It’s Code Red for Vaccines The number of changes to vaccine policy is dizzying & RFK Jr is just getting started! Dissolving the group of experts that drive policy is declaring war on “what was” I write in @nytimes.com about what is and is not working www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/o...

Today RFK Jr took the single biggest step towards destroying childhood vaccines When @nytimes asked me in December whether RFK could kill the vaccine program - I said he’d have to remove CDCs ACIP And… that’s exactly what he just did today Not good-just like that we cannot trust CDC on vaccines

A remarkable escalation by Trump blocking international students from Harvard For many labs (including the one I led) many of the most advanced research is by international students and trainees International trainees are core to Harvard’s research 1/ t.co/LjbaMQzTXr

ICYMI: A recording from last week's webinar, "Measles in America: Causes, Risks, and Responses" is now available! @michaelmina.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social youtu.be/Tbwfz6iUqe4

Did you know? 99% of all new medications resulted from federally-funded university research through #NIH Learn more about #ResearchSavesLives: hub.jhu.edu/research-sav....

@michaelmina.bsky.social @meganranney.bsky.social @sailorrooscout.bsky.social will look forward to your analysis, and that of other top experts, on this collapse of agencies and fallout.

Come to Learn about **Measles** in America today "Measles in America: Causes, Risks, and Responses" April 30: 4-5pm EST bit.ly/measles-in-a... Webinar by @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social IVAC Professor Bill Moss moderates with: • me (@michaelmina.bsky.social) • Walt Orenstein • Daniel Salmon

Sharing @michaelmina.bsky.social's @nytimes.com oped on this Gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/o...

Measles and more, with guest @michaelmina.bsky.social Join us today in The Doctor’s Lounge at 3pm ET on Substack Live👇 open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Measles is spreading Under vaccinated communities are getting bigger in size and number Like bubbles, as these communities get bigger, they merge - the firewalls breakdown - I’m deeply concerned we are at risk of not hundreds, but epidemics of tens of thousands of cases in US t.co/C3heJrjwic

The new nominee for CDC Director, Susan Monarez is the right type of leader for the CDC today We need a CDC with a renewed interest in innovating and engineering population health solutions (public healths roots) and drive positive impacts My new piece in @TIME discusses why t.co/ug9zmhzjg7

23andMe changed the culture of how people interact with their biological & medical information and changed translational research at population scale The company is running into bankruptcy But its impacts beyond its business, on society and science, will last I wrote in @statnews t.co/teNnEzRBsI

Live where measles is spreading? Can your baby get a vaccine early? YES The vaccine is safe/effective even down to 6 months (Note: Its recommended later bc maternal antibodies passed to the fetus vs measles wane around ~9 months and could limit vaccine benefit if not yet gone) t.co/2rIkfk9qvH

Unfortunately, this rings all too true for many with chronic illnesses that dont have a neat diagnosis Many originate from pathogen exposures and are difficult to identify after acute infection has cleared A silver lining of COVID is it has highlighted this issue and is driving new research

It takes just 1… Important wake up call #H5N1 BirdFlu just sequenced by @CDCgov from severe Louisiana patient Most important, the H5 virus mutated inside the single patient to gain an ability to bind human receptors in the upper respiratory tract It takes just one www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/spo...

Antibiotic use increased 16.3% since 2016, driven largely by economic growth in LMIC. Despite concerns on AMR, effective measures like stewardship programs, public awareness, improved infection prevention have helped some high-income nations limit their consumption. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Do you know all you need to about measles? Maybe… probably not There is SO much to know On “Incubation” Podcast (produced by Gladwell), we cover Measles Immune Memory Immune Amnesia The true toll of the Virus Measles as a cancer treatment A short terrific podcast! www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/inc...

At times it’s tough to remember why we do what we do 20 years ago today the Indian Ocean Tsunami killed 250,000 ppl I was a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka when the wave hit the country It was the survivors in the refugee camp I lived afterwards that cemented for me a life path in public health 1/

Physicians/public take note: @Labcorp just rolled out access to #H5 #BirdFlu test This is extremely important & shows Criticality of Lab Developed Tests/LDTs (outside of FDA) for the nimbleness required to deal w emergencies and to advance diagnostics www.labcorp.com/tests/140046...

What an amazing read (h/t Jeff Flier) - esp @michaelmina.bsky.social which felt especially raw. #biosky #medsky www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/01/harv...

It is important for people in countries like the U.S. - where we are so lucky to have measles elimination (for now) - to remember why measles is so important to keep eliminated Most parents today have never seen measles It is not good for many reasons www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/h...

YES, rapid Flu/COVID multiplexed tests that are available in stores DO detect H5N1 The tests detect Flu A (as well as Flu B and COVID) H5N1 is a Flu A virus So it will detect H5 with a positive Flu A line but will not differentiate if it’s H5 vs H3 or H1

H5 BirdFlu continues to spread CA declared State of Emergency & now a severe D1.1 case in Louisiana Two main lineages in US - in cattle (B3.13) & in birds (D1.1) The US should not wait to prepare So, again, we’ll need fast tests for starters www.latimes.com/environment/...

In ‘21 I left Harvard when my lab was growing quickly, I was an NIH Director DP5 Recipient, millions in grant funding and papers in top journals But pandemic put grants/publishing into new perspective Here’s a new interview covering *some* of why I left 1/ www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/01/harv...

Not every day a leading US academic health system partners with @costplusdrugs.com, bypassing PBMs, to save drug costs for their patients @pennmedicine.bsky.social + @mcuban.bsky.social www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-re... a 1st-of-its-kind deal

Interesting ChatGPT response I posed this challenge to both ChatGPT-40 and newer “reasoning” model ChatGPT-01 -40 was WAY off base - an early assumption/inference led it down a far off rabbit hole -01 got it right, right away. Every assumption and DDx was accurate. No images reviewed.

Better late than never… But if a new H5N1 virus becomes a pandemic, this is squarely on the US and the abysmal and neglectful response of the current Administration, unfortunately. I’m glad to see USDA now w a national milk testing strategy. Should’ve been in March www.usda.gov/media/press-...

after a few years of wondering what is the next twitter - for me anyway, I’m gonna call it for BlueSky. It’s good to see @nejm.org on board!

Hello, #MedSky community! We’re excited to begin our Bluesky journey. Here is a sampling of the trusted, influential, and essential information you can expect when you follow us:

The WHO just dropped the total number of deaths from the mysterious illness to 30 from a prior reported 143 On one hand, great the case definition narrowed it to something perhaps diagnosable But now my main question and concern is what caused 113 added deaths in this rural region?

Also: instead of continuing to expand resources on a wild goose chase (WE WILL NEVER KNOW FOR SURE) let’s instead invest in strengthening systems to detect emerging pandemics earlier, & to improve international cooperation, before the next one hits?

We still don’t know whats causing these deaths The lopsided global access to diagnostics, Including disease agnostic metagenomic diagnostics, Is just as terrible /egregious as the skewed access to drugs and vaccines - but gets FAR less attention Diagnostics -> knowledge Knowledge saves lives

An outbreak of unknown pathogen in DR Congo now killed 143 ppl There is NO reason that in 2024, 79 people should die from a pathogen & we don’t know which one! Diagnostics, tests, surveillance tools are too often an afterthought for our medical countermeasures www.reuters.com/business/hea...

A good, short article about the history of fluoride in America - and the constant tension between public goods and private rights: wapo.st/3Z4Tmw4 (gift link)

Atlas of the plasma proteome in health and disease in 53,026 adults 👩‍🔬🥼👨‍🔬🧪. #proteomics #proteome #plasma #MedSky 👇👇 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The absolute best post of the day, possibly of the entire month! This public atlas came online to relate disease to protein levels found in the blood from thousands of people across many diseases, searchable by sex. 1/9 bsky.app/profile/chil...

This seems important to better understand Portable humidifiers (the kind you put in your kids room to help them sleep better) can be adding particulate matter to the air when using tap water, harming air quality I’ll be using our reverse osmosis water now on www.ualberta.ca/en/science/n...

There is a new human case in California now, too

The more severe H5 BirdFlu virus infection in Canada has mutations that may have arose in a single patient Worryingly these enable more efficient use of human sialic acid receptors by the virus This is the scary scenario we fear There is much we can do! A thread time.com/6976402/bird...

The more severe H5 BirdFlu virus infection in Canada has mutations that may have arose in a single patient Worryingly these enable more efficient use of human sialic acid receptors by the virus This is the scary scenario we fear There is much we can do! A thread time.com/6976402/bird...

YES, the 3-1 Influenza + COVID rapid tests that are now available in stores and online will all detect H5 as well as H1/3 I get this question a lot They detect Flu A: H5 is a Flu A They will not tell if it is H1/3 vs ( No commercial H5 tests currently (for no good reason…)

For those w Questions on the H5 infection in Canada - it is literally the infection/consequent mutations we are terrified of An H5 virus, with new mutations supporting birdflu to efficiently infect Human cells by attaching to human sialic acids - the receptor on human cells (Like ACE2 for SARS2)

The preliminary sequence from the H5N1 human case in British Columbia has been posted and it is not good news. The virus potentially has a quasispecies at HA residue 226 (H3 numbering). This is bad news because we know that mutations at residue 226 can increase binding to human receptors. 1/