Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
@dimitridrekonja.bsky.social
Infectious Disease doc and clinical researcher; runner, biker, liberal, gardener, hiker, and canoer. Professor @U of MN; Minneapolis VA ID. All posts my own. #BLM #abolishbillionaires
Pinned
Intro post since seeing lots of new faces. I’m an infectious diseases physician & researcher, with a focus on urinary infections and C. difficile. Passionate about public health, politics, & healthcare reform. Post about all of the above, plus COVID, life in Minneapolis, & dog pics 👍🏻 Hi and welcome!
Sure, that’s nice, but the damage is done. The message is sent that your jobs are expendable, not valued, and exist at the whim of a deranged old man and his minions. This is how you gut the federal workforce.
November 11, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Sure, that’s nice, but the damage is done. The message is sent that your jobs are expendable, not valued, and exist at the whim of a deranged old man and his minions. This is how you gut the federal workforce.
And who would do these “negotiations” with the millions of individuals? What possible leverage would that individual have? We saw this pre-ACA: “Here is a plan. This is the price. If you have any of these things the price doubles. If you complain we boot you. No there is no one else to talk to” 🙄
If there’s one thing the average American is NOT equipped to do, it is “negotiate their own insurance” 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 5:02 AM
And who would do these “negotiations” with the millions of individuals? What possible leverage would that individual have? We saw this pre-ACA: “Here is a plan. This is the price. If you have any of these things the price doubles. If you complain we boot you. No there is no one else to talk to” 🙄
If there’s one thing the average American is NOT equipped to do, it is “negotiate their own insurance” 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 4:58 AM
If there’s one thing the average American is NOT equipped to do, it is “negotiate their own insurance” 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Amid all my fury at Schumer and centrist democrats (and pundits), I have to remind myself:
The GOP has no one with a redeeming idea or quality. For all the faults of the democratic leadership, there is a future in AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, and many others. I’ll fight for the party that has hope 💪🏼💪🏼
The GOP has no one with a redeeming idea or quality. For all the faults of the democratic leadership, there is a future in AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, and many others. I’ll fight for the party that has hope 💪🏼💪🏼
November 11, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Amid all my fury at Schumer and centrist democrats (and pundits), I have to remind myself:
The GOP has no one with a redeeming idea or quality. For all the faults of the democratic leadership, there is a future in AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, and many others. I’ll fight for the party that has hope 💪🏼💪🏼
The GOP has no one with a redeeming idea or quality. For all the faults of the democratic leadership, there is a future in AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, and many others. I’ll fight for the party that has hope 💪🏼💪🏼
He didn’t.
“If Schumer really wanted to use his considerable influence and leverage to stop this, he could have done that,” a senior Democratic Senate aide tells Zeteo. “He didn’t.”
Furious Liberals Call for Schumer to Step Aside, Senate Dems Mostly Quiet
After their shutdown surrender, liberal lawmakers are begging their base to unite behind them anyway – as Trumpland celebrates that their opposition is a bunch of 'p*ssies.'
zeteo.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 AM
He didn’t.
No. Next q.
Can OpenAI keep pace with industry’s soaring costs?
Can OpenAI keep pace with industry’s soaring costs?
As investor jitters grow, the loss-making ChatGPT firm’s vast spending commitments test the limits of Silicon Valley optimism
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:52 AM
No. Next q.
Other countries have universal coverage. We have doodles 🙄
Mike Johnson on the Republican healthcare plan: "We've got notebooks full of ideas."
November 10, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Other countries have universal coverage. We have doodles 🙄
The US is next to lose measles elimination status (a technical definition of not having ongoing circulation for 12 months)
Sad days for the public health systems of both countries
Sad days for the public health systems of both countries
November 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
The US is next to lose measles elimination status (a technical definition of not having ongoing circulation for 12 months)
Sad days for the public health systems of both countries
Sad days for the public health systems of both countries
Reading this good piece lets you learn which idiot said this:
“The cost of housing, he writes, “is, of course, a problem for all Americans—men and women alike. But, unpopular as it might be to say in some quarters of my party, the crisis affects one gender with particular potency.” 🙄
Guess away!
“The cost of housing, he writes, “is, of course, a problem for all Americans—men and women alike. But, unpopular as it might be to say in some quarters of my party, the crisis affects one gender with particular potency.” 🙄
Guess away!
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reading this good piece lets you learn which idiot said this:
“The cost of housing, he writes, “is, of course, a problem for all Americans—men and women alike. But, unpopular as it might be to say in some quarters of my party, the crisis affects one gender with particular potency.” 🙄
Guess away!
“The cost of housing, he writes, “is, of course, a problem for all Americans—men and women alike. But, unpopular as it might be to say in some quarters of my party, the crisis affects one gender with particular potency.” 🙄
Guess away!
🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
And what does making an issue a “major factor” get you without a result.
Nothing. The answer is nothing.
Nothing. The answer is nothing.
Durbin said critics of his vote “need to understand how the Senate works”
November 10, 2025 at 3:21 PM
And what does making an issue a “major factor” get you without a result.
Nothing. The answer is nothing.
Nothing. The answer is nothing.
This will be in heavy rotation across Minnesota today
youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI?...
#GalesOfNovember
#EdmundFitzgerald
youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI?...
#GalesOfNovember
#EdmundFitzgerald
Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Gordon Lightfoot
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
This will be in heavy rotation across Minnesota today
youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI?...
#GalesOfNovember
#EdmundFitzgerald
youtu.be/FuzTkGyxkYI?...
#GalesOfNovember
#EdmundFitzgerald
Less then a week after a Blue wave, with Trump’s approval tanking, and the Epstein bomb ticking, this is King’s take. Clueless. 🤦🏻♂️
November 10, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Less then a week after a Blue wave, with Trump’s approval tanking, and the Epstein bomb ticking, this is King’s take. Clueless. 🤦🏻♂️
And of course, Schumer. If you’re the leader with this many defections, you’re not the leader
Here they are, the Senators that can sleep at night with their Cadillac healthcare plan while 42 million Americans are denied AFFORDABLE healthcare.
Fetterman we expect, but @kaine.senate.gov we supported him for VP!
He’s the most disappointing of them all!
Fetterman we expect, but @kaine.senate.gov we supported him for VP!
He’s the most disappointing of them all!
November 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
And of course, Schumer. If you’re the leader with this many defections, you’re not the leader
Reposted by Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS
Dems backed Trump into a corner where he’s advocating for starving Americans and hemorrhaging support. If they vote to let him off the hook in exchange for nothing it’s a cataclysmic failure. I know people are in pain but insulating Republicans from political consequences is not the answer.
November 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Dems backed Trump into a corner where he’s advocating for starving Americans and hemorrhaging support. If they vote to let him off the hook in exchange for nothing it’s a cataclysmic failure. I know people are in pain but insulating Republicans from political consequences is not the answer.
The reason they “likened it to caving in” was because of all the caving in 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
"Not all Democrats are on board with the contours of this proposal. While the vote would have the effect of forcing each Republican to take a position in public on healthcare costs and access as we head into the midterm election year, some Democrats likened it to caving in."
Here’s what you need to know about legal issues like the National Guard and SNAP for the week ahead, with a little politics in the mix too. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 AM
The reason they “likened it to caving in” was because of all the caving in 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
💯
in any case it is wild that voters just sent a huge message and a bunch of senate democrats are all, “it doesn’t look like anything to me”
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 AM
💯
Yup. And just like universities and law firms capitulating, there is too much “don’t fight” going around 🤦🏻♂️
It’s not left v. center or progressive v. liberal or anything like that. It’s fight v. don’t fight.
November 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Yup. And just like universities and law firms capitulating, there is too much “don’t fight” going around 🤦🏻♂️
I feel judged
November 10, 2025 at 4:39 AM
I feel judged
Last night, driving to hotel in Sioux Falls: “would suck to be a pedestrian here, these 6-lane 40 mph roads are death traps”
This AM text from my wife out running: “I just fucking got hit by a car. Not hard but fuck” 😳😳😳
She’s fine, but it was freaky
This AM text from my wife out running: “I just fucking got hit by a car. Not hard but fuck” 😳😳😳
She’s fine, but it was freaky
November 10, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Last night, driving to hotel in Sioux Falls: “would suck to be a pedestrian here, these 6-lane 40 mph roads are death traps”
This AM text from my wife out running: “I just fucking got hit by a car. Not hard but fuck” 😳😳😳
She’s fine, but it was freaky
This AM text from my wife out running: “I just fucking got hit by a car. Not hard but fuck” 😳😳😳
She’s fine, but it was freaky
Saying you’re fighting for something and then caving without getting it is:
1) weak
2) self-defeating
3) demoralizing
4) setting yourself up for future failure
Centrist Democrats are fighting with the tools of the 1990s 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
1) weak
2) self-defeating
3) demoralizing
4) setting yourself up for future failure
Centrist Democrats are fighting with the tools of the 1990s 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Dems have spent the past two months saying they're fighting to address the crisis of spiking healthcare costs and now they're caving for a deal that does nothing to address healthcare costs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
November 10, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Saying you’re fighting for something and then caving without getting it is:
1) weak
2) self-defeating
3) demoralizing
4) setting yourself up for future failure
Centrist Democrats are fighting with the tools of the 1990s 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
1) weak
2) self-defeating
3) demoralizing
4) setting yourself up for future failure
Centrist Democrats are fighting with the tools of the 1990s 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
When your ACA insurance goes up 3-4x, that’s the GOP. Democrats should have made them pass it on their own, but make no mistake: this is the GOP that wants Americans to suffer
November 10, 2025 at 2:08 AM
When your ACA insurance goes up 3-4x, that’s the GOP. Democrats should have made them pass it on their own, but make no mistake: this is the GOP that wants Americans to suffer
Why do they suck at this so much??? 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Dems have spent the past two months saying they're fighting to address the crisis of spiking healthcare costs and now they're caving for a deal that does nothing to address healthcare costs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
November 10, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Why do they suck at this so much??? 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Why my kids get their vaccines. Both active athletes. Long-COVID would be a huge life change for either of them. Reducing those risks is a no-brainer 🤷🏻♂️
US press release:
"the risk of developing long COVID was over 20% among unvaccinated youths and about 13% among those who were vaccinated"
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
13% is still high
#LongCovid #LCKids #LongCovidKids #PASC
"the risk of developing long COVID was over 20% among unvaccinated youths and about 13% among those who were vaccinated"
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
13% is still high
#LongCovid #LCKids #LongCovidKids #PASC
November 9, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Why my kids get their vaccines. Both active athletes. Long-COVID would be a huge life change for either of them. Reducing those risks is a no-brainer 🤷🏻♂️
“I will fail at my job for the foreseeable future”
"This will live on" -- Duffy explains that flying will remain a mess even after the shutdown because so many air traffic controllers are retiring
November 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
“I will fail at my job for the foreseeable future”