Delthia Ricks
@dricks.bsky.social
Science writer, author, essayist & avid gardener.
Pinned
Delthia Ricks
@dricks.bsky.social
· Dec 21
The contrast between Rwanda’s handling of Marburg and the chaotic response to Covid-19 is stark
The country’s response prevented a crisis – and provided the world with a valuable blueprint for effective outbreak control
www.telegraph.co.uk
The stark contrast between Rwanda’s handling of a deadly Marburg virus outbreak this year & the rest of the world’s chaotic response to #Covid provides textbook lessons in how to properly respond to a threat and how to make a threat worse www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Tylenol during pregnancy: No strong evidence ties use of the medication to autism or ADHD risk. Research in the British Medical Journal—BMJ—responds to claims that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is dangerous. 2 links👇
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
No Clear Autism Link With Prenatal Tylenol, Major Review Finds
Familial genetic factors, confounding may have driven previous outcomes
www.medpagetoday.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Tylenol during pregnancy: No strong evidence ties use of the medication to autism or ADHD risk. Research in the British Medical Journal—BMJ—responds to claims that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is dangerous. 2 links👇
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
Canada's has lost its 'measles-free status.' It's a setback, but 'reversible.' It will take work to regain what they once had. #VaccinesWork www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
Canada's loss of measles-free status a setback, but 'reversible': health official | CBC
www.cbc.ca
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Canada's has lost its 'measles-free status.' It's a setback, but 'reversible.' It will take work to regain what they once had. #VaccinesWork www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Infant *botulism* outbreak (yes, you read that correctly). As of 11/8/25, 13 infants w/ suspected or confirmed botulism have been reported in 10 states. Stop using ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula. Remember: RFKjr's FDA & CDC have cut back on foodborne-illness surveillance👇
Infant Formula Recalled Amid Botulism Investigation
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Infant *botulism* outbreak (yes, you read that correctly). As of 11/8/25, 13 infants w/ suspected or confirmed botulism have been reported in 10 states. Stop using ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula. Remember: RFKjr's FDA & CDC have cut back on foodborne-illness surveillance👇
Tylenol during pregnancy: No strong evidence ties use of the medication to autism or ADHD risk. Research in the British Medical Journal—BMJ—responds to claims that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is dangerous. 2 links👇
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
No Clear Autism Link With Prenatal Tylenol, Major Review Finds
Familial genetic factors, confounding may have driven previous outcomes
www.medpagetoday.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Tylenol during pregnancy: No strong evidence ties use of the medication to autism or ADHD risk. Research in the British Medical Journal—BMJ—responds to claims that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is dangerous. 2 links👇
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
1st: medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
2nd: www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
More cruelty: Immigrants w/ health conditions may be denied visas under new Trump regime policy. The guidance directs visa officers to consider what might lead to medical costs in the future www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
Immigrants With Health Conditions May Be Denied Visas Under New Trump Admin Guidance
Guidance directs visa officers to consider what might lead to medical costs in the future
www.medpagetoday.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
More cruelty: Immigrants w/ health conditions may be denied visas under new Trump regime policy. The guidance directs visa officers to consider what might lead to medical costs in the future www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...
Infant *botulism* outbreak (yes, you read that correctly). As of 11/8/25, 13 infants w/ suspected or confirmed botulism have been reported in 10 states. Stop using ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula. Remember: RFKjr's FDA & CDC have cut back on foodborne-illness surveillance👇
Infant Formula Recalled Amid Botulism Investigation
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Infant *botulism* outbreak (yes, you read that correctly). As of 11/8/25, 13 infants w/ suspected or confirmed botulism have been reported in 10 states. Stop using ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula. Remember: RFKjr's FDA & CDC have cut back on foodborne-illness surveillance👇
#Covid & #flu can triple your risk of heart attack. A new analysis adds to the research about the link between viral infections and heart disease www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...
Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
#Covid & #flu can triple your risk of heart attack. A new analysis adds to the research about the link between viral infections and heart disease www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Our November issue is now online:
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Our journal is #OpenAccess, so you are free to explore all of our content. But these hashtags offer a flavour: #HTLV-1 #AMR #Lassa #Neisseria #gonorrhoea #tuberculosis #TB #influenza
#IDSky #ClinMicro #OA
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Our journal is #OpenAccess, so you are free to explore all of our content. But these hashtags offer a flavour: #HTLV-1 #AMR #Lassa #Neisseria #gonorrhoea #tuberculosis #TB #influenza
#IDSky #ClinMicro #OA
November 8, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Our November issue is now online:
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Our journal is #OpenAccess, so you are free to explore all of our content. But these hashtags offer a flavour: #HTLV-1 #AMR #Lassa #Neisseria #gonorrhoea #tuberculosis #TB #influenza
#IDSky #ClinMicro #OA
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Our journal is #OpenAccess, so you are free to explore all of our content. But these hashtags offer a flavour: #HTLV-1 #AMR #Lassa #Neisseria #gonorrhoea #tuberculosis #TB #influenza
#IDSky #ClinMicro #OA
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
"[I]t will be critical to maintain a human in the loop even as we seek to incorporate the strengths of #AI-based review in our editorial process."
Read this Editorial from the editors and staff of JAMA and the JAMA Network journals.
ja.ma/4oXjl3H
Read this Editorial from the editors and staff of JAMA and the JAMA Network journals.
ja.ma/4oXjl3H
November 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
"[I]t will be critical to maintain a human in the loop even as we seek to incorporate the strengths of #AI-based review in our editorial process."
Read this Editorial from the editors and staff of JAMA and the JAMA Network journals.
ja.ma/4oXjl3H
Read this Editorial from the editors and staff of JAMA and the JAMA Network journals.
ja.ma/4oXjl3H
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Get this: Coffee suppressed atrial fibrillation!
Unexpected results for recurrence from a randomized trial in participants after cardioversion from AF
#AHA25 @jama.com
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Unexpected results for recurrence from a randomized trial in participants after cardioversion from AF
#AHA25 @jama.com
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
November 9, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Get this: Coffee suppressed atrial fibrillation!
Unexpected results for recurrence from a randomized trial in participants after cardioversion from AF
#AHA25 @jama.com
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Unexpected results for recurrence from a randomized trial in participants after cardioversion from AF
#AHA25 @jama.com
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Healthcare workers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, protecting lives as our planet heats up.
This is their call to action:
🗣️It’s time to put health at the centre of #ClimateAction
Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
This is their call to action:
🗣️It’s time to put health at the centre of #ClimateAction
Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
November 9, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Healthcare workers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, protecting lives as our planet heats up.
This is their call to action:
🗣️It’s time to put health at the centre of #ClimateAction
Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
This is their call to action:
🗣️It’s time to put health at the centre of #ClimateAction
Learn more: bit.ly/HealthCOP30 #COP30
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Every public health and healthcare worker's worst nightmare.
The group’s CEO “said CHD plans to parlay that influence into permanent policy changes —upending the childhood vaccination schedule, reformulating the shots, & abolishing mandates to get them, among a host of goals — that will outlast Kennedy’s tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services”
How Children’s Health Defense plans to cement its agenda beyond RFK Jr.
Children’s Health Defense is leveraging its ties to HHS to lock in legal and cultural shifts that could shape policy long after RFK Jr. leaves.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Every public health and healthcare worker's worst nightmare.
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
🧪 Absolutely wonderful - Rosalind Franklin, by her sister. Learned a lot @zetkin.bsky.social
„The pile of family letters talk far more about her holidays, her friends, or living conditions in postwar Paris, than about her work. She had a love of grand scenery, and became a formidable climber.“
„The pile of family letters talk far more about her holidays, her friends, or living conditions in postwar Paris, than about her work. She had a love of grand scenery, and became a formidable climber.“
Sharing this, quite relevant this week. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Remembering my sister Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 aged 37 years. Sympathy and feminism
have combined to give us her familiar image as a downtrodden woman scientist, brilliant
but neglected, a heroine t...
www.thelancet.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:39 AM
🧪 Absolutely wonderful - Rosalind Franklin, by her sister. Learned a lot @zetkin.bsky.social
„The pile of family letters talk far more about her holidays, her friends, or living conditions in postwar Paris, than about her work. She had a love of grand scenery, and became a formidable climber.“
„The pile of family letters talk far more about her holidays, her friends, or living conditions in postwar Paris, than about her work. She had a love of grand scenery, and became a formidable climber.“
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Measles: Canada is about to lose its status as having eliminated measles. One province w/ an outsize number of cases has what the collision of politics & public health policy is really like www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/w...
Canada Is About to Lose Its Status as Having Eliminated Measles
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Measles: Canada is about to lose its status as having eliminated measles. One province w/ an outsize number of cases has what the collision of politics & public health policy is really like www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/w...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
My interview with Dr. Susan Monarez, former CDC Director, who was fired for doing her job, standing up for public health and science. Learn about her resilience and optimism.
erictopol.substack.com/p/dr-susan-m...
erictopol.substack.com/p/dr-susan-m...
Dr. Susan Monarez—Former CDC Director, First Live Interview
An American hero for standing up for science and public health
erictopol.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:06 PM
My interview with Dr. Susan Monarez, former CDC Director, who was fired for doing her job, standing up for public health and science. Learn about her resilience and optimism.
erictopol.substack.com/p/dr-susan-m...
erictopol.substack.com/p/dr-susan-m...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Dismantling the CDC
November 8, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Dismantling the CDC
Measles: Canada is about to lose its status as having eliminated measles. One province w/ an outsize number of cases has what the collision of politics & public health policy is really like www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/w...
Canada Is About to Lose Its Status as Having Eliminated Measles
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Measles: Canada is about to lose its status as having eliminated measles. One province w/ an outsize number of cases has what the collision of politics & public health policy is really like www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/w...
James Watson—reviled for racist & misogynistic views—was the last of the key figures associated w/ the 1953 discovery of DNA's helical shape. He died this wk, age 97. Watson & Francis Crick decoded the blueprint of life, but only after key intel from Rosalind Franklin tipped them off👇
Gift article
Gift article
James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
James Watson—reviled for racist & misogynistic views—was the last of the key figures associated w/ the 1953 discovery of DNA's helical shape. He died this wk, age 97. Watson & Francis Crick decoded the blueprint of life, but only after key intel from Rosalind Franklin tipped them off👇
Gift article
Gift article
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
My ask of any science enthusiasts who tell the story of Rosalind Franklin:
Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author.
Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.
Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author.
Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.
Her sister wrote my favorite essay about her. She points out that RF would have been famous even if she'd never looked at DNA
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Remembering my sister Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 aged 37 years. Sympathy and feminism
have combined to give us her familiar image as a downtrodden woman scientist, brilliant
but neglected, a heroine t...
www.thelancet.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:17 AM
My ask of any science enthusiasts who tell the story of Rosalind Franklin:
Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author.
Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.
Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author.
Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
"Viruses don’t take vacations. The longest government shutdown ever puts everyone’s health at greater risk because the data and reports that are essential for monitoring the spread of diseases haven’t been updated for weeks." — me in @huffpost.com
Experts Warn The Government Shutdown Is Affecting You In A Major, Unexpected Way
This lapse is leaving doctors and the public dangerously in the dark.
www.huffpost.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:44 PM
"Viruses don’t take vacations. The longest government shutdown ever puts everyone’s health at greater risk because the data and reports that are essential for monitoring the spread of diseases haven’t been updated for weeks." — me in @huffpost.com
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Unbelievable. NIH has posted 6 open NIH directorships in the middle of a shutdown. What a circus. And an opportunity for more cronyism from RFKJr and Bhattacharya. hr.nih.gov/careers/open...
hr.nih.gov
November 8, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Unbelievable. NIH has posted 6 open NIH directorships in the middle of a shutdown. What a circus. And an opportunity for more cronyism from RFKJr and Bhattacharya. hr.nih.gov/careers/open...
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
The Jarman–Bell principle revisited:
Gut #microbiota facilitate body size-dependent nutritional strategies in herbivores
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #OpenAccess #MicroSky
Gut #microbiota facilitate body size-dependent nutritional strategies in herbivores
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #OpenAccess #MicroSky
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
The Jarman–Bell principle revisited:
Gut #microbiota facilitate body size-dependent nutritional strategies in herbivores
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #OpenAccess #MicroSky
Gut #microbiota facilitate body size-dependent nutritional strategies in herbivores
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #OpenAccess #MicroSky
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
Scientists are developing antibodies to track the evolution of these viruses and better treat infections
go.nature.com/3WJmlos
go.nature.com/3WJmlos
Antibody drugs show promise for treating bird flu and HIV
Nature - Scientists are developing antibodies to track the evolution of these viruses and better treat infections.
go.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Scientists are developing antibodies to track the evolution of these viruses and better treat infections
go.nature.com/3WJmlos
go.nature.com/3WJmlos
Reposted by Delthia Ricks
#Publichealth Recap from 2020 - 2025 : Beware what you read . The publishing process was weaponized & getting worsened in this misinformation era . Scientific journals and the wider health information ecosystem saw
November 8, 2025 at 7:03 AM
#Publichealth Recap from 2020 - 2025 : Beware what you read . The publishing process was weaponized & getting worsened in this misinformation era . Scientific journals and the wider health information ecosystem saw