Mitigating Vaccine Disparities Through Faith-Based Intervention: A Pre-Post Analysis of Recombinant Zoster Vaccine Knowledge and Acceptance in Socially Vulnerable Racial and Ethnic Minoritized Communi... Introduction The incidence of herpes zoster (HZ) is increasing globally. Despite the availability of a highly effective recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV), vaccination rates are still low in the United ...

New Manuscript Alert! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Thank you so much, @contagionlive.bsky.social, for amplifying this work!

Dr. Monica Mahoney is an infectious diseases pharmacist practicing in the outpatient ID and OPAT clinics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston MA. She is actively involved in several pharmacy and infectious diseases national organizations, including IDSA, SHEA, and SIDP (society of infectious diseases pharmacists) and holds fellowship status in several of them. She is an associate editor at OFID, a section editor at Contagion Live, and on the editorial advisory board at ASHE. In her spare time, she conjures up witty presentation titles and organizes monthly national virtual OPAT chats.

Meet Dr. Monica Mahoney (@mmpharmd.bsky.social), an infectious diseases pharmacist practicing in the outpatient ID and OPAT clinics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She'll be sharing some of her experience at ARSAS. The full schedule is available now: www.arstewardship.org/2026schedule

Thank you so much!!! My apologies for the delayed response :).

It was a literal blast to prepare and deliver this talk. I'm so happy to see it out! Thank you @asm.org !

UC San Diego: Student Support, Academic Rigor, and Extensive Real-World Clinical Experience Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, PharmD, MPH, describes the university's atmosphere, students' involvement in community-based care, and the support they receive.

Dr. Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir describes the university's atmosphere, students' involvement in community-based care, and the support they receive. @jaycdoesid.bsky.social @ucsdmedschool.bsky.social #IDsky #Medsky

Enhancing Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing for Acinetobacter baumannii Using Physiologically Relevant Culture Media and Biofilm Formation Assays Acinetobacter baumannii is a high-risk pathogen associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. Host-pathogen interactions amplify its virulence, in part by promoting biofilm formation—a c...

Enhancing Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing for Acinetobacter baumannii Using Physiologically Relevant Culture Media and Biofilm Formation Assays - Sakyi Opoku - 2025 - Current Protocols - Wiley Online Library currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... New Paper Alert!

Please take a listen to the second installment of my interview with @contagionlive.bsky.social, where I discuss recommendations for identifying the syndemic relationships between non-communicable diseases and antimicrobial-resistant infections.

Thank you, @contagionlive.bsky.social , for amplifying this work!

Syndemics of Antimicrobial Resistance: Non-communicable Diseases, Social Deprivation, and the Rise of Multidrug-Resistant Infections - Infectious Diseases and Therapy Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes a global health emergency that results in significant morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. Despite its severity, this issue remains inadequately addres...

I'm thrilled to share my new article (co-authored by
@MrBlkfx1) that employs a syndemic approach to examine the bidirectional relationship between NCDs and MDR infections. The article further emphasizes how social deprivation can worsen this impact.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

At #ASMMicrobe2025, we spoke to you Dr. JAM (@jaycdoesid.bsky.social) on her recent research around a syndemic framework that looks to enhance our understanding of the interplay between non-communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance, particularly in socially deprived populations.

*Associate Professor😉

Congrats to Qpex BioPharma and Shionogi Group, a superlative anti-infective discovery partnership, on a festive grand opening of their new research facilities

Qpex President/CEO Michael Dudley◉UCSD Skaggs Pharmacy’s Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir◉Rady Children’s John Bradley◉San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria

A Euler diagram of four overlapping ellipses showing the number of terminated NIH grants by research area. The four categories shown are LGBTQ health (328 cancelled grants), minority health (319), youth health (168) and vaccines (109). The diagram also labels the number of terminated grants at the intersection of research areas: Of the 328 terminated LGBTQ grants, 207 also involved minority health research and 116 involved youth health.

My latest @opinion.bloomberg.com looks at the heartbreaking, harmful gutting of LGBTQ health-related research, which our analysis found was acutely targeted in the massive NIH cuts.

It's not enough to identify markers of inequities in infectious diseases; we must push ourselves to examine the drivers of these inequities so that we can design interventions to narrow equity gaps. Take a Read! @ucsdpharmacy.bsky.social

NOW, EVERY SECOND FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH!! Come and see us at the Spring Valley Branch Library!

Our call to to resistance, led by @angelahuttner.bsky.social and first published in @cmicomms.bsky.social, now published in @cmijournal.bsky.social too

www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S119...

If your city isn’t listed, you can still make your voice heard by joining the nationwide campus and workplace walkout at 12PM local time on March 7 or adding your local event.

Get loud + tell everyone why you’re Standing Up for
Science

#standupforscience2025 #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall

Study finds 'pronounced' levels of antimicrobial resistance in cancer patients

Researchers say the findings underscore the urgent need to improve infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship in cancer care.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/a...

Utilizing an Educational Intervention to Enhance Influenza Vaccine Literacy and Acceptance Among Minoritized Adults in Southern Californian Vulnerable Communities in the Post-COVID-19 Era Background/Objectives: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, vaccination rates for preventable diseases, including influenza, have significantly dropped among racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) in...

I'm excited to share the first publication from our community-based vaccine literacy and acceptance intervention. I'm the most excited to officially launch the #TeamAbdulMutakabbir research partnership. There's nothing better than doing research with my best friend!

Watching the #NAACPImageAwards as our #VPKamalaHarris accept the Chairman’s Award! We could’ve had her as our President! “We use our power. Our power has never come from an easy place. The American story will be written by us, #WeThePeople”! We can’t give up!!!!! Love my VP Kamala Harris! 💙💙

The faces in the room during her remarks are saying it all. 💔💙 #NAACPimageawards

Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the administration continues to charge ahead, running roughshod over norms, laws, and the dignity of and most basic protections for the people most vulnerable to infections. Many of the changes are summarized here, up to date as of Feb 4. Who will speak up, or better still, ACT UP for these individuals? The National Science Foundation has reportedly shared with program officers a list of forbidden "DEI"-related words that will result in grants being flagged. These include routinely used terms like "female", "biased", "systemic", "inclusion" and "exclusion" along with other words that specifically target vulnerable populations. While few clinical researchers rely on NSF grants, it can be reasonably expected that similar censorship with grants from NIH, CDC, etc is inevitable. USAID funding remains frozen, and in fact there are reports of efforts underway to eliminate the entire agency. The effects have already been devastating for programs dedicated to controlling TB, malaria, and HIV, among others. Despite claims that these would be exempt, distribution of antiretrovirals remains frozen. The Senate Finance committee advanced RFK Jr for confirmation as HHS Secretary. Kennedy's disdain for evidence-based medicine is no secret. He is a conspiracy theorist who engages in dangerous race-based pseudoscience. The IDSA has fallen short of other professional societies (e.g. the American Public Health Association, which represents 25,000 public health professionals) in calling for the outright rejection of RFK Jr's nomination. The CDC and NIH remain muzzled, unable to communicate with interstate or international agencies or the public. They have been instructed to recall submitted or accepted manuscripts to scrub objectionable language. They remain barred from traveling until at least the end of April. How will these actions affect our ability to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks?

Meanwhile, our members are experiencing significant moral injury, and some have expressed levels of morale that rival the nadirs felt during the worst of COVID19. Every day it is a new insult, the cumulative effect being the disassembly of public health protections and further marginalization of the most vulnerable in society. Reticence to call attention to ourselves, potentially putting our work in the administration's cross hairs, is entirely understandable. After all, we don't want to imperil existing and ongoing advocacy efforts, including those related to bolstering the ID workforce. A sober analysis would concede that the likelihood of any potential actions moving the needle on any of these issues is low. I would argue, however, that standing up for what is right is the most important thing we can do to reinforce our commitment to social justice and to our members and the patients in our care. What we can do and how we can do it is up for debate; some bold ideas have already been presented in the IDea exchange forum and I welcome further input from colleagues. What is certain is that as rank-and-file individuals, our voices can easily be dismissed, but as a trusted, bipartisan professional organization that represents >13,000 infectious diseases experts, we cannot be ignored, and we must not allow ourselves to cower in silence. The reality is that things are going to get worse, and standing up to the assault on public health will only get more difficult as the administration becomes further emboldened and the actions set in motion gather steam. In the words of John Lewis, "If not us, then who? If not now, then when?"

I am deeply disappointed by the subdued response of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (@idsainfo.bsky.social) to the dismantling of public health structures, both in the US & globally

Here's what I wrote in the closed listserv (response: 🦗) in hopes of stimulating discussion here #IDSky

“American chaos: standing up for health and medicine”, editorial in The Lancet

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

I'm trying to learn how to use this app, friends. I will be sure to follow folks back once I have a handle on things! I'm excited to be entering the bluesky :)

Is this our line in the sand? How can we review NIH applications knowing they specifically exclude members of our community?

Good: CDC’s outbreak publication (MMWR) is now up and running after the first pause in over 70 years

Bad: Todays publication is about fires, and not the missing bird flu or mpox studies we knew were up for publication. Of which have safety implications for veterinarians and people with house cats
…

Thank you, @contagionlive.bsky.social, for providing me with the forum to have this discussion. During these times, scientists cannot be silent about the fallout of ignoring health inequities. We must sustain a commitment to health equity.

Back at it again! Last community education+health fair for the year! Can't wait to join Ecclesia Christian Fellowship for fun and fellowship!