Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
zekemd.bsky.social
Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
@zekemd.bsky.social
- #PublicHealth & work hazard doc
- Clinic: env. exposures
- Research: firefighters, vax hesitancy, informatics
- Other: random nerdy stuff
#medsky #OccEnvMed
Yay COVID and flu vaccines! Take care of yourself and others!!
October 2, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Interesting @medscape.com article today regarding #PhysicianWellness in the context of the #HiddenCurriculum.

Pretty near and dear to my heart as an #OccEnvMed physician.

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
Unlearning Medicine’s Unhealthy ‘Hidden Curriculum’
Many doctors adopt damaging lifestyle ‘survival skills’ during residency and keep them for years. Here’s how to spot — and finally break — habits of self-neglect.
www.medscape.com
August 27, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Minnesota currently has a statewide air quality alert due to Canadian wildfire smoke. What can you do about it? See this great @mprnews.org story about it!

Full disclosure - they quote me from 2023 and I still agree with what I said then 😅

www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...
What to know about air quality alerts and how to protect your health
Wildfires in Canada are impacting the skies over Minnesota. Here’s what to know when an air quality alert is issued and how to stay healthy amid smoky skies and unhealthy air.
www.mprnews.org
July 31, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
RFK Jr. and his toady Jay Bhattacharya have just dismantled the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, an outside group of advisors who provide guidance on a range of topics.

They will be likely be replaced with another layer of toadies. Toadies all the way down.
NIH director is replacing his top outside advisory board
Some worry new members of the long-running Advisory Committee to the Director will mirror agency chief Jay Bhattacharya’s views
www.science.org
July 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
Let’s talk about Covid myths!! I’ll provide sources on these so you can look at the info yourself.

First big myth: getting the initial vax series gave you permanent immunity!
Nnoooooope! Six months out, the protection wanes to 20%

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
June 18, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
I keep reading heat preparation materials that don't mention how heat affects air quality.

One of the best learning resources I've seen on this is the Met Office's case study of the ozone event that was part of the August 2003 heatwave.

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/eab2...
An Exceptional Ozone Episode in August 2003
A large pollution event in Summer 2003
storymaps.arcgis.com
June 18, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
I gave in! After students asking for it, I now made a simple figure design checklist.
To help all scientists w/o graphic skills create clear, accessible, and truthful charts!
-> Out in @nature Cell Biology: rdcu.be/erwl4

#DataVisualization #PhD #SciComm

Thx for review @bethcimini.bsky.social + 2
A checklist for designing and improving the visualization of scientific data
Nature Cell Biology - Creating clear and engaging scientific figures is crucial to communicate complex data. In this Comment, I condense principles from design, visual perception and data...
rdcu.be
June 18, 2025 at 8:33 AM
NIOSH funding cuts and impacts on Occ. and Env. Med. #OccEnvMed residency training discussed at AMA House of Delegates! #medsky

www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcover...
AMA Delegates Debate How Much Its Leaders Should Publicly Oppose Trump Actions
A hammer or a wrench? New AMA president says response strategy can vary
www.medpagetoday.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
"The researchers found that, on average, it costs Medicaid $179,000 to save a year of life ... less than the combined public and private spending on interventions like safety inspections for cars or the removal of asbestos from buildings"
May 19, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
#Medicaid Matters & SAVES LIVES

"The expansion of Medicaid has saved more than 27,000 lives since 2010, according to the most definitive study yet on the program’s health effects...deaths fell not only among older enrollees but also among those in their 20s and 30s"
As Congress Debates Cutting Medicaid, a Major Study Shows It Saves Lives
www.nytimes.com
May 19, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
Congress is pushing 6-month #Medicaid checks—fueling #churn that cuts coverage for families. It raises costs, worsens health, & hits Black, Indigenous & Latine communities hardest.

MN shows what works: continuous coverage. We shouldn’t go backward.

#KeepFamiliesCovered #MedSky #StopTheCuts
The harm of #Medicaid churn & how to help keep people covered & healthy
YouTube video by Nathan Chomilo
youtube.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:06 AM
@qdurandmoreau.bsky.social - I assume you are/were not at #AOHC2025? I thought this might be the year for us to meet in person! Then again, I also cannot fault anyone for hesitating to travel to the US at this point... 😅😭
April 30, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Great opening talk by Dr. John Clarke at #AOHC2025 on implicit bias! He's the Medical Director for Occ. Med. at @astrazeneca.bsky.social. Implicit bias is so critical in medicine, not only in terms of taking care of our patients, but also in how we (esp. Black physicians) present ourselves. 🩺✊🏾
April 27, 2025 at 2:22 PM
First day of #AOHC2025 at the ACOEM House of Delegates meeting! 💚👍🏾
April 27, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Any #EnvironmentalHealth starter packs out there? 👀🌳🌎💚
April 24, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Happy #EarthDay! 🌎🌳💚
April 22, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
My point of pride for 2025 was finding out one of my articles was used as an example from an Oxford podium, with the question "Can you believe anyone thinks this way?" spoken by an EBM high minister.

I can believe it. We're called scientists.

This one: www.scientificamerican.com/article/mask...
Masks Work. Distorting Science to Dispute the Evidence Doesn't
New mask studies relying on a medical paradigm do not erase decades of engineering and occupational science that show they work
www.scientificamerican.com
April 18, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
The Trump regime is now using US Attorneys to intimidate academic journals by sending them letters demanding they explain how they ensure ‘viewpoint diversity.’ Journal editors should be public about this and coordinate to refuse to comply with these fascist tactics.
April 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
April 17, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Yes. This is super weird.

We should NOT be using the word "marijuana", which is pejorative, but rather "cannabis", which is the scientific name.

Unfortunately "marijuana" is used in legal documents (like legislation) and news (thanks, AP style guide).

We need to do better as with language.
The current spelling 'marijuana' appears to have been an English invention.
April 17, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Love when irony writes itself...

Though admittedly open access was not a thing in the same way in 1992 (when that article was published)
Yes, love articles about open access, open source, etc. that are behind paywalls. Happens all the time!
April 16, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
🧬 Variant Evolution Rate Since 2020

We witnessed a huge weekly growth advantage in new variants for the first year after Omicron arrived, and then to a lesser extent after Pirola. Now we have 9 months of the lowest growth advantages since 2020. 🧵
April 14, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
Conspiracy theorists aren’t just online anymore — they’re stepping into office, warns infectious disease expert
@pauloffit.bsky.social. That could be bad news for vaccines, he tells The Nation's Health Podcast. Listen to the new episode: www.thenationshealth.org/page/podcasts 🎧
April 15, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Zeke McKinney, MD, MHI, MPH
A look back at what vaccines have done.
April 14, 2025 at 4:36 PM