‍♂️ TBH, even the NIH Director is in on the Covid conspiracies (he says governments caused Covid, felt guilty, & used lockdowns out of guilt 👀)

I’m very excited about this project. Please share widely!

PabloReports: Ted Cruz called you a parasite and disparaged your work as a bartender. AOC: I think it’s funny that he’s been taking a government paycheck for 23 years but has the audacity to criticize someone who has come from a family that had to work their way up and earn their place here.

The Republican Party is a party that deeply, deeply, deeply hates children.

Pay those premiums and forgo care, Americans. Or, drop your plans and risk your financial health and health. Covid and now the end of ACA tax credits? Big Big Big money for commercial health insurance companies! Rake it in! Windfall! Hike & purge, baby! www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/05...

Hantavirus outbreak grows to 11 cases, 9 confirmed So far no cases have been identified in anyone other than passengers on the Dutch cruise ship. Read more: ow.ly/8quR50YYtoT 📷: AcfiPress Noticias Canarias, CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

Texas MAGA Gov Abbot forced a city to cancel an event because the event was held by Americans who are Muslim. Yes, seriously. Its the 4th time he's done this. Corporate media is ignoring it. Saadia Mirza, State Director for Let's Address Texas reports: letsaddresstexas.substack.com/p/abbott-hel...

When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients. (Published Oct. 2024 with @capitolforum.bsky.social)

Pretty simple, really. If they were wrong repeatedly in minimizing COVID, they're not experts no matter their job title or training.

What was the R in the Andes variant #hantavirus outbreak detailed in NEJM? R across outbreak: 1.19, “a finding that suggests … potential for self-sustaining transmission (R>1)” R before mitigation: 2.1 R after case isolation & contact quarantine: 0.96 Isolation & quarantine key to limit spread

“HHS is punishing a world-class scientist who was working to protect people against pandemics, and if he had been listened to more thoroughly, we might have been better prepared for SARS-CoV-2” This might be the most insane thing yet. www.science.org/content/arti...

The Tennessee Speaker of the House will remove all Democratic Caucus members from standing committees and subcommittees as punishment for their redistricting protests. Democracy dies in Nashville.

Join Dr Donald Milton, first author of this new BMJ paper, and me this Thursday 11A PT for a Ground Truths podcast on the topic www.bmj.com/content/393/...

Yup

Kudos to Harvard Prof. Joseph Allen for publicly expressing his concern w/ CDC & WHO, which say the Andes hantavirus can only spread with “close & prolonged contact,” when the literature indicates the virus is aerosolized & can spread more easily. (This confirms how I’ve been reading the lit, too.)

Yes I think about this often especially in light of @maxwell-stearns.bsky.social ‘s excellent book “Parliamentary America”.

"We need a little humility here. Too much is uncertain."

For all the people at the back. They know Hantavirus is VERY deadly. They have NO idea just how infectious it is. They need to assume it is VERY infectious and take maximum possible precautions. Not wait until it is too late.

The Maryland Department of Health is monitoring two people who were on a flight and were exposed to hantavirus.

“WHO should say plainly that ANDV should be managed as a pathogen with plausible airborne transmission and that recommendations should start stringent, then ease only if evidence allows. That is the precautionary approach this outbreak demands.”

NEWS: The NIH whistleblower @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social, who was put on paid leave in November after criticizing the Trump administration’s cuts to medical research, has been reinstated — without explanation. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/u...

Not a reassuring article…

Facebook blocked me for posting about the Covid inquiry on all groups and has never responded to any complaints. The company allows antivaxxers to spread false health information (mostly fake accounts) in their thousands and the government does nothing to prevent public health being eroded.

The @bmj.com reports that US FDA officials blocked publication of multiple studies showing COVID‑19 and Shingles vaccines to be safe — in research conducted by the agency’s own scientists. Transparency in public health isn’t optional. Evidence should see daylight. Link: www.bmj.com/content/393/...

There are only two options apparently. Either we know everything about this virus and this is just a routine, fully-contained outbreak (and calls for the precautionary principle are fearmongering), or this is the next massive global pandemic (which it isn't, fearmongers!).

“Mildly positive” 🤦‍♂️ The problem with the MAGA/MAHA men leading the US health agencies is two-fold: their actions are BOTH nefarious AND incompetent

"If we’re lucky, this hantavirus outbreak will peter out... If we are unlucky?... this time Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be in charge of the U.S. response." 🎁 link www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

Another way anti-vaccine activism is, literally, killing babies: tricking parents into refusing the vitamin K shot, leading to preventable brain bleeds in young babies. www.propublica.org/article/more... via @deldeib.bsky.social @propublica.org

NEGLIGENCE

Just the latest of dozens of studies finding that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at keeping pregnant women and fetuses safe. From @cidrap.bsky.social No link between maternal COVID infection and birth defects, data suggest, www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/no-...

A person from CA who was on the ship with the hantavirus outbreak has returned home without going to the Nebraska facility first. They are being evaluated and monitored by the state health department. We can’t be sure what this entails but if it’s not quarantine then mistakes are being made.

Needs to be impeached immediately. All dead children are his doing and the damage he has done will take decades to repair. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/h...

You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

RFK Jr. is holding these up as well as life saving gene therapy trials for my family member. Never forgot, he is responsible for lost American lives!

The public health and infection control leaders fighting against taking precautions against the possibility of human to human aerosol transmission of hantavirus are reckless, negligent, and endangering us all. These people belong in jail.