Audrey John MD PhD
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odomjohnlab.bsky.social
Audrey John MD PhD
@odomjohnlab.bsky.social
Infectious diseases physician, scientist, mentor, mom, Chief @CHOP_ID | lab goals: new ways to diagnose and treat infection | views my own | #PedsIDSky #IDSky #PedsSky
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
If you read and watch one thing today it should be this pice accompanying @agawande.bsky.social documentary.
"As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children."
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
www.newyorker.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Our October member spotlight was Dr. Jeff Gerber. He is the Werner & Gertrude Henle Endowed Chair in Pediatrics in the Div ID @childrensphila.bsky.social & Prof of Peds, Epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the Univ of Pennsylvania. Read our full profile at pids.org/2025/10/29/m...
November 3, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Missed another parasitology webinar? 😩

I built a page to fix that — a community list of free online seminars anyone can add to!

🧫 Find and share virtual parasitology events here:
www.parasitesrule.com/seminars
October 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Mapping Plasmodium transitions and interactions in the Anopheles female.

Now out in Nature by Yan Yan, Lisa H. Verzier, Elaine Cheung, Flaminia Catteruccia and colleagues.

#microsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mapping Plasmodium transitions and interactions in the Anopheles female - Nature
Single-cell transcriptomic analyses of Plasmodium falciparum and Anopheles gambiae reveal key developmental stages, processes and factors in parasite–mosquito interactions and identify potential targe...
www.nature.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
October 16, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943
October 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
The fiscal year is over.

So how was the NIH appropriation committed?

A long thread with institute by institute results about where the money went.
a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
ALT: a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
media.tenor.com
October 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Children and teens who had a Covid reinfection had a doubling of #LongCovid risk (PASC) and a significant increase in many other adverse outcomes (Figure) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
September 30, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
5-year-old Suza from #DRCongo should still be alive. Malaria is treatable, but medicine wasn't available when she needed it.

Heartbreaking, urgent reporting from @washingtonpost.com shows how even brief interruptions in aid delivery can have dire consequences for vulnerable communities:
Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting.
USAID antimalarial and HIV supplies valued at nearly $140 million were delayed in the first half of the year or not delivered at all due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause, The Post found...
wapo.st
September 30, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
I can tell you from personal experience caring for children like this that pertussis in a young infant is one of the most wicked diseases you can imagine.

It’s why we recommend that people get vaccination boosts both if pregnant or living in close proximity to young children.
September 30, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
"The pigtailed girl who liked pretty dresses was battling malaria and desperately needed medication that could save her life. That medication, already purchased by a U.S.-taxpayer-funded program, was tantalizingly close...

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
September 30, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
This is a truly remarkable finding: 17 years after introduction of the HPV vaccine, there was a decreased prevalence of HPV infection (and therefore decreased cancer risk) in both vaccinated AND unvaccinated individuals. Cancer prevention through herd immunity!!!
Population-Level Effectiveness and Herd Protection 17 Years After HPV Vaccine
This cross-sectional study investigates population-level effectiveness and herd protection in the first 17 years after human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among adolescent girls and young women at ...
jamanetwork.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
However, vaccines have had a substantial impact on reducing the incidence of many infectious diseases and have dramatically reduced mortality for specific infections. For example, vaccines account for 40% of the global decline in infant mortality since 1974 (Shattock, Lancet 2024).
September 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Based on the body of evidence, what happens if pregnant women do not receive Covid booster vaccination?
Thousands of hospitalizations of infants and expectant mothers
@nathanlo.bsky.social @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
September 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Proud of Kevin Downes and Lori Handy of CHOP
ID!
Congratulations 🎉 to our Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society class of 2025. These 29 scientists have distinguished themselves through their academic, clinical, and educational accomplishments and excellences in pediatric ID. pids.org/2025/09/23/2...
September 29, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Congratulations 🎉 to our Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society class of 2025. These 29 scientists have distinguished themselves through their academic, clinical, and educational accomplishments and excellences in pediatric ID. pids.org/2025/09/23/2...
September 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Ever since I learned about this study enrolling I have been eagerly awaiting the results. Researchers in Uganda took a centuries-old cultural practice mothers carrying babies on their backs in cloth wraps and turned it into a public health tool. You got to love it!
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Permethrin-Treated Baby Wraps for the Prevention of Malaria | NEJM
Malaria remains a major cause of childhood death in sub-Saharan Africa. We leveraged the traditional practice of mothers carrying children on their backs in cloth wraps to assess whether treating t...
www.nejm.org
September 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
This is the official communication from the FDA to physicians on acetaminophen use in pregnancy.
- They acknowledge the lack of a causal link with autism
- Essentially tell physicians to keep doing what we've been doing anyway
It's very different from the press conference.
Pass it on.
September 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
A baby’s immune system is ready for the hepatitis B vaccine as soon as they are born, and giving newborns the first dose vaccine within 24 hours of birth (with additional doses at 1-2 months and 6-18 months) remains the best protection against serious health problems like liver disease and cancer.
September 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
Whatever one's personal view of Bill Gates is, it's undeniably that his foundation has continued to step-up especially at a time when support for global health is declining. This impactful pledge makes a difference for fighting Malaria, TB, HIV and others globally.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Bill Gates pledges $912 million to global disease fight, urges governments to step up
The Gates Foundation will give $912 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, philanthropist Bill Gates announced on Monday as he urged governments to reverse global health funding cuts.
www.reuters.com
September 23, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
"In two days, this committee further undermined Americans’ confidence in life-saving vaccines and did so absent any new research or information necessitating their reexamination."

PIDS has released the linked statement regarding the September ACIP meeting.
pids.org/2025/09/19/p...
PIDS Statement on the September ACIP Meeting Recommendations – Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society
pids.org
September 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Audrey John MD PhD
25% of Drs in US are foreign grads. Many are on an H1B visa. This will hit health systems hard especially rural hospitals and hospitals in underserved areas that sponsor these visas through waiver programs. The old cost was about 5000$ a year.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump signs proclamation imposing annual $100,000 fee on H-1B visas
Move deals potentially major blow to US tech industry, which relies heavily on workers from India and China
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2025 at 11:37 AM