Malda Kocache

Professor Microbiologist@GeorgeMason University PhD Microbiology and Immunology @Georgetown University. BS Biology @AUB American University of Beirut

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

Vaccines save lives 🙏👏👏

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

RFK Jr: "Gardasil is probably the single worst mass vaccine that we've ever seen

The reality

It's SO GOOD that no one vaccinated in England has died from cervical cancer.

In fact it's on the way to eliminating it.

Yes - ELIMINATE CERVICAL CANCER

Don't listen to RFK Jr

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@NadimKoteich How did Trump getting elected work out for you and Lebanon now??? I remember you cheering it all the way 😡

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

Good summary and assessment on #Hantavirus

[Craig Spencer MD MPH @Craig_A_Spencer]

I did a lot of interviews today about Hantavirus and tried to answer a lot of questions. If you're freaking out, here are things you should know:

1) I'm not freaking out. Like, at all. On a scale of 1-10 of worry, I'm at <1. I've spent a long time preparing for and responding to dangerous outbreaks. I've worked onboard vessels at sea that needed to disembark sick passengers. THIS situation is not my nightmare, promise.

2) When WOULD I freak out? If we learned that transmission was much more common and much easier than what we've seen so far, and that many more people were sick. I do expect a few more positive cases, and wouldn't be surprised if we seen a few tied to folks who traveled back to their homes. But I don't expect hundreds of cases. Or thousands. Or for this to be the next pandemic, at all.

3) What I'm being careful about—We know a lot about this type of Hantavirus, but there's still a lot we can learn. Over the next few weeks, we'll get a better understanding of how well it transmits, who might be at greater risk, and whether we need to update what we thought we knew. But transmission on a cruise ship likely doesn't reflect much about how this plays out in the 'real world'. Suffice it to say, we're gonna learn a lot, and some things we 'know' will likely change.

4) The U.S. is catching up—sending CDC disease detectives to the ship to accompany American passengers home—but we were WAY too flat-footed here. We should've been on the ball earlier on. But when we pull down the systems we've built over decades to respond to stuff like this—think all the USAID cuts, the CDC cuts, the NIH cuts, and severing the relationship with the WHO—we are gonna be spending a lot of time catching up as opposed to leading the response. That's a huge shame.

5) The WHO is doing a helluva job right now. They have put out real clear communications, are working with governments to coordinate travel and quarantines and testing. We would be in a MUCH MUCH worse spot right now if it wasn't for the WHO, promise.

6) The American passengers are going to a special facility in Nebraska for 'special pathogens' like Hantavirus. Many folks don't know that we have over a dozen specialized centers all over the U.S. that can treat patients just like this. We keep them on the ready at all times, which takes massive amounts of human resources, supplies, and funding. Thankfully their funding has been protected over the past decade, but this is exactly why we need to maintain support for this constant readiness. We'd never take away firefighters' hoses and water and expect them to respond perfectly to the next fire...we must treat preparation for all health threats the same!

7) The folks I'm talking to at the CDC—the 'boots on the ground' disease detectives and epidemiologists—are doing amazing work. But where the hell is our health leadership right now? RFK Jr, are you going to say anything about what we're doing to respond?

I'll share soon, and let me know your questions below...

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@mjfree ❤️

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@MarkWarner So sorry for your loss. May her beautiful soul RIP🙏🙏

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@Yasma05 May his beautiful soul RIP🙏🙏

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

This is tragic and deadly…

[The Lancet @TheLancet]

On the cover of The Lancet:
Editorial — “Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure”

Read the latest issue: https://t.co/x0Mv0owHDx

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

Florida: 21 people fall ill after drinking raw milk

If ONLY someone had invented a way to remove harmful bacteria from milk...

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@simonmaechling Hi 👋

[Dr Terry Simpson @drterrysimpson]

This is not whistleblowing — it is historical vandalism.

The claim that AZT ‘killed 330,000 people’ is an invented body count, not a finding from randomized trials, cohort studies, or mortality registries. It is an estimate repeated until it sounds like evidence.

In the late 1980s, AIDS was nearly universally fatal. Patients died of opportunistic infections because their immune systems collapsed. There were no effective treatments. None.

AZT was the first drug shown in randomized controlled trials to prolong life in people with AIDS. Early high-dose regimens were toxic — and when that toxicity became clear, doses were rapidly reduced. That is medicine correcting itself in real time, not mass murder.

The accusation that Anthony Fauci ‘blocked cures’ ignores a central fact: most proposed alternatives had no evidence, no plausible mechanism, and no survival data. Buyer’s clubs existed because people were desperate, not because secret cures were being suppressed.

The decisive proof comes later. When combination antiretroviral therapy (HAART) arrived in the mid-1990s — built directly on the AZT scaffold — AIDS mortality fell by more than 80%. If AZT were a genocidal poison, modern HIV therapy would not exist.

Blaming Fauci and AZT for AIDS deaths is not skepticism. It is hindsight cruelty — confusing imperfect progress with malevolence.

[Nisha Patel, MD MS, Dipl of ABOM, CCMS @DrPlantel]

Not recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for infants makes one massive, dangerous assumption: that every pregnant person has access to prenatal care.
They don’t. Not even close.

We’re living in a country with OB GYN shortages across rural and underserved communities. Pregnant people driving hours, or not being seen at all. States restricting reproductive rights. Funding cuts to the very safety net programs families rely on. And somehow ACIP is out here operating like prenatal care is universally accessible?

On what planet.

This is what happens when policy is made in a boardroom instead of in the real world, where inequity, access, and maternal health crises are the actual drivers of outcomes.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: removing universal infant Hep B vaccination is a setup for preventable disease, and marginalized families will pay the price.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

A massive global review just confirmed it.

Clinical trials + real-world data from 132 million people across the globe.

The HPV vaccine doesn’t just reduce cervical cancer.
It almost eliminates it.

Yes, you read that right.

Girls vaccinated before 16 have an 80% lower risk of cervical cancer.

Not a small reduction. Not “maybe.”
Eighty percent.

The protection isn’t only for the cervix.

HPV causes cancers of the anus, penis, vagina, vulva, mouth, throat - the vaccine blocks the virus before the damage ever starts.

This isn’t one study. It’s Cochrane, the gold standard of independent science.

They analyzed clinical trials + real-world data from 132 million people across the globe.

Not pharma PR.
Not a lab press release.
Global. Independent. Verified.

The #1 fear? Side effects.
Here’s what the data says:

Arm soreness? Sure.
Serious complications? No evidence.

Rare side effects? Same rate as unvaccinated people.
Translation: social media invented the danger.
Cochrane couldn’t find it.

Lawsuits against HPV vaccines?
Courts dismissed claims as “speculative inferences.”
Translation: conspiracy theories don’t hold up under evidence.

Meanwhile, cervical cancer kills 350,000 women every year.

Mostly young women. Mostly preventable.

We don’t need more fear.
We need more vaccination.

And yes - boys should get the vaccine too.
HPV doesn’t only cause cancer in women.
Vaccinating boys protects everyone.

Some countries are on track to eliminate HPV cancers entirely.

Others are falling behind because misinformation spreads faster than vaccines.
That shouldn’t be our legacy.

We already have the tool to end cervical cancer.
Not reduce it. End it.

The only thing standing in the way is fear.

Science isn’t asking for blind trust.
It’s showing its receipts.

Stop sharing rumors.
Start preventing cancer.

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

Amazing news 👏👏

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

ZERO cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in women under age 25 in Australia 🇦🇺

None . Nada . Zip.

For the first time since records began!

How did this happen?

One word

VACCINES!!!!!

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

Wonderful news 👏👏

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Cervical cancer used to kill 1 woman every 2 minutes.

Now we’re preventing 1.4 million deaths - and protecting 86 million girls - with a simple vaccine.

Here’s how low-income countries just pulled off one of the biggest public health wins of our time.

This isn’t a forecast.
It’s a fact.

✅ 1.4 million deaths prevented.
✅ 86 million girls protected from cervical cancer.
✅ Target hit ahead of schedule.

The driver?
A vaccine most people in rich countries barely talk about anymore: HPV.

Cervical cancer is brutal.
It kills 350,000 women a year - 90% of them in poorer countries.

Why?
📉 No screening.
📉 No treatment.
📉 No vaccine access.
But HPV vaccines are safe, effective, and cheap.

So Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, went all in.
Gavi set a goal in 2023:

Protect 86 million girls by 2025
It looked ambitious.

By then, only 8% of eligible girls in low-income countries had access.

In Africa? Just 4%.
But in 3 years, everything changed.

Here’s what happened:

🌍 50+ countries introduced the vaccine
📈 Africa’s coverage jumped to 44% - higher than Europe’s (38%)
💰 $2.3 billion in economic benefits generated
💉 HPV now reaching the countries where 89% of cases occur

How did they do it?

Gavi slashed prices from $100/dose to $2.90–$5.18.
They guaranteed demand.
They trained health systems.

And in 2022, the WHO approved a 1-dose schedule - doubling reach overnight.

Science + policy + commitment = lives saved.

And this isn’t just about health.

It’s about equity, dignity, and economic power:
👧 Girls protected from a preventable cancer
💼 Families avoiding medical bankruptcy
👩‍🏫 Mothers spared from early death
📈 Communities growing stronger

If you want proof that global cooperation works…
If you want hope in a world drowning in bad news…

This is it.

📍Smart science.
📍Poor countries.
📍Global solidarity.

Together, they’re wiping out a cancer that once seemed unstoppable.

This is what real public health looks like:

Not just research - but delivery.
Not just rich nations - but everyone.
Not just treatments - but prevention.

The world can eliminate cervical cancer.
And this milestone proves we’re on our way.

https://t.co/ldTeMew0ax

[Malda Kocache @MaldaKocache]

@simonmaechling Hi 👋

[Dr. Catharine Young @DrCatharineY]

Friday night massacre. The CDC just lost dozens of its top scientists and its entire D.C. office. This isn’t streamlining the government - it’s dismantling our ability to detect and respond to outbreaks before they spread. You can’t cut your way to safety.

[Paul Offit @DrPaulOffit]

Jim O'Neill, acting director of the CDC, just made an irresponsible announcement about the MMR vaccine. This is a 2-minute rebuttal to his request.

[The Intellectualist @highbrow_nobrow]

This is horrific.

What is unfolding is not just a policy change. It is a direct assault on life-saving medical progress. By suppressing mRNA research and halting the development of critical vaccine programs, we are denying people access to some of the most advanced disease-prevention technologies ever developed.

mRNA vaccines are no longer just about COVID.

They are now being developed to prevent cancers like melanoma and lung cancer, protect newborns from congenital infections like cytomegalovirus (CMV), and defend against global threats like avian influenza, RSV, HIV, malaria, Lyme disease, and Zika. Several of these vaccines are already in Phase 3 trials, and some were just years away from approval.

That future is now being deliberately dismantled.

This is not a matter of policy disagreement. It is a betrayal of public health, rooted in misinformation and fear. It disregards scientific evidence, abandons medical innovation, and puts millions at long-term risk. The cost will not be measured in dollars.

It will be measured in cancers not prevented, diseases not controlled, and lives not saved.

The consequences must be called what they are: preventable mass death on a national scale.

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

More than 5.6 BILLION people took the COVID vaccines.

If there was a mass dying wave, miscarriages and stillbirths, cardiac issues, or anything else, we have more than enough data to show those things.

But they never happened!

They're not real, they're a neurotic delusion.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

More great vaccine news out of Denmark 🇩🇰

The HPV vaccine is on the way to producing population immunity to the viruses that cause cervical cancer

This could lead to this horrible cancer being eliminated !

https://t.co/TvkJNPZl5C