John writes:
Drs. TWiV:
1211:
Anti-vaxx motivations: Way at the end of Paul Offit’s Autism’s False Prophets he reveals that Andrew Wakefield’s motivation is religious. I had been waiting for that. Maybe that isn’t every anti-vaxxer’s motivation, and maybe it isn’t the motivation of all of those they follow, but I think it’s true that the motivation of the original anti-vaxxers that the smallpox vaccine begat was religious.
And further to the religious bias of current politix, Barry Goldwater anticipated the current mess. His quote is easily found:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
1212:
Measles v polio. What was the difference? ~1% severe outcome with each, right? But polio had poster children, and those were: Iron lungs, Braces and Crutches. A potent visual. We saw the walking wounded among us. We could easily imagine being in that situation. Just being hospitalized is harder to imagine unless you’re at the bedside, and with HIPAA there probably isn’t a hospital anywhere that would let anyone even ask for a consent form for taking a pic of a hospitalized measles patient. It’s all behind closed doors now.
I know you were being jokeful with, “Kids don’t transmit viruses…” but here’s a direct example. My neighbor works in a cabinetmaking shop, and was recently complaining about how the owner lets his young kids with runny noses run freely there. A few days later when I saw him, he warned me not to come close because he had some respiratory crud. A week or so later I learned that another neighbor’s ~3mo old baby was in ICU with RSV, which she also had. He’s afraid that they probably got it from him.
1213:
Microbiome providing natural adjuvants is exactly what I was thinking when Rich said it.
And back to JrKennedy, with his miasma. It’s ironic that less-than-perfect hygiene at an early age is actually somewhat protective with polio. But people swallow his bullshit that the polio vaccine kills more than the virus because they have no sense of history. Probably fewer than half can correctly correlate paralysis, polio and FDR.”
Don’t let up! People writing you to avoid politix are living in the past, when politicians got actual experts to speak on issues that were outside their expertise. We are sadly no longer in that arena. I post about this on my FB stream, and just copied Lisa from MN’s letter to you.
Meanwhile, Greater Braddock was in the direct path of the 70+mph winds late Tuesday afternoon that hit the Pittsburgh area and killed power for nearly 0.25M people. This made it hard to send this email earlier. By Thurs morning only ca. 43K were back with power. I was one of the lucky ones – my power was restored after only ~28h and I had only had minor tree damage.
Best wishes,
John
Mike writes:
Hello TWiV crew, from Mike in NYC — where it’s a clear and beautiful 17°C (62°F).
I strongly recommend that we look at public health — on a global basis — as a matter of United States national security. I never came up with the right wording for this argument, but I recently found the following discussion with Atul Gawande, who makes the best case that I’ve heard or read to date. I encourage everyone to listen to this discussion.
– – –
Lawfare Daily: Why Public Health is Critical to National Security
Atul Gawande is a surgeon and a public health expert. He’s also the former head of global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency that the Trump administration has prioritized for dismantling since its first day in office. On today’s episode, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Gawande to discuss what USAID does, the consequences of destroying it, and why public health is so important to U.S. national security.
Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded on March 27, 2025. The following day, the Trump administration announced that USAID would be dissolved by the end of this fiscal year.
– – –
Best regards,
Mike in NYC — where it’s a clear and beautiful 17°C (62°F),
([2025-05-01 18:53 Thu])
Zaharoula writes:
Hello TWiV Team,
I wanted to thank all of you for your passion about speaking the truth and doing the right thing for science. Thank you also to the CDC epidemiologist who was the editor of EID and who was fired. To this individual, and to the Minnesota epidemiologist who wrote in, thank you and your colleagues for all that you have done for public health and for all of us… because a strong public health program benefits every single one of us-not just here in the U.S. but across the globe. I will also thank you going forward for all that you WILL do.* Because I have hope that you will be back.
Thank you especially to Dr. Mingarelli for making the point about taking the time to actually speak with people who may have differing views, but who truly don’t understand either the science or the disease process. It does take time and energy, but it IS truly worth it. And you are all correct, that the lay person truly does not care about data points, graphs or results. They respond to stories. They want to know if this could happen to them/their family.
With regards to vaccinations, as clinicians, we can still share the data, but we really need to spell it out in ways that lay people understand. So, I have started telling parents who have vaccinated their children the following.
“Thank you for vaccinating your child. You are protecting him/her from complications of these diseases including blindness, deafness, seizures, jaundice, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, respiratory distress, stopping to breathe, meningitis-brain infection, sepsis-shock-being on life support, chronic liver disease, infertility-not being able to have kids, liver cancer, cervical cancer, anal cancer, mouth/throat cancer, being paralyzed and even death. Thank you for caring about your child as much as I do.”
Many parents seem really surprised when I say this, but this is where the data about the effectiveness of vaccines get translated- so that the lay person understands why vaccinations are so vital. They also respond well to positive praise and positive emotion from their clinician. And then they may go and tell their family and friends about it. They need to understand that we really DO CARE about their child. Talking about the community at large doesn’t hit home the same way. They don’t care as much about protecting the immunocompromised unknown person or the person who cannot get vaccinated. They care about themselves and their family.
In addition, I think for all of us- scientists, epidemiologists, and clinicians- we need to look at this through a different lens. For scientists-from the other side of the bench and for clinicians from the other end of the stethoscope. Because at some point, every single one of us, even RFK Jr, and Donald Trump, is going to become a patient. (Trump has been in Oct. 2020 before the vaccines were approved and he was hospitalized with COVID-19.) We all need to advocate from the patient perspective for ALL OF US. Whether it’s heart disease, cancer or infectious diseases, given drastic changes in our environment/climate change and our close contact with other species and our interconnectedness with each other as humans, not one of us is immune from having a serious illness or from becoming a patient in need of scientific and medical expertise. We all need to speak up-lay people, parents, scientists, epidemiologists, academicians and clinicians alike-to advocate for one another – not only for the truth in science, research, public health and medicine- but also against all the financial cuts in science/research/public health and health care which will impact every single one of us.
Because infections know no boundaries, climate change is happening, we don’t all live in our own little bubbles, and no one is safe until everyone is safe.
Thank you again for all the great science communication that all of you do and for speaking the truth.
Grateful for Microbe.TV and an ongoing supporter,
Zaharoula
Zaharoula A. Viennas, M.D., FAAP
CSG Division of Urgent Care
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Eastern Virginia Medical School at ODU
Elizabeth writes:
Dear Doctors TWIV,
I am writing to you from Bainbridge Island, WA, where today it is a perfect 20C. I have been a faithful and grateful listener since 2020 . I “just” work in book publishing, but I am deeply fascinated by science. Your discussions delight me, teach me, and fill me with wonder. I don’t know what I would have done without you in 2020. Thank you for your lifeline of science communication then and now.
I’m not sure if the Dance Your PhD contest has been picked before. But it’s such a gem of a science/arts crossover I couldn’t resist send in this year’s winners. See especially the overall 2025 winner from the University of Helsinki. The organizer of the contest notes that this year’s winners were all European scientists. “This year, American scientists did not seem to be in the mood to dance. Lucky for the world, Europe’s scientists have doubled their creativity and enthusiasm.” I hope so!
https://www.science.org/content/article/winner-2025-dance-your-ph-d-contest
No paywall:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/05/meet-the-winners-of-the-2025-dance-your-phd-contest
Again, many thanks for all that you do.
Best,
Elizabeth
Blue Pilgrim writes:
Hello from Eugene, Oregon (Spring in progress, and weather good)
SINCLAIR, Upton, born 1878, American novelist and social reformer.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
One variation of many