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Reposted by Deepta Bhattacharya

Marion Pepper @marionpepper.bsky.social · 3d

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tertiary lymphoid structures support the development of allergen-specific progenitor CD4+ T cells

Tissue-resident memory CD4+ T cells (TRM) are key sentinels of the adaptive immune response that provide a rapid, robust inflammatory response upon reactivation in non-lymphoid tissues. While CD4+ TRM...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Deepta Bhattacharya

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 16d

This captures much of the frustration of today.

The image is an X post by @RealJakeBroe from 7 hours ago, featuring a two-panel comic. The top panel shows a scientist pointing to a chart with a general trend and an outlier, illustrating a rational argument. The bottom panel depicts a person labeled "ANTI VAX" pointing to a similar chart, labeling it "CONSPIRACY THEORY" with "Lies" and an outlier called "IRREFUTABLE PROOF!!!", satirizing irrational arguments. The caption reads, "It is difficult to win an argument with a smart person. It is impossible to win an argument with an idiot."

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 23d

But will put in a good word for my BootLander proposal to beat the heathens to the manifest destiny moondust.

Piece is me ventriloquizing a savage comment made by a retired NASA official about moon plan, natch.

7/7

have a good weekend, folks

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Here's How NASA Can Make the Moon Great Again

An unhinged 2026 U.S. budget proposal would hollow NASA to a husk bent to Elon Musk’s whims. Only one mission can save the space agency

www.scientificamerican.com

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Matthew Herper @matthewherper.bsky.social · 23d

Winner of mRNA Nobel Prize says ACIP member’s claim that Covid vaccines persist is “absolutely impossible”

In Q&A, Drew Weissman says vast literature shows Covid shots are safe, refutes claims from Retsef Levi
www.statnews.com/2025/09/20/d...

Winner of mRNA Nobel Prize says ACIP member’s claim that Covid vaccines persist is “absolutely impossible”

In a Q&A with STAT, Nobel winner Drew Weissman addressed concerns raised about Covid shots at a recent meeting of federal vaccine advisers.

www.statnews.com

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Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 24d

Wanna know how to tell whoever is running the CDC has no clue what they're talking about?

It's "correlate of protection," not "correlative protection." h/t @malar0ne.bsky.social

In another era, this would be extremely embarrassing.

CDC
@CDCgov
ACIP member Robert W. Malone, MD: “There is no established correlative protection for COVID. Period. Full stop. And stop saying otherwise.”

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David Noll @david.noll.org · 25d

Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 25d

When your anti-vax Health Secretary stacks the vaccine committee: "Some members seemed confused about the data they were being presented. After their vote on the program that provides free vaccines for children, some members asked what they just voted on." wapo.st/3K9OBNV

CDC advisers make their first childhood vaccine edit

They voted 8-3 to recommend delaying the use of a measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine that about 15 percent of children receive.

wapo.st

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Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 25d

Dr. Jake Scott asks why ACIP is asking about the MMRV when there's NO new data to report. "We've known about the seizure risk since 2005 and have been transparently discussing it with parents for nearly 20 years. Highlighting it again seems designed to amplify fear rather than improve safety."

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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · Sep 11

If you read 1 thing today, please make it this: my so-talented colleague @ericboodman.bsky.social explains why babies in the US are vaccinated at birth against hep B — and what the human costs of changing that policy would be. www.statnews.com/2025/09/11/n...

Dropping hepatitis B shots for newborns would ignore history and endanger children, scientists warn

People who study, treat, or have hepatitis B say ending routine vaccination at birth - as some vaccine critics want - could lead to a resurgence of the virus.

www.statnews.com

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Sep 1

This 🧵 is long so please bear with me. It is compiles evidence in a historical timeline on how effective #COVIDVaccines are. When a pandemic ends we quickly and easily forget the tools that got us out of it. So here is my labour day gift to you prompted by this headline.

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Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · Sep 2

In a post on Truth Social, the president suggested that the CDC was being “ripped apart” over a question that was answered long ago — whether Covid vaccines work.
(Gift article)

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/h...

Trump Wants Proof That Covid Vaccines Work. It’s Easy to Find.

www.nytimes.com

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Sep 2

Yesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq

nyti.ms

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Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · Jun 25

Kulldorff calls for the establishment of a CDC work group examining whether or not children today get too many vaccines and cumulative harms of that. This is explicitly anti-vaccine propaganda and senseless. When new vaccines are evaluated in prelicensure clinical trials, you do not...

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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · Aug 28

I had serious doubts about CDC Director Monarez’s willingness to stand up against RFK Jr.’s personal mission to destroy public health in America—I’m glad that I was wrong.

If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what's left of CDC. FIRE HIM.

New C.D.C. Director Resists Ouster as Other Officials Resign

www.nytimes.com

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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · Aug 28

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”
That’s from the resignation of CDC’s Demetre Daskalakis @drdemetre.bsky.social (on X)
🧪

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · Aug 28

These letters of resignation from CDC officials are VERY MUCH worth your time.

PLEASE READ AND PROPAGATE.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Aug 28

All three are here: insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...

Breaking News: Read three top CDC officials' resignation emails.

The end of an era.

insidemedicine.substack.com

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Deepta Bhattacharya @deeptabhattacha.bsky.social · Aug 27

““Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”

Live Updates: Suspect Identified in Minneapolis School Shooting That Killed 2 Children and Injured 14 www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Live Updates: Suspect Identified in Minneapolis School Shooting That Killed 2 Children and Injured 14

www.nytimes.com

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Deepta Bhattacharya @deeptabhattacha.bsky.social · Aug 25

What drives me nuts about this is that there really wouldn’t have been any political cost for Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski to vote no. RFK Jr is only there transactionally for his support during the campaign. If he weren’t confirmed, pretty sure Trump would’ve just shrugged and said oh well.

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · Aug 25

Any comment, Bill Cassidy? “Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who has repeatedly claimed in the face of scientific consensus that the vaccines are more dangerous than the virus, told the Daily Beast that Kennedy’s stance is shared by “influential” members of President Donald Trump’s family”

The Daily Beast @thedailybeast.bsky.social · Aug 25

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market “within months,” one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closest associates has told the Daily Beast.

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Deepta Bhattacharya @deeptabhattacha.bsky.social · Aug 22

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35764089/

Humoral and cellular immune memory to four COVID-19 vaccines - PubMed

Multiple COVID-19 vaccines, representing diverse vaccine platforms, successfully protect against symptomatic COVID-19 cases and deaths. Head-to-head comparisons of T cell, B cell, and antibody respons...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · Aug 20

Vought, Rufo, and Bhattacharya do not want what the American people overwhelmingly want.

Few Americans believe that the federal government should control universities' faculty hiring (10%), research topics (11%), curricula (12%), speech policies (13%), rules for student organizations (15%), and admissions criteria (17%). Majorities say each of these things should be outside of the federal government's control

More Americans would like federal funding for scientific research done by American universities to increase (39%) than decrease (13%); 31% want it to stay the same and 17% aren't sure

https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/52806-new-high-donald-trump-disapproval-democrats-house-vote-lead-generic-ballot-congress-wars-ukraine-gaza-universities-fines-august-15-18-2025-economist-yougov-poll

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Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · Aug 19

Also important this week: A trustworthy guide to childhood vaccine schedules, from actual pediatricians (many of whom saw these diseases before they could be vaccinated against).

* pin it & share it *

Ps: no, pediatricians are not pharma shills, don’t @ me
www.healthychildren.org/English/safe...

All About the AAP Recommended Immunization Schedule

Here's what to know about the recommended immunization schedule for children and teens. The schedule is approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics and based on ongoing review of the most recent sc...

www.healthychildren.org

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Deepta Bhattacharya @deeptabhattacha.bsky.social · Aug 19

We mostly rely on Bayesian guesswork to predict how long antibodies will be produced for new vaccines/infections. Here, we find that some of the key programs are set *really* early. We hope early signatures can be used to predict and engineer durable vaccine immunity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Early, adjuvant-responsive epigenetic programs in B cells imprint subsequent plasma cell survival and the duration of humoral immunity

The duration of antibody production varies across different infections and vaccines. To define molecular programs that promote durable humoral immunity, we used mice deficient in ZBTB20, a transcripti...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jake Scott, MD @jakescottmd.bsky.social · Aug 13

RFK Jr’s “evidence” doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it.

Thanks to @thekibosch.bsky.social @statnews.com
www.statnews.com/2025/08/13/r...

Kennedy's case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence

“This isn't scientific disagreement. It's either staggering incompetence or willful misrepresentation,” writes infectious disease physician Jake Scott.

www.statnews.com

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · Aug 9

NIH scientists say that mRNA vaccines have saved untold thousands of lives. A heroin addled nepo baby whose brain was partially eaten by a worm says mRNA vaccines are worthless and even dangerous. For busy medical patients, it can be hard to know who to trust.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Aug 8

If RFK Jr approach to develop a vaccine against all viruses involves sequentially exposing himself to each of these viruses and letting his amazing body develop a vaccine the natural way, then I highly endorse this approach.

I would start with something easy like Nipah or Hendra virus

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · Aug 8

RFK has announced that he is developing a vaccine against all viruses. Yes, every single one. The whole, uh, "phylum"

RFK Jr: “We're developing a universal vaccine at NIH which is a vaccine that addresses the entire phylum of viruses.”

“It's a vaccine that mimics natural immunity and it is effective against any kind of mutation.”

“We believe it's gonna be effective against not only coronaviruses but also flu.”

“And it's gonna be a much safer and a much more effective vaccine.”

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · Aug 8

This is such bullshit. Just pure composted dung.

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · Aug 8

RFK has announced that he is developing a vaccine against all viruses. Yes, every single one. The whole, uh, "phylum"

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