Nancy S

Communications and education work at St. Joseph's Healthcare; views are my own;
Mental Health advocate 👏;
Anti-hate proponent;
🌈 Ally

[Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) @MIT]

“Immunotherapies are possible today only because thousands of scientists, for more than 40 years, followed their curiosity to probe the immune system’s deep processes.

Without basic scientific research, supported by the kind of farsighted public investment that allows large-scale, undirected, curiosity-driven inquiry, the scientific pipeline will run dry.” — MIT President Sally Kornbluth https://t.co/eO5X98XJNU

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Thank you @DrGorfinkel for your article and @raghu_venugopal for bringing this to our attention

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

Dr. Gorfinkel writes a master Op-Ed on how not to govern. Premier Ford's "public-health policies share a recurring thread - out of sight, out of mind. These are not accidents, but deliberate attempts to push health crises out of public view. @DrGorfinkel
https://t.co/q81X4emmX1

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

@simonmaechling 🤣🤣

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Thanks for the good info @raghu_venugopal

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

"Kick the druggies out" is a failed policy. We kicked drug users out of safe consumption sites. We kick them out of parks. So where are they going to go? @abctoronto_ calls for zero use on the TTC - I agree and in fact I would like zero drug use - period. 👇👇👇

I know a ton about Toronto drug use because I'm an evening and overnight ER doctor for the past 19 years. I see it all, everyday. I deal with the overdoses, the withdrawal, the violence and the injuries. I deal with people's broken lives. And I see people die. So I'm really informed on this topic.

The bottom line is we can't keep pushing these people away. They will just move somewhere else that somebody doesn't like.

The answer is: we have to pull them towards something. And what something is that:
-safe consumption sites
-no barrier housing
-plentiful drug rehab facilities

You can push them around all you want. But they're not going to go away. You have to pull people who use drugs to something that will help them.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Good to know and I think this is so wise

[Iris Gorfinkel, M.D. @DrGorfinkel]

Believe it or not...

We still test patients w/respiratory symptoms for COVID-19.

The right diagnosis allows me to:
1/ Gauge Long Covid risk
2/ Prevent transmission to high-risk contacts
3/ Time the patient's next Covid vaccine
4/ Avoid unnecessary antibiotics

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Exactly @guyfelicella.. not good that @fordnation really hasn't focused on nor seems willing to put much effort into helping some Ontarians with housing, their health care & the education of our youth. They've removed so much
$$ from these areas..
Counterproductive in my opinion

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

Ontario:
“We can’t afford housing, healthcare, mental health care, or treatment.”

Also Ontario:
“Here’s $3 BILLION for more jail cells.”

Sheesh… that’s over $1 million per bed.
Imagine if we invested in preventing crisis instead of expanding cages.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

@DrNeilStone @jonathanstea Oh my gosh, this is hilarious and so true!!!

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

@Rainmaker1973 So beautiful

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Can't we do more for our nurses? @fordnation
They are a critical and crucial part of our Healthcare system!

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

Trust me Ontario, this isn't what you want.

“Morale is at an all-time low"
- Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

https://t.co/xc3DQQ9c8b

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Two 18-year-old students from Pennsylvania have developed an innovative, low-cost exhaust filter that turns harmful vehicle emissions into oxygen using microalgae.

Rohan Kapoor and Jack Reichert created the Go Green Filter, a compact device that easily attaches to a car’s tailpipe. The filter uses living microalgae to capture carbon dioxide and other pollutants, releasing clean oxygen in their place.

Inspired by research from an MIT professor, the pair spent nearly a year perfecting their prototype. According to Chester County Press, the device costs only about $50 to produce and has demonstrated a remarkable 74% reduction in emissions during testing.

The teenagers estimate that if their filter were installed on all vehicles worldwide, it could potentially cut global carbon emissions by more than 16%.

A simple yet powerful idea that proves young innovators can make a real impact on the climate crisis.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

If only most humans could have good daily routines

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

A Brazilian farmer playfully calls out each cow’s name from his notebook, and the cows answer with distinct moos proof that daily routines have taught them to recognize their names.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Well, this is very smart.... hopefully this could be more fully adopted in Ontario soon
@fordnation @lao_english
We could follow the example that UHN has initiated @drandrewb

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Finland's strategy of building entire apartment blocks for formerly homeless individuals as part of its "Housing First" model has been highly successful, contributing to the near-elimination of homelessness in the country.

This came with the creation of apartment blocks specifically designed for homeless individuals. These complexes come with private rooms, mental-health support, job assistance, and social workers on site — helping people stabilize their lives before anything else.

The rent automatically adjusts to income, meaning no one is ever priced out again. This approach has already helped Finland achieve the lowest homelessness rate in Europe, proving that stable housing creates a foundation for employment, recovery, and long-term independence.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

@HeyNurseKat I am so sorry for your loss

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

“Science is fun. To be a scientist, this is a fun job,” said medicine laureate Katalin Karikó.

She likened it to being a detective or an investigator trying to solve a crime. “But the end of it, you don’t find a perpetrator, you find a solution, and maybe that solution will help somebody,” she said.

Karikó’s pioneering research with her lab partner Drew Weissman was the foundation of the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and has paved the way for a host of treatments for cancer, HIV, malaria and other life-threatening diseases. They shared the 2023 medicine prize for their work.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

In 1991, Isaac Wright Jr. was wrongfully convicted in New Jersey on drug kingpin charges and sentenced to life in prison.

While incarcerated, he studied law using the prison library, acted as a “jailhouse lawyer,” and helped overturn convictions for over 20 other inmates.

Some years later, he successfully proved his own innocence by exposing police corruption and perjured testimony. His conviction was overturned, and he was fully exonerated.

After his release, he earned a college degree, graduated from law school (St. Thomas University School of Law, 2007), and was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 2017, becoming the first person in U.S. history to go from a life sentence in that state’s courts to being licensed by the same court.

The original trial judge, Michael Imbriani, was later convicted of judicial misconduct, theft, and other crimes and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Isaac now practices law, often in the same courtroom where he was once sentenced.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

@bluewmist @DianeEllison Love this idea...

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

Really smart 17 year old...

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

A 17-year-old in Iowa boiled beets in her chemistry class and turned them into stitches that change color when your wound gets infected. Her name is Dasia Taylor. It started as a science fair project.

She wanted a low-tech version of the "smart stitches" Tufts researchers built in 2016. Those used thread wired up with sensors and a tiny chip that pinged your phone if something went wrong. Cool, but useless without a phone or a hospital that can afford it.

Her version doesn't need any of that. Healthy skin is slightly acidic, like lemon juice but much milder. When bacteria grow in a wound, the chemistry flips and turns more like soap or baking soda.

Beet juice has a quirk. The same red pigment that stains your fingers when you cook it shifts color based on what it touches. Bright red on healthy skin. Dark purple on infected skin. The switch lines up with infection almost exactly.

She tested ten threads before finding a cotton-polyester blend that soaked up the dye and changed color within five minutes. That was the prototype.

Around 1 in 40 American surgeries end in an infection at the cut, costing hospitals more than $3 billion a year. In poorer countries the rate is closer to 1 in 9. In parts of Africa it's 1 in 6. In some Ethiopian hospitals, up to a quarter of surgery patients leave with an infection.

The whole game is catching it early. Spot it in time and antibiotics handle it. Miss the window and the patient is back on the operating table.

Dasia filed a patent in 2021 and started a medical device company called VariegateHealth in 2022. The stitches haven't been tested on real patients yet. New medical device patents can take a decade. She's also looking into a side benefit: the beet pigment kills bugs like E. coli and Klebsiella in lab tests.

Smart stitches need a phone to read them. Hers just need eyes.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

This is a really important point.....

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

I’m a chemist.
I need to say this - because it’s getting dangerous out there.

It’s called chemophobia.

And it’s turning scientifically illiterate panic into a personality trait.

People are now terrified of:

• “artificial chemicals”
• molecules made in a lab
• pesticides at parts-per-billion
• ingredients they can’t pronounce

Meanwhile they drink alcohol, inhale smoke, burn fuel, eat plant toxins and scroll on phones built entirely by chemistry.

The hypocrisy is unbelievable.

Chemistry is not some dark force attacking humanity.

Chemistry is:
• medicine
• fertilizers
• vaccines
• materials
• electronics
• clean water
• food preservation
• modern agriculture
• literally your own body

Without chemistry, modern civilization collapses frighteningly fast.

And yet social media has convinced millions of people that “chemical-free” is a meaningful scientific concept.

It isn’t.

And when fear replaces chemistry, people stop trusting:

• vaccines
• medicines
• food safety
• crop protection
• innovation itself

A scientifically illiterate society becomes easy to manipulate.

So yes - I will keep defending chemistry.

Because chemistry is not the enemy.

Chemistry is the reason most of us are alive long enough to complain about it.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Garbage collectors in Turkey created a public library using thousands of discarded books they rescued from the trash.

[Nancy S @nancy_excel]

This 👇

[Cult MTL @cultmtl]

Canada has been named the most respected country in the world https://t.co/GKXJQRtEJD