John Ross
@johnrossmd.bsky.social
Canadian in Boston. Hospitalist. FIDSA. #M4A #RaisetheWage #BLM #IDSky #GoHabsGo http://bit.ly/4mtlvaN
I privately fought not to eat all the leftover Halloween candy
SCOOP: Schumer privately fought to extend government shutdown
Scoop: Schumer privately fought to extend government shutdown
"We let him know what we were doing," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).
www.axios.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:04 PM
I privately fought not to eat all the leftover Halloween candy
Canada has officially lost measles elimination status. The ongoing outbreak seems to have been primarily driven by Mennonite/Anabaptist communities and undervaccinated recent immigrants
Canada loses measles elimination status | CBC
www.cbc.ca
November 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Canada has officially lost measles elimination status. The ongoing outbreak seems to have been primarily driven by Mennonite/Anabaptist communities and undervaccinated recent immigrants
Have a friend who knows an old-school Republican and asked him, aren’t you appalled about the damage the budget will do to health care? Buddy shrugged and said, the Dems will bail us out
November 10, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Have a friend who knows an old-school Republican and asked him, aren’t you appalled about the damage the budget will do to health care? Buddy shrugged and said, the Dems will bail us out
Get your kicks on Route LXVI
A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire
go.nature.com/4qMYGRw
go.nature.com/4qMYGRw
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.
go.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Get your kicks on Route LXVI
Reposted by John Ross
The man who ended USAID is the world's first trillionaire
November 7, 2025 at 2:14 AM
The man who ended USAID is the world's first trillionaire
Reposted by John Ross
Confused about when to give steroids in severe pneumonia, if ever? Turns out they are only useful in patients with high CRP (≥205 mg/L). From a great talk today by Mike Klompas #IDSky
November 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Confused about when to give steroids in severe pneumonia, if ever? Turns out they are only useful in patients with high CRP (≥205 mg/L). From a great talk today by Mike Klompas #IDSky
Arrests made in the Harvard Med explosion. According to the press conference, they got to the roof by scaffolding and set off a firework in a locker. Sounds like it could have been impromptu, as opposed to a premeditated political act
2 Massachusetts men arrested after explosion at Harvard Medical School, FBI says
The blast occurred early Saturday on the fourth floor of Harvard Medical School. No one was injured. The building houses labs and offices associated with the medical school’s neurobiology department.
www.pbs.org
November 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Arrests made in the Harvard Med explosion. According to the press conference, they got to the roof by scaffolding and set off a firework in a locker. Sounds like it could have been impromptu, as opposed to a premeditated political act
Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
November 4, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
Legionella cases are the inevitable result when immunocompromised patients are treated in underfunded hospitals with aging infrastructure. Maintaining old plumbing to prevent Legionella biofilms is expensive.
Christ Hospital identifies 2 cases of Legionnaires' disease, working to determine source
The Christ Hospital says they have identified two individual cases of Legionella pneumonia over the past six weeks.
www.wlwt.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Legionella cases are the inevitable result when immunocompromised patients are treated in underfunded hospitals with aging infrastructure. Maintaining old plumbing to prevent Legionella biofilms is expensive.
Reposted by John Ross
when I worked in community services in the US, I helped fill out SNAP applications for people who'd once had successful careers as lawyers, healthcare professionals, bankers. The jaws of poverty can snap shut on anyone.
October 31, 2025 at 2:01 AM
when I worked in community services in the US, I helped fill out SNAP applications for people who'd once had successful careers as lawyers, healthcare professionals, bankers. The jaws of poverty can snap shut on anyone.
Reposted by John Ross
Wastewater data for October 29 is now available:
• Citywide COVID-19 level: Very Low
• Citywide COVID-19 trend (compared to 2 weeks ago): Stable
You can find COVID-19 neighborhood data, data on flu and RSV, and more at boston.gov/bphc-wastewater.
• Citywide COVID-19 level: Very Low
• Citywide COVID-19 trend (compared to 2 weeks ago): Stable
You can find COVID-19 neighborhood data, data on flu and RSV, and more at boston.gov/bphc-wastewater.
Boston Wastewater Monitoring
Wastewater is a new tool to help warn communities about the presence of viruses like flu,
boston.gov
October 30, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Wastewater data for October 29 is now available:
• Citywide COVID-19 level: Very Low
• Citywide COVID-19 trend (compared to 2 weeks ago): Stable
You can find COVID-19 neighborhood data, data on flu and RSV, and more at boston.gov/bphc-wastewater.
• Citywide COVID-19 level: Very Low
• Citywide COVID-19 trend (compared to 2 weeks ago): Stable
You can find COVID-19 neighborhood data, data on flu and RSV, and more at boston.gov/bphc-wastewater.
While infections generally have higher death rates in Black Americans, C difficile is more likely to kill Whites. “C. diff’s prevalence in health care settings flips the usual dynamics of privilege: those who can afford more access to health care are more likely to die from infection”
New Analysis Reveals Racial and Other Demographic Differences in C. diff Deaths Over 25 Years
www.idsociety.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
While infections generally have higher death rates in Black Americans, C difficile is more likely to kill Whites. “C. diff’s prevalence in health care settings flips the usual dynamics of privilege: those who can afford more access to health care are more likely to die from infection”
Reposted by John Ross
The ocean under #Melissa is not only extremely warm, but that warm water extends very deep, resulting in huge values of ocean heat content. The storm could sit stationary for days and still not upwell cooler water. This is a powder keg that's able to deliver endless fuel to a hurricane.
October 23, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The ocean under #Melissa is not only extremely warm, but that warm water extends very deep, resulting in huge values of ocean heat content. The storm could sit stationary for days and still not upwell cooler water. This is a powder keg that's able to deliver endless fuel to a hurricane.
Hmm, wondering if there might be unintended consequences from ending mandatory childhood vaccinations in the state with the highest percentage of senior citizens in the country
October 22, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Hmm, wondering if there might be unintended consequences from ending mandatory childhood vaccinations in the state with the highest percentage of senior citizens in the country
Reposted by John Ross
Continuing the spooky theme, the Morrigan triple goddess - and the crows they are heavily associated with - is Irish mythology's foreteller of death or victory in battle ⚔️
Prints on sale at the moment here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...
Prints on sale at the moment here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...
October 22, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Continuing the spooky theme, the Morrigan triple goddess - and the crows they are heavily associated with - is Irish mythology's foreteller of death or victory in battle ⚔️
Prints on sale at the moment here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...
Prints on sale at the moment here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...
New study showed an association between shingles (herpes zoster) and osteoporotic fractures. Cause-effect relationship not clear; does shingles make your bones weaker, or are frailer people at higher shingles risk? In any case, another reason to get the shingles vaccine
Association Between Herpes Zoster and Risk of Incident Fragility Fractures in US Veterans: A Matched Cohort Study
Association between herpes zoster and risk of incident fragility fractures in US veterans: a matched cohort study.
agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:28 PM
New study showed an association between shingles (herpes zoster) and osteoporotic fractures. Cause-effect relationship not clear; does shingles make your bones weaker, or are frailer people at higher shingles risk? In any case, another reason to get the shingles vaccine
Getting an mRNA COVID vaccine seems to prime the immune system to attack cancer cells in patients on immune checkpoint therapy. Patients who got COVID vaccines were TWICE as likely to be alive at three years as those who didn't
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
Patients with cancer who received mRNA-based COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immune checkpoint therapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning treatment, according to a...
www.mdanderson.org
October 21, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Getting an mRNA COVID vaccine seems to prime the immune system to attack cancer cells in patients on immune checkpoint therapy. Patients who got COVID vaccines were TWICE as likely to be alive at three years as those who didn't
Pertussis (whooping cough) cases have exploded in the US in the past 2 years. Get your Tdap if you’re due (every 10 years for adults)
BTW, as of this morning, it looks like all the case counts for 2024-25 have been scrubbed from the CDC website 🫠
BTW, as of this morning, it looks like all the case counts for 2024-25 have been scrubbed from the CDC website 🫠
October 20, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Pertussis (whooping cough) cases have exploded in the US in the past 2 years. Get your Tdap if you’re due (every 10 years for adults)
BTW, as of this morning, it looks like all the case counts for 2024-25 have been scrubbed from the CDC website 🫠
BTW, as of this morning, it looks like all the case counts for 2024-25 have been scrubbed from the CDC website 🫠
Reposted by John Ross
RFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.
Dismantling the Institutional Review Board (IRB), that oversees all human subjects research, is bad. Really bad.
The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
October 19, 2025 at 4:12 PM
RFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.
Reposted by John Ross
2. Our new analysis suggests that protest events in 2025 have occurred across a wider range of US counties than we observed during Trump's first term. And the current protest movement has already reached deeper into Trump country than at almost any point during the first Trump administration.
October 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
2. Our new analysis suggests that protest events in 2025 have occurred across a wider range of US counties than we observed during Trump's first term. And the current protest movement has already reached deeper into Trump country than at almost any point during the first Trump administration.
Reposted by John Ross
Harvard’s School of Public Health is broken & is now essentially on life support. This is what happens when Trump gets his way with science www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
What Happens When Trump Gets His Way With Science
Harvard’s School of Public Health is broken.
www.theatlantic.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Harvard’s School of Public Health is broken & is now essentially on life support. This is what happens when Trump gets his way with science www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by John Ross
"When researchers dig into the reasons, one factor emerges consistently across continents and income levels: housing.
Not as shelter, but as an economic burden so severe that it crowds out the space — financial, temporal, and psychological — needed to raise a family."
Not as shelter, but as an economic burden so severe that it crowds out the space — financial, temporal, and psychological — needed to raise a family."
New Study: Global Fertility Rate Decline Now Linked Directly to the Commodification of Housing
In Germany, South Korea, and Italy, women are having fewer than 1.3 children on average — far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable…
medium.com
October 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"When researchers dig into the reasons, one factor emerges consistently across continents and income levels: housing.
Not as shelter, but as an economic burden so severe that it crowds out the space — financial, temporal, and psychological — needed to raise a family."
Not as shelter, but as an economic burden so severe that it crowds out the space — financial, temporal, and psychological — needed to raise a family."
Reposted by John Ross
New pro/con perspective piece by @drneilstone.bsky.social & yours truly
Joining the X-odus: Contrasting perspectives on whether infection specialists should leave X (formerly Twitter)
That I'm sharing it here belies where I stand on the issue
www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295... #IDSky
Joining the X-odus: Contrasting perspectives on whether infection specialists should leave X (formerly Twitter)
That I'm sharing it here belies where I stand on the issue
www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295... #IDSky
Joining the X-odus: Contrasting perspectives on whether infection specialists should leave X (formerly Twitter)
Social media is a cultural and communications phenomenon that is an integral part
of life in the 2020s. Twitter was founded in 2006 and became a leading social media
platform with an active user base ...
www.cmi-comms.org
October 16, 2025 at 1:47 AM
New pro/con perspective piece by @drneilstone.bsky.social & yours truly
Joining the X-odus: Contrasting perspectives on whether infection specialists should leave X (formerly Twitter)
That I'm sharing it here belies where I stand on the issue
www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295... #IDSky
Joining the X-odus: Contrasting perspectives on whether infection specialists should leave X (formerly Twitter)
That I'm sharing it here belies where I stand on the issue
www.cmi-comms.org/article/S295... #IDSky
Interesting reporting by Jeremy "Scoops" Faust, about the demise of a little-known bioterrorism surveillance program created in the wake of the Amerithrax attacks #IDSky
What is BioWatch and why is it offline? [Scoop.]
A bioterrorism surveillance program rolled out in 2003 was paused suddenly yesterday. Here's what that means.
insidemedicine.substack.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Interesting reporting by Jeremy "Scoops" Faust, about the demise of a little-known bioterrorism surveillance program created in the wake of the Amerithrax attacks #IDSky