Ilan Schwartz
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germhuntermd.bsky.social
Ilan Schwartz
@germhuntermd.bsky.social
ID doctor and fungal enthusiast. #IDSky community builder. #TxID, global health, MedEd. @idjclub.bsky.social

Posts don't represent my employer (obviously)
Pinned
Our patients persecuted; colleagues and public health institutions under attack. Our field needs to rise up & fight back

Silence=Death Redux: Infectious Diseases, Public Health, and the Imperative to Resist

Viewpoint by @ericmeyerowitz.bsky.social & me

OpenAccess: academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...
Silence=Death Redux: Infectious Diseases, Public Health, and the Imperative to Resist
The second Trump administration has released a torrent of executive policies hostile to public health, science, and marginalized populations. We outline th
academic.oup.com
Outies for the win! #IDSky
It’s the ticks you *don’t* see that you have to worry about…

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... #IDSky
January 3, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz

52nd Annual Meeting is fast approaching be sure and make your plans soon!

Upcoming deadlines
Jan 6: Discounted lodging link closes
Jan 23: Regular & fellows tuition discounts close

Grab a room now via our group reservation hotline www.wintercourse.org

Feb 8-12 Copper Mountain, CO
#IDSky #MedSky
December 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Can't join us this February in Copper Mountain?

On-Demand is a great alternative. Same great agenda, including case presentations, and credit options but on your schedule!

Reduced tuition options available for ID Fellows.

Complete info is available at www.wintercourse.org
#IDSky #MedSky
December 29, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
THREAD.

My parents' cat Bridget vanished. As the weeks dragged on they became ever more worried, so to distract himself my dad began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up at some of art & music's most important moments.

I've collected his work here...
December 20, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!🎄✨
December 19, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Check out the stellar speaker lineup for @wintercourseid.bsky.social, including a keynote from the new CEO of @idsainfo.bsky.social Jeanne Marrazzo! Join us in Colorado! #IDSky

www.wintercourse.org/page-18332
Winter Course in Infectious Disease - 2026 Agenda
www.wintercourse.org
December 18, 2025 at 9:38 PM
🤩
IDSA has selected Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, FIDSA, as its next chief executive officer, effective Jan. 12, 2026.

Learn more: bit.ly/4pHt2nF
December 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Yesterday CDC adopted the hep B birth dose rollback.

Today a grant hit the Federal Register: $1.6M to U of Southern Denmark for an RCT in Guinea-Bissau on birth dose "timing."

They're funding research to generate evidence after making the policy change - the opposite of evidence-based medicine. 🧵
December 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Just decline the peer review invitation.

What are you people even doing?
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Some US transplant centers cater to international patients, mostly from the Middle East. International patients comprise up to 20% of those receiving transplants at some centers (like lungs at Montefiore). Raises important questions about equitability in access.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/u...
Hospitals Cater to ‘Transplant Tourists’ as U.S. Patients Wait for Organs
www.nytimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Trial of High-Dose Oral Rifampin in Adults with Tuberculous Meningitis

Congratulations to David Meya, Fiona Cresswell, @natebahrid.bsky.social @drboulware.bsky.social & co on this important trial

No mortality benefit to high dose rifampin in adults with TB meningitis

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
December 18, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Enjoyed the listen of the leave vs stay debate on Twitter. I am unmoved (from an already very strong position: leave).

@aetiology.bsky.social made the key points on harassment (esp for women), and @germhuntermd.bsky.social also resonated re: uneven playing field with algorithm
Hey, that’s what I probably would’ve said before meeting @drneilstone.bsky.social in Vienna in April. Then I heard his arguments and I found them worth listening to. At the very least, they make me less judgmental of people who do choose to stay. Curious to know what you’ll say afterwards.
December 17, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
This is your yearly reminder -- submitting your paper just before the holidays is not a good idea. You're competing with a flood of other papers and even if it's sent for review, no one will agree.

PS Feline editorial assistant contemplating the burden of submissions.
December 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Wow, this is about as absurd as RFK as HHS secretary or Tracy Hoeg leading vaccine injury investigations.
Hugely problematic!
SCOOP

Harvey Risch is a Yale epidemiologist who has speculated about links between "turbo cancer" and COVID vaccines, while working for a company whose customers use ivermectin as a cancer treatment

Trump just appointed him to oversee the US national cancer program

www.wired.com/story/risch-...
New Head of Trump's Cancer Panel Questioned Links Between Vaccines and Cancer
Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch, who has speculated about a connection between Covid vaccines and “turbo cancer” and promoted ivermectin, says he'll chair the President's Cancer Panel.
www.wired.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Me as an author: can’t wait to get this manuscript off my desk and into peer review so I can relax over the holidays!

Me as a journal editor: who submits a paper right before the holidays? Obviously we won’t be able to find any peer reviewers for weeks!
December 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
December 15, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
The FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence in Human Fungal Pathogens (HFP2026) will be held on May 16-22, 2026, in La Colle-sur-Loup, France. The website and registration link are below 👇
hfp2026.febsevents.org [hfp2026.febsevents.org].
FEBS Advanced Lecture Course 2026 – Molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions and virulence in human fungal pathogens
16 – 22 May 2026 │ La Colle-sur-Loup, France
hfp2026.febsevents.org
December 12, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
CMI Comms launches 2-year editorial fellowship for early/mid-career researchers👩‍🔬👨‍🔬Apply by 15 Sep 2025📅 Need 5+ first-authored papers📚 Deadline Nov decision🗓️##idsky
<em>CMI Communications</em>: An open call for editorial fellows to grow—and grow with—the journal and Communicable
As it enters its second year of life, CMI Communications (CMI Comms) is pleased to follow the excellent example of its sister journal, Clinical Microbiology and Infection [1], and launch its first editorial fellowship. CMI Comms is looking for early- and mid-career researchers and clinician-researchers to join us as we grow the journal and our podcast, Communicable.The fellowship will last 2 years and will include training at both the journal and the podcast.CMI Comms training:-In the first year, editorial fellows will shadow associate editors and the editor-in-chief, observing the editorial flow of manuscript review and the reasoning behind editorial decision making. Editorial fellows will attend editors’ meetings (hybrid) and participate actively in board discussions and policy-making.-In the second year, editorial fellows will handle submissions front-line, deciding whether to send the article for peer review, selecting peer reviewers, and reaching final decisions, all under the supervision of the associate editor and the editor-in-chief and in line with the journal’s overall aims and principles [2,3].-New ideas for the journal and its various projects will be welcome throughout. Fellows may be asked to write editorial notes describing new series or projects that will be launched at their suggestion [4].Communicable podcast training:-In the first 3 months, fellows will shadow the editors as they co-host, and Drs Hostettler and Huttner as they edit and produce, the episodes.-Thereafter, fellows will plan, co-host, edit, and produce episodes under the supervision of the editors, with minimal or maximal involvement according to their own interest.-Throughout, fellows may suggest topics, guests, and other ideas for Communicable, which, like CMI Comms, is open to innovation.The principal reason for this editorial fellowship is the desire to train and prepare the next generation in both traditional medical publishing and emerging media for science communication and dissemination. Yet, other reasons, like CMI’s, may be a bit ‘selfish’: we hope that the fellowship will both help us identify strong candidates for CMI Comms editorships down the road, and enrich us with the novel ideas and fresh vision of newcomers.Who should apply? We are looking for clinicians in residency or fellowship, or during the roughly 5 years following completion of residency or fellowship; for PhD students in the same timeframes; and/or for post-doctoral fellows [5]. If you are further out than 5 years from training, you should still apply if you believe you are early-career when it comes to medical editing and publishing.For clinicians, we are looking for people in the fields of clinical microbiology and infectious diseases, but clinicians with other recent training whose main research interest is clinical microbiology or infectious diseases are also welcome. For PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, we are looking for those whose main interest is infection, its spread, and how we prevent and deal with it: host (immunity), pathogen (pathogenicity and transmission), and prevention and antimicrobial strategies, whether they be pharmacologic or other.We would expect applicants to be first authors of at least five articles describing original research and published in peer-reviewed journals. Experience as a peer reviewer and/or editor, as well as recent or ongoing activities within the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, would be an advantage.Please send your application by e-mail to Dr Kathryn Hostettler (cmicommunications@escmid.org), CMI Comms’ editorial manager. Tell us where you are in your career, your research interests, prior experience in medical editing, science podcasting, networking and communication, and anything else you would like us to know when considering your candidacy. Please attach a letter of recommendation relevant to this position, your curriculum vitae, and a list of publications. In addition, please include a one-page document sharing your ideas on how CMI Comms can be useful to people at all stages of their careers. Other suggestions on how to improve CMI Comms are also welcome. The deadline for applications is 15 September 2025. We will make our decision by 1 November 2025 and expect you to join us, if selected, on 1 January 2026.Editorial noteNot peer reviewed.
www.sciencedirect.com
December 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
December 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Human-to-Human Rabies Transmission via Solid Organ Transplantation from a Donor with Undiagnosed Rabies — United States, October 2024–February 2025
MMWR

A man died of donor-derived rabies after receiving a kidney transplant from a donor scratched by a skunk.

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes... #TxID
Human-to-Human Rabies Transmission via Solid Organ...
This report describes the public health response to a patient who died after transplantation with an organ from a donor with undiagnosed rabies.
www.cdc.gov
December 6, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisory panel is beset by incompetence, bias, and procedural chaos. Since ACIP is real life and not a TV show, that's not a good thing. www.statnews.com/2025/12/06/a... via @statnews.com
RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisory panel is beset by incompetence, bias, and procedural chaos
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' (ACIP) meetings used to be a geek’s dream: hours of long, maybe dreary presentation of extensive data
www.statnews.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
🚨Last chance! Submit an abstract to #Fungal26 by tomorrow, December 4: buff.ly/1AMwJhf

They can cover an array of topics including #ComparativeGenomics #FunctionalGenomics #Pathogenic #GeneRegulation #CellBiology #Biochemistry #Metabolism #FungalEcology #Evo #DevelopmentalBio #PopGen and more.
December 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Ilan Schwartz
Congratulations to the 272 physicians who matched into adult infectious diseases and the 44 who matched into pediatric infectious diseases this year. Over 50% of programs went unfilled, marking a very challenging match year for ID. The current hostile sentiment towards ID is not helping recruitment.
December 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
We Dissent: Lessons From the 2025 Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Guidelines

IDSA withdrew from what was to be ATS/IDSA CAP guidelines b/c of impasse over the panel's recommendation to treat CAP with antibacterial therapy when a viral pathogen is identified.

academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...
We Dissent: Lessons From the 2025 Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Guidelines
Evidence to support antibacterial therapy for viral community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is lacking. Shorter CAP treatment duration remains an important stre
academic.oup.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:55 PM