MRSA, if you're listening,
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 1:59 PM
(Yes, there were also many snarky comments about how, out of respect for his beliefs, his surgeons would not wash their hands; that the anesthesiologists would give him a strip of leather to chew instead of some hard-to-pronounce chemical vapor; and expressing surprise that he’d chosen surgery instead of an intense course of beef tallow & raw milk… )
USA: Epidemic trend summary: Mar 6, 2026
COVID-19
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹2 states have COVID-19 infections growing or likely growing
🔹35 state has infections declining or likely declining
🔹10 states show no change
Source: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Influenza
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹5 states have Influenza infections growing or likely growing
🔹31 states has infections declining or likely declining
🔹12 states show no change
Source: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM
RSV
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹13 states have RSV infections growing or likely growing
🔹19 states has infections declining or likely declining
🔹16 states shows no change
Souce: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Recent pandemic viruses, including #SAR-CoV-2, spread directly to people without adaptation, researchers say
The findings provide further evidence against the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Up to 56,000 people died from COVID-19 or RSV last year
Respiratory syncytial virus was associated with 190,000 to 350,000 hospitalizations from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, as well as 10,000 to 23,000 deaths, according to data published by the CDC.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Pandemic-related factors may lead to nearly 3,000 excess #TB cases, 1,100 deaths by 2035
The factors may continue to influence TB trends over time, the authors say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/t…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Prepandemic respiratory illness tied to increased risk of long COVID
Roughly 6 in 10 people report eventually recovering from the condition, but millions remain affected.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 10:29 AM
Study: "SARS-CoV-2 causes lasting immune dysregulation for over 20 months"
"This large multicenter study shows SARS-CoV-2 exposure leads to long-term changes in lymphocyte subsets—including CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, NK cells, and total T cells—persisting for up to 20 months."— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 9:23 PM
The Covid-19 pandemic was a once-a-century impact on mortality worldwide. And that impact varied among countries depending on policy choices.
BUT
As bad as the height of pandemic was in Canada (purple arrow) it would be far worse to have the misfortune to be born an American (green arrow).
1/— Prof. Michael Fuhrer (@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Which points out that life expectancy is the product of 1,000s of policy choices.
It isn't clear that any set of policy choices would have made the pandemic vanish.
But it *is* clear that the sum of US policy choices amount to mortality worse than a Covid-19 pandemic, ongoing, year after year.— Prof. Michael Fuhrer (@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Covid Day of Reflection: A cascade of facemasks commemorate the doctors, more than 50, who died from Covid.
— London Remembers (@londonremembers.com) March 8, 2026 at 6:54 AM
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leaving to spend more time with his measles, I assume
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 6:56 PM
The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a request for new warnings on antidepressant drugs, and that's presenting an unusual conflict of interest at the agency.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 4, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Ars Technica: Americans trust Fauci over RFK Jr. and career scientists over Trump officials
RFK Jr. has tried hard to villainize Fauci. Americans still trust Fauci more.
by Beth Mole @bethmariem.bsky.social @arstechnica.com
👉 bit.ly/4rZfVQ7— Greg Folkers (@gregfolkers.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Maybe everyone should just "back away" from RFK Jr
— @GottaLaff (@gottalaff.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 9:41 AM
The FDA is convening fewer outside expert advisory panels, even as it makes big and controversial drug decisions.
This means less public debate and oversight. Is this the “radical transparency” RFK Jr. promised? 🔍 👀
Spare me. Bring back the qualified experts. Get rid of the petulant toddlers. 😒— Alt CDC (they/them) (@altcdc.altgov.info) March 9, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Some people who think RFK Jr. is crazy wrong on vaccines (he is!) believe he's some kind of north star on food because he says "eat real food" – which EVERYONE in food has always said.
He's mostly crazy wrong about food, too.
@mikegrunwald.bsky.social explains.
www.thebulwark.com/p/robert-ken…— Tamar Haspel (@tamarhaspel.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 8:15 AM
RFK Jr has chosen an anti-vaxx activist & conspiracy theorist—who has been advocating for COVID vaccines to be removed from the market & who has no expertise at all in vaccines—to review the safety of COVID vaccines 🤦♂️
(And that pony tail alone is disqualifying)
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026…— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 1:33 PM
Jay Bhattacharya banned the NIH from funding research on racial disparities in health
And he wrote a vile OpEd celebrating how he'd "cured" the NIH of DEI
But THIS story shows that his repulsive move—aimed at pleasing Trump & achieving a Project 2025 target—harms health
apnews.com/article/kidn…— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 9:58 AM
This is RFK, Jr.'s MAHA Institute's recent meeting in D.C.
Slide presentation titles:
“The Polio Fraud” and “The flu shot has given 1,900,000 Americans Alzheimer’s,” and “VACCINES ARE GREATEST SCAM IN MEDICAL HISTORY.” (capitals, theirs)
www.notus.org/health-scien…— Jan Kirsch, M.D., M.P.H. (@drjanicekirsch.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Yup, "The guidelines are just another example of how the Trump administration’s populism is really just a handout to major industries"
— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Federal data shows that #NIH lost ~4400 people, 20% of the workforce. Many scientists have been pushed out.
~80% of NIH $ is awarded to universities & research institutions. Funding cuts are having a trickle down effect all over the country, affecting job prospects.
🧪 www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h…— Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist (@princess-vimentin.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 11:39 AM
It’s pretty clear that Trump now realizes that all the anti-vaxx activism by RFK Jr & Drs Bhattacharya, Kulldorff, Høeg, & Prasad is hugely unpopular with the public & is a liability in the mid-terms
Prasad is out
And RFK Jr is being muzzled—he’ll just keep talking about “real food” until Nov— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Here’s the NIH Director giving an interview to the editor of The Epoch Times—a media affiliate of the extreme anti-vaxx Falun Gong movement
The interview is hosted by RFK Jr’s extraordinarily dangerous, extreme anti-vaxx activist group Children’s Health Defense
h/t @angierasmussen.bsky.social— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 1:11 PM
The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed.
For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com
🧪— Mark Histed (@markhisted.org) March 9, 2026 at 8:26 AM
The State of US Vaccine Policy
w/ Unbiased Science
Latest:
-14 states have filed vaccine lawsuits
-CDC lost its 2 most senior officials in rapid succession
-surgeon general nominee can't bring herself to recommend measles vaccine
-and more!
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 5:44 PM
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US measles total approaches 1,300 infections
The CDC notes that Texas has now recorded 93 cases this year after having the nation's largest outbreak last year
www.cidrap.umn.edu/m…
Photo: Wellcome / Wikimedia Commons— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 3:56 PM
I will never get over how the result of going through a global pandemic that killed over 7 million people, including 1.2 million Americans—and where we swiftly created an effective vaccine for it—was massive growth in anti-vax sentiment, the rise of RFK Jr., and the return of fucking measles.
— Scott Santens (@scottsantens.com) March 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Colorado, North Dakota see uptick in measles activity
In Utah, health officials are warning that measles patients are suffering from anemia and liver inflammation.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/m…
Photo: Dave Haygarth/Flickr cc— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 4:27 PM
1. A #measles & #flu update.
We're only 9 weeks into the year & the total confirmed measles cases so far puts makes 2026 the second worst year for measles in the past 34 years.
The worst year was last year. But in merely 9 weeks, 2026 has recorded 56% of the entire 2025 total.
Gonna be a bad year.— Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM
2. The confirmed #measles case count has hit 1281, up 145 from last week. The number of jurisdictions reporting outbreaks has risen to 31 from 28 last week. The number of new outbreaks in 2026 has gone from 10 to 12 since last week. Only 4 of the cases were imported. www.cdc.gov/measles/data…
— Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Parents Tried to Shield Their Children From Vaccines. Instead They Got Measles: rising exemptions are playing a big role in the measles outbreak that is sickening, hospitalizing, and killing children in the U.S.. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u… @nytimes.com
— Dorit Reiss (@doritreiss.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 6:52 PM
For RFK Jr and his “measles isn’t serious” disciples:
“A number of them clearly said if they had known, they would have vaccinated themselves and their children against measles, but they didn’t realize how bad it was”.— Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 6:54 PM
On Feb 14 2025, the day after RFK Jr was sworn in as HHS Secretary, “an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl in West Texas died from measles”
Even as measles cases & deaths rose & the outbreak spread, it took 13 mths for a MAGA/MAHA public health official to say “vaccines” are recommended
Such negligence— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 7:28 AM
Sharing is caring!
Three things you should know:
1) Measles erases previous immunity to other diseases
2) Mumps, in addition to being painful, can sterilize adult men
3) You can get the MMR at any age in most places that provide vaccines, including grocery stores— Keeper of the Really Smart Words (@bookishnea.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 12:29 PM
I wrote a couple of weeks ago how our current medical establishment is recycling COVID myths to minimize measles.
— Jonathan Howard (@joho.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 6:13 PM
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Actual *good* news…
Holy cow! Our new study showing that H5 mRNA-LNP vaccines are safe and effective in lactating dairy cows is now posted on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social!
We found that our vaccine elicits protective responses in 2,000 pound dairy cows! 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6…— Hensley Lab (@scottehensley.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Avian flu detected at 20 commercial poultry operations
Two live bird markets, one in Orange County, Florida, and one in Kings County, New York, reported bird flu outbreaks.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/a…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Bird flu is hitting Wisconsin poultry farms again, and that means more strain on farmers, local resources, and probably our grocery bills too. Same mess, different day, and regular people get stuck paying for it.
#Wisconsin #BirdFlu #AvianFlu #WIPolitics #WIAg #PublicHealth— Badger State Breakdown (@badgerstatebreakdown.substack.com) March 7, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Indiana: Bird flu detected at commercial turkey farm in Jay Co. www.21alivenews.com/2026/03/07/b…
— Data Report (@datareport.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 1:07 PM
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News of interest to at least one person on this blog: snot transplants…
I was today years old when I found out you can get a "snort transplant" to treat chronic nasal congestion.
Transplant of nasal microbiota may improve symptoms of chronic rhino-sinusitis.
Because I know this, you must now know this too 😊.
www.newscientist.com/article/2494…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 7:05 PM
New medical vocabulary term to know:
Human metapneumovirus, a little-known respiratory virus, is circulating in Northern California as flu and COVID cases decline.
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle.com) March 10, 2026 at 11:00 AM
If it's not covid, and it's not the flu…
patch.com/massachusett…— Anne Laurie (@annelaurie.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 2:56 AM
This is a remarkable study. A simple sanitary pad could transform cervical cancer screening. Researchers enrolled 3,000+ women (age 20–54) & compared 2 approaches:
Standard clinician-collected cervical HPV test
HPV testing from menstrual blood collected on a sanitary pad
www.bmj.com/content/392/…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 11:46 AM
Women with positive tests or abnormal cytology underwent colposcopy with biopsy to confirm disease. The results were striking.
For detecting high-grade cervical lesions (CIN2+):
– Menstrual blood HPV test sensitivity: 94.7%
– Standard cervical HPV test: 92.1%— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 11:46 AM
"There are people who have real benefits [from this care]. To deny it to people, to make people suffer unnecessarily, that’s another type of harm.”
-Gordon Guyatt, the godfather of evidence-based medicine
www.motherjones.com/politics/202…— Prof Gavin Yamey (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 12:30 PM
George Carlin: My people don’t go to the beach to tan; we go to lose the blue…
One of the few things imo that we should just outright make illegal. Sunbeds kill people, and usually after costing the state enormous sums to prolong their lives. Completely needlessly. People can not comprehend the risks.
— Darren Dahly (@statsepi.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 12:03 PM
Real irony that this is all happening nearly six years to the day from when it really started to hit home that COVID was way worse than Trump was saying it was.
On The Road – Elma – International Garden Tour Part 2
Baud
It would be nice if the MAHA folks stayed resentful for a long time, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Baud
The final bill did not include the repeal.
p.a
1) Don’t know if Cole reads his own blog, but someone inform him of the sinusitis treatment mentioned above.
2) Pleased & honestly surprised Rotting Banana Jr isn’t believed about most of his b.s., but I’m cynical enough to wonder if piggy had chosen someone photogenic and less obviously insane what the public would be thinking.
Quantum man
Thanks for doing this post. I look forward to reading it every Wednesday. It is a valuable service.
Suzanne
Part of that is that Fauci looks like a normal human who has been taking care of his health for a long time. He obviously does all the boring stuff, like eating vegetables, drinking water, regular-but-not-extreme exercise, not drinking too much, etc. Whereas RFK looks like a roided-up Oompa Loompa.
Scout211
Re: the Human metapneumovirus:
My husband’s podiatrist was telling us this week how sick her family was for the past several weeks. She lives in the Bay Area and commutes to several different NorCal offices. I told her about the Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) that I had read about on SFGate (that I posted in last week’s pandemic thread and AL posted today in the OP) and she was very interested to know that what they were suffering from was a named virus. They tested for everything and all tests came back negative but they were really ill.
HMPV is an RNA virus so if there was funding, I wonder if they could develop an mRNA vaccination.
Maybe in the next administration? One can hope.
Princess
I’m not sure that I care that much that the male children of Trump supporters and anti-vaxxers will be sterile because of mumps. It’s one way to teach that crowd about the role of natural selection in evolution. Darwin always wins in the end.
narya
I got on the “sunscreen every day” train about 25-30 years ago (I am very pale, and had blistering burns a couple of times as a kid, on my shoulders); my SIL, who’s almost exactly 10 years younger, refuses to stop tanning. Whenever I see the state of her skin, I am so very glad I got on that sunscreen train. Sunscreen is a damn miracle; it just wasn’t available when I was a kid. For that matter, same with the HPV vax: availability 50 years ago would have saved me a lot of interventions over the years, I suspect. And now–though this doesn’t affect me personally–HIV is both treatable and preventable, which, in the 1980s, seemed impossible.
And to think these assholes are just throwing all of it away. It’s insane.
Princess
Btw, what happened with Trump’s nutso nominee for surgeon general? I saw she was questioned last week. Was there a vote? I’ll believe Trump is laying off on the crazy health stuff when he pulls that nomination.
Baud
@Princess: it’s all just marketing for the media. Same with the supposed retrenchment on immigration. Media reports it as real and some wavering Republicans who still have a bit of a conscience come home.
Scout211
Cults of all stripes are very addicting and give the members a false sense of control over their lives and a false sense of superiority over others.
I guess maybe scientists and health care agencies need to hire a bunch of influencers who spread the real scientific evidence and recommendations, but make it seem like some sort of counter-culture conspiracy to draw in the rubes.
On second thought, let’s not do that. Ugh.
Scout211
Politico says
lowtechcyclist
Nah, we should walk up beside our good buddy RFK Jr, and give him a hearty slap on the shoulder.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: I’ve mentioned that my husband has Parkinsons. The defunding of research enrages me.
David_C
Saturday was the Stand Up for Science rally in DC (and other places). The link is here:
youtube.com/live/DEagenLZTPU
Lots of good speeches, but I would recommend Jenna Norton’s speech starting around 1:16:25.
Also, Greg Folkers (quoted above) was Tony Fauci’s chief of staff.
jonas
I don’t know of anyone in my work/friend circle who’s had Covid in at least a year or more, but boy has it been a crazy flu/cold season. Everyone in the house but me seems to have gotten some kind of flu bug over the past couple of months. Nothing serious, but they sure felt pretty crappy for a couple of days.
I think the vast majority of Americans simply did not pay attention to what Trump and RFK, Jr. (and why should they — these agencies quietly went about their work for decades w/o being front-page news every day) were doing to the CDC and FDA and now that more of their nutbuggery is piercing the normieworld bubble, people are like “WTF?”
Soprano2
I wonder if human metapneumovirus is what my BIL has. He’s back in the hospital again from the rehab place (which he says wasn’t great) because his oxygen got too low. Yesterday he called me and said they just decided he has some kind of virus. I had started wondering if this was a repeat of what happened to my husband in 2024, when he had a yeast infection that wasn’t diagnosed until his second trip to the hospital
As for colds, I hadn’t had a cold for years, then got two within a month! I lost my voice with the second one, and I don’t think I’m quite over it yet.
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Seriously. And the research on mRNA technology and pancreatic cancer . . . oof.
Eyeroller
@Scout211: Whether the target is an RNA virus is irrelevant to whether an mRNA vaccine works, because that doesn’t have anything to do with what they do. They use messenger RNA (the “m” is “messenger”). The messenger RNA carries the instructions for assembling one or more proteins created by the pathogen to your own ribosomes, which dutifully create it, but it’s foreign so the immune system develops antibodies.
This is also how it would work against cancer; it would be customized to cause cells to produce antibodies against proteins associated with cancer. Obviously cancer isn’t a virus at all (even if some forms might have ultimately been caused by a virus).
I think that people not understanding how mRNA vaccines work makes them more suspicious of them than they should be. It requires a little background in cell biology that I suspect is not taught very well or at all in high schools.
Scout211
@Eyeroller: Thank you.
Agree. Your tutorial is very helpful.
Ten Bears
Headline science section ~ Don’t know what it says but it says something that tags and categories have been replaced by sections and separate posts for science and (repeating myself) religion, politics and War. There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief …
Cliosfanboy
The same. Thank you!!!!
Ohio Mom
“Live poultry market in Kings County New York” caught my attention.
Kings County is Brooklyn — New York City is made up of five counties: Bronx County, New York County (Manhattan), Richmond County (Staten Island), Queens County, and Kings County.
I went to Google Maps and yes, there are live poultry markets sprinkled through Brooklyn. They seem to be mostly Halal but there are some kosher ones too. Some also sell duck, sheep and goats. You pick out which animal, they slaughter it (full rituals included) on the spot.
They are in crowded residential neighborhoods. I haven’t even finished breakfast yet and already I’ve learned there are wet markets in my hometown. This is truly an all-purpose blog.
Ohio Mom
Deleted duplicate
WereBear
We have a corporate convenience store in the little town between the larger towns, and it used to be a down home place. This one is larger and more predictable, and we don’t get a dozen flavors of inexpensive coffee any other way,
Look, you peons. We have flavored the uppers for our people!
It has become a “dead spot commons” near shift workers, enough for a lightly populated area to get things a small town businessperson can’t afford, like gas. (We have friends who have to fill up where they work, because their town lost the one gas station.)
So this is where I view MAGA in their field, since I also choose the lightly populated times that leaves half the tables empty. Mostly men, some women, all longtime local residents, retired. One women is a fountain of conspiracy theories, and I struggle to remain neutral. But pig, mud, etc.
After a lot of the latest that the COVID vaccine will give you (yes, it was a disease, but why did they suppress real cures? anti-vax stuff) one man ventured, “I do take that flu shot. Or I get it for a week.”
Apparently that one is “okay.” She moved on to “masks don’t work.”
I was waiting for her to say, “doctors do that while operating just to mess with our heads and be part of the crisis acting they did during the Pandemic,” but I suspect me and at least three of the five men got our COVID shots but don’t discuss it at coffee hour.
She’s not always there, and they don’t talk politics if she is. Then, it’s about hunting and fishing and where the kids are hiking and paddling, and funny stories therein. As though this was normal times, and in a way, in a blue state, some people can pretend it is.
Jay
Thank you, Anne Laurie.
bluefoot
@Eyeroller: I agree that people don’t have a good idea of how the mRNA vaccines work, despite all the messaging when the Covid vaccines were approved.
I try to explain by likening it to game tape – you want your immune system to recognize the virus, like knowing how an opposing team plays ahead of an important game. So you watch video of their games, and use that to scrimmage in practice against how they play. Then when the game comes, you’re ready. The vaccines are tape, the antigen fragments the mRNA produces are the plays and scrimmages, and infection is the game.
It’s not a perfect analogy but I found it helps with people with no science background.
WereBear
@Ohio Mom: We need more localized food. We took a serious wrong turn letting corporations do it.
WereBear
@Suzanne: Like I need that vivid description after seeing his fitness videos.
Like a C budget horror movie. It’s stupid and makes no sense, but it’s scary anyway.
Miss Bianca
@Princess: It’s not just adult men. One* of the reasons I don’t have children myself is that my ex-husband caught the mumps when he was *9 years old*. Sterile as a mule as a result.
*OK, I also just wasn’t really invested in having kids, either, but *the point remains*…
lowtechcyclist
@Quantum man:
I won’t say I look forward to it, given that most of the news is anywhere from bad to awful, but it’s important to know what’s going on, and I wouldn’t see a fraction of this stuff if AL weren’t pulling it together for us.
MobiusKlein
On behalf of my father, currently battling mrsa and a host of other issues, fuck rfkjr and all their rotten shit around our medical system.
snoey
@Miss Bianca: I had it not much younger. By far the worst of the childhood diseases for me. Out of school 2 weeks at least, swollen up couldn’t eat, 105 and delirious. I do have kids at least.
Not getting it sure beats “natural immunity”.
StringOnAStick
I got titers done to see if I need the MMR vaccine or not; turns out it is true that I had all those as a kid though I was sick enough I don’t remember much about it.
A friend who is battling a 3rd recurrence of liver cancer (inoperable this time) is on immunotherapy and there are indications it is working, but he was out from our weekly music get togethers for a month due to having what looks like the HMPV mentioned above. Sick enough that his BP was 85 over 40, which made urgent care bump him immediately to the ER. He told me last night that the cough was so bad he was afraid he was going to blow his eardrums. We’re just above CA so it’s likely circulating here in OR.
VFX Lurker
I flunked my measles titer in 2019; got a third MMR. Barely passed the same titer a year later.
Flunked my measles titer again in 2025; got a fourth and fifth MMR, spaced a month apart, same treatment as for someone who had never received an MMR.
Got titers for measles, mumps and rubella last week. I have 3x the required antibodies to fend off measles. Same 3x for mumps. 21x for rubella.
So, my measles and mumps protection are both up to snuff…but the five MMRs seem to have supercharged my rubella protection.