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
This appears to also include revoking the status of the current international student and trainee body at Harvard
If true this would be a horrendously painful hit to many of the World’s
most promising young scientists - w a nearly unquantifiable impact on future discoveries
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
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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
An image with a prescription pill bottle. Text on the image reads: 99% of all new medications resulted from federally-funded university research through NIH
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/...
Absolutely. Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in
Thank you for appreciating it.
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
True
I’ve come over from X @michaelmina.bsky.social
@mcuban.bsky.social if you’d share, I write about public health, epidemiology, digital health and new advances in biotech
Thank you Parisa.
Thank you!
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
When it happens, the virus often becomes more “fit” within that host then starts to replicate faster than the less fit virus within the host
It is Darwinian evolution at high speed
If the “more fit” virus spreads to another similar host (ie human) it can launch an outbreak
4/
It’s important to add context to this
These types of mutations are truly what we worry about. They are anticipated to happen in a host who gets infected w a virus who may not be optimized for replication of the virus - so the virus adapts to the host
3/
This is exactly the type of thing we worry about.
The mutations developed anew in this patient have been linked to severe cases elsewhere
Thank goodness the patient didnt (as far as we know) spread to any people or wildlife but this is the real concern…
We must do better
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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...
Thank you for saying this.
In part it was the juxtaposition between being a monk & the devastation that took place over a few moments that shook me out of meditating and into doing whatever it was that I could to support tsunami relief efforts
From peace to hell was a wake up call to not sit idle
I’ve tried to live by that