Dr. Sandra Porter

(she/her) I teach people how to use bioinformatics to study biology. digital biology, education #BlackLivesMatter @digitalbio.bsky.social

[Dr. Sandra Porter @digitalbio]

Is it biochemistry or is it art? Human insulin in @MoleculeWorld

[Atul Gawande @Atul_Gawande]

WHO declares health emergency due to Ebola outbreak in Congo w 80+ deaths. Undetected for weeks. USAID and CDC once worked there to strengthen surveillance. As I wrote in 2023, that cut detection to <48 hrs & costs. That’s now gone. This is the result.
https://t.co/Mk0GNzpivm

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

This is the kind of work, published today, that should be fully supported and prioritized at the highest level. Currently, there is no vaccine vs the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, the source of a major outbreak https://t.co/qM6bWLtmcb

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

We've seen the Shingles vaccine is linked with reduced risk of Alzheimer's and dementias in 4 large natural experiments.
Today, the potential of high-dose flu vaccines vs standard dose for the same in a large retrospective age 65+ cohort [N>160,000). More pronounced in women (like Shingles vaccine)
https://t.co/dxYzURf7QH

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

What if we could engineer T cells in the body, making CAR T vs cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other applications far more practical, much less expensive?
A step forward today via genome editing T cells
https://t.co/FjgQA8NUlu
https://t.co/XXk43WL1ac

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

He took the greatest military force in world history, lost a war to a middle power in a week, begged the world to save him, and demanded that the media lie about this and everything else. I try, but at a simple human level I do not see how anyone can mistake this man’s almost supernatural weakness for strength. His weakness is something negative, gravitational, so deep that it can draw in a whole country. But only if we fail to see it. Only if we let it.

[IntegralAnswers @IntegralAnswers]

6/ In fact, many excess-mortality studies show something important:

COVID deaths were often undercounted, not exaggerated.

That’s the opposite of the claim made in The Real CDC.

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

Amazing quote in this NYT story on the FDA from @By_CJewett.

Janet Woodcock, a top drug regulator for decades, said reversals for a promising therapy send shock waves through the industry.

“The Huntington’s refusal I thought was truly evil,” she told NYT. “I just feel so bad for those people.”

https://t.co/W6Y7fLHXXK

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

Here the Moderna flu data the FDA refused to review.

This is the most important slide from the company's study of its experimental flu vaccine-- exactly the data FDA said it wouldn't even review.

And below is a thread of relevant slides from that presentation and links to other relevant studies I wanted to bookmark. (I'm a reporter who covers this stuff.)🧵1/14

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

I don't know how to ask for a moment of silence amid the madness that is X.

But please take a moment to reflect on the heroism of William Foege.

Foege, who died Saturday at 89, was a key architect of the eradication of smallpox using the vaccine. This is one of humanity's great victories over a terrible disease and a triumph of science. If you haven't, go order or download his book, "House on Fire," which chronicles that epic fight. He was head of the CDC from 1977 to 1983.

He was a towering, six-foot-seven reminder that rationality can win against scourges that have beset mankind for all of history.

[Molly Jong-Fast @MollyJongFast]

Children will die

[Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen]

On same day he stripped @AAP of millions in grants, @SecKennedy awarded $1.6M to Tracy Høeg's Danish friends for a grossly unethical study that will expose African babies to hep B to achieve political goals.

Steal from US taxpayers, give to MAHA cronies.
https://t.co/qjeu2wVE54

[Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran]

This is horrific. RFK Jr’s CDC is funding a study in Guinea-Bissau which would involve deliberately withholding the hepatitis B vaccine from hundreds of newborn infants, putting them at great risk of death. They want to repeat Tuskegee.

https://t.co/gcEwqyLbuu

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

You know what might help? The lyme vaccine under development.

https://t.co/wUFbgk6tf9

[Marc Johnson @SolidEvidence]

We've been doing wastewater metagenomics for 2 years.

In the first 20 months we never detected measles once.

However, in the last 4 months we've detected it 10 times across numerous states.

It's going endemic again; good reason to get vaccinated.

https://t.co/WjvUGxVgPO

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

Vaccines are safe

[Dr Susan Oliver (PhD) @DrSusanOliver1]

A systematic review of 511 studies showed that immunisation against COVID-19, RSV, and influenza was safe and effective in people of all ages.

[Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen]

What happens when the Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response is not strategic, prepared, or capable of responding because it's run by an anti-vax scammer?

Thanks to @brandyzadrozny, we have a clear view of the ongoing ASPR disaster.
https://t.co/pBKhTxk9xI

[Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen]

I'd love to say lots of nice things about this invaluable preventable disease tracker from @MoNscience and team at Think Global Health @CFR_org. It's an incredible resource.

But I can't get over my anger & sadness that this resource is even needed.
https://t.co/MXGZQkE6HJ

[Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran]

There is no evidence that breaking up the MMR shot would make the immunization safer or more effective.

The only reason anyone would try to separate the MMR shot is to discourage people from getting vaccinated by creating larger hurdles.

[IntegralAnswers @IntegralAnswers]

How to recognize anti-science posts…