Early this summer, I looked at the Georgia health department's Covid-19 dashboard and muttered, "there's no way an epidemiologist made this."
Well GUESS WHAT, GUYS
So many eye-popping, jaw-dropping, wtf-provoking lines in this
@charlesbethea
story about Georgia's QAnon candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I will spoil none of them for you.
@SandySprings_PD
is investigating this crash on I-285 East at Glenridge Dr. where these 3 vehicles tried taking the exit are the same time. No injuries were reported
HI THERE, I am an actual infectious disease doctor AND an epidemiologist AND a journalist -- AND I've never missed a deadline!
Thanks to
@marynmck
for saying what should be so deeply obvious but apparently is not.
The health and science writers in your newsroom (or your network, if you rely on freelancers) have the training, the beat knowledge and the sources to help you get
#COVID19
right, and help you to communicate the appropriate level of concern to your readers/viewers. Use them.
One big thing is missing from the conversation about Fetterman: how much we ALL gain when people with disabilities lead the way.
My latest for
@voxdotcom
:
All the distressed “I didn’t match” tweets last week made me wonder: why, in a time of such dire need for more doctors, is medical training so extraordinarily competitive? Here’s what I learned, in my latest for
@voxdotcom
In my first story for
@voxdotcom
, I wrote about the emerging data linking Covid-19 vaccines to menstrual changes — and about how the delays in getting those data opened the door to the spread of vaccination-related fertility myths.
Covid-19 death rates are linked to health, age, income, and... an internet connection? My latest for
@voxdotcom
dives into the first study linking home broadband to health outcomes, and explains why internet access is a social determinant of health:
My latest for
@atlantamagazine
is about how underfunding Georgia's public health system has led to a weakened public health system (and a messy Covid vaccine rollout):
To all my 70's Atlanta babies who couldn't wait to gtfo: I see you, I love you, I probably drank coffee with you.
My love letter to
@CafeIntermezzo
for
@AtlantaMagazine
:
I often ignore "X thing will kill you" nutrition news.
What we're about to hear about aspartame as a cause of cancer is different.
Here's why, in my latest for
@voxdotcom
A very talented friend of mine, who interned w/
@GOPLeader
, and at 20 was one of the highest ranked staffers in the Trump campaign, was just fired from his new job when client found out he worked for Trump. He now can’t afford rent. Still think cancel culture isn’t that serious?
Take your post-dinner nap now so you can watch me talk
#Georgia
reopening with
@AliVelshi
on
@11thHour
at 11:30pm tonight on
@MSNBC
. It'll be past my bedtime, so I might literally say anything!!
For good reasons, most stroke survivors don't return to work until >6 months post-stroke. But for many, getting back on the job sustains a sense of purpose & autonomy.
John Fetterman is a politician, but he's also a patient. My updated
@voxdotcom
story:
tell me about the time you dressed up as a giant peanut for a congressional event promoting Georgia ag and ended up standing next to Max Cleland as an Elvis impersonator plied him with PB and banana sandwiches
here's a photo of my ...experience doing that
One of the most frequent qs I get: why do some people get bad Covid vax side effects and others don't?
One likely reason (cf. yesterday's
@NEJM
by
@florian_krammer
et al.): past Covid-19 infection.
"Don't bother with most cold medicine -- the only thing that really works is pseudoephedrine."
- me and many other docs, over and over again
The FDA has finally caught up. I talked to
@MikkaelSekeres
about it in my latest for
@voxdotcom
The pandemic’s fundamentals have changed—and our tools to fight Covid-19 go way beyond mask mandates. In my latest for
@voxdotcom
,
@JenniferNuzzo
explains why now is the time for different, better public health solutions.
Thank you,
@ByNinaMartin
, for this profile. I was in Shalon's EIS class, and this is both an honor to her spirit and shattering indictment of the medical infrastructure that failed her and so many like her. We must, MUST do better.
It's impossible for me to witness our nation's response to
#Covid19
and not think of its bungled response to HIV/AIDS in the 1980's. I wrote about what we should've learned but clearly didn't for
@XtraMagazine
(
@fakedansavage
, RTYI?):
Olympic gold medalist Tori Bowie died of eclampsia, a pregnancy condition that's extraordinarily common -- and that many moms are often totally unaware of.
It's more common in Black women. Prenatal care helps prevent its worst outcomes.
More here:
Hospitals are overwhelmed with respiratory viral illnesses rn. Flu threatens adults as well as kids.
Get a flu shot. Use the prevention strategies you learned during the pandemic. And if you're high-risk for complications, get care early if you're sick.
Uganda has passed a law making homosexuality punishable by death.
I talked to the director of
@ArkWellnessHub
, an LGBTQ health clinic in the nation's capital, about what it's like to keep caring for his community at this scary and violent moment.
It’s a confusing time for immunocompromised people. In my latest for
@voxdotcom
, I wrote about why there’s still so much uncertainty, and what people with weakened immune systems can do to protect themselves.
Everyone not reading
@MaraDavis
' aggressively friendly and quizzical replies to everything GA Senator Kelly Loeffler tweets is MISSING OUT on a master class in the veiled menace that is Southern conversation-making
@SenatorLoeffler
Hi Kelly! Thanks for sharing. You talk a lot about growing up on a farm. What did you do exactly? Do you like to garden at your own home? What Georgia farms are you visiting? Do you work with
@GeorgiaGrown
&
@GeorgiaOrganics
? Thanks!
"Exercise moral judgment, not partisan loyalty."
An absolutely critical perspective from
@zackbeauchamp
How to think morally about the Israel-Hamas war
Vaccine manufacturers as college roommates:
AstraZeneca drunk-pees in your room at least monthly and routinely leaves piles of chicken-wing bones on the coffee table, but is never late with rent and steam-cleans the carpet before your parents visit
I'm super delighted to be a new member of
@AHCJ
's board of directors! This organization has been an immeasurable source of learning and community for me, and I can't wait to help shape its future.
many thanks to
@alex_abads
for nailing what white lotus gets so right (and corroborating my predictions re: whose bodies end up floating in the mediterranean sea)
Hey, ID docs -- given the high-profile Paxlovid rebound cases lately, are you (or anyone you know) prescribing a longer duration of Paxlovid off-label (e.g. prescribing 10 days back-to-back)? If not, why not?
@CarlosdelRio7
@serotavirus
@eliowa
@Ahmed_HBabiker
@Boghuma
I subscribe to a bunch of journalism jobs newsletters/boards and I gotta say, it is WILD that so few news outlets are hiring health journalists despite the fact we are in the throes of a long-term global health emergency.
Read this incredible story of powerful people brazenly misusing public funds intended to help poor people.
Kudos to
@ashtonpittman
and the
@MSFreePress
for the deep reporting and careful, clear layout -- this is a true public service.
THREAD: In July 2017, Brett Favre met with Mississippi DHS Director John Davis and non-profit operator Nancy New.
They would help him get millions in welfare funds to pay for a volleyball stadium at USM—where his daughter was about to play volleyball. 1/
Sure wish Atlanta media would bring a fraction of the ferocity with which they're covering the Braves' win to their coverage of the CITY GOVERNANCE ELECTION RESULTS, jfc guys come on
Thrilled to the extreme that my first for the
@nytimes
is about how communities worst affected by HIV are fixing it for themselves (and that the amazing pastor/flock of SW's Bible Way were so beautifully photographed by
@RaymondMcCrea
for it). Look, look!
So, so good, from David Perry: "In terms of the tech, it’s an amazing moment. But the technology can’t change anything if our biases as people, as a society, keep us from having the right conversations."
When
@DrigoMunoz
went on his first of 17 residency interviews, he realized "I'm going to have to come out 17 times." Now, he's coauthored a petition asking
@ERAS
to let LGBTQ students come out on their residency applications.
My story for
@XtraMagazine
:
I'm delighted to have been selected for the
@capita_social
journalist residency at
@AIRSerenbe
this fall, and am proud to share the honor with badass Filipina writer Cinelle Barnes. Looking forward to a productive few weeks in the woods!
@Project2Program
@voxdotcom
Very sorry to hear about your partner's experience.
The spectrum of stroke is really broad (e.g. as I mentioned in the piece,
@karaswisher
survived a stroke, and nobody's arguing whether she's lost her edge).
Survivors deserve our hope, not our doubts.
The US' locally transmitted malaria cases are up to 5: 4 in FL and 1 in TX.
Yesterday, CDC issued a nationwide alert, indicating healthcare providers and public health authorities should have malaria on their radar for non-travelers.
My updated story:
For the
@nytimes
, I wrote about how the messy public drama of pharmacoviligilance can help us trust a vaccine, even if we can’t trust the company that made it (AstraZeneca, I’m obviously talking about AstraZeneca)
I once took a class from
@taffyakner
. It shook something loose and I cried for an hour in front of everyone. She was so nonchalantly kind about it. Afterward, *while closing her first novel*, she helped me shop around a story I'd pitched in class to a million fancy editors.
I want to see some positivity. Not the toxic kind or the fake kind, just genuine goodness. Who is a writer or editor that treated you kindly or helped you in some way?
One of the biggest questions here: Did the second
#H5N1
case catch the virus from a bird or from his daughter?
And another big q (especially if from his daughter): was it transmitted through the air?
Cambodia has detected a 2nd
#H5N1
case, the father of the 11 yo girl who recently died from H5
#flu
.
No word currently on the 11 other contacts they were testing.
If any of you tune in to
@BBCWorld
, I'll be appearing on one of their news programs in about 15 minutes to talk about my column in today's
@nytopinion
:
Why is it so much harder to switch off public health protections than it is to switch them on? I wrote about distrust, data vacuums, and de-implementation in my latest for
@voxdotcom
@julieklausner
If anything, those photos suggest that obedience by rules prioritizing property over humanity is a risk factor for enforcing those rules using violence.
For folks in the Midwest suffering from smoke-filled air: here's some concrete advice on how to use your HVAC system to clean your indoor air.
(Also, how to DIY an air purifier if you don't already have one)
Just finally got my first moderna shot at the extremely well-run Sarasota County site run by
@HealthyFla
in the most Florida site ever, a former Gap in a deserted south side mall
when I think about everything my parents did to convince me to go to medical school ...just to argue with me 20 years later about whether a Covid booster caused a back spasm
It was a privilege to help curate this selection of solutions stories on the
#COVID19
response. Hope these will be the first of many—and will inspire even more coverage of what’s working for the entire life cycle of this epidemic.
@soljourno