Rachel Adelson
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Rachel Adelson
@rka.bsky.social
75 followers 330 following 16 posts
Editor and writer; science & health literacy.
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Reposted by Rachel Adelson
walkerbragman.bsky.social
There’s a big story everyone is missing—but this article hits on it.

We aren’t just seeing public health dismantled bc we’ve been taken over by conspiracy theorists and lunatics.

What we’re really seeing is the giant, predatory, underegulated wellness industry come to Washington.
FDA deletes warning on bogus autism therapies touted by RFK Jr.‘s allies
The agency used to warn of chelation, used by RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine ally David Geier.
arstechnica.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
boghuma.bsky.social
Keeping this up in the new year!
For the next 24h, drop any infectious disease and/or vaccine-related questions in response to this post, and I will do my best to answer them. Answers are for information only, NOT medical advice. Let's do this.
#AskAnIDDoc January 2026 edition.
a man is standing in a kitchen drinking from a cup and talking about flu season .
ALT: a man is standing in a kitchen drinking from a cup and talking about flu season .
media.tenor.com
January 12, 2026 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
mynamesnotgordy.bsky.social
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones says she didn't engage Ontario's Chief Doctor during height of flu epidemic because her symptoms passed quickly and was still able to attend Christmas fundraisers.
Health minister says Ontario’s flu season peaked over the holidays | Globalnews.ca
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said she believed flu cases had already peaked for the season, accepting they had strained the province's health-care system.
globalnews.ca
January 13, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
steveve.bsky.social
January 13, 2026 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
helenbranswell.bsky.social
That we're in a place, at a time, when someone has to write this headline, this article — it's almost unfathomable. Please do read @krutikakuppalli.bsky.social's take. www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/m...
Medical schools must prepare tomorrow’s doctors for yesterday’s diseases
Medical schools must now prepare tomorrow’s doctors for yesterday’s diseases.
www.statnews.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
markharris.bsky.social
There are good journalists out there who grasp that we are living in an emergency moment, at the mercy of serial liars, bigots, and government thugs. They are steady. They are clear-eyed. They understand what is needed. And they have been right exponentially more often than the "calm down" crew.
January 11, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
markharris.bsky.social
There is no attitude for which legacy journalists are more often rewarded by their bosses than "Everybody needs to calm down." It is a preening announcement that you are the adult in the room, immune from emotion or overreaction or "hysteria." And it is the worst imaginable priority for this era. >
January 11, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
kathrynas.bsky.social
The @uwofa1 - University of Western Ontario Faculty Association - is quickly becoming a leader in post-secondary education messaging about the equity implications and importance of masking as an integral layer of C19 and flu mitigation.

Let’s show them some love, folks!
❤️🙏
Black background with white text and an elephant wearing a mask towards the upper left-hand corner: “Spotlight: Masking as an Equity Practice Let's talk about the Elephant in the Room...high-quality masks are a tiny tool with big equity energy this respiratory illness season. Coughing, sneezing, fever, chills, and aches... Ontario's wastewater confirms that it's rough out there! Take it from the Middlesex-London Health Unit (Nov. 25 2025): "Staying home when feeling unwell and encouraging others to do the same helps us protect each other from viral illnesses. Frequent handwashing, covering coughs, socializing in well-ventilated spaces and wearing well-fitted face masks all contribute to reducing the risk of infection." Well-fitting respirators (N95s, KN95s, or equivalent) significantly reduce the spread of illness. That matters not just for individual health, but for equity..” Text continues: “Not everyone can afford to get sick. Missed pay, caregiving responsibilities, disability, chronic illness, or precarious work mean that "just catching a bug" can have very real consequences. Masking helps keep shared spaces safer for everyone - especially those most impacted when illness spreads. When we choose high-quality masks in crowded indoor spaces, we reduce barriers to participation and help make meetings, classrooms, workplaces, and public spaces more accessible. Not only are they effective at helping to prevent illness, but wearing a mask is also a visual indication of a commitment to equity. Practical, protective, and prosocial. Keeping our campus safe during respiratory illness season also depends on having enough CUPE workers and resources to maintain clean, well-supplied, and healthy spaces. Access to soap, paper towels, clean washrooms, masks, sanitizer, and properly maintained buildings is essential to preventing the spread of illness.”
January 11, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
picardonhealth.bsky.social
More than 20 years ago, MPPs across all parties pledged to make Ontario completely accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. With that date past, advocates say the process has been a failure, by @jeffreybgray.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... via @theglobeandmail.com
Ontario’s promise to people with disabilities left unfulfilled after more than 20 years
Sweeping 2005 legislation, supposed to make the province accessible by 2025, is being called a failure
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 10, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
drgorfinkel.bsky.social
6 FIXES to⬇️ Healthcare Wait Times

1/ ⬆️Chronic care & rehab beds
2/⬆️Public O.R. hours
3/ Vaccine registry
4/ Reward cradle-to-grave family practice
5/ Give patients access to their health records
6/ Create single-entry lines for specialists

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Iris Gorfinkel: Reducing Ontario health care waits: Six solutions avoiding privatization pitfalls
Canada has long been among the worst performers on specialist wait times in high income countries. Wait times aren’t a matter of shortage, they’re a policy choice.
www.thestar.com
January 10, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
angierasmussen.bsky.social
The MMR is unaffected by RFK Jr gutting the immunization schedule to match Denmark's. Yet we're already breaking measles records in 2026. Why?

Loss of public trust, capacity, & access. How?

Lies about vaccines by RFKJr et al

From me in @natmed.nature.com:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
January 10, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
fangferric.bsky.social
"Meningococcal disease is a terrible, terrible disease."

- Walter Orenstein, MD, former Director of the US Immunization Program

www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
New CDC Guidance Could Revive a Rare but Deadly Disease
How risk-based recommendation could reshape childhood meningococcal disease
www.medpagetoday.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
boghuma.bsky.social
This supports the idea that even a “drifted” influenza vaccine can still meaningfully reduce infection and severity, especially at the population level.
TLDR - It's very much still worth getting the flu vaccine this year. It still confers a degree of protection which matters especially now.
January 9, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
durhamhealthnc.bsky.social
In conclusion:
(2/2)
Obviously, we can’t force you to do anything. (If we could, we would have much higher vaccination rates and probably far fewer flu cases, and we wouldn’t have to keep making posts like this.) But if you don’t want to be sick, and you care about your health, and you care about protecting the health of people around you: Please make good choices. Get vaccinated. Wear masks. Wash your hands. Stay home when you are sick. Call your doctor if you do get sick and you have concerns. Please. We are so tired of everyone being sick, and you are probably tired of it as well. Please try not to make it worse.
January 8, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
durhamhealthnc.bsky.social
We don’t know who needs to hear this, but the flu is getting out of hand. And we needed to make a post about it. Here are our pretty direct thoughts, because sometimes our social media manager/infographic designer is tired & can’t think of a way to put it more gently. Please make good choices. (1/2)
Here’s the thing: Ridiculous numbers of people are getting the flu right now. Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are reaching or have already reached record-breaking numbers. People of all ages are getting sick, being hospitalized, and dying, even if they had no other health conditions. And lots of people who are “ok” and don’t require hospitalization are feeling terrible and probably wish they were not sick. You should really be trying not to get the flu (and COVID-19 and RSV and more). This means, yes, you should really get vaccinated….Vaccines teach your body how to recognize and respond to the particular viruses they were created for. No amount of washing your hands, eating healthy, sleeping, or exercising can do this for you. Sorry. These are all important for your immune system and other reasons, but they cannot replace the work of vaccines. People of all ages, with or without other health issues, should get vaccinated. Vaccines help prevent infection and severe illness in people of all ages (yes, even kids. Healthy children can and do die from the flu. And most children who die are unvaccinated*). *Sources if you don’t believe us: bit.ly/428YhOU, tinyurl.com/4tmv8km8, bit.ly/mm7241a2. ... and you should wear masks. If you don’t want to get or spread the flu (or COVID-19 or other things) you should really wear masks. Seriously, people. Yes, we know, some of you love them and some of you hate them. But we’re a health agency so we’re here to share the things that work to protect your health. Masks keep you from breathing in, or breathing out into the air, virus particles that make you and others sick, even if you don’t know you or the people around you are sick (and honestly you often won’t know). You should wash your hands frequently, eat healthy foods, and get plenty of sleep, but no amount of any of this is going to keep you from breathing in virus particles in the air. Definitely wash your hands. Please. Viruses can spread in multiple ways, and handwashing helps prevent some of those ways. But you can’t wash away a virus you’ve breathed in. There’s a reason masks often become required again at doctors’ offices and hospitals whenever virus spread gets bad (like now). It’s because they work. Also, it’s very unkind to choose to be unmasked around others if you know you’re sick (and if there’s no reason you can’t wear a mask). For you, maybe it’s “just” the flu or a mild case of another illness, and you don’t care if you’re sick. But for the person you pass it to, it could be: Too much for their body to handle in addition to their chronic illness | The illness they pass to a loved one who has cancer | The reason they are sick on the day of an important life event | A hospital stay for a child | The infection that leads to a disability | Their cause of death. If you are sick, please be kind and stay away from others as much as possible, and wear a mask if you have to spend time away from home. PS: A lot of cases of illness spread by people who don’t have symptoms, so if you want to be even more considerate, it’s a good idea to mask around other people even if you don’t think you’re sick.
January 8, 2026 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
docmcohen.medsky.social
We need a phrase for when the news headlines are the same every winter yet try to sound like something novel is happening.

Hospitals are overcrowded... so during flu season they become catastrophically so.

Who could have predicted that doing nothing to fix this would lead to the same bad outcome?
Hospital hallways, dining rooms, phsyio spaces turned over to patients during extreme flu season | CBC News
An unusually virulent respiratory illness season in northeastern Ontario is pushing hospitals to their limits like never before, and forcing them to put patients in more unconventional spaces.
www.cbc.ca
January 7, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
dcapto.bsky.social
Wish 🇨🇦 Public Health & every provincial Public Health would increasing positive messaging about vaccines to combat lack of info & vax disinfo in US. Instead they’ve stayed quiet as measles rips thru communities enough for us to lose elimination status. Public health shouldn’t be politicized #cdnpoli
January 7, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
atranscendedman.bsky.social
UCSF researchers identified a new oral antiviral, (M)-AVI-4773, that clears SARS-CoV-2 and MERS in mice more effectively than Paxlovid and reaches the brain, offering promise against current and emerging coronavirus threats.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Discovery of Coronavirus Main Protease Inhibitors with Enhanced Brain Exposure and Potent Oral Efficacy in SARS-CoV-2 and MERS Infection Models
The main proteases (MPro) of coronaviruses are clinically validated targets for antiviral discovery. Herein, we detail the in vivo optimization of uracil-core MPro inhibitors derived from AVI-4516, an...
pubs.acs.org
January 7, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
natureportfolio.nature.com
A study in Nature Immunology shows that Long COVID is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways and T cell exhaustion. The findings suggest new therapeutic targets and potential biomarkers of disease. go.nature.com/4oU0kib #immunosky #medsky 🧪
This is figure 4, which shows proteomic differences between LC and CC groups in the 2020–2021 cohort.
January 6, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
joffirphd.bsky.social
3/🔹️Said CIDRAP's Michael Osterholm: “In the next 48 hours, if you haven’t been vaccinated, get vaccinated. Don’t wait....you may still be able to protect yourself from the the last parts of the seasonal epidemic, but...it takes us, seven to 10 days to develop some immunity...so you don’t have a...
January 6, 2026 at 4:30 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
cdelawalla.bsky.social
If this makes you mad…turn your anger into action.

There are articles of impeachment against RFK jr. in the House.

Sign the petition, call your rep, send a quack-o-gram, and share with LITERALLY EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

This isn’t going to stop unless we make it.

Standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr
January 6, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
joffirphd.bsky.social
🚨 We wondered about this when RFK changed the covid vax guidance: seniors & immunocompromised folks, boost again at 6 months!

🔹️"As it turns out, the [CDC] not only permits a second dose but recommends it. The agency quietly updated its guidance...to...

1/3

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | The CDC quietly recommends a second covid booster for vulnerable adults
Careful, evidence-based vaccine guidance now arrives with little fanfare.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 6, 2026 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
“Viruses and bacteria that were under control are being set free on our most vulnerable…It won’t work and can’t end well”.

Way to go @jimalwine.bsky.social, representing @defendpublichealth.bsky.social.
Trump administration slashes number of diseases U.S. children will be regularly vaccinated against
Insurance companies will still be required to fully cover all childhood vaccines on the CDC schedule, including those now designated as optional.
www.latimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
gparents4vaccines.bsky.social
Grandparents for Vaccines opposes rollback of childhood vaccine recommendations:
@nurseteria.bsky.social @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social @maddow.bsky.social @defendpublichealth.bsky.social
January 5, 2026 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Rachel Adelson
peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2026/01/05/c...
STAT article
January 5, 2026 at 7:49 PM